This Used To Be Us - Renee Carlino

There are two sides to every love story—and every breakup. Get ready for an emotional roller coaster of family, marriage, and divorce that will have you both laughing and crying, from the bestselling author of Before We Were Strangers.

After twenty-two years together, Danielle and Alex are getting a divorce. Once fiercely in love, they can barely stand the sound of each other’s voice. Instead of shuffling the kids between two broken homes, Alex and Danielle decide to share a nesting apartment while swapping days with their two teenage boys at the family home.

In the apartment, Dani and Alex, on their own, begin to reflect on the last two decades—why they fell in love, and why the marriage fell, spectacularly, apart. With the newfound space and time, they are given a chance to find their autonomous selves again. They both get back in the dating pool, Dani finds major success at work as a showrunner on her own TV project, while Alex faces the challenges of a new relationship.

Still, they find they just can’t stay away from each other, and somehow, the distance allows them to remember (for the first time in years) what they used to love about one another. When a family crisis draws them back into each other’s orbit, Danielle and Alex are, once again, put to the test, which leads to a dramatic conclusion that will have readers weeping. 

Blurb taken from Goodreads.

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I was provided with an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I've long been a fan of Renee Carlino, from the moment I read my first book of hers, Swear On This Life. It was an easy five star read for me, and was only added to by further five star reads Before We Were Strangers, Sweet Thing and Wish you Were Here. I hit a bit of a snag by then reading two Carlino books that I didn't enjoy nearly as much, and I started to wonder if maybe my luck with the author had run out.

Then came This Used To Be Us. I started reading apprehensively, worrying that this would be another to add to the pile of books I hadn't loved. 

I am so grateful that that did not happen. I loved this book. It broke my heart then made it full again, it made me laugh then sob. It was beautiful, and I adored it. 

Rating: ✫✫✫✫✫

My Thoughts

Carlino's writing is quite straightforward. It's not lyrical in the same way as I've seen from a lot of other authors I love. It's direct and often quite blunt, and I think that's partly why there are a couple of books from Carlino previously that I haven't loved. Looking at their publication dates, I think it's the earlier books that I haven't been able to connect with, because the direct writing didn't have the depth of feeling to really make the writing style work. In This Used To Be Us, the story was so full of emotion and feeling that the writing only highlighted its beauty.

I fell in love with the story so quickly. It very much reminded me of After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid, although it did have a number of differences; the main difference being the actual intentions of our estranged couple, Dani and Alex. There was a very delicate balancing act to make the characters just likeable enough for the reader to root for them, but also making the reader understand exactly how they would have come to resent each other. It's not easy to do, and I've read many books in the past that haven't been successful. Yet in this book, Carlino succeeded. It was easy to see exactly how Dani and Alex would have come to love each other, and also how they would have grown apart. Neither character is perfect and both have very real flaws, and I enjoyed getting to know the characters in all their messy glory. 

This is a beautiful book about love, and about how it is honest and ugly and very special. This Use To Be Us is the end of the love story, the happy never after, and that can be very difficult to take in for the romantics among us. It's hard to accept that there isn't always a happy ending, and I did find this book painful to read at points for that reason. But it also packed a heck of an emotional punch. The regular switch between a young Dani and Alex and the couple in the midst of a separation made it even more real, and my connection with them only grew as the story went on. 

I think it's hard to say that this is romance book, but it is definitely a love story. As the book went on, I laughed and I cried, and my heart shattered into hundreds of pieces over and over again. It's beautiful, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it.