Review // The Girl He Used To Know

 

The Girl He Used to Know - Tracey Garvis Graves

 

Published: 8th August 2019

Source: Purchased

Genre: Contemporary Romance

My Rating:

 

What if you had a second chance at first love?

Annika Rose likes being alone.
She feels lost in social situations, saying the wrong thing or acting the wrong way. She just can't read people. She prefers the quiet solitude of books or playing chess to being around others. Apart from Jonathan. She liked being around him, but she hasn't seen him for ten years. Until now that is. And she's not sure he'll want to see her again after what happened all those years ago.

Annika Rose likes being alone.
Except that, actually, she doesn't like being alone at all.

The Girl He Used to Know is an uplifting novel full of surprising revelations that keep you turning the page. Perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes, Gail Honeyman, Jill Santopolo and Sliding Doors.

I'm attempting to review on the blog all of the books I've read for my reading challenges this year. It's a work in progress as I actually read this after The Family series but I'm trying to figure out how to review that series so I'll see. I might have to post a mini review collection for the series or something. I read The Girl He Used To Know for the Monthly Key Word challenge from girlxoxo and I actually found that Girl was the only real word I had appearing in titles for a lot of books from the January list of words as the other books I had which fit I had already read:

 

Crown, Girl, Whisper, Black, Heart, Guide, All, Ever

 

I did have a lot of options for girl though and I just plucked The Girl He Used To know one from my physical reading shelf as I thought it looked small and I was too lazy to walk to the living room on my lunch break to get my Kindle. I'm glad I finally read it, I remember seeing good things being said when it came out and being happy it got a UK release and then, like so many books, it got forgotten on my shelf.

 

I will start by saying that this book is set way back in 2001 as our present day and, as with a lot of second chance romances, it's told through a past and present storyline to explain why Annika and Jonathan fell in love and also how they eventually fell apart. I liked that as it was lovely seeing Annika take her tentative steps out of her comfort zone as she fell for Jonathan and the events of the past explained her behaviour in the present with Jonathan.

 

As soon as we met Annika it was immediately obvious to me she was on the autism spectrum and although this wasn't addressed until much later in the book, what I found interesting is we could see the ways in which the world was confusing to her and the different coping mechanisms she had in place to help her navigate it. I found it fascinating and it was very well written so you understood that is what she was doing. Jonathan I was a little uncertain of, mostly the present day Jonathan, past Jonathan was charming and sweet. I didn't like how involved in his job present day Jonathan was, the man needed life perspective but the present is set in 2001 so I suppose there's a very different attitude to the corporate machine today compared to 20 years ago. The man needed to take a break, I understand working late sometimes but an all-nighter is never necessary and his boss was toxic.

 

I admit I would have rated this book higher if it hasn't been for the ending. It's not that it ended without a HEA or HFN, which is a deal breaker in a book which is presented as a romance. It was the fact it used a real life event for shock effect and I didn't feel comfortable with it. I felt like their romantic history was enough angst for this book and that ending was not necessary. I don't want to spoil things by mention everything but the events which led to their break up and everything Annika went through in the past was more than enough, I didn't like that we were then going through trauma in the present day and it was horrible. That being said this was a beautifully written book and the characters were very compelling.

 

Honestly, it was an addictive read because I was desperate to know what Annika kept alluding to about their past and what broke them up. I sped through the book and it's not often I don't get distracted by my phone and TikTok when I'm reading at the moment it made a nice change. It was just the shock value of that ending I didn't like. There was enough angst in Jonathan and Annika's past that it was unnecessary to give them more and it took me out of the book. I did enjoy it though, and would read more from the author because it was beautifully written.

 

Have you read this, and if so do you agree with me that the end was unnecessary?