You Were There Too

By: Colleen Oakley

Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Dan Bittner

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

A USA Today best seller

“A surprising and incredibly satisfying story of chance and fate.” (New York Times best-selling author Taylor Jenkins Reid)

“I read it in one long gulp and didn’t want it to end.” (New York Times best-selling author Jill Santopolo)

Acclaimed author Colleen Oakley delivers a heart-wrenching and unforgettable love story about a woman who must choose between the man she loves and the man fate has chosen for her, in a novel that reminds us that the best life is one led by the heart.

Mia Graydon's life looks picket-fence perfect; she has the house, her loving husband, and dreams of starting a family. But she has other dreams too - unexplained, recurring ones starring the same man. Still, she doesn’t think much of it, until a relocation to small-town Pennsylvania brings her face-to-face with the stranger she has been dreaming about for years. And this man harbors a jaw-dropping secret of his own - he's been dreaming of her too.

Determined to understand, Mia and this not-so-stranger search for answers. But when diving into their pasts begins to unravel her life in the present, Mia emerges with a single question - what if?

©2020 Colleen Oakley (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"You Were There Too is a surprising and incredibly satisfying story of chance and fate. From the book's enticing first pages to its startling and electrifying conclusion, Colleen Oakley knocks it out of the park." (Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times best-selling author)

"A beautifully woven story of love, grief, and the power we do and don’t have to choose our fate, You Were There Too brought me to tears. I read it in one long gulp and didn’t want it to end." (Jill Santopolo, New York Times best-selling author)

"Oakley delivers a story that overflows with compassion, humor, and the impulsive need to read just one more chapter until you reach the very satisfying end." (Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times best-selling author of The Bookshop at Water's End)

Not What You Think You're Getting

The blurb for this book says it's about two people dreaming of one another and then meeting in real life. And while that is an aspect of the story, that is not what this book is really about. It's about grief. It's about the miscarriages suffered and a marriage slowly eroding. I would not have picked this book for my romance book club had I known it was majorly about miscarriages.

Written by Olivia (Stephen's daughter)

Romantic and Hopeful

Thought provoking, proving not every love story has the ending you come to expect. I really enjoyed this different kind of story

Thought provoking

This was the happily ever after I didn’t see coming. Such a thought provoking story so well told by a narrator that seemed to truly embody the main character.

Entertaining but …

The audiobook was entertaining and kept me busy but, it was a bit cheesy and drawn out in sections. The incessant “what does my dream MEAN” got irritating. The ending was not what I expected, but satisfactory.

Ok. Not my favorite.

The story was a bit strange. About what dreams mean. Not very believable I think. Not as suspenseful as I like. A bit predictable.

Dreams

Slow to start but then, wham! I was taken in by the characters and story. I didn’t love the ending but thought it was very fitting for the story!

Not bad

This book was only ok. It was a bit slow through most of it. It was a realistic portrayal of marriage and how people change and have to choose each other again every day. No HEA

where are we really

life has so many messages are we really listening close enough, pay attention to everything remember those dreams. write them down.

Beautiful piece

I enjoyed every minute. So many details made me be immersed in the story.

What dreams may come...

Sometimes love is inexplicable. Harrison and Mia are the most unlikely of couples. He's a doctor; rational, even-tempered, in control. She's an artist; creative, unpredictable, and sometimes temperamental.

Her dreams are invaded by a man she soon comes to know as Oliver, and it throws her world in a tizzy. When dreams come true, is that because she "should be" with someone she's not? What does it all mean?

This story questions the significance of dreams and the nature of love. And while it is sometimes self-indulgent, I think that's part of human nature. We process the world through the lens of our own wants and needs. But in this microcosm, it does come across as a bit more self-centered than is comfortable.

But overall, the story is an intense one that I did enjoy. And as much as I did enjoy both narrators, I did feel that the male narrator may perhaps have been miscast. He was excellent but sounded more mature than seems appropriate for the storyline.