After reading The Making of Us a few weeks back I was
looking forward to reading Lisa Jewell’s new up and coming release Before I Met
You. The book is set in two time periods the 1990’s and the 1920’s each chapter
alternates between these time periods.
We first meet our two main characters as little Elizabeth or
Betty as she is soon to be referred to moves to Guernsey to live with her
step-grandmother Arlette. As the years go by Betty finds herself looking after
her grandmother after she falls ill meaning that all of Betty’s friends leave
the island for study or work and Betty is left to care for her grandmother but
as time moves along Arlette dies and leaves a difficult task in her will. She
has left a large sum of money to a Clara Pickle problem is no one has ever
heard of her and they have a year to find her and if they are unsuccessful then the money goes to Betty.
Betty decides to take on the
challenge of finding the mysterious lady as she travels to London and unravels
many episodes of Arlette’s younger life.
In between following Betty who is trying to unravel details
of Arlette’s past we are shown Arlette’s life through her own eyes so we know
the missing pieces of the puzzle.
For any of you who follow my twitter updates or Goodreads
you will know that when I started this book I was finding it rather hard to get
into and having loved all of Lisa Jewells previous books I thought this was
going to be the first one I wasn’t going to enjoy or even finish. The book
starts of at a very slow pace and had the feeling that everything was being
dragged out a little but let me say this now before you think my review is just
going to be a big put down of this book, I am SO glad I carried on!
The book does flow at a very slow and delicate pace but once
we get involved with the characters and the storyline we see that it is the
perfect pace around such a warm and delicate storyline. I loved the structure
of the book where we travel back and forth in time and it did feel at times
when we were reading parts of Arlette’s life that whilst Betty was searching
for clues she seemed to be living a modernised version of Arlette’s life.
I also loved the small references which were used to create
the feel of the 1920’s such as not having a mobile phone to contact people and
funny enough Betty finds herself in a similar situation waiting by a public
phone for her phone calls! In all honesty I couldn’t say that I preferred either
characters storyline over the others as I felt that they complimented each
other.
I liked the feeling of unknown all the way through the book,
never knowing if the mystery of Clara Pickle will be solved this was what kept
me hooked. There really was a mix of emotions and content in this book there
were some heartbreaking moments and I did find Arlette’s life very glamorous.
If you are looking for a traditional, delicate and yet
charming little read this is most definitely the book for you.
Paperback Kindle
A wonderful honest review Rea. Thanks for sharing your opinion x
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome hun thank you for the comment xx
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