An emotional read, particularly the relationship between Jem and her mother. I actually found myse,f more invested in that than the romance. Jem is a very relatable character. She deals with life in much the same way as many people do. She was a little frustrating at times, but the last part of the book I found myself tearing up with all the emotion. I would Recommend this to others.

I get that the heroine was a complicated character but still didn't like her and didn't feel any connection or empathy for her. This is more on the women fiction category and I don't feel like the MC learned much at the end. I wished for more romance but this was just ok

Beautifully written novel that really touched my heart! Jem and her mother's relationship really took center stage for me, although I enjoyed the entire book.
Thanks to Anna Mansell, Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC.

I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good story and excellent main characters. I would definately recommend this book.

I was so very impressed by this story that when I turned the last page, my first instinct was to go search out every other thing Anna Mansell has written. I found myself immersed in the story, forgetting that I was even reading. These days, that's a major accomplishment. I absolutely loved Jem's story because it was so real. For anyone who has struggled with doubts about themselves and their motivations and their own truth, you will feel this one deep inside. I suppose there are people who will look at Jem and want to smack her, tell her to stop being a victim and living in her guilt. Quit whining and move one. But, as I mentioned, anyone who has ever lived this will get her and understand her journey. And what a journey it was. Talk about out of the frying pan into the fire!! I, like Jem, did not want to see the signs and believe what was happening. Even when presented with overwhelming evidence, you stuff down that voice inside of you that's trying so hard to let you know something isn't right. But she didn't trust herself, she hadn't forgiven herself, and she hadn't yet finished the journey she needed to take!!

Thank you so much to the author, Anna Mansell, the publishing company, Bookouture, and NetGalley for an electronic copy of this book, for an honest review.

Heart wrenching, tear jerking, absolutely lovable story and one that stays with you for a long time after reading it. This book might not be a true love story for some, but for me, I honestly thought of this one as a love story, with real life drama tossed in.

I thought the author wrote from the heart, and while this wasn't a love triangle, you could see where the author was going with the relationships that Jem had with the men in her life, past and present. The storyline between mother and daughter was very though provoking and the love came through the words on the page.

What a great book.

4 stars

The writing is good but I didn't really like the heroine. It's written in the first person and the narrator has lots of problems. She was bankrupt, lost her job and her boyfriend, her mother was in remission from cancer and she had a serious drink problem. So lots of trigger points and there's a couple of more issues I haven't detailed which are only brought forth in the narrative but might not be comfortable for some readers. During the story you see how she is victimised and eventually owns her problems and comes through. Too much angst for me and probably too much realism, I tend to use reading as relaxation.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

Author #Anna Mansell will entertain in her new novel ‘#The Man I Loved Before.’
Is it ever too late to tell someone you love them? When Jem writes to her ex, Ben,
It’s to explain everything.All the secrets she kept from him-from the little lies right
up to the big one.Later, she resolves, she’ll burn the letter, and then the past will be
in the past for good.
But her mum finds the letter....So enjoy this book !!
Thank,
#Netgalley,#Anna Mansell and #Bookouture

Very real characters, very believable, and a lovely storyline. A little slow in places and could have done with a final edit, but this was an enjoyable couple of evening’s reads.

I honestly have no idea why I requested this book because I am not a fan of women's fiction. I can only assume it was the premise that attracted me because it did sound appealing however, the actual delivery did not. I'm not saying the book failed...just that it did for me.

I honestly did not like Jem. The woman is a walking nightmare. The probable new man in her life got it right when he christened her "Calamity Jem"...because that is indeed what she is. She spends the entire time second guessing herself in all shapes and sizes, over-analysing just about every choice she has made, will make or didn't make.

To make matters worse, she writes a letter to her ex, Ben, detailing every bad thing she has ever done knowing that he will never read it. That is, until her ever helpful and wonderful mother posts it. So what does Jem do? Stakes out the wrong post box to try and grab the letter when the post van comes to empty the box. But mum was going uptown and posted it elsewhere so that by the time Jem arrives, it's too late. Then what does she do? Goes to the post office to try and get it back. Of course they aren't going to just give her a letter addressed to someone else!

So what else is there left for Calamity Jem to do? I know! Let's jump in a barely reliable twenty year old car and drive 6 hours from Derbyshire to Cornwall and intercept it before it reaches Ben! Great idea!!

So here's Jem, making her way down to Cornwall, when she realises this may not be a great idea after all. I mean, Ben did state when he left her a year ago that he never wanted to see her again...so why was she driving hundreds of miles to where he moved to - a place "they" had dreamed of settling together - to try and intercept a letter she still has no legal right to? Does she think the postie is just going to hand it over to her? Er...no.

