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Before I Met You

A thrilling historical romance from the bestselling author

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Before I Met You

By: Lisa Jewell
Narrated by: Imogen Church, Sofia Greenacre
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About this listen

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

 Fiction Historical Fiction England

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
All stars
Most relevant
I absolutely LOVED this book. Oh my goodness Lisa Jewell, I just lost 2 days of my life because of you, but it was worth every wonderful listening moment! I feel too emotional that its over to write any more. If you're unsure whether to download this but want a beautifully written story with excellent narration please, please, please do... you won't regret it.

So upset it had to end!!!

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Firstly I found the story very implausible and the characters difficult to relate to. The most disappointing element of this audio book however was the narrator covering Arlettes life. It is so “over performed” I felt it distracted me from the story and mood of the book. Surely we should be more aware of the writing and construction of the novel. It is not a play. The made up voices were utterly annoying.

All a bit overdone and implausible

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Extraordinary story of intrigue and ancestry told though two generations finding their feet in London. Another great story from Lisa Jewell that will not disappoint!

Extraordinary.

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I really like Lisa jewels stories but there are far to many “you knows”. But if you can get past that it was a really interesting story.
The other problem was of course the irritating over acting to the point of sounding sarcastic a lot of the time Im o gan churCH! I really do not understand why she continues to get work. Please rethink using her!

Another Imogen church disaster “you know”

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I rather liked this book. It was different to Lisa’s usual offering but nevertheless enjoyable. The narrators didn’t get on my nerves as some others have said, maybe because I can forgive the odd bit of background noise or mis-pronunciation (which does occur). Sometimes all I want nice bit of froth and this hit the spot.

Not quite chewing gum but pleasant escapism

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