Things I Wish I'd Known

by Linda Green

[Leah]

Back when she was a teenager, Claire Cooper thought she had her life mapped out: she’d have a fantastic job as a corporate lawyer, she’d still be best friends with Frankie and, most importantly, she’d be married to Andy Pailes. But life never quite works out as you imagine it and finds herself stuck in a dead-end job with a failed marriage behind her and currently dating Mark, an ambulance-chasing lawyer. Claire’s life is turned upside down when she finds the Dream List she wrote aged 15 mapping out the life she thought she’d have. But where did it all go wrong and what exactly happened to Claire’s idol Andy Pailes?

I first heard of Linda Green last year when I managed to pick up 10 Reasons Not To Fall In Love for a euro and after reading it I felt it was one of the best euros I had ever ever spent because I absolutely loved the book. Linda managed to write a really warm and enjoyable book that also had a bit of a dark side and I thought it was just brilliant. I was so thrilled to see her next book Things I Wish I’d Known on Amazon for a May 2010 release and I also managed to get hold of a copy of her debut, too, which I still have to read. So imagine my delight when I come home one day to find an early proof copy of Things I Wish I’d Known ready for me to read and I started it straight away!

Much like her previous offering, Things I Wish I’d Known, at first, seems like a relatively light read but it soon becomes clear that, like 10 Reasons Not To Fall In Love, there is a dark edge to the book that gets revealed in stages as the book progresses. It was a very clever idea from Linda because it kept me reading. We weren’t left totally in the dark over everything that happened during Claire’s teenage years but nor did it all come out at once. There’s only 16 chapters in total in the book and these all cover Claire’s life as it is now in the present with Mark, her job and what not. We then have another 16 chapters (without chapter headings and with only dates from the 80s distinguishing them from each other) between each present chapter recounting all of the things that happened when Claire was a teenager.

I think I probably preferred unravelling Claire’s teenage years than I did learning about her present life. (I like a mystery, what can I say). When we first meet teenage Claire, she’s about to go to United’s training ground with best friend Frankie to see her idol Andy Pailes. Not only does Claire really like Andy but Frankie loves Matt Goodyear – United’s superstar of the moment. So many an afternoon is spent on the training pitch as both Claire and Frankie try to get their idols to notice them. Claire does manage to eventually talk to Andy and finds that he’s even more charming than she was expecting him to be and finds herself falling deeper and deeper for her hero. Just how far is Claire willing to go to try and get Andy for herself and is that even a realistic possibility? I thought the tale of Claire’s love for Andy was both disturbing yet also believeable – who hasn’t loved someone who appears to be unattainable? – and although I wanted to give Claire a good shake most of the time I could see just how obsessed she appeared to be with Andy.

As we learn all about Claire’s teenage years, we also learn about her life as it is now. In particular I loved her job – having to defend repeat criminal offenders. It’s not exactly the job she’d dreamed of but I could see how much it meant to try and help her clients. I actually also loved Claire’s relationship with boyfriend Mark – he seemed really sweet and I liked them together. The Dream List Claire created becomes a big part of her adult life once she finds it and reads it and I could see how difficult it was to see that she hadn’t fulfilled her teenage hopes and dreams and the journey she goes on is an interesting one. Another huge favourite part of mine from Claire’s adult life is her re-meeting of Frankie, her former best friend. I really loved Frankie in both her adult and teenage life.

While I loved all of the characters, the only one I didn’t manage to like at all was Andy Pailes. It seemed fairly obvious to everyone just how much Claire idolised him and he was either too stupid to notice or he did notice and didn’t appear too bothered. There was a rather large – and shocking – twist towards the end of the book and I was gobsmacked at what happened and did not see it coming. That is definitely down to how good Linda Green is at writing her books as for me to not guess a plot twist is a rare occurrence. Linda really is a talented writer and so far, of her three books, I’ve loved two of them and look forward to finally getting around to reading her debut. My only problem with Things I Wish I’d Known was the entire goings on between Claire and Andy. Both adult and teenage I found it hard to swallow. The teenage part more than anything but what Claire’s contemplates as an adult, particularly after we the reader learns everything, is just hard to understand and get my head around. I can certainly understand why Claire loved and admired Andy as a teenager and I can probably understand how it effected her but I still couldn’t understand the hold Andy appeared to have.

Overall though I did really enjoy Things I Wish I’d Known and I loved that it was jam-packed with 80s nostalgia (even if I’m a little young to know of any of it – I was born in the 90s). Plenty of readers who grew up in the 80s will be able to relate to this book hugely and I absolutely recommend picking it up as it is a fab read. Linda Green is certainly an author to watch and although she’s a relatively new published chick lit author she’s going places and ranks high up on my author watch list that’s for sure.