Sunday 21 May 2017

Book ~ "I Found You" (2017) Lisa Jewell

From GoodreadsIn a windswept British seaside town, single mom Alice Lake finds a man sitting on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket and no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him inside.

Meanwhile, in a suburb of London, twenty-one-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night, she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed.

Twenty-three years earlier, Gray and Kirsty are teenagers on a summer holiday with their parents. Their annual trip to the quaint seaside town is passing by uneventfully, until an enigmatic young man starts paying extra attention to Kirsty. Something about him makes Gray uncomfortable - and it’s not just that he’s playing the role of protective older brother.

Alice has three children, three dogs and makes her living as an artist.  She finds a man on the beach who has nowhere to go as he has amnesia and no ID.  Alice feels sorry for him and takes him in and tries to help him get his memory back.

Lily is young and a newlywed.  She met her husband, Carl, in her home country of the Ukraine.  They fell in love and got married rather quickly.  She's been in London for three weeks when Carl doesn't come home from work one evening.  She has no friends or family in England to turn to so she goes to the police.  At first they don't take her seriously but then they discover that his passport is a fake and wonder who he really is.

The story also jumps back to 1993.  Gray and Kirsty were on vacation with their parents when they met a young man named Mark.  Though their parents had no issue with Mark pursuing Kirsty, there was something about him that Gray didn't like or trust.

This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it.  I thought the premise sounded interesting and it was.  I liked the writing style.  It is written in third person perspective mainly from Alice, Lily and Gray's points of view.  As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.

I liked the characters.  Alice had her hands full as it was and she didn't think twice about taking in another stray and naming him Frank (the guy with amnesia).  She has questionable parenting skills and I liked her quirkiness.  I liked Gray and his family.

I look forward to reading other books by this author.