I can’t remember the last time I read a book with tears streaming down my face. Except for this one! (And only for a few certain chapters) I see this in a purely positive way, because the story and the characters and their love story touched me so deeply I felt like they were my own family and friends. This is all so much deeper than just a love story because we really get to see into the mind and spirit of a highly functioning with autism, as well as the man who loves her. However, the author didn’t make it totally about that. It is also the story of a young woman (Annika) coming into her own in a world that is sometimes chaotic and confusing. I could relate to a lot of what she went through even though I’m not “on the spectrum.”

The story is told alternately from Annika’s point of view and Jonathan’spoint of view, and the setting and time go back-and-forth between their days in college and their days now, 10 years later. It sounds like it might be confusing, but it totally was easy to follow and easy to understand, and switching back-and-forth like that had a powerful effect on the totality of these two characters’ stories.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[2.5 stars]
It wasn't a bad book by any means, it just wasn't my type of story. I think anyone who enjoys drama and romance should give it a chance, especially those who've had a good time reading other books by the same author.
I understand where Jonathan was coming from with his need for Annika to be open about her feelings but it didn't stop it from being annoying. Maybe she just doesn't express affection the same way you do and that doesn't make her a coward, y'know?
I also couldn't help but compare the book to The Kiss Quotient, which just means that autism isn't nearly represented enough for me to dissociate two completely different stories, and that makes me sad.
Anyway, it was a good enough book but it didn't blow my mind. I'd still read more from this author, though.

As a long time fan of On the Island, I was intrigued to see that Tracy had written this book. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it after I saw the simplicity and beauty of the cover. What I found inside was something I was not expecting in the least bit.

There is something about reading about characters with mental illnesses that really fascinates me. I love to see them working, thinking, and interacting with the people and the situations around them. I love learning things with them and experiencing all of the things with them. It really helps me with connecting to said characters. I get vulnerable, my guard is down and I am completely open to all possibilities when it comes to characters like Annika. She's a wild card but I love that about her. I love her honesty, her sensibility, and her personality so much.

The writing in The Girl He Used to Know was so addictive. Resembling a lot of Taylor Jenkins Reid's work (whom I love), the writing flowed well with the story and really made it hard to put down. The messages and themes that were touched on weren't over done and the story-line never drug on. I was genuinely enjoying myself and the author's work while I was reading.

Very rarely do I ever crave an epilogue. I can live my life without them in so many books that I read but for some reason I REALLY itched for one in this story. I can't explain it. But their story wasn't done for me and I really needed that last little bit of stretch to align the cherry on the top of my cake.

Although this story revolved around Annika, I couldn't help but fall in love with Johnathan. He was those good type of heroes that I love to read about. The vulnerable ones who aren't like any one else around them. The ones who fight and show the woman how much she really means to him. He was so much good in Annika's life but that brings me to my next point.

Annika did not need him. I think that is what really sold me with this book. Annika lived her life, achieved her dreams, all without a male or his romance in her life. She fought and clawed and did things her way without deterring in any type of direction or following any body else. She really did march to the beat of her own band.

I was wildly in love with this story and these characters. I think these are the type of romance books I yearn for. The ones with powerful messages and meaning to them. The ones that viscerally slice you open and make you feel the things that the characters within the novel want you to feel. I hope you go into this story blind. I hope you find all of the beauty inside of it that I did. I couldn't put it down. Annika drew me in from the beginning and I couldn't let go of her even when the book was over.

I received an ARC of this novel from Net-galley in exchange for my review. This story is about Anika and Jonathan a couple who met in college and mysteriously separated and met up again 10 years later . The story is told from both Anika and Jonathan's perspective . Early on there is a sense of something in Anika's behaviour and her lonely life on the fringe. The reader is taken on the journey of a love affair rekindled after many years with two very different people. This is a love story.

I thought the story was a little slow to start off but soon picked up and it was hard to put down. The ending a real surprise. I recommend this book as a very good read you will not be disappointed also read On the Island by this author another very good read.

The Girl He Used to Know takes place in 1991 and 2001, centering around the relationship between Annika and Jonathan. I really enjoyed how the book switched back and forth between the two time periods. Some authors don't handle that change well, but I loved how it not only showed the progression of the relationship, it also revealed Annika's personal growth. Her self-discovery explained her choices in the past. It also made you cheer as she pushed past the boundaries she had placed in her life to be there for the person she loves.

