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One True Loves

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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.

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 7, 2016

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About the author

Taylor Jenkins Reid

22 books179k followers
Taylor Jenkins Reid is the New York Times bestselling author of Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones & The Six, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as well as four other novels. She lives in Los Angeles. You can follow her on Instagram @tjenkinsreid.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53,827 reviews
Profile Image for TheCrazyWorldOfABookLover.
362 reviews892 followers
February 11, 2023
I KNOW I KNOW the minority once again.

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I'm conflicted with this story. I loved the first half of this, but after about 70% or so, there were things I didn't understand and some things I just didn't enjoy.

As you may have read from the blurb, Emma and Jesse meet as teenagers, fall in love, and marry. But after a helicopter crash, Jesse goes missing and is assumed to be dead. Fast forward 3 years, Emma moves back home and is reacquainted with a childhood friend, Sam. They start to date, fall in love, and eventually become engaged. But a few months after their engagement, Jesse is found and returns home.

In the beginning, when the characters are in their teenage years, I loved how the author unfolded how they all met and the years that followed. I found the dry witty humor refreshing and I just immediately connected with the story. I really liked Emma’s personality and I loved how insightful it was.

Now what didn't work for me is going to be a little harder to explain without spoiling anything. But the last 70% or so was just so ….convenient, and was wrapped up way too neatly in a nice little bow. The way things ended and so easily came together didn't seem realistic to me. At all. I also didn't understand Emma's decisions toward the end. In fact, they angered me quite a bit. Again, I can't say much more without spoiling some parts, so I'll leave a spoiler tag with details for those who want to know below.

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All in all, this was an enjoyable read at first, though I didn’t agree with how a lot of things were handled later on. I do think books like this that involve a sort of love triangle / cheating are a tricky thing to write. Naturally, people are going to pick sides and find the person in the middle selfish and not always understand their decisions. Which is what the main issue was for me. While I can’t deny that the author is a talented writer, I enjoyed the first half so much more than the last.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review



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Profile Image for emma.
2,046 reviews65k followers
December 18, 2023
The thing about this book is that it stressed me out so much and made me so upset that I would legitimately rather live my entire life alone, perhaps on a deserted island of some kind, either of the proverbial or literal variety, than live a single day in the protagonist's life.

Which is actually a very freeing thought. My life has been much easier since this, I'll give you that. Spontaneously evolved past the desire to date men, which is cool. Have more time for my hobbies.

But anyway. Back to the horrors that occured here.

Our main character's husband DIES. And then she falls in love with a DIFFERENT MAN, after MANY YEARS of SUFFERING. And then her husband is UN-DEAD.

(As in, no longer dead. Not as in zombie. That's a very different book.)

I like Taylor Jenkins Reid books a lot (or, okay, enjoy reading them more accurately), but I truly wonder at the evils of her dark and twisty mind.

Bottom line: A NIGHTMARE.

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pre-review

reading this stressed me out so much and made me so sad that it made my life seem fully blissful by comparison.

which...is technically a good thing?

review to come / 3 stars

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currently-reading updates

this book is about a girl named emma who loves books and lives in boston and dates a guy named sam...

i am emma. i love books. i live in boston. i have dated MULTIPLE sams (don't ask).

so i guess my destiny is that my husband will be presumed dead but later reappear?

good to know.

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tbr review

dear taylor jenkins reid, god of fluffy books, please pull me out of my reading slump. amen
April 10, 2022
4.75 ⭐️ IM IN PAIN!!!! This book was devastatingly beautiful in a way that only Taylor Jenkins Reid can do. I’m usually not a fan of ‘love triangles’ but THIS is how it’s done.. take notes Edward, Bella & Jacob! ok anyways. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I couldn’t do anything until i finished it. I also couldn’t bring myself to decide who I wanted Emma to end up with? and I felt like no matter who she chose, I would always be a little sad and hoping for the other. But I loved the ending, and the story and the lesson it conveyed. Will TJR ever write a book that doesn’t make you wanna scream, smile, and cry all at the same time? probably not!

“I don’t think that true love means your only love. I think true love means loving truly. loving purely. loving wholly.”
Profile Image for jessica.
2,566 reviews42.8k followers
September 11, 2019
this, unfortunately, isnt quite the great cathartic tearjerker that a person sometimes needs, buuuut it does have its charming moments.

i think my main issue is with the way the story is set up - the first quarter is flashbacks to emma and jesse, the second quarter is flashbacks to emma and sam, and the last half is present time with both. i just think with a situation so emotionally devastating as finding out your husband is back from the dead, but also being engaged to someone else, there just wasnt enough depth present to read about. the flashbacks are kind of just a highlight reel of each the relationships, very brief moments of love, so its difficult to become attached to anyone because there just isnt much to get invested in. and im not a fan of emma, so i only ended up feeling bad for the two guys for what she put them through. oh well.

this book also didnt end the way i was wanting it to (i mean, lets be real. its going to take much more than three days to come to a life changing decision. i wasnt really buying that emma knew exactly what she wanted just after one weekend away. emotions and feelings are so much complicated than that) but, the more i think about it, the more i guess im okay with it. because it is a really sweet message, a message that i dont think would have been possible had it ended the way i was hoping. regardless of this not quite being the story i was wanting, this is really sweet and quite touching overall!

