Fantastic and an emotional roller coaster. A story about second chances, reevaluating your love, family, and maybe rediscovering oneself. This story will linger with you.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

It’s been a while since I read a Renee Carlino and this one shredded me. A good read.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

"You don't have to keep up, you just have to stay in the right place. A place where I can always find you. That's what home is."

This Used to Be Us is a romantic drama about the slow death of a marriage where two people had loved each other so much, and for so long. Alexander and Danielle have been together for 22 years when we meet them, and now they navigate the smoothest route through divorce for the sakes of their two sons, Noah and Ethan. Their journey is a rollercoaster that brings them back together for a multitude of reasons, but sometimes, life can be cruel.

Dani and Alex's story destroyed me—I don't think I was ready for this kind of story because, while their journey turns out happy, I was left feeling robbed of the happy ending (I prefer Swear On This Life for that reason). I loved Dani and Alex and found the demise of their marriage raw and relatable.

Dani and Alex's depictions are well crafted—Dani is a literal force of nature and I found myself laughing at the situations she put herself in. There was something really irresistible about the way she approached life and I could empathize with her grievances.

Alex's growth was really satisfying to see, some of his decisions and ways of handling things were sometimes questionable and frustrating, but he truly cared even when he wasn't equipped to manage those situations. With Dani, I FELT her losses, and Carlino did a great job at showing us how quirks that made her fall in love with Alex tranformed into resentment and bitterness.

I loved the structure of the book as album musings to reveal how their relationship changed... I just can't get over that ending!

This is to say I have wandered off of my planned TBR trail. I am going steady with Finlay Donovan who is my main book this week.
I got on my Kindle app at work and started this book and I couldn’t stop reading…very relatable characters for those of us who have experienced divorce, shared custody and the dating scene.

Dani is a MC to love as the Emmy award winning screenwriter. I could see this being adapted as a streaming drama- it is very good. I will read her other books after reading this one. Another captivating family drama for the beach. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙐𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙏𝙤 𝘽𝙚 𝙐𝙨
by Renee Carlino
385 pages
out July 9, 2024

Thank you for the ARC Renee Carlino, @netgalley & @thedialpress

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.
#currentlyreading #arc #newbooks #bookstagram #bookreviews

Written with words of reverence, humor, anguish and tenderness this book brought forth every emotion possible and I loved it! This is the love story of Dani and Alex, who after twenty-two years of marriage decide to get a divorce. Told in alternating voices, we learn each of their stories, their innermost thoughts, what drew them together and what tore them apart. Beautifully written, I laughed, I cried and I deeply cared about these characters and their children. With the close of the last page, I was sad to say goodbye to these characters that had become friends and to whom I had an affection for. Kudos Ms. Carlino for delivering a story that delivered an emotional and heartfelt look into not only the hearts of the characters but had me look into my own as well.

Thank you NetGalley, Dial Press Trade Paperback and Renee Carlino for giving me the pleasure to read an advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Danielle and Alex were in love until they weren’t. After twenty two years they are getting a divorce and trying to find their own.

I really loved this one! I knew I would from the first pages. The beginning reminded me of Fleishman is in Trouble with the martial discord and arguments. Both characters had such great personalities and were a pleasure getting to know. The ending was extremely surprising and I’m still trying to recover.

“So many things I wish I didn’t have to say. So many times I felt we were in the same theater watching a different movie.”

This Used to Be Us comes out 7/9.

It did take me a little bit to get into the book but overall I did enjoy reading it. I liked getting the POV from both characters throughout the story. The ending was definitely a surprise. I do wish there was more time spent on it. Like others mentioned, it came out of nowhere and felt rushed. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read this.

THIS USED TO BE US by Renee Carlino ✨
arc review • pub date 07.09.24

honestly… I should have taken a moment to stop crying before writing my review 😭
This was officially it! A book has never made me cry, and I cried the whole second half of this book 😂 it absolutely ripped me to shreds.

Alex & Dani have been married for 22 years and had an incredible relationship until.. they just didn’t. after years of living together, yet in separate rooms & nonstop fighting, they decide to get a divorce. Since they have two young sons, they decide to get a nesting apartment to split half the week so that the boys are always at the family home with one of the parents.

An absolute range of emotions. Laughing, crying, I was so invested in the characters and their story and especially think this book should be read by anyone who is married or in a long term relationship. Wow.

5 incredible ⭐️

Thanks SO much to @netgalley and @thedialpress for my advanced copy!

