REVIEW: This Used to be Us by Renee Carlino

In This Used to be Us by Renee Carlino, Danielle and Alexander had the kind of love that made everyone around them not only certain that it would last forever, but that a soul-deep kind of love was possible for anyone. Over the years, though, life starts to wear them down. Instead of communicating, Alex and Dani begin to nitpick on each other. Animosity is soon the name of the game for them, which is a far cry from where they started out. It eventually gets to a point that even mediation doesn’t seem to help which only leaves them with one option: divorce. Something neither of them ever saw in the cards.

‘Love is not selfish or perfect.’

As their divorce process moves forward, Dani and Alex agree to rent a “nesting apartment” so they can co-parent their two teenage sons a little easier–and with hopefully less bickering. It turns out that having a safe space where they can be on their own, to think things through and figure out who they each are twenty-two years since they got married, was a good idea. Alex and Dani both see each other through a different lens. While they try to move on personally, it seems life and other things keep drawing them back together, over and over. But just when it looks like things are finally going to go their way, fate throws them one more huge curveball. And this one is the most difficult yet.

“I guess we had to get a little lost to find each other again.”

A novel that highlights the difference between the messy, raw parts of marriage and the initial joy of new love, Renee Carlino takes readers on an unforgettable journey in THIS USED TO BE US.

‘We were not just a husband and wife, a mother and father, we were Dani and Alex. And Dani and Alex love each other.’

CW: View Spoiler »Infidelity, terminal illness (detailed), drug references (historical) « Hide Spoiler

I have to start by letting you know that THIS USED TO BE US is not–I repeat, NOT–a traditional HEA romance. At all. Was there a reconciliation between the main characters? Yes. Eventually. After the first few chapters chronicling the beginning of Dani and Alex’s love story, when everything was fresh and new, it made it clear just how far they had sunk once we learned how much they despised each other at the end of their marriage. It was antagonistic. It was mean and vindictive at times. Most of all, it was heartbreaking and made me want to shake them one minute and then hug them the next. But it kinda sorta worked out towards the end. It was that out-of-nowhere, heartrending finale that completely threw me.

The animosity between Alex and Dani also got to me for a bit. They were at the point in their marriage where everything about each other annoyed them…every single bit of daily minutiae was like nails on a chalkboard to them. Told in a dual POV, Carlino did a great job of amping up the emotions and most certainly the tension in every scene which made me feel everything right along with the characters. In other words, it’s an emotional roller coaster of a story. Nothing more so than the last 8-10% of it when the plot twist comes blasting onto the page. All I can say is have tissues at the ready. And you might not want to read the ending in a public place as you will likely cry, curse, and cry some more.

QOTD: Will you read a romance if you know ahead of time it has an “untraditional” ending?

Book Info:

Publication: Published: July 9th, 2024 | The Dial Press |

There are two sides to every love story—and every breakup. Get ready for an emotional roller coaster of family, marriage, and divorce that will have you both laughing and crying, from the bestselling author of Before We Were Strangers.

After twenty-two years together, Danielle and Alex are getting a divorce. Once fiercely in love, they can barely stand the sound of each other’s voice. Instead of shuffling the kids between two broken homes, Alex and Danielle decide to share a nesting apartment while swapping days with their two teenage boys at the family home.

In the apartment, Dani and Alex, on their own, begin to reflect on the last two decades—why they fell in love, and why the marriage fell, spectacularly, apart. With the newfound space and time, they are given a chance to find their autonomous selves again. They both get back in the dating pool, Dani finds major success at work as a showrunner on her own TV project, while Alex faces the challenges of a new relationship.

Still, they find they just can’t stay away from each other, and somehow, the distance allows them to remember (for the first time in years) what they used to love about one another. When a family crisis draws them back into each other’s orbit, Danielle and Alex are, once again, put to the test, which leads to a dramatic conclusion that will have readers weeping.