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Reviewed by Mansoor Ahmed for Readers' Favorite
In To Me You See by Leo and Debbie Hamblin is a bold, unconventional memoir about two people who found each other as teenagers in 1979 in Monett, Missouri, lost each other to life, religion, marriages, and distance, and then found each other again nearly three decades later. Leo first spotted Debbie on a softball field and knew immediately she was his. They fell in love young, but he left for a religious mission in Japan, and their paths diverged for years. Both married other people, raised families, and carried the other quietly in their hearts until a yellow sticky note with a phone number changed everything in 2007. What followed was an affair, two painful divorces, a decade of estrangement from their children, and eventually a life built together on absolute honesty and deep connection. The "Debbie Nugget" sections, her voice responding to Leo's narrative throughout, give the book a genuine dual heartbeat.
Leo and Debbie Hamblin write with a raw, unfiltered directness that is immediately disarming. Their love story is genuinely gripping, and the dual-voice structure gives the pace a natural rhythm, each voice catching the other mid-thought. I found Leo's account of waking in cold sweats during the years of family estrangement deeply honest, as is Debbie's admission that she barely knew how to feel anything out loud until Leo forced the door open. The individuals here are flawed, self-aware, and completely real. The theme of intimacy as something earned rather than assumed runs through every chapter with conviction. If you have ever wondered what it costs two people to truly choose each other, In To Me You See will answer that question honestly.