I enjoyed this read, travelling in Hannah’s footsteps as she turns up clue after clue, desperately wanting to believe that she is being paranoid, just like her mother was. With the tension heightened I was as keen as Hannah to hear Mark’s explanation. Unfortunately for Hannah her mind is not put completely at ease and she continues to question her marriage.

Before We Met by Lucie Whitehouse | Goodreads

When Mark attempts to explain his absence, a not-entirely convinced Hannah reluctantly starts digging into Mark’s hugely successful business only to discover numerous discrepancies which make her question his past and the secrets he may be hiding. But most of the time other women are on stage- because these books- it's like a constant game of one-upsmanship in a very specifically female way. Our protagonists have to come out on top in comparison to other females, even if only by implication (and of course the protagonist would never think of it that way! But she's rewarded with that victory anyway). Everything that happens- the plot she's involved in, her observations and interactions with other women and especially her romance- all read like points on a scoreboard. These are not books about personal transformation except on the most surface level, and usually only in the service of getting one of these status-y things. These books read as competition, like some sort of fantasy of jealousy, of being the person that others envy- all with the excuse of moral superiority that just happens to grant you all the high status stuff that you wanted. Shortly after, I read Whitehouse’s second novel – The Bed I Made, but it would be another four years before she was to publish her third – Before We Met. Much like her first two books, Before We Met immediately enthrals its readers as we meet newly-wed Hannah, waiting for her husband Mark at Heathrow as he fails to return from a business trip in New York. I have read a large, but growing group of books with female protagonists who make my skin crawl in a growing, but then finally undeniable way, to the point that I am forced to put the book down. The Lantern was the first example where I was able to put a finger on it. But there have been more. This book was a huge example. I just tried to read The Husband's Secret and it was exactly the same shit. Whitehouse's House at Midnight had it blatantly at the beginning and then was run through with a more sinister, belowground version of it through the rest of the book. Jane Green's books do it, some of Emily Giffin's do.Those calling her a slut should remember - or learn - that we all come with very different levels of sexual drive.

Before we met, I’d never Clair and James Buckley look back: ‘Before we met, I’d never

It's been a number of years, but I've got another ragefest simmering, and once again, its over a group of books written by women, I would imagine largely for women (sadly), rooted deeply in the imagination of women. I may be slightly more equipped to understand it, but still find myself sputtering. I'll try to articulate as best I can, though. Hannah is a peculiar character that I never once found an ounce of concern for. She's worked on not repeating her mother's sins. You know the type of woman who pretty much chases her man away by never being able to trust him. Hannah doesn't want to be that woman. It isn't until she's given reason to doubt her husband that she finds herself down the road of no return. A road full of mystery, intrigue, and suspicion. Personally, I am an atheistic hedon, but I am trying to place myself in someone shoes, which is something that few of these responses do. That being said, there is a difference between 20 partners versus 30 and 20 partners and 200. There is a difference than experimenting in college versus coke fueled orgies or multiple threesomes. Its really not fair to either because the past CAN BE indicative of a persons sexual preferences and personal morality as well. Personally I think that this guy may need therapy or look into his sexual hangups, but that is my opinion not gospel. I don't get it. Why do we like watching other women, fictional or not, do this? Why are we reading books about it? Why do we allow ourselves to subconsciously code characters in this way and reject characters who don't follow it? i loved the journey of this book, but i was kind of unwowed by the ending. it's not a cheat of an ending, not really, but it does poke a few of my readerly raw nerves that i cannot go into in any detail here, as they would be totally spoilery. but it involves character and consistency and liberties that work in a book but would not play in the real world. but this is a book, so what's my problem?

Before We Met is slower to get going than its two predecessors. I initially struggled to care much about Hannah's problems or the history of her relationship with Mark. This wasn't because of the way it was written, more because the subject matter didn't really appeal to me and the characters were too affluent and privileged for me to relate to (although, as it turns out, this fact is pretty crucial to the plot). However, the narrative has the same irresistible quality as Whitehouse's others: it would be fair to say I didn't care about Hannah as much as I have about the author's previous heroines, but I really wanted to know what was going to happen to her. The strongest parts of the book, for me, were those that involved Hannah working alone, chasing the truth. Also I seriously doubt she simply "forgot" about that list, the act of making the list and keeping it for so long is a very clear indication she enjoyed that time, she's proud of her achievements and wants to keep a reminder of it. When my wife revealed this to me I cried with her. Prior to that we had never cried together in 23 years. She wept for her lost child and lying to me about who she was when we married. She said that I had a right to know how messed up she was at the time of our wedding. I love me wife however I find myself feeling angry that I was deceived. My wife and I started seeing each other when I was 18, she was 17. Things went very fast! We fell in love, and within a couple weeks, we were sleeping together (the only one I have ever been with). She told me right away that she had been with someone else and had a miscarrage a year earlier, partly I feel because we worked together and someone else would have said something. It bothered me, but I was in love with her.