For some reason I put off reading this Netgalley book, which was one of the first I had selected when I joined. I don't know why I procrastinated with this book, it was fun, quirky, sad and and happy!

Clem grew up happily in a typically conservative 1950's home, until she had an encounter with a seemingly A-American basketball coach. From that moment on, Clem's life changed forever as she tried to stay away from him.

In her early 70's, Helen, she is now living in Sun City, a retirement community on the border between North and South Carolina. When she uses her neighbor's key to go check on him, her life changes again and her past comes back to her.

The book weaves the story of present day Helen/young Clem beautifully, with a tale that is part humor, part scary, and the strands come together beautifully at the end.

If you want something different, I highly recommend this book!
Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Caroline B. Cooney is one of those writers whose work I grew up reading. I devoured The Face on the Milk Carton series as well as the Both Sides of Time books. But it’s been many years since reading those as a pre-teen. It wasn’t until seeing that there was a new Caroline B. Cooney novel coming out – Before She Was Helen – that I realized she wrote books for an adult audience too. With so many fond memories of reading her work and a thoroughly intriguing description, I had to see what it was like to read her work as an adult. While I didn’t enjoy Before She Was Helen as much as I did her YA literature when I was growing up, her skill when tackling the parent/child relationship is as strong and nuanced as ever.

Clementine “Clemmie” Lakefield has been living in a retirement community for a few years but all of her friends and neighbors know her as Helen Stephens. In stumbling upon a neighbor’s secret, she’s happy to speculate to herself but prefers to let sleeping dogs lie. Except a photo she sends to her family threatens to expose her double identity. Or maybe the murder victim discovered next door a few days later will blow her cover. As the events of the present unfold, her anxiety about being discovered drags up memories of why she became Helen in the first place.

Before She Was Helen is very much Clemmie’s story even though the narrative focus shifts… a lot. It’s not always for long and it can happen several times in a chapter. While I usually enjoy getting more characters’ perspectives on events, the way it was handled here didn’t work for me. It was too sporadic and those other characters felt more like a distraction, even as the parts they played in unfolding events were often completely relevant and justified. It gave the narrative a frantic feeling that could certainly work better for other readers. But with so much already being paralleled and balanced between the present and the events Clemmie’s remembering from her past, scattering the focus among so many characters made it that much more difficult to latch on emotionally.

Where I found the ability to connect emotionally was strongest was in Clemmie’s memories of and longing for the son she was forced to give up for adoption. Perhaps I was so drawn to that part of the story because it’s what I associate Cooney with the most, going back to Janie’s story in The Face on the Milk Carton and how that family relationships (especially those between parents and children) go so far beyond simple biology. The care and drive she has for her child and what is best for him is stronger than the circumstances of his conception and birth even as the rules of the society she lived in (such a specific point in time) dictated so much of her experience.

It is also the contrast of “then” and “now” that shines through as technology forces reckonings on so many fronts. The specter of the DNA profiling craze from the last few years shows how so many secrets of the past can no longer stay hidden in the face of modern science. It’s such an interesting dynamic to see play out. Science and technology as simplifying or complicating life becomes a matter of perspective.

Ultimately, I found the climactic revelations of what happened in Clemmie’s past to be much more satisfying and engaging than the what was taking place in the present. I would have preferred a greater focus on Clemmie and her narrative perspective. Perhaps that’s why the plot set in Clemmie’s past felt more compelling – there were far fewer narrative switches around that part of the plot than around the story’s current events.

Before She Was Helen will be available September 8, 2020.

3.5 Stars!

I found this to be a very fun and quirky mystery, but not so much on the thriller side.

Clemmie, a semi-retired Latin teacher, has a tragic past filled with secrets and a series of sad events. Now living in a retirement community with shady people who she thinks are her friends, she finds herself caught up with murders, stolen goods, and lost money.

Clemmie is a likeable character and is quite creative in her ways! If you’re looking for a quick, entertaining read, pick this one up!

