Taylor Jenkins Reid - One True Loves
4⭐
Genre: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Date Published: 20th January 2022
Book Blurb:
On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.
Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.
That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.
Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?
Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.
My Review:
Not going to lie, but I have a
few mixed feelings about this book. I loved the first half of it, the story,
the characters, the complicated relationships…but the second half seemed too
convenient. It felt that Emma’s complex relationships and situation that she
got herself into with both Jessie and Sam, were both sorted in a matter of few
chapters and in a way that was very uncomplicated, unrealistic and
anticlimactic. All that build-up in the first half of the book to see who she’s
going to choose and then…she just picked the obvious, quite easily and without
much hesitation…Although I did like who she ended up with, I just wanted
more drama.
The story follows Emma, who meets
Jessie during her last year of high school. They both fall head over heels for
each other and of course, get married after years of spending together
travelling around the world. However, after a helicopter crash during one of
his work trips, Jessie is presumed to be dead and Emma full of grief comes back
to her hometown to piece herself back up. She also reconnects with her
childhood friend Sam, who helps her deal with grief and soon she falls in love
with him. One day three years later, Emma, who is happy with Sam, suddenly gets
a call from Jessie, who is alive and returning home. Emma is torn, she loves
Sam, but Jessie is her school sweetheart and first love. Which one true love
will she choose?
I liked all the characters in
this book, as each of them added something important to the story, and all of
them grew throughout the story. I also really enjoyed TJR's writing. She
managed to play with your heartstrings just at the right time and the right
amount. I also, loved how she portrays the rawness of grief, love and loss. The
way she writes about it all makes you feel that you are the character in the book experiencing all those emotions.
As I mentioned at the beginning
of this review, what I didn’t like about this book was how easily Emma chose
between Sam and Jessie, and that it didn’t take her long or she didn’t go through
as many feelings as she did in the first part of the book when she lost Jessie.
Her decision just felt too easy and a bit rushed for it to make sense. At least
for me.
Overall: I loved TJR’s writing
and story setting. I really enjoyed the characters and their growth. I also
really loved the first half of the book but felt that the second half and the
ending were a bit anticlimactic.
About the Author:
Taylor Jenkins Reid is the New York Times bestselling author of Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones & The Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as well as four other novels. She lives in Los Angeles.
https://taylorjenkinsreid.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment