Book Review — The Girl He Used To Know: A Novel by Tracey Garvis Graves

“From the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of his face. It’s been ten years since we’ve seen each other and though I often struggle to recognize people out of context, there’s no need for me to question whether or not it’s him. I know it’s him.”

• Buy THE GIRL HE USED TO KNOW (Kindle)
• Buy THE GIRL HE USED TO KNOW (Hardcover)
• Buy THE GIRL HE USED TO KNOW (iBooks)

HOLY FREAKING WOW!!!!!

THIS BOOK WAS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!

I’m going to be honest with you guys… it’s been a while since I read a truly great book.

If you’ve been following my reviews for a while you know how much I love to gush over books I love. I love sharing my excitement with you and that’s truly the main reason I started to blog in the first place. However one thing that has always been very important to me is that the books I recommend have to be worthy of the praise I give them. What that means is that sometimes (like recently) a few weeks may go by without any recommendations, and other times I may have multiple recommendations at once. This is my way of keeping things honest with you guys and not just reviewing for reviewing’s sake. If the book doesn’t make me want to shout from the mountaintops about how great it is, I just won’t want to review it. And lately the books I’ve read have been decent, but nothing rave-worthy.

Until this book.

Right now, this is me shouting from the mountaintops to tell you to READ THIS BOOK if you are looking for a truly wonderful, unforgettable story that is so full of heart it made me laugh and cry and fall in love with every word!

From the moment I heard about this book I had a good feeling about it – mostly because on one hand the blurb just sounded good, but more importantly one of this author’s other books On The Island (my review) was one of my original favorite ‘founding’ books back from 2012 when I first started this blog and the three things I knew about this author was that 1) she wrote beautifully, 2) her stories were unique, and 3) years after reading her books I still considered them top favorites. And I’m happy to say that this new book fit all those three categories as well!

Honestly, I’ve almost always been able to tell from reading the first page if a book is going to steal my heart or not. Nine out of ten times this is always the case. And from the first two paragraphs of this book I just *knew*.

I *felt* the story. I connected to the characters. I loved the writing. I was swept away and drawn into Annika and Jonathan’s relationship — both past and present — and most importantly the story intrigued me and made me want and *need* to know more. After reading the prologue, I actually immediately put the book down, went and grabbed a cozy blanket, made myself a hot cup of tea, and hunkered down for a good long read.

I can recall with unbelievable clarity almost everything that happened during the time I spent with Annika. Probably because no one has ever loved me as fiercely and unconditionally as she did.

It’s hard to put exact words to how much I loved this story and now that I’m thinking about it I’m actually not sure I want to say very much about the story at all because it’s very unique and specifically the way the story unfolds is something I think you should just experience without knowing anything detailed about what to expect.

The thing that stood out to me the most about this story was that it was so full of HEART. It was PURE. So utterly pure and beautiful. The author touches on the themes of being true to yourself and following your heart with so much respect and grace and subtly — truly a case of ‘showing’ rather than telling.

The first three quarters or so of the book were a heart-warming, sweet, and romantic second chance love story, and then all of a sudden this HUGE emotional impact just HIT. The whole reason for the timeline suddenly made sense to me and CHILLS ran through me from head to toe. My heart was pounding. The intensity was overwhelming. I needed answers so badly and tears were pouring down my face as I read as fast as I could and just OH MY GOD THE STORY WAS INCREDIBLE! Right up until the very last word.

Without a doubt, this was one of the very best books I’ve ever read. From start to finish, this was a beautifully written, compelling, addictive love story with so much heart that I know this story will stay with me for many years.

If you want a truly fantastic book to read, THIS IS IT!!!

Rating: 5+++++ STARS!!! Standalone Contemporary Romance.

• Buy THE GIRL HE USED TO KNOW (Kindle)
• Buy THE GIRL HE USED TO KNOW (Hardcover)
• Buy THE GIRL HE USED TO KNOW (iBooks)

PS: Yes, it is absolutely worth the price!