One True Loves - Taylor Jenkins Reid (Review)

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genres: Adult Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
Publication date: June 7th 2016 
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Format: paperback, 352 pages
How I got it: My public library
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble 
My rating: 5/5 
 
From the author of Maybe in Another Life—named a People Magazine pick and a "Best Book of the Summer" by Glamour and USA Today—comes a breathtaking new love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life.

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.
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My thoughts:

Emma Blair married her high school sweetheart Jesse.  They both worked hard at their careers dealing with a lot of traveling and got to see the world.   On their first anniversary Jesse was in a helicopter crash and presumed dead.   Emma needs to move on with her life and after some time passes she decides to move home and run her parent’s bookstore.   Emma then starts to fall in love with Sam an old friend.

The book flows very naturally for me.  The author sets us up in present day and then moves back in time to where Emma and Jesse met.   We get to go through Emma’s life up until present day.   We get to learn a lot about the type of relationship she had with Jesse as well as Sam.  We get to see how Emma felt in these different situations and how she currently feels about what is going on.   Emma’s thoughts feel so natural throughout the book since we are dealing with lose, grief, and love the emotions are running high.

Things I love about this book is Emma the author does a great job creating her as a character.   We get a look at her background and history as well as how she is feeling in present day.    I love the tidbits that the author gives us with Emma, especially the family section because it shows how they developed into a very close family.  The author does a great job creating the relationships between all the characters.   When I was reading this book, I could feel the emotions coming through from the author’s writing.   Emma is a very strong main character she is going through a lot and just working on trying to figure everything out.  Emma must keep all her thoughts together and figure out what she wants.

 Sam might be a top ten book boyfriend.  He had previously liked Emma, but didn’t pursue it once she turned him down on one date.   Sam then comes back into her life at almost the right time.  He is very caring and loving to Emma.  Sam comes off to me as someone who loves with his whole heart and just wants what is best for Emma, even if it means letting her go.  I loved reading the parts about Sam as it showed how deeply he loves Emma.

Jesse is an interesting character in the book.  I don’t feel like we get as many emotions from him up front and then towards the end we get an in depth look at his character.   Jesse goes through so much during the book it can only be expected that he isn’t 100% ok, but he tries hard to go back to the way things where.  

I can say I loved the ending of this book.  It was what I wanted to happen and what I felt would naturally happen.   The author brings everything together so nicely at the end and makes a lot of points about love and how it is constantly evolving.

I would suggest this as a weekend read.  I got totally sucked into the book and had a hard time putting it down.  I wanted to know what was going to happen in the end since we are given the conflict right in the first chapter of the book.   The book is laid out perfectly that we get all the background and then we get to see how someone can move forward. 

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About the Author

Taylor Jenkins Reid is the author of One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do and Forever, Interrupted. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alex, and their daughter, Lilah. You can follow her on Twitter @tjenkinsreid.

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