I’d first been introduced to Tracey Garcia Graves in On the Island. I really liked that book, but woah, I loved this! <B>The Girl He Used to Know</b> was refreshingly different. It has a spin on a second chance romance trope. I love a quirky heroine but here, with Annika, she steals the show. I’m not going to spoil her for future readers, but let’s just say this author nailed it with her personality. A person like her takes a special someone and our hero Jonathon was very much “her person.”

I pretty much devoured this book. With both dual point of views and flip flopping timelines, sometimes I get a bit confused or frustrated with the flipping back and forth. Here, I did not. Not at all. Garvis Graves builds their current romance while taking us back to their original romance back in college when both met up in the chess club.

Beware of a lot of review-reading. I think this book really needs a fresh introduction to Annika and Jonathon and too much detail may tarnish the gradual “getting to know” her. That’ll make you appreciate the talent of this author all the more.

Looking forward to what’s next by Tracey Garvis Graves!

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This book is really, really great. It's about college and careers, chess, autism, falling in love, making relationships work, 9/11, ectopic pregnancy, soulmates, and some other stuff I don't remember that I'm missing. There are really only two characters in this book, Annika and Jonathan. There are mothers, roommates, co-workers, and therapists mixed in, but they're so minor. It's amazing that this book, with only one real storyline going on at once, is THIS hard to put down. Just goes to show that exceptional writing and well developed characters can completely make a novel. I wish I knew these two people in real life. I want to be friends with them and go on double dates. Wonderful story!

‘The Girl He Used to Know’ is told in a series of flashbacks and switches in both protagonists’ POV, and is pretty much a slow-moving, meditative sort of piece on love, loss and love-regained in the decade when the face of terror changed the world. That doesn’t quite come into play until the end however, as Tracey Garvis Graves places a hyper-focus on the unlikely pairing of Annika and Jonathan from college and how they navigate the tricky waters of a developmental disability that has the former’s inability to deal with social situations, social cues and instinctively-learned behaviours.

For the longest time, I only had the inkling of Annika having done something a decade ago, but the crawl towards that moment is a slow one, as is her equally slow get-together with Jonathan, interspersed with her desperation to make amends and pick up where they left off the moment she bumps into him all these years later.

The serendipity play aside (meeting again and then just taking things up felt like the jigsaw puzzle coming back together too easily for me), the narrative coasted along quite slowly for me—I did find myself skimming some bits—without too many spikes and valleys, which left me not knowing what direction the plot was going to go in. Despite having taken days to finish this, it did get better though; things picked up towards the end but ended abruptly on a note that actually led to some furious screen-tapping because I literally thought my ARC was missing a chapter or two.

In the end, this turned out to be a middling read despite the earnest love story between two everyday characters. I was engaged at times, less at others, but was ultimately left scratching my head at a conclusion that felt as though Garvis-Graves simply threw down her pen and left the book incomplete.

This story takes you back in time in both versions. You see Jonathan and Annika in 1991 and in 2001.

The Love that Jonathan has for Annika is so sweet it hurt at times. He not only loves her, but he understands her.

There were times when I cried, I laughed, I held my breath, and couldn't read fast enough.

I felt like it ended way to fast and I wanted so much more. Maybe even an epilogue set in present time.

This book has a few things people might consider triggers. I had no issues with them, but I feel there were so many different ones.

***Spoiler***
It didn't dawn on me the time frame until it said September 10, 2001. Then I knew something horrible would be happening. I just KNEW and I cried before I could even get to September 11, 2001. This is the part that I couldn't read fast enough.

**triggers**
Pregnancy loss, September 11th, possible rape.

I really enjoyed this book. Also, a huge warning for anyone who reads netgalley reviews that a few reviewers have major spoilers in their opening lines of their reviews for a major plot point that doesn’t happen until the last 20% of the book. This really upset me.

The character of Annika was so well written. I have so much respect for how much thought went into this character as someone who can relate to this character on from personal familial experience. She was written with so much depth, emotion and care. I just loved the characters so much.