3.5 stars
Profile Image for Barbie.
109 reviews342 followers
March 17, 2019

My thoughts in a nutshell
I'm deeply in love with this book. One True Loves is my new favorite book. It tells you what I really feel about this book.

The story is about…
Skip over this point if you don't like the sneak peek.
Emma has a decent life. She is madly in love with her husband, she lives for her dreams. One day her husband Jesse got an opportunity and he accepted it. He went out to the airport to travel and saw a glacier but Jesse never came back. Everyone thought Jesse was dead. Emma's life turned upside down, and a few years later she found love again. One day Emma got a call and she found out Jesse is alive and he is coming home. What will happen? Emma has to make a difficult decision. Sam or Jesse? A new or the old love? Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?

What impressed me the most 😊
If I would say that I love everything in this book then how big of a fangirl would I be? Because I'm in love with this book so much. (teeth)
I'm crazy about this trope when the couple split up by an unexpected factor and a few years later they meet again. I'm not joking, when I was reading I was constantly asking the people around me what would they do if this hapenned to them? No one could answer me because it is a tough decision. There is no right choice here because someone's heart will break.
I like Emma's character development. She changed a lot. Her attitude on life turned.

When she was 20 she wanted two things;
1) stay away from her parents' bookshop and her hometown
2) travel around the world.
Now, she is 31 years old and she wants the opposite.

The time didn't stop when she lost her husband. She had to stand up and move forward even if it was painful. With time everyone changes; me and you too.
I adored the ending. It was a great closing. I agree with the explanation. I was particularly pleased with the last few pages. To be honest, I cried a bit, nah it was beautiful.
I completely felt Emma's feeling. The grief is hard but meeting someone who was assumed dead is even harder. I just couldn’t stop reading this story, and I couldn’t stop thinking about them and questioning what would happen in the next pages.

Oh man! Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing style is stunning. I've started to highlight my favorite quotes and I noticed I highlighted the whole book, lol. Unfortunately, my dearest quote includes some spoilers.



But I collected some quotes without spoilers too:

“When you love someone, it seeps out of everything you do, it bleeds into everything you say, it becomes so ever-present, that eventually it becomes ordinary to hear, no matter how extraordinary it is to feel.”

“Good things don't wait until you're ready. Sometimes they come right before, when you're almost there.”

“I am who I am because I loved you once. ”

Make a conclusion
I gave it 5 stars because it was perfect for my soul. I would love to read more from Taylor Jenkins Reid.
I recommend it to anyone who loves the romance genre with a hard decision.


How did I imagine the book vibes?


Profile Image for Jennifer Masterson.
200 reviews1,295 followers
June 28, 2016
This is a 5 Star audiobook! Julia Whelan is my favorite female narrator! She takes books to higher levels! The book itself is 5 Stars for giving me all the feels!!! This is my second novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid and I loved it even more then I did the first, "Maybe in Another Life". "One True Loves" is the perfect summer read!!! It's chick lit, but boy is it well written, smart, and touching!

Emma is engaged to Sam. She is a widow. Her husband, Jesse, died in a helicopter crash, but wait, it gets complicated because Jesse is still alive! (This is not a spoiler. We learn it right away). The themes are a bit familiar. Let's say Castaway/The Notebook. If you can get past that I think you just might really enjoy this book.

I am just coming off a heavy read so this worked well for me. I truly loved it!

Highly recommended!!!
Profile Image for SK.
399 reviews5,680 followers
January 6, 2023
"I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I always have. You and I...we fit like the gears of a machine, like interlocking pieces that join together effortlessly, turning in tandem, perfectly in sync."

Devastatingly beautiful read. I LOVED it! It's easily going to be one of my favourites and I'm gonna pick it up someday again to experience the emotions, the heartfelt writing, drama and the two true loves.

Firstly I want to say how truly shocked I am to see the top reviews for this book are 3star ratings. But anyway, every book works differently for everyone.

