What I Had Before I Had You is the debut novel by Sarah Cornwell. I read this book in a day, I just couldn't put it down.
It is the story of Olivia Reed, now a mother in her 30's divorced and returning to her hometown of Ocean View on the Jersey shore. When her 9 year old bi-polar son goes missing, she revisits the summer she was 15, when her life changed forever, and she recalls memories of the mother she left behind.
Moving from past to present, Cornwell weaves this tale seamlessly, exploring the turbulent time of adolescence as well as capturing the nature of mental illness. It is written with such gut wrenching honesty, I felt transported to another place, not one I always wanted to be, yet I couldn't look away.
A brilliant debut.
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