The Girl I Used To Be
By: Debbie Howells
Marie Kondo for the soul.
Anna and Will have been passing in and out of each other’s lives since they were just kids.
Now 20 years later, Anna is married - she has a lovely house, a step daughter in university and a husband with a good job.
What she doesn’t have is joy. When she runs into Will it sparks something in her, a longing for the Anna she used to be.
Together they embark on a journey to find what brings them joy, to discard what doesn’t and to become the people they always wanted to be.
But in finding themselves, can they also find each other?
Purchase Link - https://amzn.to/3z2xdmd
This novel tells the story of Anna and Will as they each look back, separately and together, upon their younger years and consider what led them to their lives today. Told through alternating POV and going back and forth between the present and about 20 years prior, the story slowly reveals several elements of their lives and how they got to where they are today. The characters are very well developed, as are their backstories and the plot. Even though it alternates perspectives and time periods, it is not difficult to follow and the author gives adequate information so that you know what is going on when. That being said, I did find that it was quite slow moving and there was not a lot of real action taking place. While the past is not as prominent, since it is only featured in flashbacks and generally in shorter, italicized sections, the actual meat of the story often is told in those sections. As would be expected by almost any person reflecting back on their younger years; the past is often where we learned, grew, made mistakes and had a lot of fun, all before the responsibilities and challenges of adulthood really take over, so it makes sense that those sections have more interesting content, but it made it hard for me to really enjoy the story as a whole because of this contrast. I think that I also expected the reflection to be about Anna's life from childhood (maybe the cover and the term "girl" swayed me) when it was really more about her late teens/early twenties. As a result, it was also not quite what I was expecting. Overall it was a good book, just not as engaging as I would have liked.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Boldwood Books for giving me the chance to read and review this book and to Rachel from Rachel's Random Resources for her help organizing the blog tour. I am definitely looking forward to seeing what my fellow bloggers thought about this book!
Debbie Howells’s first novel, a psychological thriller, The Bones of You, was a Sunday Times bestseller for Macmillan. Four more bestsellers followed, including most recently The Vow, published by Avon. Fulfilling her dream of writing women’s fiction, she has found a home with Boldwood and her first title with them, The Life You Left Behind was published in February 2022.
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