Review: The Girl I Used to Be

 

The Girl I Used to Be

About the Book:

When Jill Goodman’s picture-perfect marriage implodes, she’s heartbroken. Still reeling from the shock, the only thing she receives in the hasty divorce settlement is the deed to her husband’s sprawling beach house on the New Jersey coastline. Jill never cared about money – only her marriage – but with Marc determined to take everything she owns, the beach house is her only lifeline left.

With no other choice, Jill travels to the shore intending to sell the house quickly—but the task is not as easy as she expects. Still, she can’t help but be charmed by the beautiful seaside town and its sweetly old-fashioned ways. Despite everything, Jill is starting to see a path back to who she was before she met her husband – not the demure, polished housewife she’d become, but the smiling young woman with the strong Jersey accent who loved her family more than anything.

Then Jill dives deeper into Marc’s secrets and she stumbles across a something in her husband’s past that changes everything. Could Jill herself have been unknowingly complicit in what Marc did and, if so, what will happen to her when the truth finally comes to light? With Marc determined to bury the evidence, can Jill find a way to save herself before her once perfect husband takes her down with him?

My Comments:

I've heard it said that good healthy relationships help you to be a better version of yourself.  Unhealthy relationships let you stay where you are or regress to a lesser place, or they try to make you into someone you are not.  When Jill learns her husband is having an affair she realizes that he has spent their marriage making her into someone she is not--and she does not consider the "new her" to be an improvement.  This book follows her through her divorce and starting over.  

I liked Jill and liked watching her realize what was important to her and what was not.  Of course I hated Marc--there was  nothing likeable about him or his fraternity brother attorney.  While I enjoyed the book and read it pretty much straight through, I found the resolution to be highly unlikely.  Also from what I read I could figure out why Marc would have made Jill his mistress, I just don't know why he actually married her.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley.  Grade:  B.