Title: One True Loves
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publication: June 7, 2016
Publisher: Atria
Genre: Women’s Fic
Pages: 352

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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)

In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.

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.

REVIEW:

I am going to say something super horrible……this was my first book written by this author that I have read.  I know that she is super popular and everyone loves her books but honestly she was never really on my radar for anything she has written.  So when we picked it as our August romance book I was honestly looking forward to reading it.  I ordered the book off of Amazon, ignoring my self imposed book buying ban unless necessary and waited for August to roll around. 

Emma is kind of the odd duck out.  Her parents love books and own a book store.  She has no desire to read.  She develops a crush on the star swimmer on her school team but that is short-lived when she finds out he has a girlfriend.  Fast forward and they hide from the cops together and get arrested for underage drinking.  They begin to date eventually leading to marriage.  Emma thinks she has the perfect life till that all comes crashing down after a fateful event.  She needs to learn a new normal and she struggles with that.  Holy mother……this book was so good. I literally read it in 2.5 days.  I binged it at the beach and then just couldn’t put it down.  I needed to know what happened next.  I needed to know what Emma planned to do about the twists that kept getting thrown at her as she navigated her new life.  Kudos to the author for writing in my mind one of the best summer reads I have come across so far. 

I will admit as I was reading this book there were times that I truly wanted to smack Emma about the ears for her life choices that she made.  I gave her the grace because if I was in the situation that she was placed in I honestly don’t know how I would have truly reacted to it.  The writing style is so good and it flowed so incredibly well from chapter to chapter.  There were times when it kind of jumps back and forth with the timeline that I needed to switch back and forth and remember what was occurring, but that wasn’t very often.  The characters were written so well that I truly fell in love with all of them.  I could see them in my mind’s eye and her descriptions left no stone unturned.  The relationships that the main character develops and expands on are things that I could see in my own life.  Strained relationships with family and sisters.  Those with the ones you have past relationships with and how you navigate them.  My only complaint is that I really wanted an epilogue so I could see where the storyline leads after the book has come to a close.  Maybe there is enough of a story that they get a sequel who knows.