After her grandmother Arlette's death, Betty is finally ready to begin her life. She had forfeited university, parties, boyfriends, summer jobs - all the usual preoccupations of a woman her age - in order to care for Arlette in their dilapidated, albeit charming home on the English island of Guernsey. Her will included a beneficiary unknown to Betty and her family, a woman named Clara Pickle who presumably could be found at a London address. Now, having landed on a rather shabby street corner in '90s Soho, Betty is determined to find the mysterious Clara. She's ready for whatever life has to throw her way. Or so she thinks . . . In 1920s bohemian London, Arlette De La Mare is starting her new life in a time of postwar change. Beautiful and charismatic, she is soon drawn into the hedonistic world of the Bright Young People. But two years after her arrival in London, tragedy strikes and she flees back to her childhood home and remains there for the rest of her life. As Betty navigates the ups and downs of city life and begins working as a nanny for a rock star tabloid magnet, her search for Clara leads her to a man - a stranger to Betty, but someone who meant the world to her grandmother. Will the secrets of Arlette's past help Betty find her own way to happiness in the present? A rich detective story and a captivating look at London then and now, "Before I Met You" is an unforgettable novel about two very different women, separated by seventy years, but united by big hearts and even bigger dreams.
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I really really enjoyed this book! It did take me a bit of time trying to get used to the back and forth nature of the chapters, as they flit between Arlette in 1920 and Betty (Arlette's step-granddaughter) in 1995. Once that happened though, I did not want to put the book down. I was completely drawn in to their lives, and I found it deeply fascinating to read about Arlette's life in 1920, and imagining London then.
This book gives up its secrets slowly, bit by bit and it made me want to keep coming back to read it and find out more.
I have read and loved Lisa Jewell's other books, and this new one most definitely hasn't disappointed. I absolutely recommend this.