I Found You by Lisa Jewell

I Found You by Lisa Jewell
Buy I Found You by Lisa Jewell at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Women's Fiction
Reviewer: Zoe Page
Summary: A delicious tale of mystery and intrigue, we have a man lost, a man found, and a lot of answers still to come.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 448	Date: July 2016
Publisher: Century
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1780893617
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A man is missing, and his new wife is worried. Miles away, a man is found alone and confused on a beach, and his new friend is concerned. Are the two in any way connected and what events have occurred, in the past and in the present, to lead us all here?

Alice is a bumbling, slightly slutty mother of three. Charming, though, and very kind hearted. When she sees a man sitting alone on the beach, with nothing to shelter him from the rain, she can't help but get involved. But with Frank unable to recall who, let alone what, he is, it's not going to be easy. Down in London, Lily is waiting for her husband Carl to come home from work. Except he's late. Several days late. Alone in a new country, mere weeks into her marriage, she is scared, angry and confused.

This book blissfully weaves through the lives of several people, not just Frank and Carl but Alice, Lily, their friends and family. Set partly in the 90s, and partly now, it's a complicated story that takes a while to unravel but ultimately we do find out where Carl has gone, why Frank is on the beach, and how both stories are connected. As more characters come forward the story starts to give way a little, and you start to see they are only being introduced because they must play some role in it all, however unclear that role may be at the moment. It's these people who start to point you in the right direction, though there are plenty of red herrings along the way leaving the story harder to predict and explain than might first appear.

I gravitated towards this book from the first few chapters, and was so taken that even with 300 odd pages still to go, I went ahead and bought another book by the same author for an upcoming trip as I knew I'd finish this one in next to no time. While the story itself is intriguing, it was the characters who pulled me in. Frank has the chance to reinvent himself, but all he wants to do is remember who he really is. Alice probably should reinvent herself, at least if the teachers and other mothers from her kids' school are to be believed, but she too shuns the opportunity, instead sticking with what she knows (men and how to tame them). I especially liked Lily, a young girl in a foreign land. I liked her self-awareness, as she started to see how she was coming across to the Brits with whom she was forced to interact in an effort to find her husband.

This was a great holiday read, the sort that makes you want to finish just one more chapter. Unlike some books which flit through time and place, this was easy to follow and the 90s sections were presented with a hint of humour and nod of nostalgia to the era. I wanted the story to end well, and in my mind there was no doubt as to who the goodies and baddies were, though the Police might have something to say on the matter. From start to finish it was thoroughly enjoyable, and I'd like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy to review.

I've previously enjoyed The Making of Us from the same author but if you're way ahead of me and have already been through her full back catalogue, we can also recommend Watching Edie by Camilla Way.

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You can read more book reviews or buy I Found You by Lisa Jewell at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy I Found You by Lisa Jewell at Amazon.com.

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