“Good things don’t wait until you’re ready. Sometimes they come right before, when you’re almost there. And I figured when that happens, you can let them pass by like a bus not meant for you. Or you can get ready. So I got ready.”
Book: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Book: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
December 27, 2023
December 27, 2023
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.
I picked this book up because I had really enjoyed 2 of Taylor Jenkins Reid's other books--Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Both books explored specific time periods and experiences living in the spotlight in really evocative, intriguing ways. I also was alternately intrigued and annoyed by the title of this book--One True Loves? How could it be singular and plural at the same time? But there's the true intrigue of this book, for our main character, Emma, had the extreme good fortune to find her "true love" not once, but twice. But then, she was put into the impossible position of having to choose between the two.
I enjoyed the character of Emma--in her, I saw much of my younger self, wanting nothing more than to escape my small town and the expectations people had of me, wanting to travel far, to see the world, to experience everything I possibly could. As I read her story, I also found myself torn, like she was, and going back and forth between her two loves. Who will she choose, ultimately? Who would I choose, if I had the choice to make? No matter which direction she goes, someone's heart will be broken.
Will Emma find her "happily ever after"? And who will be standing next to her as her leading man? One True Loves is a book that keeps you guessing and makes you think about who you really are and what you really want in life.
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