Calling all COHO fans , this is a read for you !! Trust me when I say you will Devour this book!!

"I was so impressed by her, so enamored, even though she was never trying to impress me. She was literally just being in the moment. She was authentic and that's what I loved."

This Used to Be Us is a beautifully written story about new beginnings ,marriage struggles , divorce ,loss and hope.

Dani and Alex had everything going for them and a beautiful love for one another , nothing could tear them apart . Until 20 years later, married with two sons and things are falling apart ... and they couldn't hate each other more. For the sake of boys they decide to try the "bird -nesting approach " and get an apartment that Dani and Lexi will take turns staying in while the other stays at the house raising the boys with as little impact and disruption as possible to their lives .

This story will pull at your heart strings and will make you smile too !

So grab your favorite comfy chair and mug of tea , put a record on and light a candle , because you will be busy savoring this sweet little love story !!

Now if you feel this story is familiar , I did too. I could not stop thinking about Before I Let go the entire time !

Trigger warnings for some around miscarriage's.

Thank you so much Netgalley , Random House and Renee Carlino for this endearing ARC Read!

This was the best book I have read so far this year! I loved how the story alternated being told by Dani and Alex. Their love story hooked me in right away and I couldn’t stop reading. This book made me laugh and made me cry. I don’t want to say too much and risk spoiling it. But please, please, do yourself a favor and read this novel.

#ThisUsedToBeUs #NetGalley
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 shuttling the kids between two broken homes, Alex and Dani 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 rediscover 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 that they just can’t stay away from each other, and somehow, the distance allows them to remember (for the first time in years) what each used to love about the other. When a family crisis draws them back into each other’s orbit, Dani and Alex are once again put to the test, which leads to a dramatic conclusion that will have readers weeping.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for giving me an advance copy.

5 STARS for this book.

I've been married for 23 years and I felt like this was a real and heart wrenching description and depiction of a marriage with kids, and the damage that partners can do to each other, the roles they take on and the assumptions that are made about each other - I believed everything about taking space and seeing each other differently with some distance and making new realizations. It was raw, it was real and it was all believable.

I SOBBED through the last chapter - literally had tears falling on my iPad as I identified with Dani and her speaking to her boys and giving Andrew advice for the future.

Absolutely a fabulous book.

RENEE! Oh my heart. 😭

I was sucked into this one from the very beginning. A couple going through a divorce and figuring out how to navigate co-parenting, dating, and just being around each other in general. I found the story to be very real and raw and relatable for anyone that has been through a divorce.

As someone who has, I felt so much for Dani throughout the story. And Alex, while in some ways a “typical” guy, he really grew on me each chapter. I couldn’t decide if I wanted them back together or if I just wanted them to get along and find their “person.” And I love that the story was written in a way that I would be happy with either scenario.

The end shocked me. To be honest, I feel like it came out of left field completely BUT I felt so many things and bawled my eyes out. The story as a whole was just beautifully written and I truly hope people pick this one up when it comes out because it needs to be experienced.

Thank you so much to Renee, Random House, and NetGalley for allowing me to check this one out. It has already earned its way into one of my favorites for the year.

This book was hard to put down. So many emotions hit me as I read this book. Divorce is never an easy subject. I found myself going down a rabbit hole with this book. I wanted a happy ending for Dani and Alex. They were such great characters, I felt like they a couple I once knew. I liked how the story went back and forth from past to present. I liked the idea of Dani writing on the album covers,that is something I wished that I had thought of years ago. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Have your tissues read.

This Used To Be Us!!!!

An Outstanding Masterpiece!!!!

Thank you NetGallary for an early review copy of This Used To Be Us!

I absolutely LOVED this book! What a masterpiece with all the feels. This is a gut wrenching story that will stay with me for a very long time!

I enjoyed Dani and Alex’s journey from beginning to end! I felt this book in my soul!
I could relate to what transpired in the relationship and how the pieces fell apart.

I don’t want to say too much or give away any spoilers. This is a guaranteed tear jerker with so many emotions.

I gave this book 5 stars! If I could give more I would!

Well done Renee Carlino!

I would like to thank NetGalley and The Dial Press for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it in your local and online bookstores and libraries on July 9, 2024.

This Used to Be Us stole my heart in all the right ways. This book is about love, heartbreak, second chances and endings. I tore through this one. The writing is spot on! Be prepared to bawl. I did.

I want to start by saying Renee wrote two of my favorite romance books. I was so excited to get this new one from her. I liked it. I just feel there were some pacing issues, and it ended so abruptly for me. I would have liked to seen more of the ending story and less of the lead up.
With that being said, the writing is beautiful and it is a beautiful love story. I was just hoping for a little bit more.

** spoiler alert **

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for the ARC of Renee Carlino's newest book, Ths Used to Be Us. This is not my first Renee Carlino book and I am a big fan of hers so I was excited when I was chosen to read this book. This book did not disappoint.

Let me begin by saying, I spent 24 hours debating if I should give this book 4 or 5 stars. It was SO hard for me to decide. I ended up giving it 4 and you will see why below. Yes...spoilers below.

Unlike most love stories, this book was about divorce. The book opens up with the two main characters, Alex and Dani, basically unable to be in the same room with each other civilly. They decide it is time to divorce after 22 years together. Throughout the book you see them fall in love with themselves again. Learn to be who they are as single people and what it is actually like to be single. They learn more about their children and their families. They both grow professionally and personally and in the end, they realize that they truly love each other and want to be together. I LOVED all of this.

