This Used to Be Us: A Novel by Renee Carlino

From the bestselling author of Before We Were Strangers comes a heart-wrenching yet humorous exploration of family, marriage, and divorce that promises to make you laugh and cry. There Are Two Sides follows Danielle and Alex, a couple ending their 22-year marriage. Once deeply in love, they now can barely tolerate each other. To avoid shuttling their teenage boys between two broken homes, they decide to share a nesting apartment while taking turns staying with the kids at the family home.

In their separate spaces, Dani and Alex begin to reflect on their past, rediscovering their individual identities. Dani finds success as a showrunner for her own TV project, while Alex navigates the challenges of a new relationship. Both reenter the dating world, but despite the newfound independence, they can't seem to stay away from each other. The distance unexpectedly helps them remember what they once loved about one another.

A family crisis pulls them back together, testing their relationship once more and leading to a dramatic conclusion that will leave readers deeply moved. With praise from Julia Stiles, who calls it “hilarious, unnervingly relatable, romantic, and heartbreaking in the best way,” and Karina Halle, who describes it as “a gut-punch to the feels,” this emotional roller coaster of a novel shows that there truly are two sides to every love story and every breakup. ❤️📚❤️