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

Having read Caroline B. Cooney's Janie Johnson series, which many people call The Face on the Milk Carton series, I was thrilled to read her latest novel, Before She Was Helen.

While Cooney is well-known for her YA novels, Before She Was Helen, is not categorized as young adult, but as adult fiction. Her main character is Clemmie, a still-working but living in a retirement community teacher, who intentionally built a bland and quiet life for herself. Everything changes when she does a wellness check on her next-door neighbor. She photographs a stunning and beautiful object. Thinking her family would enjoy it, she shares the photo with them. The picture quickly makes its rounds on the internet, and Clemmie's life changes in a blink and all her carefully kept secrets are threatened.

For anyone who has read Cooney, you can identify her writing style. Her words word flow in an easy and distinct manner. It is as if she writes how she talks and does not change her vernacular or style. Reading Before She Was Helen was like reading a familiar book that I never read before.

Goodreads does not list any other books set for publication as of yet.

This 200-word review will be published on Philomathinphila.com on its release date, 9/8/20.

I was excited to read this book because I adored The Face on the Milk Carton as a young reader and have not read anything by this author since.

Unfortunately, this book was just ho-hum for me. I felt the two storylines were very disjointed and it was difficult for me to keep up, although I did enjoy the chapters about Helen/Clemmie's past.

I found myself not caring too much about the outcome of the book, but I did finish it.

This is a quirky mystery that, at some points, has a seriousness in it that you don't expect and it brings the reader out of that quirky feel into something else. There are confusing flash backs, and as times, so much description that is bogs down the tempo. All in all, Clemmie/Helen is an interesting character, and the plot itself is very unique.

Thank you to the author, Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an unexpected gem - I really enjoyed reading this mystery, with various layers that were unpacked little by little. Yes, it's set in a remarkably sheltered environment, a retirement village made up of white, middle-class to upper middle-class seniors, but there are hidden depths here. The heroine is hiding quite a few secrets of her own, and the story flows well with the shifts in perspective between the present day and the heroine's past. I particularly liked the way the heroine, who is truly an interesting protagonist who has had to overcome much adversity, does her very best to appear as boring as possible!

At the beginning, I thought I was really going to love this book. It started out strong, with the interesting setting of a retirement community where Clemmie, a Latin teacher, lives. She hopes to forge a closer relationship with her somewhat neglectful niece and nephew by taking a picture of a cool glass object she finds and innocently (well, except that she had no business being where she was) sending the picture to them. The nephew, also somewhat innocently, publicizes the picture, inadvertently exposing his aunt to danger with what appears to be some kind of a drug ring. She fears that as things spiral out of control, her true identity will be revealed and she’ll be implicated in a cold case murder she was involved in decades ago. Cool premise! However, I found the execution disappointing. The middle dragged as the inner thoughts of Clemmie and other characters go on and on. Maybe this person did it, maybe this character is here or maybe he’s dead and maybe so-and-so killed him or maybe this happened, etc. It seems it should be the privilege and pleasure of the reader to speculate on what happened and put the pieces together, and having the author outline every possibility comes across as somewhat insulting to the reader. At the end, rather than having all the plot points revealed as part of the story, it’s all dumped quickly in a synopsis-like fashion, and I thought it ended up being a bit of a muddled mess. There are lots of flashbacks to the events of the past, and I liked that story a lot and thought it was better written, although I question whether a smart woman like Clemmie would really think that such a cold case would really pose more of a danger to her than the immediate circumstances and, therefore, whether her choices made much sense. Like many other reviewers, I had enjoyed the author's "Milk Carton" series, but I didn't think this quite measured up. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-ARC of this book.

Reading this book was like putting on a familiar comfortable sweater.I read all of the author's books when I was a kid and she was my absolute favorite so I was thrilled at the opportunity to again read her work. This book was incredible, I read it every possible chance I had! The author really presented the details and woven storyline to hook the reader in and make it impossible to put down. I would recommend this book to everyone! I hope this is just the beginning and we see more from Ms Cooney. 5/5 stars

I was torn with my rating for Before She was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney. I kept going back and forth between three and four stars. The four star rating won out just because it features a group of elderly people, and I feel more suspense books and thrillers need to be written with older people and not only those in their 20’s and 30’s.

