![–Booklist on <em>It Wasn't Always Like This</em>](https://sohopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/blog-00.png)
Preble adeptly weaves together snippets of Emma’s past and present, gradually outlining her transformation from an optimistic, winsome teen to a hardened, lone-wolf type, albeit one whose heart still flutters for a certain eternal boy… [readers] will be equally charmed by Emma’s noir-inflected narrative and her decades-long romance.