The Life Lucy Knew

April 1, 2018
A millennial makes a bad footwear decision, falls on the ice outside a store in Toronto, gets a concussion, and wakes up in the hospital convinced she's madly in love with a man she never married instead of the one she lives with.In Brown's (In This Moment, 2017, etc.) latest, Lucy Sparks has "confabulated memory disorder" caused by her injury, so she can't remember how her engagement to her ex-fiance, Daniel, ended four years earlier; in fact, she feels like it didn't. She even has distinct memories of their wedding, though it never happened. Which means she also can't remember falling in love with her current boyfriend, Matt, which makes going home from the hospital to their apartment awkward. Brown makes Lucy's struggle vivid and stark--she has a lovely life but, thanks to her injury, she doesn't feel like it's hers. Matt's romantic efforts to jolt her memory are entertaining, as are the minor dramas that result when Lucy's parents, sibling, and best friend try to help and when Lucy's return to her communications job is marred by an ambitious co-worker who tries to take advantage of her disability. The final twist and resulting resolution are a bit sudden, but Brown makes the ending plausible enough.A fizzy love story with a serious streak, good for readers who like their conundrums to go down as easily as one of the cocktails the characters enjoy.

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April 9, 2018
In this enjoyable take on the amnesia story, Brown (In This Moment) explores the complexities of memory in the aftermath of an accident that alters the life of Lucy Sparks. After slipping on a patch of ice and striking her head against the pavement, Lucy suffers amnesia and confusing false memories: she has no recollection of her relationship with her live-in boyfriend, Matt, and believes she is married to her ex-fiancé, Daniel (though she has nagging feelings that he isn’t the one for her). Her family and friends want to protect her and hold back parts of the truth, leaving Lucy feeling frustrated and uncertain of who she can trust. Matt is doing all he can to help revive her memory about the past three years of their relationship, but nothing seems to click, and Lucy only begins to move forward when she gives up on understanding the past. This simple, thoughtful story will remind readers that nothing in life is certain.

May 15, 2018

Lucy Sparks has it all--a great career, a handsome husband. So she believes, until the day she wakes up in a hospital and discovers the life she's been living for the past four years is a fabrication. The road to recovery is a difficult one, with potholes of perceived truth and the random earth-shattering drop of finding out that the incident in question is a false memory her injured brain created out of whole cloth. Brown (The Choices We Make), well known for her heartfelt and layered portraits of regular people, weaves threads of an emotional journey in which Lucy's first-person point of view is occasionally peppered with a third-person chapter, signifying memories that may or may not be real. Secondary characters, including boyfriend Matt, her parents, and believed husband Daniel, are realistic and three-dimensional, but it's Lucy herself who is the center of this story, a flawed, relatable character facing an incredible situation. Her emotions swing frequently on her way to discovering that her life is only what she makes it. VERDICT Lucy's path to becoming a whole person will resonate with readers who appreciate emotional explorations with realistic characters and difficult choices. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]--Charli Osborne, Oak Park P. L., MI

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