This Used to be Us is the story of the slow end of a marriage, a marriage that began with love. Narrated in turn by Dani and Alex, they remember events whether trivial (coffee grinding in the morning) to more serious. Each has a very different view of the same situation. As their love disintegrates into seething and verbal sniping, they separate, divorce and share an apartment where one stays while the other remains with their two boys in their house. They begin to communicate again, trying to understand what happened to them and their passionate love affair. As Dani says “I repaired my marriage by getting a divorce.” Unfortunately life is not that simple for them.

I really don’t know how to review this book. Dani and Alex, their son Ethan and Noah and their friends project such emotion that your feelings shift with them from joy, sadness, humor and frustration. I guarantee that This Used to be Us will leave you in tears, wishing Dani and Alex story would never end. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group and Renée Carlino for this ARC.

For the first 90% of this book, I was really enjoying it. The plot felt extremely realistic to me and I found myself rooting for the FMC and MMC— I really wanted things to work out for them. I read it extremely fast and felt engaged in what was happening. The pacing was even and I was happy to just be along for the ride in the lives of the characters. Dani was witty and Alex was lovable.

However, the ending came out of nowhere for me when it hit in the last 10%. It was so unnecessary to me and was extremely rushed. Im extremely confused why it happened? This really lowered my rating and ruined my reading experience which is sad. I loved before we were strangers and I think I could have loved this one too.

This book was absolutely beautiful—a story of Dani and Alex—young love, their marriage, starting their family and things that happen as you grow together, or in their case, apart. This book details failures and faults, and it also pieces together memories, simple reminders of what made them love each other. It was an easy page turner, yet also emotion provoking.

Both the main characters were easy to connect with. Dani is eccentric and outspoken, Alex is calm and rational. The writing made it easy to feel their emotions of annoyance, frustration, nostalgia and joy throughout the story.

My only criticism was the ending. I feel with the grasping the readers’ engagement throughout the story, that the ending was a bit of an unexpected 180. But I guess happily ever after is different for everyone.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group and Renee Carlino for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The way I squealed when i got approved for this ARC is something I should keep to myself but cannot! I loved Before We Were Strangers and was so excited to read Renee Carlino’s newest!

We meet Dani and Alex when they first meet in their 20s and follow along during their relationship and ultimately through their divorce.

This book is beautiful because you can empathize with and most likely relate to both Dani and Alex and get frustrated by them at the same time. They are flawed and impressive at the same time.

The story is told by dual POV and you can feel their inner monologue, like you’re reading their diary. It took about two characters for me to get into this and then I was hooked.

As a wife and parent, I really enjoyed the storyline of losing (and finding yourself again) and the complexity of marriage and parenting.

✨ARC review✨

This book ripped my heart out a million times. Marriage in crisis is a love/hate trope for me—
I love it because it’s so realistic and heartbreaking. I hate it because it’s so realistic and heartbreaking. THIS USED TO BE US felt like a mash-up of some of my favorite emotional books: After I Do (TJR), Before I Let Go (Kennedy Ryan), To The Grave (Caitlin Moss). And i think it emotionally wrecked me more than anything else I’ve read.

It’s a story of love, marriage, loss, heartbreak, rebuilding, trust, and more heartbreak. Carlino explores how a couple can ruin themselves by forgetting what they actually mean to each other & letting resentment and life get in the way. I found myself hugging my husband multiple times while reading this book because it was just so damn sad.

The first 3 chapters set up Alex & Dani’s relationship, from dating, just married and first born. Then the pain starts. The chapter titles broke my heart almost as much as the actual story (sneak peak on the last slide).

I honestly didn’t know how it was going to end and cried my way through the majority of it. This is one of those books that feels like free therapy, but I also might need therapy after reading it 😭

If it wasn’t already clear- I absolutely LOVED this book & can guarantee a reread in my future, but the emotional wounds are devastating, so be warned.

A little slow start but had me in full tears at the end. A beautiful story on the hardships of marriage, second chances and the true meaning of the vows “in sickness & in health.” A truly meaningful story of what it means to be a family and how you can always find your way back to love if you work at it.

I’m not even sure there is a sufficient way or adequate words to review this book. I am not one to cry while reading really ever but let me tell you I SOBBED! There are a million trigger warning for this book but that absolutely should not sway your decision to read it!

Some key points

-The characters are so dang relatable!
- This is the opposite side of marriage that doesn’t often get written
- There is such a strong sense of family even when they don’t “work out” the typical way
- You feel like the two main characters are your friends
- You will have a hard time putting it down

If every couple/individual read this book I guarantee the world would look much differently!