Cooney did a very good job switching between two different timelines, from Clemmie’s youth and college years to present day. I was enraged at the circumstances during her youth and even though nothing like it has ever happened to me, it made me feel a bond towards the character in regards to being a woman.

Then coming back to what is happening in the retirement currently, the mystery was executed very well. The combination of a comedy of errors (although it wasn’t funny what was happening) and lots of characters keeping secrets made me want to continue reading to find out how it was all going to end.

Now for the reason I was going to give it three stars, I felt like Cooney was often talking down to the reader. I know she’s written a lot of young adult novels (I even remember reading and enjoying her Face on a Milk Carton series when I was a kid), but that type of writing didn’t translate well into an adult novel.
It felt like Grandma was talking to her grandkids and continually saying, “In the 1950’s this happened, unlike what is happening with the whipper-snappers of today’s youth.” It would have been fine if it happened a couple of times, but it was repeatedly.

I would try reading another new, adult novel by Cooney, but if it was more of the same I know I would not end up finishing it because there are just too many other great books out there.

Before She Was Helen is an unmitigated delight. Clemmie has an agreement with her next-door neighbor to check on him every day to avoid an “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” moment. Dom does not respond to her calls and texts, so she takes the key he gave her and enters his apartment and since his garage leads to the often-absent third household in their triplex, she checks there as well. There she sees an incredibly sparkling sculpture that in her naivete she does not recognize as a bong. She takes a picture and shares it with family, unfortunately, since her nephew posts it, discovers it’s been stolen, and she soon has a criminal on her trail.

However, there is more to Clemmie than her doting family knows. For instance, her neighbors call her Helen. Is she in witness protection? Is she on the run? What is her story? I could not wait to find out.



I loved Before She Was Helen because I love Clemmie. She’s a feisty determined woman who has overcome so much. It’s such an original story. Somehow Cooney is able to make a mystery that has this light cozy feeling despite a seriously grim back story and the very real jeopardy of organized crime in the present. There is the madcap feeling with the golf carts and card games and all the rest of the senior living setting juxtaposed with drug smuggling and murder.

Before She Was Helen will be released on September 4th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Before She Was Helen at Poisoned Pen Press
Caroline B. Cooney author site

At one point in her past, Clemmie decided to become Helen – because it would probably save her life. When a murder happens next door, that decision severely limits and impacts Clemmie’s scope of action – and seems to threaten the prospect of a tranquil retirement.

Caroline B. Cooney’s thriller has a wonderfully engaging plot and a very interesting protagonist, who does her very best to appear as boring as possible. I especially loved the idea of the thriller, choosing a retirement settlement as the setting and having characters who are all best agers. The life in Clemmie’s community as described by Cooney is exactly as I would picture it and it also offers a rather positive outlook on retired life (apart from the murder and the other shenanigans, of course). I also liked the description of Clemmie’s relationship with her relatives and the depiction of the havoc an ill-advised usage of social media can create. The other time level, that is essential to Clemmie’s development and her story, is the 1950s. I appreciated the passages that outlined Clemmie’s past very much, especially the constricting rules for women and the outrageously unfair perspective that society endorsed when it came to rape or teenage mothers. Still, I sometimes found the 1950s parts sometimes a little tedious as Cooney continually used phrases akin to “that was different then”. That is a circumstance that we are all aware of, it would have sufficed to mention that once, but not over and over again. The merit of the historical fiction parts is to show that it was different, it is not necessary to tell the reader that repeatedly. Apart from Clemmie, who is a very likable and sufficiently mysterious character, the most impressive character is certainly Rudyard Creek, but not because he is so complex, but because he is so very diabolical. In the end, I would have liked to see an even closer connection between the two time levels and between the Rudyard plot and today’s action.

