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.
Reviewed by Shannon
5 STARS
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid is all-encompassing, it’s all-consuming, it’s wholly and utterly captivating. I was transported into Emma’s world, and lived, and relived, every emotion she did.
This book takes us on an incredibly heart-wrenching journey- as Emma must decide if she stays with the Sam, the man who she’s now building a life with, the man who helped her heal and showed her that loving again was possible, or does she go back to her husband Jesse, the man she shared the world with, the man who fought to come back to her? Love triangles are usually a trope that I run fast and far from, but I am so glad I didn’t let that deter me from reading this book. I would have missed out on such an amazing story…a story of love, of life, of growth. I loved Jesse and Sam equally, this wasn’t a case of #TeamJesse or #TeamSam. I wanted both of these amazing men to find their happiness, be it with Emma or without. My heart ached for each of them, and for Emma, as she held their hearts in her hands. I didn’t envy her one bit.
“It didn’t seem easy, the idea of loving someone again. But it did seem possible.”
I can’t imagine being in the predicament (that seems such a simple word for what she’s dealing with) Emma found herself in…after mourning the loss of her beloved husband, working through her grief, finding herself again, and allowing herself to love again, to learn that her husband had been alive all this time, trying desperately to get home to her. What would you do?!?
Arc received courtesy of Atria Books via NetGalley, and reviewed for The Book Enthusiast.
Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author and essayist from Acton, Massachusetts. She is the author of Forever, Interrupted, After I Doand Maybe In Another Life. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alex, and her dog, Rabbit. You can follow her on Twitter @TJenkinsReid.
Website: www.
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Twitter: www.twitter.com/tjenk
Instagram: @tjenkinsreid
