The Woman He Loved Before

Title: The Woman He Loved Before

Author: Dorothy Koomson

Published: 2013

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 3 out of 5

Again, this book was recommended by Goodreads. The story sounded interesting too. Somehow I have been reading books by European authors lately and like their style of writing.

Libby (Liberty) meets Jack in a car dealership and thinks he is arrogant. Jack portrayed as a sweet person hunts Libby and long story short, both end up getting married. Jack is still not over grieving over his first wife Eve, who died in an accidental fall. Jack is still in love with Eve and not ready to let go of her. Jack and Libby are in a car accident and series of events happening after the accident make Libby feel that Jack was the one who killed Eve. One day she finds Eve's diaries in the basement and knows she is in danger of being killed too. Eve writes about herself even before she met Jack.

Jack seems like a very loving and caring husband to both Eve and Libby. Libby, even after being married to Jack for two years isn't sure if she took her decision in a haste but sees that Jack is still in love with Eve. Life is really not fair with some people, and Eve was one of them. Despite that, she sounded like a very strong person to put her physical and emotional scars behind after she married Jack.

The book is about love, choices, and consequences of how the present is affected by the choices we made in the past. I liked the way Koomson has written about Libby being confident and how she is shattered about her self-esteem after the accident.  The story was captivating, but the ending was pretty bland. The end was definitely not as strong as the entire book, hence only three stars. In all, I would suggest this for a beach read.

Favorite lines from the book :

• I would rather have nothing than something that was only alright.
• Money isn't the root of all evil; the love of money isn't the root of all evil; the NEED for money is the root of all evil.
• No matter how much you love a man, always have a stash of money that would get you as far away from him as possible in an emergency.
• When you love someone, them being hurt is worse than any pain that you could suffer.