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The Boy I Loved Before (2005)

The Boy I Loved Before (2005)

Book Info

Author
Rating
3.52 of 5 Votes: 2
Your rating
ISBN
0312331983 (ISBN13: 9780312331986)
Language
English
Publisher
st. martin's griffin

About book The Boy I Loved Before (2005)

What would you do if you had the chance to go back to when you were 16 years old? At the age of 32, Flora runs into the boy she loved when she was a teen at her best friends wedding. Without realizing it, she makes a wish that she's 16 again. Waking up the next day she finds out that it came true. Only, she's 16 now instead of when she was actually 16 (the 80s?), which was not what I was expected. I thought that she would go back in time along with everyone else that she knew and get to make changes and stuff. Nope. She's stuck being 16 while her best friend and high school love are in the 30s. Oddly enough they seem to take it pretty well. So here she is a teenager again, but with the mind of a 30 year old, and yet she still lets herself get bullied at school. I was wanting for her to stand up for herself and her strange new best friend, but she doesn't until the end of the book. If being a teen was so horrible the first time, wouldn't you try to make it better the second time? As for the boy she loved before, she falls in love with his brother who is now her age. The whole book is pretty much her trying to figure out why she was sent to her teenage years and making sure she gets it done before she turns back into an adult. It was a pretty good book, kind of slow in the start, but work past that and it gets better.

I'm realizing that Chick Lit just isn't for me. Not to say that I didn't enjoy the book, it's just not one that will stay with me for long, not like the Chocolate Shop book by the same author.That being said, there are things to like here. The main character was fun and both of her best friends were well-rounded and interesting. I liked the guys, too. No one was a complete jerk, even the "mean" girl at school turns out to be human. I liked the examination of what does it mean to be a grown up. I also enjoyed the exploration of what changes you would make if you could live your life all over again.What I didn't like? The complete squicky teen sex. It was unnecessary and creepy. I have never rooted so hard for a character to NOT have sex in a book in my life. It upset me so much that I've dropped my rating a full star. Not cool.

Do You like book The Boy I Loved Before (2005)?

Im re reading this book a fav of mine.Who wouldnt want that chance to go back and do it all again ,make some changes along the way .A chance to go back to those teen years again.:)The lovely idea of being able to make a wish as Flora did an be transported back ,although in this book Flora gets to be a teen again in the present day ,id find that a little more scary :)id prefer to be a teen in the 80s again .A brilliant book ,you.ll want to read again ,their are only so many books that dont loose their magic after a first read ,this is one of them .
—Louise Annette Marshall

This is a sort of 13 going on 30 book, but in reverse. Flora is 32 and has what people would think of as a good life - a good office job, a nice, safe boyfriend, a best friend... But she's bored. She realizes she never wanted this middley life and wishes that she'd go back to 16 to fix it. The trick is, she turns 16, and her parents get younger, but she's still in present time (2003 I think they said). The only people who recognize her as her are her best friend Tashy (I hate that name), her boyfriend, and her long lost love. Flo has to figure out how to get back to her self, whether she wants to get back to herself, and how to fix her life. For chick lit, this is pretty thoughtful, and also a very quick read. Her boring, supposedly great, life is exactly what I don't want to happen to me, and why I'm leaving Boston and my job. I think I can do it without magic...
—Merredith

What the..? In a nutshell, 32 year old Flora is unhappy with her lot. At her best friends wedding, she makes a wish when the cake is cut - "I wish I was 16 again" cue her waking up the following morning as her 16 year old self. The premise is similar to the film "13 going on 30" but nowhere near as smooth. What essentially started out as a time travel concept quickly turned into a jumbled muddle. She hadn't gone back 16 years - she'd simply turned 16 again. For some reason she had gone back in time a mere month and only certain people from her "previous life" recognised or knew her. Her parents also travelled back to the age they were when she was 16 too. Confused? ME TOO. I don't UNDERSTAND. Sure there were sweet chick-lit-ish parts but mostly I'm just confused at all the backward and forwards and time travelling-but-not-really scenes.
—Zoe

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