Review: The Minute I Saw You by Paige Toon

The Minute I Saw You is a beautiful and emotional story about two very different people, with very different but equally tragic pasts.

Hannah is an optical dispenser, currently living in a small town in the UK. She likes to travel a lot and knows that she'll only be in her current job and her current home for a short while. For that reason, she's not too disturbed when she finds herself attracted to Sonny, a gorgeous photographer who lives a very cosmopolitan lifestyle in Europe. She knows there isn't a long term relationship in it.

Then Sonny surprises her by--genuinely--wanting to be friends. As their friendship develops it becomes clear that both Hannah and Sonny have tragic life stories that they need to confront head on. But what happens when the walls that both have put up around themselves comes tumbling down.

There is no denying it. This book was one heck of an emotional rollercoaster. Author Paige Toon is a master at allowing her readers to feel a range of emotions, while carefully drip feeding information to the reader. Although I had some inkling of what Hannah's unusual past might be, parts of it most definitely surprised me. Sonny's story is tragic, and I really appreciated the honest way the author depicted the situation. She didn't shy away from one particular truth--that victims may not necessarily realise that they have been abused until after the fact, and the level of hurt and confusion that this may cause.

Overall, this is a well written and well imagined story of how a tragic past does not necessarily have to ruin ones entire future.

Recommended.

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