Before I Met You

A thrilling historical romance from the bestselling author

By: Lisa Jewell

Narrated by: Imogen Church, Sofia Greenacre

Brought to you by Penguin.

London, 1920. Arlette works in Liberty by day, and by night is caughty up in a glamorous whirl of parties, clubs, cocktails and jazz. But when tragedy strikes she flees the city, never to return.

Over half a century later, in the grungy mid-'90s, her graddaughter Betty arrives in London.

She can't wait to begin her new life. But before she can do so, she must find the mysterious woman named in her grandmother's will.

What she doesn't know is that her search will uncover the heartbreaking secret that changed her grandmother's life, and might also change hers for ever...

© Lisa Jewell 2012 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Critic reviews

Beautiful, moving and unputdownable

Heartbreakingly good

Must read

Warm and moving with a nostalgic touch

Lisa Jewell just gets better and better

Enchanting, intriguing and completely unputdownable

A bit of a disappointment

I really enjoyed Lisa Jewels book "The night she disappeared" & thought to try another one of her's. Gosh I struggled with this one!! For one it started out SLOW & I nearly gave up after a few chapters but was waiting for the 'magic' to happen, which alas never quite did. I also didn't care for the profanity used in the 'modern day' part of the story; I struggled to merge the character of the "old Arlette" with young Arlette....and while the narration throughout was quite good, I found young Arlette's voice quite irritating.
Not sure if I'll try another of her books.

Just brilliant!

This the second book I’ve read for this author and I must say it did not disappoint. Character development on point and plot that could easily translate to modern motion picture production.

Another winner from Lisa Jewell

I was almost put off by the review that said this was full of sex and dirty language but being a long time Lisa Jewell fan, I decided to buy it anyway. I am not sure what century the other reviewer was from but there is very little sex and certainly not graphically described and whilst there is some use of the f-word, it is only consistent with the characters, one of whom is a rock musician, and it is certainly not gratuitous.

The plot is not super original - finding out the secrets of someone after death - but I was quite hooked, wanting to know the outcome, which was not predictable at all. I found this a very enjoyable read with convincing characterisation from the narrators with just the kind of easy story telling that I expect from this writer.