Before I Saw You

I expected to enjoy this book so much more than I did. Unfortunately, this story about two people who have lived through trauma was a predictable and long-winded story that didn't have the anticipated emotional punch. 

This is an uncomfortably long-winded and slow-moving plot that failed to deliver an emotional or believable plot or characters. I appreciate how it addressed the relationship between physical and mental health post accident, but despite the subject matter involving two people who have survived traumatic injuries, the story lacked emotion, required me to suspend disbelief far outside my comfort zone and I didn't buy the love connection at all. 

The story is told using the POVs of Alice and Alphie, but I didn't connect with either of them and felt they came off as cliched. Perhaps it was the setting that made me think of Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott and Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz, but I couldn't shake the feeling that Alice and Alfie behaved, spoke and reacted more like teens than adults.

The one thing that I will take away from this story is how the author portrays the importance and support that healthcare workers give their patients. Well done!! That is the highlight of the book because, for the most part, readers are pulled along in this squeaky clean 'romance' until they're hit with a super rushed, Hallmark-esque predictable ending that may give readers whiplash. 

Overall, this book failed to deliver an emotional and believable characters or plot. So much could have been done with the subject matter, but it ended up being a frustrating read for me that I should have DNF'd.

My Rating: 2 stars

Author: Emily Houghton

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from public library

Publisher: Gallery Books

First Published: May 4, 2021

Opening Lines: As she slipped in and out of consciousness, all 

Alice could process were the stark white lights overhead, the acrid 

smell of burning, and the searing heat that ripped through her entire body.

Book Description from GoodReads: For fans of Close Enough to Touch and Me Before You comes a poignant and moving novel about two patients who fall in love as they recover from traumatic injuries in the same hospital ward…all without seeing each other.

Alice Gunnersley and Alfie Mack sleep just a few feet apart from one another. They talk for hours every day. And they’ve never seen each other face-to-face.

After being in terrible accidents, the two now share the same ward as long-term residents of St. Francis’s Hospital. Although they don’t get off to the best start, the close quarters (and Alfie’s persistence to befriend everyone he meets) brings them closer together. Pretty soon no one can make Alice laugh as hard as Alfie does, and Alfie feels like he’s finally found a true confidante in Alice. Between their late night talks and inside jokes, something more than friendship begins to slowly blossom between them.

But as their conditions improve and the end of their stay draws closer, Alfie and Alice are forced to decide whether it’s worth continuing a relationship with someone who’s seen all of the worst parts of you, but never seen your actual face.

A tender novel of healing and hope, Before I Saw You reminds us that connections can be found even in the most unexpected of places—and that love is almost always blind.