This Used to Be Us by Renée Carlino ~ My Thoughts #ThisUsedToBeUs @renayz @GoSparkPoint

 

This Used to Be Us by Renee Carlino

Fiction, Contemporary Romance, 384 pages

Published July 9, 2024 by The Dial Press

There are two sides to every love story—and every breakup. Get ready for an emotional roller coaster of family, marriage, and divorce that will have you both laughing and crying, from the bestselling author of Before We Were Strangers.

After twenty-two years together, Danielle and Alex are getting a divorce. Once fiercely in love, they can barely stand the sound of each other’s voice. Instead of shuffling the kids between two broken homes, Alex and Danielle decide to share a nesting apartment while swapping days with their two teenage boys at the family home.

In the apartment, Dani and Alex, on their own, begin to reflect on the last two decades—why they fell in love, and why the marriage fell, spectacularly, apart. With the newfound space and time, they are given a chance to find their autonomous selves again. They both get back in the dating pool, Dani finds major success at work as a showrunner on her own TV project, while Alex faces the challenges of a new relationship.

Still, they find they just can’t stay away from each other, and somehow, the distance allows them to remember (for the first time in years) what they used to love about one another. When a family crisis draws them back into each other’s orbit, Danielle and Alex are, once again, put to the test, which leads to a dramatic conclusion that will have readers weeping.

My thoughts about This Used to Be Us ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First lines—"'I love you," I whisper to Dani. We are lying in bed... her back is to me. I can tell by the rhythm of her breath that she's sleeping."

Oh my gosh! What did I just read? A love story that isn't a love story, with the characters fighting and snipping at each other like you wouldn't believe. Because of their kids, they want to remain civil to each other, but it isn't easy, not with all the harsh feelings and distance between them. 

I have to admit, witnessing their animosity for each other was a little hard for me, maybe a little PTSD from my own life and what my parents went through, I don't know. But as much as they were in love, now they aren't. But there's something still there that can't be broken. 

I devoured this story and found myself racing to the end. Prepare yourself and grab a box of tissues. Tears will fall. This is a beautiful story full of love, caring, strife, and family. I will be thinking about this family's story for a long time. I loved This Used to Be Us and highly recommend it.  

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About the author

Renée Carlino is a screenwriter and bestselling author of contemporary women's novels and new adult fiction. Her books have been featured in national publications, including USA Today, Huffington Post, Latina magazine, and Publisher's Weekly. 

She lives in Southern California with her husband, two sons, and their sweet dog June. When she's not at the beach with her boys or working on her next project, she likes to spend her time reading, going to concerts, and eating dark chocolate.

Connect with Renée

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

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Release Day! Maureen by Rachel Joyce ~ My Thoughts #Maureen #NetGalley

Happy Release Day!

Congrats Rachel

on the release today of

Maureen!

Maureen by Rachel Joyce

(Harold Fry #3)

Fiction, British Literature, 192 pages

Published February 7, 2023 by The Dial Press 

From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes a moving novel told from the point of view of Harold’s wife Maureen. Now undertaking her own journey, Maureen will discover a way to reconnect with the world she’s closed a door on.

Maureen Fry has settled into the quiet life she shares with her husband after his iconic walk across England ten years ago. When an unexpected message from the North disturbs her equilibrium again, it is now her turn to make a journey. But Maureen is not like Harold. By turns outspoken, then vulnerable, she struggles to form bonds with the people she meets, and the landscape she crosses has radically changed. And Maureen has no sense of what she will find at the end of the road. All she knows is that she has to get there.

Maureen is a deeply felt, lyrical, and powerful novel, full of warmth and kindness, about love, loss, and how we come to terms with the past in order to understand ourselves and our lives a little better. While it stands alone, it is also the extraordinarily moving finale to a trilogy that began with the phenomenal bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and continued in The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. What was started by Harold, only Maureen can complete.

My thoughts about Maureen ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"We have a closet door that is always sticking. It's the kind of closet where we shove in things that we don't want to deal with. but can't yet throw out."

Maureen is a caring women—very set in her ways, getting by in life—but maybe not really happy with the hand that has been dealt her. She takes off on her own on a quest that is calling to her, something that she is compelled to see though to the end. Along the way and by the end of her journey, she discovers a lot about herself, her husband, and the world she finds herself drowning in. This was definitely a journey of a lifetime. 

I enjoyed following along with Maureen through her travels and as she grows and finds happiness. This is book three in the Harold Fry trilogy and it's said the books can be read a standalone. While that may be true, I read book one, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, before reading Maureen and I'm so glad I did. I had a better understanding of Maureen and what she was going through and the reason for her quest. I think I'd now like to read book two, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, to find out more about Queenie and why she was such a strong influence on this couple. 

Overall this is a wonderful series full of discovery, growth, and reconciliation. 

I received an ARC of Maureen from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

The Harold Fry Series on Goodreads

About the author

Rachel Joyce is the award-winning author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, The Music Shop, and Miss Benson’s Beetle, as well as a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and long listed for the Man Booker Prize. Rachel has been awarded the Specsavers New Writer of the Year National Book Award and shortlisted for the UK author of the year. Miss Benson’s Beetle was the winner of the 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. Her novels have sold over 5 million copies worldwide in thirty six languages.

Rachel’s writing career began in radio drama and she has written many afternoon plays for BBC Radio 4, as well as major adaptations of all the Bronte novels, and Henry James. In 2007 she jointly won the Tinniswood Award for best original audio drama.

Next year The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will be a major film starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton, for which Rachel also wrote the screenplay.

Her next novel, Maureen Fry & the Angel of the North, will be published in the UK on October 22 and signed copies are available now to preorder. ~ Author website

Connect with Rachel

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram

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