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. Gwene has been made redundant at her job. They did it quite nicely and gave her about 5 months of salary to find herself. She sort of rolls through life and ends up in a Second Chance Store where she fits in rather nicely. She is redundant and lands in a place with lots of redundant things. I've also worked extensively as a commercial copywriter,for the likes of LEGO, Sainsbury's, River Cottage, The Flour Station, British Gas, Betty.me, RED Valentino, BBC, Channel 4, O2 Magazineand Tesco,on web copy,social media content and digital strategy.These days I focus on working with ethical and sustainable fashion and lifestyle brands. I enjoyed getting to know Gwen and seeing how she slowly gained strength and was able to take power from letting go.

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

With tough issues at its core, Preloved is still intimate and joyful. While you’ll find no spoiler alerts here, there is an optimistic finish. GLAMOUR wonders, why do you think people need happy endings? Every character in this book, and every item that is preloved and finding its new home, has something to come to terms with, to face before they can make the next steps in their lives. The individial chapters about the 'life of donated items' are quite clever & the story of Gwen was a lovely thread pulling everything together ..

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I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Definitely one of my favourite books that I’ve read so far this year! Gwen is floundering. She is let go from her job and had recently broken things off with her fiancé. Her relationship with her parents is somewhat estranged, and her close friends are all paired off. She decides to clean out her apartment and takes her unwanted items to a second hand store, and while there she decides to volunteer at the store while she lives off of her severance and contemplates what to do as a next step. With her redundancy money she decides that it will buy her time for a few months whilst she looks for something else. She decides to volunteer at a charity shop. As someone who is currently volunteering at a charity shop, this was very relatable and gave me a good few laughs. This book also has little chapters in between the ‘main’ chapters telling the history of some items that have ended up on the charity shop shelves, and I really loved that. These tales also ended up weaving in and out of the main storyline. It really makes you pause and reflect on the history of the items that you see, and their possible futures. There was one that detailed the journey of a fast fashion party top, that was particularly significant, and has stayed with me since I read it. Dazzlingly witty, Preloved is a tale about friendship, loss and being true to yourself no matter the expectations. Lovingly celebrating the enduring power and joy of charity shops.

Preloved by Lauren Bravo | Waterstones

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… This is a tale about Gwen the main character who is in her late thirties. She cuts quite a lonely figure as most of her friends were coupling up. She has been made redundant and seems to be floating through life with no real direction. While all Gwen’s friends are “procreating in the countryside”, she is single, lonely and now, jobless. So she begins anew in the place where all things get a second chance: a charity shop. Preloved is a funny and touching read.’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 Gwen decides to start where all things get a second chance: her local charity shop. There, with the help of the weird and wonderful people and donated items bursting with untold stories, Gwen will find a way to move forward with bravery, tenacity, and more regular dental care. 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.