OUR REVIEW:
Renee Carlino does this to me EVERY TIME! She sucks me in and then plays with my heart. In the case of Alex and Danielle, we follow a two decades long love story. Sure there's a divorce thrown in there (and it's a significant part of their journey) but throughout it all, what you see is love despite all of the frustration, annoyance, and hurt feelings of it all. I liked how we got to see it all--all the love and all of the things that make marriages so difficult. We saw the goodness in them and the not so good things about them, which made for fully developed characters. Neither Alex or Danielle were wholly good or bad, just regular, flawed humans that got to the point where they didn't *think* they loved each other anymore. Tricks on them, they really did love each other, they just couldn't stand each other sometimes and they beauty of this book is that we get to see why. We see how the small things become really annoying things they can't get past. We see the real and perceived burdens they each felt. And we get to see what happens when you don't communicate well...and we see it all through flashbacks and present day events.
As Renee Carlino is known to do, she reels you in, gives you hope, and then hurts your heart. This Used to Be Us is no different. The ending was just so bittersweet...and that's all I'll say about that. It's been way too long since we've had a new read from Renee Carlino and I hope this means she's back in writing mode and working on something new for us.
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SYNOPSIS:
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.
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.
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