I had problems with the pacing, mainly the end which felt rushed. Even without having the lead up spoiled I could tell what was coming but I felt that the last 20% was rushed and I didn’t feel satisfied with the conclusion of the book. I would have much preferred to have had the end events take place 2/3rds in and see more the after effects of that piece.

Overall this is a great book and also a really unique story with a unique narrator. I really loved it.

I absolutely loved this book. Great storyline. I am retired teacher and had many students like Annika over my 30 years of teaching. . The author has her thoughts and her mind set so “on point”. The story as it jumps from past to present and tells this story from both characters points of view.

Book Review: The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves

On the Island and White Hot Hacks were some of my favorite books from this author. When I heard she was releasing a new book I knew I needed to get my hands on it. I have to admit this book did not disappoint.

This is a love story between Jonathan and Annika. This is a second chance romance as it’s told in dual timelines between 1991 when they first fell in love and then when they reconnected on 2001. Throughout the story we get glimpses of their initial relationship that started with a game of chess.

About the characters, we learn early on that Annika is not like any other woman. She has her quirks and she looks at the world differently. However Jonathan is captivated. He pursues her.

Throughout the story we get hints that Annika is in the autism spectrum. It is confirmed in the story. One thing I can feel for Annika. She was incredibly strong character who was beautiful from the inside out. I love how invested she was with animals, her love for books, the need to have alone time to recharge. I can identify with her. I felt for the loneliness as she felt as she struggles to make new friends.

My feels: I really loved this book. I loved the representation of a character within the Autism spectrum. I love how healthy the romance was. These was an equal partnership who loved and support each other.

My only gripe was the ending was too sudden. I wished there was an epilogue where we hear what happens to the relationship after the traumatic event.

I will post this review in the What to Read Next Blog in the coming months.

Oh this book! I fell in love with this couple. It was so wonderful to read their story. I do wish there was a warning about the last few chapters. Warning this does have September 11, 2001 in The story. It was hard for me to get through that part but I did. I highly recommended reading this one.

I love books about people on the autism spectrum.  I feel like their personalities magnify universal truths that we can all relate to.  Annika meets Jonathan when they are both students at the University of Illinois.  She is on the autism spectrum, but she doesn't know it.  Social situations behoove Annika, but both she and Jonathan are aces at chess and they fall in love.  Jonathan doesn't mind if she's a bit different.

He graduates and moves to New York to be a stockbroker.  He eventually marries someone else, while Annika is still in Illinois, pursuing a Master of Library Science degree.

Ten years later, they meet again, and try to have a relationship once again.

The author did a tremendous job of showing the reader what someone with autism goes through, how they want to be loved and accepted and just don't always understand how social situations work and how that is very difficult.  This was a lovely story, with plot twists that I never saw coming.  This is not just your average love story--there is A LOT MORE HERE.

I recommend this to anyone who loved Eleanor Oliphant by Gail Honeyman, The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, or The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison.

I received this book from Netgalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for my honest review.

If I could give this more than 5 stars I would.
I can’t stop thinking about this book on so many levels.
It’s such a multifaceted read with love, isolation, tragedy, and perseverance running through it.

Once again a fantastic read from Tracey Garvis Graves! Tracey writes dialogue like no other author - no matter the book, at some point I am always moved to tears! Great characters, good plot that moves at a good pace. The back and forth chapters are good and you don't get confused by them. Thank you to Netgalley!

Annika, is on the Autism Spectrum and she is beautiful, I think that’s why every man is in love with her, specially Jonathan. The book is just about appearances and both characters were over the top. Thank you for the ARC.

It's rare that a book brings tears to my eyes, but this one did just that, and more than once!

It's a story of two people who, against all odds, find their one and only. It's heartbreaking and emotional and uplifting, with superb writing to boot. You will love the two main characters, and you will wish the book would go on forever, definitely a five star read, if not more!

The author has a way with connections between her characters and the world they live in. She clearly understands people and I loved the premise in which the characters originally find each other. Her styles is as impeccable as ever but there wasn’t the same intensity and that made the book a slower read. It was still an excellent read.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Annika is on the spectrum. She meets and falls in love with Jonathan, but their college relationship flounders. This novel tells of their chance reconnection with flashbacks of their earlier years together. Very sweet story.