Review | Before We Met by Lucie Whitehouse

Before We Met by Lucie Whitehouse
Published On: January 21, 2014
Published By: Bloomsbury
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★★

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A whirlwind romance. A perfect marriage. 

Hannah Reilly has seized her chance at happiness. Until the day her husband fails to come home . . . 

And can you ever really know what happened before you met?

When Hannah’s husband does not come home from a business trip one night, she begins to worry, expecting the worst. What she doesn’t expect, however, is the secrets from her husband’s past that begin to unravel as a result. As she discovers more from his past, Hannah begins to question whether she truly knows the man she married.

This was compared to Gone Girl so I had quite high expectations. While I didn’t love Gone Girl, this was mainly due to the ending; I actually enjoyed the majority of the book. I liked the mystery aspect of Gone Girl and was looking forward to something similar with this book. However, this did not meet my expectations.

I liked the idea of the book. The plot is interesting and I think the concept of the person you marry, and think you know very well, turns out to not be who you thought they were. This had a great deal of potential but I don’t think it was done as well as it could have been.

Like most of the book, the characters were very average for me. I didn’t particularly like any of them or have any kind of connection. Then again, I didn’t really hate any of them either. They were nothing special, but enjoyable enough to read about. I feel the characters could have added much more to the story.

I expect a plot filled with unexpected twists in a mystery/thriller novel, however this was quite predictable. None of the plot twists were particularly shocking or exciting and there was nothing to get my heart racing. Also, for the most part, I could see where the story was going and the ending was not much of a surprise to me.

Overall, this book was enjoyable enough but not one I would recommend. You may appreciate it more if you have not read the likes of Gillian Flynn but this did not live up to the standard of her works, and as this book has been compared to Gone Girl, that is what I expected.