Then Jem arrives in Cornwall. And what does she do? It's late, the mail won't be delivered till the morning, she goes to the pub. And gets herself three sheets to the wind and ends up sleeping in her car. Why? Because it's the height of the holiday season and there are no accommodation vacancies anywhere in St Ives...and probably all of Cornwall, for that matter.

So the next morning she stakes out Ben's place and is so shocked to see the front door open and a woman with the baby walk out calling "I love you, babe" and Ben appearing in the doorway for the said woman to give him a parting kiss, that she slinks into an alleyway...and misses the post being delivered. Well, that was a giant waste of time and a shedload of money spent on fuel for a 12 hour round trip that produced precisely nothing! So Jem jumps back in her car and drives back to Derbyshire, which seems to take a lot less longer than it did to get there.

Meanwhile, her best friend Leanne had set Jem up on Tinder, declaring it was time she moved on and got on with her life. Leanne was surprised to see someone they knew from school over twenty years ago on there and when Jem wasn't looking, she swiped right. Next thing she knew, Jem was getting a message from this Mitch Black from school. Coincidentally, after leaving Leanne's in an attempt to get back the letter that should never have been posted, she bumped into Mitch at the post office that afternoon. They exchanged numbers and a promise to catch up for coffee when she returned from her mysterious trip...ie. Cornwall.

Jem was so focused on her own problems that she failed to see anything else. And her obsession over self-analyising and over thinking irritated me. This is a grown woman of 38 whose life is an apparent train wreck. She should know better. She should be married with two point four kids. I did, however, enjoy her banter with Mitch. It was entertaining and at least took the focus off Jem herself.

I'm not sure what THE MAN I LOVED BEFORE was meant to be about or address, but as I'm not a fan of chick lit/women's fiction it completely missed its mark with me. And honestly I didn't have the patience to stick with the book to find out Jem's backstory of why Ben left her, she lost her job and ended up bankrupt. In the end, I didn't care enough to stick around to find out.

Having said that, THE MAN I LOVED BEFORE will appeal to plenty of other readers. Just not me. I wish I could get into it but after over a quarter of the book and still I'd rather gouge my eyes out that put up with any more. The pace of the book was as slow as the traffic on the A30 on Bodmin. So slow that Jem had to turn her engine off. That slow. I didn't see it going anywhere after 30%, so I gave up and left it there.

I would like to thank #AnnaMansell, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheManILovedBefore in exchange for an honest review.

While I enjoyed this book, I also felt that it was a bit slow in some places. As a result, I sometimes had a hard time with it keeping my attention. I really enjoyed the character development, and especially how they all linked together. I would recommend this, but feel like the author could have gotten to the climax a bit faster.

The Man I Loved Before was really enjoyable. This was actually my first novel by Anna Mansell. I look forward to reading more from her!

I loved this read!
Jen was such A refreshingly real character!!! Her struggles were so relatable and reading her story had me crying constantly. By the end of the book I was a mess. I m loved her relationship not only with her mom but her best friend... I loved the emphasis placed on that relationship.
Well done!!

Most people in life look for closure and that is exactly what Jem needed. Everything was going against her, but one of the most difficult things she dealt with was a previous breakup. So Jem writes a letter to Ben, and discussed things of the past, including serious issues she kept from him.

As this emotional read by Anna Mansell begins, Jem's letter to Ben begins, and the reader meets her at 38 years of age, single for about a year. However, her life seems to have come to a full stop. Will she be able to move on, with everything happening, including the fact that her mother now has cancer?

I was drawn into Jem's story from the very beginning, more so with her heart being on the line. She doesn't always land on her feet, sometimes exercising questionable judgment, but what she was is a woman completely relatable and that is what I think I enjoyed most about this story. Having her close friend Leanne by her side throughout the changes in her life was a nice element to this book. Having lost my mother to cancer I was really drawn into Jem's relationship with her mother during this difficult time.

While this is my first book by Ms. Mansell I will say she has definitely caught my interest in the story as well as her engaging writing. I look forward to reading her next book.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

When Jem was with Ben he told her if she had a problem write it all down and then burn it to make it all go away, the only problem was she wrote it all down in a letter to Ben and her mother posted it before she had a chance to burn it and she had to drive all the way Cornwall to get it back as there was no way she could let Ben read it or he would hate her forever! Trying to get her life back on track her best friend gets her to go on Tinder and she meets up with Mitch an old school friend and she starts to fall for him...... are things going to go right for her at last or is he to good to be true and what is he hiding?

