When We Were Them, Laura Taylor Namey
When We Were Them, Laura Taylor Namey
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

When We Were Them

Author: Laura Taylor Namey

Narrator: Gail Shalan

Unabridged: 10 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/16/2021


Synopsis

From New York Times bestselling author Laura Taylor Namey comes a “lyrical and tender, authentic” (Kirkus Reviews) novel about friendship and the bittersweetness of growing up and growing apart.

When they were fifteen, Willa, Luz, and Britton’s friendship was everything.
When they were sixteen, they stood by each other no matter what.
When they were seventeen, they went through the worst.
And when they were eighteen, Willa ruined it all.

Now, it’s the week of graduation, and Willa is left with only a memory box filled with symbols of the friendship she destroyed: A book of pranks. Corsages from a nightmarish homecoming. A greasy pizza menu. Greeting cards with words that mean the world…

It’s enough to make Willa wonder how anything could tear her, Luz, and Britton apart. But as Willa revisits the moments when she and her friends leaned on each other, she can’t avoid the moments they leaned so hard their friendship began to crack.

As Willa tries to find a way back to Luz and Britton, she must confront the why of her betrayal, and answer a question she never saw coming: Who is she without them?

About Laura Taylor Namey

Laura Taylor Namey is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of young adult fiction including Reese’s Book Club pick A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and TomorrowA British Girl’s Guide to Hurricanes and HeartbreakWhen We Were Them, and With Love, Echo Park. A proud Cuban American, she can be found hunting for vintage treasures and wishing she was in London or Paris. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two children. Visit her at LauraTaylorNamey.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nilufer on March 06, 2022

OMG! This book is like a strong drink hits you so fast! You don’t expect to feel so many emotions at the same time. It breaks your heart, haunts your soul! You ache for the characters, easily connecting with them. You dab your eyes, hardly restraining your tears, barely gathering yourself together.......more

Goodreads review by CW ✨ on December 14, 2021

Quiet YA at its finest - a story with, in the grand scheme of things, low stakes, but quietly explores how the things that we thought were immutable inevitably change. - Follows Willa, a teen grappling with the consequences of her actions and how this has affected her two best friends. - Told in alt......more

Goodreads review by dearrivarie on March 09, 2022

7.7/10 the hold of the past There are moments where a book just feels so incredibly introspective that when you finish, there's this blanket of amazement and a hint of disbelief at how something so simple could make such a big impact. This was 100% the affect that When We Were Them had on me and a cou......more


Quotes

"With an urgency that takes listeners into her confidence, narrator Gail Shalan captures the anguish of Willa as she recounts the events leading to a break in her once tight friendship with Luz and Britton. Performing a braided narrative of past and present that spirals toward the crucial moment of betrayal that Willa regrets, Shalan deftly shifts between characters, building drama in this story centered on the meaning of loyalty among friends. Against the backdrop of San Diego, the author’s lyrical language wraps around the novel as Willa experiences trauma, loss, and grief, and ultimately confronts the choices she has made. Shalan’s authentic narration takes listeners on an intimate journey with Willa as she grows to the edge of adulthood."