The Girl I Used To Be by Debbie Howells
Published by Boldwood Books
Publication Date: 19th October 2022
Genre: Womens Fiction
My thanks to Rachel Gilbey for the invitation to part of the promotional blog tour for this lovely read.
Book Description:
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?
Buy your copy here - https://amzn.to/3z2xdmd
My Thoughts:
This latest novel from Debbie Howells is a lovely, at times frustrating, story of how life pulls us in directions we never thought would happen. Anna and Will were smitten with one another when they were young but just as they were getting started Fate stepped in to keep them apart.
The story is told predominantly from Anna's point of view, with Will's situation and perspective interspersed between the chapters to show us that it's not just Anna wishing they could turn back the clock and change things. They've both settled for relationships which are second best, their hearts not 100% in it, and are both wondering what happened to the hopes and dreams of their teenage years. Feelings which come crashing to the fore when a chance encounter between the two of them leaves them asking the question:what if?
I enjoyed this will they/won't they tale but would have really loved it if Anna and Will could have shared some of the more emotional experiences together rather than struggling in their separate lives. I feel they would both have become stronger individuals sooner with the benefit of each other's support. But I suppose that is a more realistic representation of how life has a habit of sending us the toughest challenges when we will learn the most from the lesson.
A lovely story of love, friendship and second chances.
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About the Author:
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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