Review: Someone I Used To Know

Someone I Used To Know
By Paige Toon

Published By: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: June 24, 2021
Date Read: December 31, 2022
Genre: Adult – Contemporary / Romance
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 384

From Goodreads:
So much can change in half a lifetime…

Then

At fifteen, George is the foster brother Leah never asked for. As the angry, troubled boy struggles to come to terms with his circumstances, Leah finds herself getting drawn closer to him.

Theo’s wealthy family have mysteriously pulled him out of boarding school and he’s now enrolled at the local state school with Leah and George. When their worlds collide that summer, the three teenagers form a bond they believe will be unbreakable. But life doesn’t always go to plan…

Now

Shocking news brings Leah back to Yorkshire, baby daughter in tow. But Emilie’s father Theo isn’t with them, and George has unexpectedly returned. After half a lifetime, have they healed the scars of their pasts? Will coming back home set their hearts in a different direction?

Someone I Used To Know is a book that I bought as soon as it released and then it has just sat there on my shelf waiting to be read. I am a huge fan of Paige Toon. She is one of my all time favourite authors and I have been reading her work for a good ten years. I am so glad I finally picked this one up. It was everything I have come to expect from Paige Toon’s work. It’s heartbreaking, emotional but absolutely worth it.

Someone I Used To Know follows two timelines. We have the present day with our main character Leah who is learning to live after the death of her beloved husband. Then the timeline flicks back and forth between present day and her teen years when she meets Theo and George. I really enjoyed the timeline switch because you got to see the difference between the relationships when they were teenagers and then again when they are adults. This is something that Paige has done before in some of her previous books and honestly she just does it really well. She has you rooting for things to happen… that you already know don’t, but somehow you just still want it. I think this is so clever and incredible of her in her narration for us to still feel that and I just love it.

Someone I Used To Know is definitely a very somber tale in parts. You know that Leah’s husband has died, yet we get to see them starting to fall for each other when they were teens and it just makes the whole tone of the book really sad. But it is still amazing, because it explores all of the things that come next. The healing process and the potential moving on, and I think that that is an incredibly story that I don’t personally read very often. I’m sure it’s there in a hell of a lot of books, but I don’t personally pick a lot of them up.

While this isn’t my favourite of Paige’s work, I really enjoyed this book. It’s fast paced and you can really fly through this book. I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen and so I just spent days listening to my audiobook as much as I possibly could so that I could see what was going to happen. It’s a really beautiful story of family, friendship, love and healing and I definitely recommend picking this one up.

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