A review by lexhayz
Someone I Used To Know by Paige Toon
3.0
3.5 stars rounded down. I’m leaving this book with mixed feelings. While this is certainly a really unique concept for a romance book, I have a few critiques that made this book less enjoyable for me:
-Starting the story in the “Now” timeline made the story have a disjointed and confusing start, and actually took away from the character development of several characters, especially Theo.
-I think that many of the “Then” chapters felt unrealistic to be told from a 15 year old’s perspective while written in the present tense. No matter how educated or empathetic the people 15 year old, I just find it highly unlikely she would have actually spoken/thought the way she did in the book.
-The book occasionally read like a manual/non-fiction piece on the foster system that felt unnatural to me, and occasionally preachy.
Now for the things I liked, again, I found this to be a very unique romance story that was very sweet. I loved all of the details about the alpacas and the Angora rabbits! Found families and long-lost loves are some of my favorite romance tropes, so I found those aspects to be enjoyable.
-Starting the story in the “Now” timeline made the story have a disjointed and confusing start, and actually took away from the character development of several characters, especially Theo.
-I think that many of the “Then” chapters felt unrealistic to be told from a 15 year old’s perspective while written in the present tense. No matter how educated or empathetic the people 15 year old, I just find it highly unlikely she would have actually spoken/thought the way she did in the book.
-The book occasionally read like a manual/non-fiction piece on the foster system that felt unnatural to me, and occasionally preachy.
Now for the things I liked, again, I found this to be a very unique romance story that was very sweet. I loved all of the details about the alpacas and the Angora rabbits! Found families and long-lost loves are some of my favorite romance tropes, so I found those aspects to be enjoyable.