Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Review- The Girl He Used to Know- Tracey Garvis Graves


The Girl He Used to Know- Tracey Garvis Graves



Synopsis: 

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.





4 Stars

The story opens with Annika and Jonathan bumping into each other at a grocery store and we learn they share a past, but we don't know the particulars of it, which is where the story takes us.

Annika and Jonathan meet in Chess Club during their senior year of college. They develop a friendship which turns into a romance. Annika has her issues, and we eventually figure out that she on the Autism spectrum. She's quite intelligent, but she has a hard time reading social cues and doesn't always have the "right" reaction to situations. Jonathan is quite understanding of Annika's quirks and actually loves her eccentricities. Their relationship grows and we eventually learn of the situation that broke them apart. Their break up is difficult for various reasons.

The story is told in intermixed chapters of their past and now present relationship. Jonathan is recovering from a messy divorce and he's not sure if he wants to try again with Annika, although we get the sense that he'd be more devastated if he lost Annika again. Annika is working hard to show Jonathan how she's changed over the years. I adored the way Jonathan admires Annika and all of her struggles. He knows that sometime she needs to work things out for herself and doesn't rush in to try and solve her problems for her. Annika proves herself in a big way towards the end.

I really quite enjoyed their journey. My only wish is that I would have had more of the "after".

Advance copy received courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.
 



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