OK, now for the reason why I just couldn't bring myself to give the 5th star. I mean, ALS? Dani FINALLY gets her Emmy, has her successful TV show and legacy, the love of her life is back in her life and she gets a diagnosis of ALS and to top it all off it's progressing rapidly? The book was already pretty devastating to watch these two poor people trying to navigate their divorce and then they finally are going to get their HEA and she gets a death sentence 2 months later? I was let down by that one. YES, I know not everyone gets their HEA but I was SO hoping that Dani and Alex were going to after all the loss and devastation they have been through. The last few chapters tore me up. Like sobbing uncontrollably.

I haven't cried over a book in a long time, and Renee Carlino always knows how to make me. This story is an excellent reminder that two people who are meant to be together will always find their way. And even when the circumstances aren't always the best, the right person will stick by you until the end.

Alex and Danielle are getting divorced. They have two kids together and decide instead of moving the kids around they will share an apartment and swap out depending on who is with the boys. Told in dual points of view, the story is so raw and takes you a roller coaster of emotions.
I have been waiting for so long for a new book by Renée Carlino, and this one doesn't disappoint. I found it a little slow at the beginning, but once the story picked up and I couldn't put it down. The ending left me broken and in tears. It is beautifully told and will tug on your heart strings in every way possible.
Thank you to Random House, Renée Carlino and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This Used to Be Us publishes on July 9, 2024.

Wow. Another amazing book by Renee Carlino. It's refreshing to read such a real and relatable story of a married couple on the verge of finalizing their divorce. The story goes back and forth and we get to learn how their relationship ship started and how it all fell apart.it epitomizes what happens so often after a couple once in love, has children and loses themselves and their marriage. The things we once loved about our partner become the very things we no longer can stand! (This will make sense if you read the book!) She has such a gift with words and story telling that you get lost in the characters and feel every single emotion along with them. I was not expecting how it ended and needless to say, my jaw was on the ground and the tears were streaming down my face. This is a beautiful and tragic story that I will keep in my heart. My only critique, is that I wished it was a bit longer. It felt slightly rushed.

Renée Carlino is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I believe going in to a book blind is the best way to do it, I don't even like to read the synopsis at times. But I can say this story was raw, real, emotional and it felt like I was on a journey with a friend. I loved the dual pov's and it kept me hooked, unable to put this book down. Carlino does it again for me with another 5 star book!

What causes the demise of a marriage? How do two people deeply in love find themselves repulsed by each other after two decades of marriage? This Used to Be Us takes the reader on a journey told from the two perspectives of Alex and Dani from the beginning of their relationship through a divorce and then a potential reconciliation. It is a messy, emotionally wrought process that at times becomes tedious, if not realistic in its descriptions of their pain and confusion. The ending will leave some readers upset with the outcome.

Overall, it is not a book I would recommend for entertainment – as the publisher’s promotional synopsis describes, it is an “emotional roller coaster of family, marriage and divorce.” There is an occasional bit of humor, but not enough to leaven the heaviness. The redeeming quality was the insights the couple discover once they get beyond blame and accept responsibility for the slow dissolution of their relationship. My favorite characters where the two sons, who seemed wise beyond their years.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

A perspective that is rarely represented in books related to love/romance is anything beyond new love or the honeymoon phase...but what happens next? No one can be your everything - in life, in romance, in friendship, or in marriage. Different relationships offer you different things, often at the center of relationship discord is the expectation of what the other person should be for you. Reading this book felt like an eloquent take on marriage therapy. How a loving partnership dissolves, how the things you love about the other person are ultimately also the things that get under your skin, how you might never stop loving the other person. Stepping back from a relationship and remembering yourself as an individual, remembering the other person as an individual.

I honestly loved the first 95% of this book and found it relatable and honest. I think it tells a beautiful story where there's room to tell more stories like this, a realistic take on marriage and partnerships. The last 5% of the book felt out of place and gut wrenching and like it belonged in a different story. Without the last portion of the book, my overall rating would be higher. I 100% think that this book is worth a read and the majority of it is a lovely story.

A few chapters in, I didn’t think I would like this book but somewhere along the way, I got hooked. There was so much raw emotion and I started actually caring about the characters and felt pits in my stomach whenever they did. I was so happy….up until the last few chapters. It ruined the book for me- it just felt like it was a completely separate book. Would have been 5 stars without the ending.

Being a mom and wife, the emotional pull this book had on me was so strong. I cried so many times! This one is for all the sad romance girlies! It was incredible! Renee is such a great romance author and if you haven’t picked up any of her books, you must!!

The book goes back and forth between present day where Alex and Dani are navigating divorce and flashbacks to the moments where they were so deeply in love. The little flashbacks were some of my favorite parts of the book. The themes were very heavy in this one, but the emotion was so authentic and raw and I felt everything they went through with my whole heart.

This story is about falling in and out of love, second chances, loving your people, and finding yourself through life’s ups and downs. The ending will leave you feeling EVERYTHING! I had to stop and catch my breath.

I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for a new Renee Carlino book, and it did not disappoint!
Dani and Alex are the “it” couple, the one with all the love and chemistry and the one everyone else envies. But life happens and they’re left picking up the pieces of the life they’ve known for the past 20 years. But fate is a sneaky b**tch, she played a role in both the demise and the resurrection of their relationship, but also the ending I didn’t see coming. I couldn’t put it down and I loved every moment!!