Before She Was Helen is good entertainment, a thriller in an unexpected environment with an unlikely heroine, that I would recommend to all readers who like stories with multiple time levels.

I loved reading the Face on the Milk Carton growing up and was thrilled when I heard about Caroline's new book. It is set in Sun City involviny a mystery which reminded me of the Villages. I knew I had to check it out. Helen used to be named Clemmie, get to know her past while trying to solve the current murder. Once you start reading you won't want to stop. #netgalley

Loved this book, the story was interesting and grabbed me from the beginning, really makes you think about the choices we make and the consequences they can have. Absorbing characters, enjoyed this book a lot.

What an absolutely entertaining story and what wonderful characters! The story is more complicated than you would think and I just loved all those complications turning up. Needless to say that I really felt for poor Clemmie, and I admire her for the clever and unexpected ways she tries to solve the problems that are not even hers...
I must be getting old though, because the author explains how a Rolodex worked... something I used extensively in earlier days. It made me smile!
It was really good to read a book with elderly people being portretted the way the author does. We do tend to forget that no matter what age, inside you'll be yourself your whole life.
And I just loved the ending, with some people none the wiser and others a lot.

Thanks to Netgalley for this digital review copy.

What could happen in a senior retirement community? The houses are all alike, but the people are not. This is a funny, light book with serious undertones. Helen is not who she says she is because of her past, and she doesn't want her secrets to come out. Will they be kept? A fast but enjoyable read.

I have always liked this authors writing. This is the first time that I have read an adult book written by her. I have always read her young adult books and loved them. Her adult books are just as good.
She had me guessing me the whole time. I did figure out the current murder but not the 50 year old murder because I guessed wrong on that one.
This book is about an elderly woman who goes by Helen even tough that is not her legal name. There are flash backs into the reason why. There ends up being a murder in the house next to hers. She isn't aware of it until the landscapers figure something is up because the back sliding door is open and that is not normal for this home. Helen is worried about the next door neighbor because he isn't answering her texts message to make sure he is ok. She has a key and goes into his home but doesn't find anything. She does find an unexpected door that leads his other neighbors house. This brings out the curiosity of Helen and she investigates. She finds an unusual item and takes a picture of it and sends it to her nephew and niece. Well, something interesting comes of this and everything goes wild. These things just don't happen in this little area of retired people. I gave the book 4 stars. I highly recommend that you read it.

I loved CBC as a child so this one grabbed my attention just from the author. It was really slow for me until the very end and I had a hard time finishing it.
We go back and forth between Helen now and Clemmie before he was Helen. While she's managed to keep her new identity safe for the last 5 decades a rare run-in with a neighbor begins a wild goose chase of trying to learn about the people who she shares her life with now in her small Florida town.
As we learn the horrible truth about why she changed her name along with how it's affecting her now in her decisions, we see her struggle with how to react to her new situation.

Life is easy at the Sun City senior community in South Carolina - neighborhood barbecuse, weekly card games, getting around the campus on one's golf cart. At least it seems to be for Clemmie, who at 70 is still teaching Latin at the local high school, until she goes next door to check on her reclusive neighbor, Dom, who didn't text her that morning to indicate that he was still alive and well (neighbors look after neighbors in Sun City). Clemmie finds his golf cart gone from his garage, but finding his door unlocked, decides to go inside and check on him anyway. Once inside, she doesn't find him, but she does find an elaborate, colored glass sculpture so unusual and beautiful she takes a picture of it with her phone. Thus unfolds a series of not-so-sunny, even violent and criminal events involving drug use, drug dealers, even murder. But Clemmie (born "Helen"), finding herself in the middle of all this, has a secret of her own that she's hidden for some 50 years and that could shatter her own calm and peaceful life. Great suspense, leaving the reader hoping they encounter Clemmie/Helen again one day - by the best-selling author of YA novels ("The Face on the Milk Carton" and others) and other adult mysteries.

I loved the story of Clementine and Helen. Before She was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney had many twists and turns before the end of this mystery was reached. Intriguing how the author intertwined the various parts if the story.