“I hoped that through the lens I would see her again, like I had years before. Her vibrant spirit; the way she could color a black-and-white photo with her magnetism alone. I had thought about Grace often over the years. Something as simple as a smell, like sugared pancakes at night, or the sound of a cello in Grand Central or Washington Square Park on a warm day, could transport me right back to that year in college. The year I spent falling in love with her.”
This book deserves all the stars and more, it lit me up inside immeasurably. If Before We Were Strangers hadn’t serendipitously entered my life, in a turn and rush of otherworldly, warming magic, it would’ve been its own tragically missed connection. Matt and Grace meet in college and have an instantaneous, but beautifully built connection and layered sense of personhood, filled with taking photos together and of Grace, who becomes a delicately enrapturing muse of her own, since Matt is an aspiring photographer, eating breakfast for dinner in their pajamas, the rich scent of pancakes on the griddle wafting through their best kept memories, slow dancing together to U2’s “With or Without You” like it’s the most natural thing they’ve done, like it’s the thing they’re meant to do in smooth, rapturous poetry that takes on a life of its own as does their intimate moments, and Matt listening to Grace, a budding musician, harmoniously play the cello through the dorm wall they share together and for him.
Years later in this majorly dually narrated story, Matt wonders where everything went wrong and how they got so far from the people that fell so madly, passionately in love with each other. Then he sees Grace on the subway after years have gone by, but doesn’t realize it’s her until it’s too late and the train is pulling away as she seems to mouth “Matt” from the train with bewilderment besetting her eyes as if it’s hard to believe he’s really there after so long. He runs down the platform, trying to reach her in any way he can, but as all great, prolific love stories go the universe has other ideas and has seemed to “tease” them as Grace so eloquently explains it later. Matt then precedes to put out a letter to his “green-eyed lovebird” written in the missed connections section that implores her to come back to him again.
This book makes me ache for all the time missed in our fleeting existences and the time we waste with not being with someone who we know we love because of our own Greek tragedy-like tragic flaws, all the connections lost because of uncontrollable circumstances, fickle, ever evolving feelings, people meeting at the wrong time, or anything out of place, or misunderstood, that leads to a breakdown in communication. It caused me to feel the pain, and ever expanding, deepening hole, that these two characters had in their hearts and felt after longing to be together after fifteen years.
This is truly a movingly written, powerful story, about being enthrallingly, heart poundingly young and in love, that interweaves the past, the present, and the future all in one with a sensitive eye to all the important, eye-opening details. There is also plenty of humor infused, which led me to smile and laugh simultaneously with all I have, like a certain teacher’s name and Matt’s sometimes less than charming family members, one who believes he is the living incarnate of Adonis.
While it is a love story, it is also a story of how life doesn’t always work seamlessly in favor of love and how unreliable it can be, how heart shattering it can be. We put ourselves out there hoping we won’t get hurt, it’s the most brave, ambitious, vulnerable, thing we can do and part of ourselves we can share and give, but sometimes it fails us and leaves in its wake a irresolvable heartbreak, lack of closure or too much black-and-white closure that something and two people will never be, or pining nostalgia for the memories of when things were good and we had someone to soften the way life gets lonely. And that’s the unfortunate give and take of existence and loving and the ultimate price we have to play to be romantically loved in the first place.
Most of all, this story and these characters filled me with countless feelings, very soul and spirit filling, and I was invested at every step of the way. It is special and will be rendered in my mind forever with the permanence and profoundness of a photograph with a touch of color.
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Reviews with images
This book was EVERYTHING!
FINALLY! FINALLY – I understand the hype surrounding this book and I’m here to tell you it is warranted. I’ve had Before We Were Strangers on my TBR and Kindle for years but never made the time to read it. I’m kicking myself for my poor time management because I could have reread it by now and enjoyed it more than once. This book was EVERYTHING. I wish it didn’t have to end.Before We Were Strangers is exactly what I’m looking for when I pick up Contemporary Romance. I want to feel like I’m living the lives of the characters, I want the mushy-gushy feelings of new love, and I want to be absorbed by the story heart and soul. Renee Carlino managed all of that and more with this book, making it obvious why so many readers consider it one of their all-time favorites.There was an incredible nostalgic feel, with the book beginning in the present with Matt, then venturing back to the past to tell his and Grace’s story during their college years. It somehow made this story more heart-achingly beautiful. With such an intense romance, it was inconceivable to imagine what could possibly come between these two in the future. Matt and Grace were so compatible, so perfect for each other, I’m sure my face was flushed through most of the story just imagining them together.This book reminded me of a Tiffanie DeBartolo book with the hip characters and setting and the many music references, including Jeff Buckley who Tiffanie mentions as well. Both authors have a way of making the music in their books come alive, almost forming a soundtrack that plays in the background of your thoughts as you read. I eat that up!I can’t say much more than I LOVED IT and wish all Contemporaries could be this great. I will not soon forget this story! If you’re one of the few that still has this on your TBR, don’t wait as long as I did to read it!
Top reviews from other countries
Candace Roberts
Devoured this in a few hours!
Reviewed in Canada on January 14, 2023
