Preloved: A sparklingly witty and relatable debut novel

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This offbeat novel hits the zetgeist notes of "reduce, re-use, recycle" within a charity shop where recently redundant Gwen volunteers after dropping off her own relics. We then follow Gwen as she haphazardly adopts the perhaps/maybe trope and applies the preloved way as to lead her own re-direction. Preloved is full of sharp observations on life, loss, regret and self-preservation... spilling over with wit and hope. Cleverly interwoven with stories of the myriad reasons items find their way into charity shops, the joy, friendship and ultimate enlightenment Gwen discovers offers a quirky and poignant reminder that one person's trash is always somebody else's treasure.' Julietta Henderson, author of The Funny Thing about Norman Foreman I'm going to quote Marian Keyes, who once said that she thinks that to give people a book that doesn't have a happy ending is just rude, which I agree with! You don't have to tie everything up neatly in a bow, but I needed ( Preloved) to be uplifting and hopeful too. I couldn't have spent a year and a half of my life writing a book that didn't have a hopeful conclusion. Particularly when we're living among bleakness and uncertainty, it’s a privilege when somebody chooses to sit down with a book you've written and invested hours of their life with a character; you owe it to them to give that character a satisfactory ending. I've had so many experiences where I've loved a book right up until the 5% and then I want to hurl it across the room!" You just feel cheated. And I couldn't do that to readers.”

Preloved eBook by Lauren Bravo | Official Publisher Page Preloved eBook by Lauren Bravo | Official Publisher Page

Overall, Preloved is a heartwarming and humorous novel with great characters that I would recommend to anyone. I eagerly await Lauren Bravo's future releases. Just like that once-in-a-lifetime charity shop find, Preloved is a gleaming prize to be treasured. Lauren Bravo is witty and thoughtful in her exploration of our relationship with objects and trends, believing that – just as a pair of shoes can have many, many lives – so can the people that wear them.' Caroline O'Donohue, author of Promising Young Woman I can see myself recommending this book to my fellow charity shop co-workers, and recommending it to people in general! The book alternates between chapters involving items that find their way to the second hand store and Gwen's narrative about her life and learning how to move forward. About midway through, the pieces slotted together and I realized the significance of many of the "item" chapters. This is when the story began to take on more meaning for me and the flow felt more natural.Ok, first of all, HOW DARE YOU, Lauren Bravo?!? How do you have the audacity to write something so utterly relatable and unputdownable as your debut novel? From 8am on the day I sat down intending to just read a few chapters of Preloved to 8pm that evening when I finished, I internally screamed, ‘OMG SAME!’ so many times I lost count. Not wanting to give much away, but I also really loved the story between Gwen and her parents, and how they are handling a personal loss that happened to them. I thought it was so well done.

Preloved: A sparklingly witty and relatable debut novel

I enjoyed getting to know Gwen and seeing how she slowly gained strength and was able to take power from letting go.Just like that once-in-a-lifetime charity shop find, Preloved is a gleaming prize to be treasured.' Caroline O'Donohue, author of Promising Young Woman You have to prioritise work, family commitments, children, potentially partners, potentially ageing parents (over) friendships, and it becomes much harder. There can be a real disconnect between the friendships we imagined we would have and the friendships that we actually have.” As we watch Gwen clamber over familial relationships, potential romances and sex as well as as best friend who seems impossibly far away, Lauren believes “ Preloved is definitely a love story about friendships more than anything else.” Preloved also reads as a love letter to charity shops. The stories about the different people that visit and volunteer in them feel so real, like I almost expect to run into these characters next time I nip into Cancer Research or Oxfam. I’ll definitely look at these shops with even more fondness in future (and that’s saying something as I do love a charity shop). Optimistic and engaging… intimate and joyful… We’re waiting for Preloved to be optioned by Reese Witherspoon or at least adapted into a binge-worthy Netflix series…’ Glamour

Preloved | Book by Lauren Bravo | Official Publisher Page

As she is sitting in a restaurant eating a solo dinner to celebrate her birthday (thus showing us, the readers, the isolated life she has made for herself), she starts to put together a to-do list of all the tasks she has been avoiding for far too long. One of these chores is to dispose of the engagement ring that she has been holding on to since the abrupt ending of the relationship. She takes this, and other items she has been keeping, to a local charity shop and so starts the journey to her new life. If clothes can get a second chance, why can’t we? Brimming with life, love, and the stories bound up in even the most everyday items, The Second Chance Store is a tale of friendship, loss, and dusting yourself off and starting over—a novel filled with humor and a testament to the enduring power and joy of charity shops.A heartwarming tale of friendship, loss and being true to yourself, regardless of expectations.' Red magazine Gwen is coasting through life. She’s in her mid-thirties, perpetually single, her friends are busy procreating in the countryside and conversations with her parents seem to revolve entirely around the council’s wheelie-bin timetable. The less is more approach might have tightened the book and given it more spark. Instead I found the early promise lost in a way-too-long ramblings. This book is an absolute delight from beginning to end. Interspersed with Gwen’s story (our MC) are random vignettes about the various items that make their way through the charity shop (or are they random after all? Read to find out). Equal parts hilarious and bittersweet, the story strolls along at a nice leisurely pace. I love a slow, character-driven story, so this is right up my alley. Then she’s let go from a job she drifted into a decade ago and never left, and Gwen realizes it’s time to make a change, starting with cleaning out her apartment. In the charity shop where she literally and metaphorically unloads her baggage, she discovers a group of weird and wonderful people devoted to finding a new home for donated items that have lost their use elsewhere. Gwen volunteers there—and finds a new home for herself among her fellow workers while discovering joy in the untold stories of secondhand things.