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nicolecurlsuptoread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
📌 You’ll dig this if you like
Emma and Jesse were high school sweethearts, all the firsts! They build a life together away from their families and the day before their first wedding anniversary, Jesse takes a work trip and is assumed dead when his helicopter crashes in the Pacific.
Almost four years later, he calls Emma to tell her he’s alive and he’s coming home to her. Except, she’s engaged now to the guy who’s loved her since high school.
This book ruined me. I haven’t had a good book hangover in a while and One True Loves did it. It was devastating and tragic and beautiful and all the adjectives that can be used to describe a book that will stay with you.
The romance was secondary to the themes of loss, grief, and how to move forward. Then, how to choose between the loves of your life. What do you do when you’ve always believed in one true love, but you have two?
📌 What stood out
» The chapter when Emma goes back home. Moving from the story being in the first person, then as if it’s being narrated from above, like an out of body experience, helped me connect to the grief piece. That’s what it feels like, and it was perfectly captured.
» In the prologue, Emma talks about everyone’s life having a moment that splits it into before and after, pre and post. The poignancy of that concept was visceral for me. I know my moment and can recall it with stunning clarity. I was hooked by and connected with One True Loves from page 6.
📌 Moments
Let me leave you with this moral of the story quote:
"There is nothing more romantic than this. Holding the very person that you thought you lost, and knowing you'll never lose them again. I don't think that true love means your only love. I think true love means loving truly. Loving purely. Loving wholly."
Graphic: Grief, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
chelle22's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Infidelity, Medical content, Cancer, Self harm, Car accident, Cursing, and Grief
saraavowlerr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Medical content, Infidelity, and Grief
artemisvlassi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Death and Infidelity
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
plueschi77's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Gore
kaitlinlovesbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Infidelity and Grief
Minor: Medical content, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Death
cady_sass's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Side note: the entire premise of this book is borderline unbelievable but the least believable part is that book store manager and a music teacher can afford to live in Cambridge. And she commutes to Acton? And gets there with time to spare to have breakfast dates? Does she leave the house at 4am? Massachusetts people will get it, everyone else just live in blissful ignorance believing this is possible 🤣
Graphic: Body horror, Infidelity, Alcohol, Grief, Cursing, Death, Abandonment, and Sexual content
Ocean trauma, deep water, animal attackthebookpaiges's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Infidelity, and Medical trauma
hannibanani29's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infidelity
berglindsh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Grief and Death
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Medical content
life altering decision