Review: The Girl He Used to Know by Tracy Garvis Graves

The Girl He Used to Know by Tracy Garvis Graves (April 2, 2019 from St Martin's) #partner

Goodreads Summary:
Annika Rose likes being alone.
She feels lost in social situations, saying the wrong thing or acting the wrong way - she just can't read people. She prefers the quiet solitude of books or playing chess to being around others.
Apart from Jonathan. She liked being around him, but she hasn't seen him for ten years. Until now that is. And she's not sure he'll want to see her again after what happened all those years ago.

Annika Rose likes being alone.
Except that, actually, she doesn't like being alone at all.

My Review:

**WARNING: Spoilers ahead**

Nowhere in the summaries, accompanying press releases, or dust jackets/covers was there any indication of the major historical event that would drive the end of this book. I suppose if I really would have analyzed the dates at the beginning of the chapters I would have seen where the 2nd storyline was heading--the September 11th terror attacks. I felt so duped. I mean....I was pissed! I never would have read this if I knew what the last 25% of the book was going to be about. I was 50/50 enjoying the storylines for the first 3/4 of the book. I definitely loved the character of Annika, who is on the autism spectrum. I loved reading about her ways of thinking and her routines and was so glad to read a book containing a character with these traits. I even loved the unique boy meets girl love story that evolved. Then the sex scenes. Ugh. 1 part thumbs up (consent is sexy, yay!) and 1 part thumbs down (really detailed and while I am so far from a prude, just no). So at this point I would have written a review that said just that and maybe a "not for me but maybe for you" bland statement. That's before the September 11 "twist". Who isn't personally affected by this event? Who wasn't extremely affected by it? Everyone has their "where were you" story and everyone was shaken and devastated. I feel like the author focused on an event that everyone agrees was emotional and capitalized on it. While some readers may flock to a September 11th love story, I definitely would not. I believed the book was going to be about the unique struggles of a relationship when a person is on the autism spectrum. The fact that nowhere is September 11 mentioned in the book's description makes me feel conned and triggered.