A review by bethpeninger
The Woman He Loved Before by Dorothy Koomson

3.0

Libby is being kept awake by a fireman after a horrible car accident that leaves her severely injured after her airbag didn't deploy. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Libby's mind reviews when she met Jack and their unexpected courtship. She never expected to like, much less fall in love, with Jack. An ever-present elephant in the room is Jack's first wife, Eve, who died suddenly and tragically. Jack was so over the moon in love with Eve that Libby always felt like second-best. When Libby discovers a packet of diaries signed with Eve's name, she begins to read them, hungry to know what kind of person Eve was to have such a hold on Jack years after her death. But as Libby reads Eve's diaries and gets to know Eve, what comes to light is nothing Libby expected, and she begins to wonder what kind of man she has married and lives with and if she's going to end up like Eve.

This title was really slow-moving until I reached 50%. In fact, I was considering not finishing it, but since it is a Koomson title, I kept giving it another chance. In the end, I'm glad I did. It needed some stronger and tighter editing for the first half. Once Koomson introduced Eve's diaries into the storyline, things picked up. Even though Eve's diary entries were fairly long., Koomson wrote a story of resiliency through both of the female characters, both of the women that Jack loved.