Someone I Used to Know

Description

The heartbreaking, romantic story of three childhood friends caught in the crossfire of an all-consuming teenaged love triangle, and their homecoming a decade later that will finally reveal what really happened.

Three best friends. One love triangle. The choice that will change their lives forever.

Then

At sixteen, George is the foster brother Leah never asked for. Beautiful and troubled, he struggles to come to terms with his circumstances even as Leah is drawn ever closer to him. 

Theo’s wealthy family have mysteriously pulled him out of boarding school and he’s now enrolled with Leah and George. When their worlds collide that summer, George, Leah and Theo form a bond they believe will be unbreakable. But life doesn’t always go to plan…

Now

Shocking news brings Leah back home, baby daughter, Emilie, in tow. But Emilie’s father, Theo, isn’t with them, and George has unexpectedly returned. After half a lifetime, have Leah and George healed the scars of their pasts? Will coming home set their hearts in a new direction?Praise for Paige Toon

“Nobody writes angst and joy and hope like Paige Toon.”—Christina Lauren, author of The Unhoneymooners and Love and Other Words

“Paige Toon is the queen of heart-rending love stories.”—Sophie Cousens, author of Just Haven’t Met You Yet

“Paige Toon’s romances are powerful and poignant and never fail to leave me clutching her book to my chest.” —Mia Sheridan, author of Archer’s Voice and Travis

“Toon’s writing is emotional and riveting.”—Jill Santopolo, author of The Light We Lost

“Toon urges us to risk everything, to never play it safe when it comes to the heart, and to know that caring is always, always, worth the cost.” —Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of You and With or Without You

“Unique and moving.” —Josie Silver, author of One Day in December

“Only Paige Toon can make me believe in the power of love this way.” —Laura Jane Williams, author of Our Stop and The Love Square

“Devoured in one sitting.” —Cosmopolitan

“Paige Toon writes beautiful, emotional love stories.” —Beth O’Leary, author of The Flatshare and The Road Trip

“Emotional.” —Publishers Weekly

“Compulsively page-turning, wildly romantic and beautifully heartbreaking.”—Emily Stone, author of Always in December

“Paige Toon is the queen of will they/won’t they romance, setting up an ending that will leave you in bits.” —The Sunday Express (UK)

“Queen of rom coms.” —OK Magazine (UK)

Praise for Someone I Used to Know

“I loved it. A beautiful story about love and family and healing broken hearts. It swept me up and wouldn’t let me go—I had tears in my eyes by the end.” —Beth O’Leary, author of The Road Trip

“Utterly brilliant…I want to go back and read it all again. A book that highlights the strength of love and the importance of compassion and understanding.” —Giovanna Fletcher, author of Eve of Man

“An absolute tearjerker full of love for the family we’re born into and the one we build along the way. This book will live in my heart for a long, long time.” —Lindsey Kelk, author of The Christmas Wish

“What a perfect emotive journey! I could feel every character so brilliantly, the writing was beyond immersive…I really never wanted this to end!” —Louise Pentland, author of Life with a Sprinkle of Glitter

“Had me hooked from the first page to the last. I adored everything about this gorgeous story and the unforgettable family at its heart.” —Catherine Isaac, author of You, Me, Everything

“A heartfelt, heart-breaking and heart-warming story of love, family and loss and the ties that bind us.” —Dani Atkins, author of Then and Always

“Broke my heart, pieced it back together and made it soar…And I absolutely didn’t see that twist coming.” —Zoë Folbigg, author of The Note

“I just loved it—I was so invested. Touching, beautiful, romantic.” —Lia Louis, author of Eight Perfect HoursPaige Toon grew up between England, Australia, and America and has been writing emotional love stories since 2007. She has published fifteen novels, a three-part spin-off series for young adults, and a collection of short stories. Her books have sold nearly 2 million copies worldwide. She lives in Cambridgeshire, England, with her husband and their two children.A Conversation with Paige Toon

What inspired you to write about foster care?
A friend who works in family law told me how common it is for siblings to be separated when they’re put into foster care and/or up for adoption. The thought that a child could, not only lose their parents, home, pets, toys, friends, and family, but also their siblings—the people who have gone through all their ups and downs with them—broke my heart. I discovered that, when these children grow up, it’s often their siblings they try to find first, even more so than their biological parents. This inspired the idea of George, who’s separated from his younger sister and who would go to any lengths to get her back. I was saddened to learn that younger teenagers can be quite hard to place so I wanted to write about resilient, inspirational foster parents whose focus was on these children. There are so many horror stories out there, as I discovered while doing my research, but the heartwarming stories shone through. I hoped to be able to pass on some of this positivity and maybe even encourage others to consider fostering, or simply to adapt the way they think about the care system and Looked After Children. I also adore writing impossible love stories, and I knew it would be forbidden for my character Leah, the only biological child in the household, to fall for someone who has been placed in the care of her parents.

What made you choose this structure for the book, alternating between “Then” and “Now”? Did you write the scenes in the order in which they appear?
First love is so powerful, and I enjoy experiencing a roller coaster of emotions along with my characters, so there was never any question that I’d set this story in a dual time line so I could live through it all with them. I started off writing the scenes in the order in which they appear, but then I got to a point where I realized I needed to be able to fully understand the past in order to properly feel what they go through in the future. So I stopped writing the “Now” chapters and wrote through to the end of “Then,” weaving them all together later. It’s the first time I’ve written a book out of chronological sequence.

