Carlino’s Best Seller “Before We Were Strangers”

“Before We Were Strangers” was written by Renée Carlino. This book is about the highs and lows of love between two people named Matt and Grace. On my usual visit to a bookstore, the cover of this book caught my attention as I casually walked through the young adult aisle. 

The book begins in the present day where Matt is feeling like he’s stuck in a slump about life itself. He goes on to analyze his surroundings and where he fits in. As Matt is overanalyzing his life, his friend Scott interrupts his train of thought and invites him to go get pizza. Scott is not only his friend but his boss too. Along the way, Scott suggests that Matt should check out this woman who works at the pizza shop and as a courtesy it will count as a business expense in hopes that this will take Matt out of the darkness he’s been in. 

On their way to lunch, they decide to take the subway to the pizza shop and as they’re waiting, Matt notices a woman and he is completely drawn to her. This woman steps off the platform and into the train and when she turns around, her and Matt lock eyes and he notices it’s a familiar face which caused him to go down memory lane. As he tried to approach her before the doors closed, it was too late and she was gone in a blink of an eye.

The woman that he saw is Grace, they met back in college which took place fifteen years ago at New York University. She holds a very special place in Matt’s heart because he always felt like she was the one who got away. In that split second, Matt wished he would have been quicker on his feet. He wondered what her life was like after the years passed. 

In Grace’s point of view, she felt the same way of wishing she had noticed him prior to her entering the train. If only, she had a few more seconds to at least say hello. You definitely could tell that there is still chemistry between them. 

After their encounter, Matt arrives back at work and tries to search her name up on the internet but unfortunately he could not find any useful information. He made many attempts with no avail. 

Matt could not stop thinking about Grace, he thought about her on a daily basis and even went to the extremes of searching for her at their old hangout spots and also riding the train everyday after work for a whole month. Thankfully, Scott knew about these online ads on Craigslist by the name of “Missed Connections”. On these ads, anyone can post about their experience with someone in public that they would like to get in contact with to form a connection. 

As insane as it sounded Matt was thinking about giving it a try but he wondered deep down was she married? Does she have kids? Would he be intruding? Was the spark still there on her end? 

This book takes you through the ups and downs of each character’s lives and what their future holds. 

I highly recommend this book because it’s an attention grabber and it gives you hope for second chance love. It will definitely tug on your heart strings and make you want more. 

Did Matt write the Missed Connections Ad? Read “Before We Were Strangers” to find out.