A lovely bittersweet story, Jem is obviously very flawed and on top of all of her other problems her mum's cancer comes back and will she be strong enough to cope with it. I loved the way she becomes stronger and eventually sorts herself out and realises that she doesn't need crutches in her life

This title, cover and blurb sells this book as a second chance romance, where the heroine gets to a crossroad in her life, choosing between her ex husband and the new man in her love. That is not at all how the plot goes. In fact, I would not even call this a romance, more contemporary fiction. She interacted with the ex-husband in 3 scenes exactly not counting the one scene where she spied on him outside his house nor the epilogue scene where they already have reconnected. He did feature in her thoughts a handful of times or so. There definitely was not any pining over the ex while she acquainted herself with her new lover nor during the relationship with the latter. What there was was a whole lot of binge drinking on her part, both past and present alcohol excesses and reminiscing over the significant damage her drinking had wrought including destroying her marriage, and yet she had learnt absolutely nothing from it because she continued the disturbing trend of over-indulging nightly. Not really because she was miserable and self-pitying so much as because she could. In fact, I really did not see much evidence of remorse from her. Furthermore, her best friend and her mother continued to enable her by telling her how wonderful she was and that there was no need to change and improve herself.

There were horrible choices in her life which were glossed over by her "weak" personality and inability to say no, but there was no explanation as to why she was so insipid and irresolute. She was brought up by a strong and positive woman. Her mother is the best thing about the book. Their relationship (view spoiler) was well written and moving.

The big letdown was the main character herself. It's not that she was flawed, but that she learnt nothing from her past mistakes and did not grow as a character. Her relationship with the wrong man was dragged on tediously while the ending was resolved at a rushed pace like the author coming to the realisation that she was fast reaching the limit of her word count limit

I found this book slow to get into but once in, I loved it, and what a perfect ending. Highly recommended

Theres a lot of various avenues to explore in ‘The Man I Loved Before’. Not only is Jem finding it difficult to get over the man who had her heart, her mum was in remission from cancer. And, if that wasn’t enough, Jem finds herself being pulled in directions that arent good for her emotional wellbeing that ends up threatening her friendship with her best friend.

I reckon a lot of readers would find it difficult not to be empathetic towards Jem. The situations she deals with is more than enough for several people to contend with, let alone just one. Of course the fact that Jem’s mum is in remission is clearly good news, however with something like that, you cant help but wait for it to return. Not only that, her mum didnt return to her usual self after the cancer.

I enjoyed the realism of the storyline as it focused on things that can happen to real life people, without pretending that life is hunkydory because, contrary to popular belief, it isnt always like that. I appreciated the angle of the book, even though it was emotional at times and very powerful.

When Jem found herself in a sticky situation later on in the book, it did bring memories back for me as I had been in a similar boat myself many years ago. It wasnt easy to read, but i respected the author for including a topic that is often seen as taboo. However (sorry), I felt that it overpowered the rest of the book and took my attention away from other scenes in the book that I felt were important.

‘The Man I Loved Before’ is a romantic, poignant, topical read which puts relationships to the test big time. I really enjoyed the heartfelt storyline but, most importantly, I loved how difficult topics were given their time to shine in attempt to help others understand. Something that Anna Mansell has Mansell exceptionally well.

This is the first time I’ve read anything by this author, and I can’t believe I missed out. I need to get more of her books!

It took me a while to get to like Jem. But once I did, I really cared about what happened to her, and understood more about what had made her the way she appeared to be at the start. Her mum I liked straight away, and I loved their relationship.

There’s so much going on in this book. There are little glimpses into her past life with Ben, there’s her new life and new relationship, and there’s everything that’s happening with her mum.

There’s great humour in this book, with some really funny moments. There are truly special relationships, like Jem’s friendship with her best friend, Leanne, and her wonderful relationship with her mum. There’s heartbreak, sadness, and there’s an element of tension, as we wait to see how this will all end. This book really has all the elements for a fantastic read.

I found myself looking forward to returning to this book at the end of each day, and sorry when it was finished.

Insightful and inspiring, it’s a captivating read. So enjoyable.

Jem has a difficult time making good choices. She blames herself for everything that goes wrong in her life. I really enjoyed this story of how she comes to terms with herself. I did find all of the drinking to be frustrating, but I’m not sure the story could have been told without it. I found the ending to be perfect ❤️,