The friendship dynamic amongst Leah, George, and Theo as teenagers is often intense and fraught. What drew you to write about such a friendship, and such a dynamic?
I liked the idea of there being two beautiful broken boys who have wildly different upbringings but who still feel let down by those who are supposed to love and care for them. I enjoy writing light, amusing scenes and spine-tinglingly romantic ones, but I felt even more compelled to write about darker emotions in this novel, perhaps because I was feeling melancholic myself, having written it during the pandemic.

Which was your favorite scene to write?
There are so many! The funeral scene, when Leah sees George sitting two rows behind her—as inspired by the Amy Shark song “Don’t Turn Around.” The love scenes—the chemistry, the angst, the torture of those scenes that are forbidden. Probably my favorite is the larder cupboard scene in the present day, when Leah marks George’s height on the wall. Their close proximity made me feel a little breathless. But I also really enjoyed writing the twist—after crafting the buildup, it’s exciting to finally get to the reveal.

Without any spoilers, which was the most painful scene to write?
Leah, up at Hare Heads, laying the past to rest. If readers feel how I felt while writing that scene, they’ll be sobbing their hearts out.

What gave you the idea to write about an Alpaca farm in England? Can you tell us a little more about your research trip to see an Alpaca herd?
I liked the idea of setting my inspirational foster home on a farm, surrounded by nature and fresh air, but the thought of it being a sheep or cattle farm where animals would be sent off to the slaughterhouse didn’t feel right at all! My mother-in-law actually suggested alpacas, and weirdly, there is actually an alpaca farm right near Brimham Rocks, where the book is set (one of my favorite places in the world). Doing my alpaca research was so much fun—there’s a small alpaca farm near where I live in Cambridgeshire, and the owner treats each and every one of her animals like members of her own family. They were super cute.

In your acknowledgments, you said that this was your most emotional book to write. How did the emotionality of this novel affect you as you wrote it?
I was a complete wreck on multiple occasions! The world felt so uncertain when I was writing it. My parents and extended family live in Australia, and we were kept apart for so long with seemingly no end in sight. I was thinking about them a lot, and I also thought a lot about the real Looked After Children I’d read about or heard about in my research, which was very sobering.

Trees play a big role in this novel. What do trees mean to you, metaphorically?
I’ll be honest, the initial idea I had for trees playing a part in this novel was quite superficial. I found the concept of a male character who worked as a forester quite attractive! But this idea led to others and the significance of trees grew to become much deeper. I was drawn to write about the selfless act of planting trees for future generations—the people planting them likely wouldn’t be alive to see them grow to maturity, but they planted them nonetheless. And the quote “mighty oaks from little acorns grow” felt quite significant to the fostering angle.

Were any scenes based on particular moments from your own life?
Actually, yes. The prologue—and the decision Theo makes that changes everything—is inspired by a very similar situation that my husband and I found ourselves in when our children were young. My husband chose differently to Theo, but it made me wonder about the consequences of making such a decision—trying to do right by someone and getting it very wrong, and how the future that you see laid out before you could just be swept clean away.

What’s next for you?
I write a book every year and I always start them in the fall, so as I type this, it’s summer and I’m in the process of researching my next novel. I get so excited as September approaches and I’m able to start writing the story that’s been playing out like a movie inside my head for months. My next book is about a girl who meets a guy while she’s inter-railing around Europe, and they have such a strong connection that, when they’re separated, for years afterward she can’t stop thinking about him. When they meet again, by chance, he is not at all who she thought he was. I’m off to Lisbon in Portugal in a couple of weeks to research the places where they’ll meet and fall in love. I almost always write about real locations—it makes the book and characters feel even more lifelike to me. Plus, it’s one of the perks of the job!

Discussion Questions
1. Who do you think the title of the novel is referring to?

2. What was your favorite scene, and why?

3. Most of the chapters alternate between “Then” and “Now,” but the prologue is set “Neither then nor now . . . but sometime in between.” How might a different structure have affected your read? How might the omission of the prologue have affected your read?

4. What was your reaction to Theo’s decision in the prologue? What would you have done, in his position?

5. What do you think lies unsaid between “Then” and “Now,” if anything? Is there a moment between “Then” and “Now” that you are most curious about?

6. What do you think of Leah’s reaction to George and her other foster siblings? How might you have reacted, in the same position?
7. Why do you think Leah and George are drawn to each other? Why do you think Leah and Theo are drawn to each other? Which connection did you feel more strongly, and who did you think was a better fit for Leah?

8. Compare Leah, George, and Theo as teenagers versus as adults. How have they grown and changed? How have they stayed the same?

9. In Chapter 3, Leah says, “My body always responded to George’s pain in a way that it didn’t with my other foster siblings. . . . When he hurt, I hurt too.” How do you think empathy informs love in this book? How do you think empathy informs the idea of family in this book?

10. Have any friends, neighbors, extended family members or other people come to feel like siblings to you? What do you think defines a “sibling” outside of shared parentage?

11. Do you think we can choose who we love?

12. In Chapter 2, Leah says, “Sometimes, just sometimes, I’d like to come first.” Do you think she got her wish by the end of the book? Or did she get something else in its place?US

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