Frequently asked questions

“Killing Me Softly” contains a central love story, but it is best described as upmarket women’s fiction. The novel focuses not only on Lena and Mark’s relationship, but also on family, marriage, parenthood, grief, community, responsibility, and the long-term consequences of difficult choices.

No. Kerston Ridge is a fictional town located in the California foothills. Its landscape, community structure, local institutions, and atmosphere draw on the character of Northern California towns, but Kerston Ridge exists only in the novels.

Yes. That’s the goal 🙂

The saga follows an interconnected group of characters and families. Lena and Mark remain central, but later books expand the perspectives and stories of other Kerston Ridge residents.

“Killing Me Softly” is not yet available for purchase. Publication and availability information will be announced on this website and through social media.

No. “Killing Me Softly” is a work of fiction. Its characters, relationships, and events are imagined, although the emotions at the centre of the novel—grief, longing, regret, loyalty, and the need to be understood—are deeply human.

The novel may appeal to readers who enjoy emotionally complex, character-driven fiction, morally complicated relationships, family secrets, second chances, and small-town settings.

It is written for readers who prefer difficult questions to simple answers and who are interested in understanding every side of a conflict.

Yes, but the second-chance relationship is only one part of the novel.

The story also explores marriage, parenthood, friendship, grief, responsibility, community, and the consequences of choices made many years earlier.

“Killing Me Softly” offers hope, but it does not ignore the consequences of its characters’ choices.

The ending is emotionally satisfying while leaving space for the larger story of the Kerston Ridge saga to continue.

The title reflects the quiet, cumulative ways in which love, memory, silence, and unresolved grief can shape a person’s life.

It also evokes the novel’s wider interest in music, emotional recognition, and the experience of being deeply affected by something that is never said directly.

Lena and Mark’s relationship is central to the novel, but their story unfolds within a much wider emotional and moral context.

Their connection cannot be separated from the families they have built, the people they may hurt, or the truths they have carried for sixteen years.

No. Lena is one of the central characters, but the novel also gives space to other members of the Kerston Ridge community.

The different perspectives reveal how incomplete knowledge, private fears, and personal loyalties shape each character’s understanding of the same situation.

Kerston Ridge has the intimacy and community life associated with small-town fiction, but it is not an idealised setting.

It is a place of warmth, loyalty, gossip, public responsibility, social pressure, and long memory. The town can offer belonging, but it can also make privacy almost impossible.

Yes. The novel explores grief, pregnancy loss, family conflict, emotional betrayal, illness, accidents, and the long-term consequences of trauma.

These subjects are handled as part of a character-driven story rather than for shock value.

Yes. The novel is particularly suited to book-club discussion because its characters make morally complex choices that can be understood in very different ways.

A discussion guide and suggested questions will be made available closer to publication.

The most reliable place to receive news about publication, availability, events, and future books is Gillian Foster’s website.

Updates will also be posted on this website and through Gillian’s official social media accounts.