A review by abbeyrwinland
Before We Were Strangers by Renée Carlino

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I liked it a lot, but a few things bugged me too much to give it a full five stars. Let’s start with what I loved. Grace and Matt’s relationship in college was honestly beautiful. I could’ve read a whole book just about that time in their lives. Watching them fall in love, living in that artsy, emotional little bubble together was my fav. Those chapters were my favorite by far. Their sex scenes felt real and I really enjoyed those 

Now for the stuff I didn’t love. First off, Grace didn’t try that hard to get in touch with Matt after they got separated. I know Elizabeth interfered and sent those letters pretending to be him, but Grace even said she felt like they didn’t sound like him. So why didn’t she dig deeper? If you love someone that much, you don’t just give up like that. Also… did Elizabeth just like sit by the mailbox? Did Matt never check the mail? Also, it’s set in like 2015. She said she followed his work, so clearly she knew his name. You’re telling me she couldn’t send a single email or message or literally look him up online? Girl, we have Google. And social media. Meanwhile, Matt posts one Craigslist ad and they’re suddenly back in each other’s lives? That part just felt kind of silly to me.Elizabeth was definitely the worst. She kept a whole child from him. He missed out on Ash’s entire childhood because she decided to be petty and jealous. Dan was another one plot hole I feel? In the beginning he gave full-on predator energy, and then later the book acts like he’s this great co-parent who was just trying to help. It felt like the author forgot how she originally wrote him.All that said, I still really liked this book. It gave me all the emotional angst I wanted, and I read it super fast. There were just a few things that didn’t quite add up for me 😂