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A review by aksmith92
One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- 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
Wow. What a NIGHTMARE this book would be to live through. Emma, our main character, marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. He is adventurous, spontaneous, and filled with wanderlust, just like Emma. They leave after high school to attend college in California and build a beautiful life of travel and companionship. They marry, and just a year after, Jesse goes on a work trip to Alaska, where a helicopter goes down. He's presumed dead.
Flash forward 3.5 years later, and Emma receives a call from Jesse saying he's home. The thing is - Emma is engaged to Sam, someone she also knew from high school and is the stable, stoic, and comfy side to Emma's past. Emma has changed significantly since Jesse's "death." She moved back home, took over her parent's bookstore, and indeed WENT through it after Jesse's "death." It took her two years to be a functional human and let herself go on a date with Sam.
The novel is broken up into pieces - Emma as a teenager and her love with Jesse; Emma running into Sam again two years after Jesse's "death;" and then the bulk of the novel is her grappling with what in the world to do now that she has a fiancé AND a husband. The most unrealistic thing to me in this novel is that she snagged and fell in love with two guys from HIGH SCHOOL (lol). Honestly, this type of situation had my anxiety at a LEVEL. This is bananas - having to "choose" between two people you love so much. Both Jesse and Sam are great humans, and TJR does a good job making them human - there isn't a bias towards one of them where you KNOW for sure who will end up with Emma. Honestly, I think TJR did a good job making it about more than "who does she pick?"
With that said, it's readable, but everything felt rushed. I didn't get to read about how Emma and Jesse fell in love, nor did I get to with Sam and Emma. While we got snippets into their lives and what they meant to each other, I didn't feel it. Likely, this was due to keep the novel relatively short and sweet and to focus on the relationship-building of when Jesse comes home. But, it just made me less invested in the relationships, and therefore, just itching to get to the end to see how it happened.
Most of the novel read like a 3-star read to me because of all the rushing and my complicated feelings about Emma's character. However, my favorite quote is actually from Marie, Emma's sister:
Flash forward 3.5 years later, and Emma receives a call from Jesse saying he's home. The thing is - Emma is engaged to Sam, someone she also knew from high school and is the stable, stoic, and comfy side to Emma's past. Emma has changed significantly since Jesse's "death." She moved back home, took over her parent's bookstore, and indeed WENT through it after Jesse's "death." It took her two years to be a functional human and let herself go on a date with Sam.
The novel is broken up into pieces - Emma as a teenager and her love with Jesse; Emma running into Sam again two years after Jesse's "death;" and then the bulk of the novel is her grappling with what in the world to do now that she has a fiancé AND a husband. The most unrealistic thing to me in this novel is that she snagged and fell in love with two guys from HIGH SCHOOL (lol). Honestly, this type of situation had my anxiety at a LEVEL. This is bananas - having to "choose" between two people you love so much. Both Jesse and Sam are great humans, and TJR does a good job making them human - there isn't a bias towards one of them where you KNOW for sure who will end up with Emma. Honestly, I think TJR did a good job making it about more than "who does she pick?"
With that said, it's readable, but everything felt rushed. I didn't get to read about how Emma and Jesse fell in love, nor did I get to with Sam and Emma. While we got snippets into their lives and what they meant to each other, I didn't feel it. Likely, this was due to keep the novel relatively short and sweet and to focus on the relationship-building of when Jesse comes home. But, it just made me less invested in the relationships, and therefore, just itching to get to the end to see how it happened.
Most of the novel read like a 3-star read to me because of all the rushing and my complicated feelings about Emma's character. However, my favorite quote is actually from Marie, Emma's sister:
"But the problem isn't who you love or if you love both, I don't think. I think the problem is that you aren't sure who you are. You are a different person now than you were before you lost Jesse. It changed you, fundamentally...I don't think you're trying to figure out if you love Sam 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."
Near the end, I felt it was more of a 3.5/5 stars because the wrap up was much smoother.