I was really excited to read this book as I have read Renee Carlino before and loved it but to say the least.. I was not ready for this book and I say that in a good way. I did not want to put this book down and I really did not expect this book to make me cry. I was so invested in Dani and Alex’s story and how things would go for them, if they would find themselves and then in turn maybe find their way back to each other or if they would truly see themselves being better apart. As I was reading I found myself going back and forth and picking sides between the two, sometimes I felt Dani was in the wrong and vice versa with Alex but truthfully they both had their ups and down and at the end of it all did what was better for themselves and their kids and I found both characters to be likable. I think this books does a great job of showcasing marriage and how it’s not easy, it’s hard and you need to work at it and be open with that other person and how it won’t always be 50/50. It also shows love in multiple aspects of life and how to be appreciative of life and the friends and family we have and make throughout our way.

Hello, biggest Carlino fan here. I’ve inhaled every book of hers I’ve read. She is one of my queens of relatable, emotional reads. I spent the first 40% convinced this was going to be a 5 star read. If I could erase the last 15% of this book from my mind, I would. What the hell was that? It felt like I stopped reading a book I was enjoying and picked up some random trauma porn instead. I can’t recall an enjoyable book ever giving me whiplash like that.

The majority of this book is fantastic. Despite not personally loving the ending, I know a few other readers who did. Give it a shot! Recommend to fans of emotional romances or marriage in crisis trope.

The whole time I was reading this book it was a 3.5 star from me. I felt that I knew from the very beginning that the couple would be working their way back to each other after their divorce. I enjoyed the look at coparenting and challenges associated with that. I also enjoyed the difficulties between navigating how to be newly single/dating and not getting immediately tied down. I thought the lead up to the divorce was a little lengthy and became a whole bunch of complaining that made me less excited to pick up the book. Once things started moving, I was more invested in the characters and their soon to be return to romance. I think both characters were pretty unlikeable but the record player moments were a good way of bringing it back to earth. Obviously, the emotional gut punch at the end of the book is a Carlino classic and had me crying at the dining room table on my lunch hour. The unraveling of that emotional moment and coming months is what led to me bumping this up to a 4.

Loved this book! Not a typical romance novel but really adored it all the same. Very emotional and I loved that it was dual POV.

🦇 This Used to Be Us Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐

❓ #QOTD What's something you've learned about love that you would want your younger self to hear? ❓

🦇 Once fiercely in love, Dani and Alex can barely stand the sound of each other’s voice. In the wake of a fresh divorce, they decide to share a nesting apartment, swapping days there or with their two boys at home. The distance gives them the chance to reflect on the last two decades of their marriage—why they fell in love and why everything fell apart. Dani's collection of albums, covered in notes about their past, reminds them just how much love once bound them together. Are those reminders enough to lead them back toward love?

💜 I first encountered Renee Carlino's writing in 2013, when Sweet Thing was released, and have waited for something new since 2019, after The Last Post. To see her name on Netgalley for this book sparked a rush of excitement, like getting a call from an old friend after a few years of silence. Renee Carlino has always excelled at developing strong, emotionally bound relationships. The relationship between Dani and Alex is filled with history (some of which we get small glimpses of, via Dani's album collection and notes from their past). Dani is an emotionally driven character, and those emotions scream off the page; bitter resentment, heartache over a lost love, and everything in between. I had to put the book down a few times at the beginning, simply out of frustration.

💙 While you SEE those emotions, you don't feel it. Every sentence of this story was Tell, not Show, making paragraphs blocky, sentences slatted. Despite the heavy mess of emotions in this book, you don't emotionally connect with either character. Instead, their animosity toward each other makes it difficult to even LIKE either of them. Given the way the story is set up, with Dani's notes on the albums, there's an amazing opportunity for flashbacks--to Show, rather than Tell us, how love can conquer all. We only get a few of those glimpses, and it's not enough. Instead, the present seems to drag them further apart, before rushing them back together without raw, emotional development. The story could have ended with one of the boys, writing their own note on one of the albums. While I love the full-circle concept of the last chapter, it doesn't feel as powerful or emotional as it could have been. What was one of my most anticipated books of the year is now one of the most disappointing.

✨ The Vibes ✨
🌸 Contemporary Fiction
🌸 Marriage/Divorce
🌸 Second Chance Romance
🌸 Miscommunication
🌸 TW: Miscarriage

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. #ThisUsedtoBeUs

💬 Quotes
❝ In the beginning, Alex and I were like two opposite magnets in a drawer. My north to his south. We grew closer and closer together … until we fused. It was then that we became the same, too alike … too close. We were so close, so similar, we started to repel one another. We lost our identities and surrendered to being a couple. To being a mom and dad with no singular identities, no separateness, no autonomy. Now I’m seeing him again from the other side of the drawer and there are so many things I want to tell him. ❞
❝ “You are my Times New Roman. The original, bold and classic.”❞