Alternating chapters of past and present between the two main characters has been a helpful technique, especially as both the main characters are rather unlikable in the present! As with anyone, knowing their past and the incidents that moulded them into who they are today has a way of generating sympathy and compassion. One comes to understand why the women they are today are not like the girls they once were. ( )

I admit to being a huge Faith Hogan fan so I couldn't wait to get my hands on her new book; she writes such emotive and compelling fiction with strong female characters who you think of as friends as the book goes on. The Girl I Used to Know is so perfectly named as it describes the journey our two main characters are on. In this case, both women must shed the masks they have worn for so long in order to find their very own girl they used to know.

Amanda lives in a beautiful Georgian house and her life revolves around her husband and children. Amanda gets quite a wake up call when she catches sight of her reflection in a window and doesn't recognise the person she sees. With her husband spending more and more time 'at work', Amanda can spend some time reconnecting with the girl buried beneath the excess pounds.

Tess is a sitting tenant in Amanda's basement and the pair can barely say a civil word to each other. Amanda always imagined that she would include the basement as part of her home but Tess has no intention of moving out. With Tess getting older, she has no intention of popping her clogs too soon and making it easy for Amanda to get her hands on the basement flat.

When fate plays a hand and the two women find themselves spending time with each other, they find that the other isn't the person they thought she was. Amanda appears to have had an easy life, being given everything she ever wanted and dreamed of, whereas life has not been kind to Tess leaving her bitter and unhappy. They are each other's perfect medicine, along with a drop of whiskey and Matt the cat, of course.

I do love dual storyline books as you unravel the threads of a person's life to find out why and how they are the person they are now. As prickly as she was, I warmed to Tess straight away and was pinning my colours to her mast in the fight with Amanda, who I found to be one of those personality-free women...at first, I hasten to add. Then I started to feel so sorry for Amanda as she hadn't done anything to deserve what she was going through, but my pity turned to triumph as Amanda the beautiful butterfly emerged from her comfy old chrysalis.

This is another amazing book by Faith Hogan, one that leaves your heart fit to burst but is actually so thought-provoking that you can't help but examine your own life to see if you can reveal your happier true self from years ago. Pick it up today and maybe you will find the girl YOU used to know.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. ( )

The Girl I Used to Know is the most apt title for this book. It applies to both main characters, Amanda King and Tess Cuffe. Tess is the sitting tenant in the basement flat of Amanda's swanky Georgian townhouse and she won't leave. She's lonely and she remembers her first months in Dublin, away from home for the first time. Maybe that was the last time she was happy, but that was 48 years ago. Amanda is a trophy wife now, pandering to the every whim of her hotshot husband, Richard, but she's also lost sight of who she used to be. She's a lady who lunches now but is she really happy?

I have to say that it took me probably to about the half way mark to really settle into this book and I think it was because the characters were largely unlikeable. That's not usually a problem for me, but maybe I wanted to like them. Then wham bam, all of a sudden things changed, the characters started to redeem themselves, I gained a real understanding of their feelings, their lives and why they behaved as they did and I got right into it.

I'd been meaning to read a Faith Hogan book for some time and this book proved the perfect introduction to her writing. She portrays so well the hard persona that people can adopt when they are lonely or sad, to keep people away when what they really need is to draw people into their lives. I grew to really like Tess and Amanda, and also the supporting characters, the gardener and the doctor in particular (I won't say anything else about them so as not to spoil the story).

I ended up shutting the book (ok, I read it on my Kindle so it's more like pressing the button for the last time) with a smile on my face and a real sense of satisfaction. It's about going through bad times and coming out the other end stronger and happier, redemption, acceptance, friendship, love, family. Just lovely, it was a pleasure to read. ( )

The Girl I Used To Know
By
Faith Hogan

What it's all about...

This is a lovely book about two women who have been lost to themselves and are in great need of finding themselves. Tess and Amanda...neighbors by default... who have lived practically side by side without really knowing each other...for years. They have been unfriendly for so long that it seems as though they can never really be friendly. However...circumstances bring them together...or if not together at least on a path that might bring them together.

Why I wanted to read it...

Sometimes a book about lost and found friendships is just the thing for a cold blustery winter day. Tess was so curmudgeonly...she was mean to everything and everyone...even Matt the Cat. Her life just got meaner and meaner and smaller and smaller. She needed a big hard push to make her change her ways. Then there was Amanda...sweet Amanda...who tried to make her family happy 24/7. The result was two surly silent teenagers and an unfaithful husband.

What made me truly enjoy this book...

I truly enjoyed watching Tess and Amanda change and grow.

Why you should read it, too...

Readers who love well written women’s fiction should enjoy the adventures of Tess and Amanda.

I received an advance reader’s copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley and Amazon. It was my choice to read it and review it. ( )