#BlogTour-‘The Girl He Used To Know’ by Tracey Garvis Graves

About the book…

Out in paperback on 8th August 2019 from Trapeze Books, ‘The Girl He Used To Know’ by Tracy Garvis Graves is a perfect summer read.

‘The most riveting, rewarding, refreshing novel I’ve read in years’ –Barbara Delinsky, bestselling author

What if you had a second chance at first love?

Annika Rose likes being alone.
She feels lost in social situations, saying the wrong thing or acting the wrong way. She just can’t read people. She prefers the quiet solitude of books or playing chess to being around others. Apart from Jonathan. She liked being around him, but she hasn’t seen him for ten years. Until now that is. And she’s not sure he’ll want to see her again after what happened all those years ago.

Annika Rose likes being alone.
Except that, actually, she doesn’t like being alone at all.

The Girl He Used to Know is an uplifting novel full of surprising revelations that keep you turning the page. Perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes, Gail Honeyman, Jill Santopolo and Sliding Doors.

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‘Tracey Garvis Graves has crafted an incredible story with a unique premise and characters you’ll want to root for. The last thirty pages had me on the edge of my seat. This book is beautiful.’ – Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends with Us

‘I adore Tracey Garvis Graves’ work.’ – Sarah Pekkanen, New York Timesbestselling coauthor of The Wife Between Us

‘The Girl He Used to Know is unlike any book I’ve read. I loved every page.‘ – Camille Pagan, bestselling author of Life and Other Near-Death Experiences

Ok so true confession time, I was genuinely unprepared for just how much I loved and reacted to this book-it is simply put, a beautiful love story between two people who are parted for ten years due to circumstances beyond either’s control.

The story goes back and forth in time between 1991 and 2001, splitting the first person narration between Annika and Jonathan starting when they met at university and then as grownups in the real world. They meet due to their mutual love of chess and from there, a very unlikely and wonderful love story blooms.

Tracey writes very stylistically with short, sharp staccato sentences which made it a struggle to connect with Annika to start with and then the penny drops and you realise what is going on, a great big ‘Ahhhh…’ moment which I think is exactly the effect that she wanted to create. All the things that happen to Annika are not because of how she is, they are because people are awful to anyone who is even slightly outside of the norm. Honestly some parts of this book will leave you reeling at just how vile they can be and how they leave Annika feeling. So when she meets Jonathan, she is incredibly wary, but at the same time her feelings for him are so huge that they become all consuming.

Tragedy which is incredibly well wrought and described befalls them as they are preparing to graduate which leaves Jonathan entering the ‘real world’ before Annika and before long the gap between them becomes too big for either to bridge. Chance has them meeting again after a decade apart and then, once more, circumstances beyond their control conspire to pull them apart but this time around,will Annika be able to have the strength for both of them to make it work?

You fall in love with Annika so much that when Jonathan appears in the book, whilst you are willing her to find happiness, you as the reader are cautious and pretty much on the side of Annika’s best friend , roommate and general guardian angel Janice who want the best for her.But you realise that when Annika says :

”Jonathan made me feel comfortable and safe in a way that no one else had ever bothered to,not that many had tried”

that you so so desperately want this to work because she includes her parents, everyone she has ever met in this. The parts where she has left university and goes home to live with her family just break you in two-they are trying to do their best for her but again, circumstance and a lack of support has left all of them floundering whilst trying to do their absolute best for this wonderful girl who wants to be a librarian, as she finds books so much less complicated than people.

At a date with reunited Jonathan,talking about her ex-boyfriend,Ryan and why they broke up in a very public fashion at dinner,she says :

”Then Ryan says,’Can’t you for once just try?’ and I had no clue what he was talking about because all we were doing is sitting at that table over there”-she points at a small table directly across from of us-eating dinner.Try what?

”I guess I didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear because then he said,’Do you know what it’s like to be with someone who looks like you but then opens her mouth and ruins everything?’and I told him I did not and that I had no idea what that even meant and then his face turned red.’It’s a complete fucking waste,’he said,’I can’t take it anymore,’Then he stood up and started yelling really loud about how crazy I was,and the restaurant staff made himm leave.”

The anger and the rage this induces on behalf of Annika and her poor heart where she is convinced that she needs to show Jonathan that she is not the person she was 10 years ago, she’s not going to mess things up this time, hence the title of the book. She is absolutely not the girl he used to know, she is that person and so much more but her essential heart and the way she is is how they are drawn back together and why he wants to try again.

”She marched to the beat of an entirely different band.One you’ve never heard of,and undee no circumstances expected to like.When Annika would frustrate me,which was pretty often,I would tell myself there were lots of other girls out there who were not so challenging.But twenty-four hours later,I’d be knocking on her door.I missed her face and her smile,and I missed every one of the things that made her different.”

It’s not saccharine sweet, it’s not banging you voer the head with what is right and wrong, this book simply is, there is a mastery to the words which are used and the tone which is created between the two narrators which wrings all the emotions out of the reader and leaves them feeling bereft yet satisfied at the end of the book, It is a rare treasure which you want to press on your friends whislt simultaneously wanting to keep the experience of meeting Annika and Jonathan to yourself because it is a such a powerful feeling that it engenders-you want to hold this book close to you and be grateful for having read it.

After this you will be wanting to keep an eye out for all the blue ducks out there and helping them feel they are the same as the yellow ones. Highly recommended for all lovers of Marian Keyes, Jojo Moyes and Cecelia Ahern. 

Also be prepared to cry. I was unexpectedly caught at several points in the book with tears rolling down my face, which is fine if you are at home,and can go hide, not so much when you are out in public! Absolutely engrossing, engaging and wonderful, check it and my fellow bloggers out as the blog tour continues this week and next!

About the author..

Tracey Garvis Graves is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author.

Her debut novel, ‘On The Island’, spent 9 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into twenty-nine languages, and is in development with MGM and Temple Hill Productions for a feature film.

She is also the author of ‘Uncharted’,‘Covet’, ‘Everytime I Think Of You’, ‘Cherish’, ‘Heart Shaped Hack’, and ‘White Hot Hack’, and ‘The Girl he Used To Know’. She is hard at work on her next book

Links-https://traceygarvisgraves.com/

https://www.compulsivereaders.com/

Twitter @tgarvisgraves

            @Tr4cyF3nt0n