Losing Juliet by June Taylor published 25 November 2016

Juliet and Chrissy were best friends at Bristol University in 1989. Juliet was glamorous, popular, fun and care free and from a rich family, the opposite to Chrissy. Chrissy is drawn into Juliet’s world until a holiday in the summer of 1989, they have to go their separate ways and have no contact.
Nearly twenty years later Juliet contacts Chrissy and wants to be part of her life again. Chrissy’s instinct is to keep Juliet away from her and her daughter Eloise. Only Juliet knows what happened in France that summer, and her return could jeopardise Chrissy’s relationship with her daughter and ultimately destroy her life. Bringing the past into the present puts all three women in danger, and could ruin their lives forever; can they survive the consequences of their actions?

This is a well written and engaging book. From the dramatic prologue until the last page the reader is gripped by Juliet and Chrissy’s story. The plot follows their relationship whilst at University in 1989 and in the present with Juliet’s emergence into Chrissy’s life. We see the juxtaposition of their close friendship at University to the present, where Chrissy resents Juliet’s return and doesnt want her in her life. Chrissy is a very haunted, distrusting figure, scarred by her actions in 1989. This manifests itself in her overprotecting of her daughter Eloise, her lack of friends and the security of her home. Juliet is the complete opposite; she is glamorous, lives between London and Rome, is full of confidence and runs her own fashion house. Chrissy resents that she has just been able to continue her life with no obvious effect of the past. Eloise sees Juliet as an escape, she has so much to offer and if Juliet and Chrissy can reconcile Eloise can go away to University with out feeling guilty of leaving her mother alone. These relationships demonstrate how one action is like a pebble in a lake, where the ripples go beyond just those who were there at the time. This book takes us from Manchester to London to France and to Rome, bringing their delights into our lives, with the descriptive quality of the writing.
This is a thriller that has many twists and turns, just when you think you know the what happened in the summer of 1989 the plot takes you in another direction. This is a well thought out psychological thriller, full of detail and atmosphere, and it is will shock you with its twist.