A review: Before We Were Strangers by Renée Carlino 🧃

⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The present is our own. The right-this-second, the here-and-now, this moment before the next, is ours for the taking. It’s the only free gift the universe has to offer. The past doesn’t belong to us anymore, and the future is just a fantasy, never guaranteed. But the present is ours to own. The only way we can realize that fantasy is if we embrace the now.”

This book sort of sneaked up on me. Despite the fact that it used one of my least favourite plot devices in romance ever, I still ended up liking this a lot.

Matt and Grace met during their senior year at NYU. Grace is a music major while Matt is photography. They immediately bonded from the moment they met through their mutual love of the arts and Jeff Buckley. Slowly but surely their friendship evolved from friendship into something more. They became inseparable but the end of college, miscommunication, and misunderstanding brought an end to their relationship.

Fifteen years later, Matt saw Grace and everything came rushing back. But picking up the pieces of their relationship was harder said than done. And both Matt and Grace had to deal with secrets and resentments and a whole slew of other issues.

“Everything seems better in a memory.”

Before We Were Strangers was told in dual POV and is set in the past and the present. Renée Carlino slowly unravel the threads for her readers in her trademark prose, which I find really engaging. Grace was a free spirit and Matt is desperate to prove to his father that he didn’t make a mistake in choosing photography instead of law.

The first part was a bit slow but since I don’t mind slow, it wasn’t an issue for me. The only issue for me was the plot device used to break them up. I truly loathe the big misunderstanding/miscommunication plot device simply because it brings too much unnecessary drama and assumption that usually don’t end well for the characters and me as the reader. But like I said, despite that I felt for both Grace and Matt. They suffered the consequence of their actions. I didn’t mind the other plot device since I felt it was handled well.

Still, this book tugged at my heartstrings. Plus the writing was stellar. I loved Renee Carlino’s voice. So despite my issues with the plot and the characters, this book touched me. I was rooting for the characters to get their HEA, and once my feelings get invested, those little annoyances usually fade into the background.

“Heart slayed. He owned me.”