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elizabeth_lepore's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
lucyatoz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Grief and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol
grace33'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
3.75
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Cancer
katelynndzindzio's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
After an unfortunate accident, Jesse is pronounced dead. Emma begins the grief journey and after years of this she writes to Jesse.
"When you lose someone you love, it's hard to imagine that you'll ever feel better. That, one day, you'll manage to be in a good mood simply because the weather is nice or the barista at the coffee shop on the corner room and bridge your order." -Emma
However, after three years of being "dead" Jesse returns. Emma is faced the the impossible choice of being with Jesse (her husband) or Sam (her fiance).
"I don't think you're trying to figure out if you love Sam more or Jesse more. I think you're trying to figure out if you want to be the person you are with Jesse or you want to be the person you are with Sam." -Marie
Emma realizes that she is no longer the same person she was when she fell in love with Jesse. Jesse is no longer the same guy Emma loved. They can both still love each other but they might not just be for each other now.
"And what has confused me ever since I found out he was alive is now crystal clear: We are two people who are madly in love with our old selves. And that is not the same as being in love." - Emma
A truly impossible situation written beautifully. This one will definitely make you cry. What would you do?
Graphic: Blood, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness
bxnny's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Pregnancy
daniofthewood'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
4.5
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Abandonment, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Biphobia, Confinement, Alcohol, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia
gwenswoons'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? No
5.0
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, and Death
birtch'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
4.5
Graphic: Grief and Injury/Injury detail
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
xgabrielle_hx'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: Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Sexual content
Minor: Injury/Injury detail