The Me I Used to Be by Jennifer RyanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Jennifer Ryan's "The Me I Used to Be" featured an intriguing setup and mostly likeable main characters, although Chris, the male protagonist, almost seemed like too much of a paragon to me by the end of the book. He was clearly a good guy and I liked that he was always looking out for Evangeline, the female protagonist, but for some reason he came across as a little too perfect to me. IMO, I think the author may have gone a little overboard in trying to redeem Chris for his past mistakes where Evangeline was concerned, which resulted in her being a little afraid of him when the book began. (She definitely wasn't afraid of him by the end!)
That said, I found the story to be mostly engaging, and it kept me invested because I wanted to see how things would turn out for Evangeline. I was a little surprised by how quickly and easily she seemed to readjust to life outside prison, however. In fact, the overall timeline of the story felt really rushed to me considering everything that happened.
In addition, I did not like Evangeline's family members at all. It really bothered me that they continued to treat her like dirt even after they learned the truth about what happened to land her in prison. They all raged against Evangeline for being selfish, when they were way more selfish than she was. Her brothers only seemed to be concerned about themselves, and her mother just seemed to want to find someone else to blame for all of her problems. Evangeline seemed to go out of her way to find solutions to all of her family's problems and ensure that they would all be happy and successful in the end, but I don't think a single one of them really acknowledged all of her hard work.
Overall, this was a decent read, but I don't think it's going to be a keeper for me. The (mostly) unlikable secondary characters and the rushed timeline kind of ruined things for me.
*ARC provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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