So the storyline is obviously intense, nerve wrecking. I was nervous to read it, but once I got into the flow of the book in about 60 pages, it was just so damn easy to like. I could not put it down. The way TJR wrote it, I found myself lost in it. It's definitely a thought provoking book tbh. You will wonder about the same things our FMC- Emma does. And it's not easy questions. Emma is full of life, and personality. So easy to like. I liked how her relationship with her family grows and deepens as she matures. The guys Jesse and Sam are such fantastic guys. So charming and supportive. I loved them. It was so hard to lean towards one. The problem the three of them face is so delicately handled, I gotta give it to TJR👏👏

It does deal with grief and loss of a loved one. So feel free to skip this one if it makes you uncomfortable.

I definitely recommend it. Have tissues ready, it can be a tear jerker towards the end. Also, so many quote worthy lines 🤌🤌

Question- If your dead husband showed up years later when you're already engaged to a man you deeply love too, who would you choose? 👀😉
I'm so curious to see what y'all think lol
Profile Image for David Putnam.
Author 17 books1,750 followers
October 13, 2023
This is an old trope revitalized with the wonderful voice the author instills in the main character. I’ve said it before in other reviews of this author’s books: she could write a grocery list and I’d read it. The voice is so natural I just fell into the story and didn’t want to leave the character. What this author also does well is relate to the reader much like Stephen King does. I think this is Reid’s secret, how she is wildly popular. She describes places and events that relate to a wide core of readers. And oddly, in this book her character works at a bookstore but hates to read. What Reid also does so well is give the reader a confidential--almost voyeuristic peek into the intimacy of relationships, how they work, the tenderness, the unbridled love. She does it with just enough details to make the experience real and never overpowers the prose.
The premise of this book has been done before (what premise hasn’t been redone) I remember it best in a Doris Day movie. However, that story worked as a comedy. One True Loves is dramatic. Reid motivates the relationships masterfully and causes such conflict that the reader can’t put the book down. The reader has to find out how the main character is going to extricate herself from this impossible situation. Someone is going to get emotionally crushed. As with Reid’s other books this is a wonderful read and I highly recommend it.
Side note: In one chapter, Reid shifted from first person to a second person point of view (Second person not third, yikes). This was extremely for jarring for me. I didn’t care for it and if it had gone on for more than one chapter I would’ve put the book down.
David Putnam Author of The Bruno Johnson Series.
Profile Image for Aestas Book Blog.
1,059 reviews75.2k followers
May 27, 2016
::: FULL REVIEW NOW POSTED :::


“I think it’s a good sign, though,” he said, “that I was crazy about you at sixteen and I’m still crazy about you now.”

This was one of those books that I knew I had to read from the moment I heard about it. Having already been a huge fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid's books, I knew it would be well-written and I was so excited to see where she'd take this story. I'll show you the blurb first so you can understand why I was so intrigued...
From the author of Maybe in Another Life 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?

Usually I like to find out everything I can about a book before reading it. I'm not a fan of love triangles (it's very rare for them to be written in a way that I'm okay with) but this particular story intrigued me because it's not a traditional triangle at all. Emma doesn't fall in love with two guys at once. She falls in love with them at different times in her life, with absolutely no imaginable possibility that they'd ever cross paths. Except everything changed when the impossible happened... and the husband who she thought had died returned home. And now she was faced with the insurmountably hard choice of going back to the man she'd loved and lost, or staying with the man she'd fallen in love with after. Who was her one true love?
He smiled. “Think of all the people in the world,” he said, tucking my longest hair behind my ear. “And I was lucky enough to find you twice.”

Now, this whole book is very well-written. I have tons of quote highlighted everywhere throughout the book. But I wanted to bring special attention to how seriously fantastic a job this author did of specifically describing the way that Emma healed after Jesse's disappearance. You'll see exactly what I mean when you read it. But there's this "section" of the book where the whole writing style changes and it. is. perfect. It had this rhythm and momentum to it that so flawlessly yet powerfully conveyed exactly what Emma was going through. The best way I can describe it is by calling it a 'montage with words' — you know like how they'll do in movies or trailers where they show all these clips together with music — and when I got to the last line of it, that was the moment that I shed my first tear. It was beautiful writing. Just beautiful.

Like I was mentioning before, I normally want to know certain things in advance of reading. Like the main question here: who does she end up with?! But this time... I didn't. Instead I did something that I almost never do and I just trusted the author and went in blind. And I strongly suggest that you do the same. I'm not going to give you any hints about the ending here and I caution you against finding out any spoilers. Here's what I'll tell you... It had exactly the ending I wanted! But that's it. Now just trust... and dive in!
“I don’t expect you to stop loving him, just because you love me.”

The whole situation in this book was just so unprecedented — both of this woman's past and present loves somehow in her life at the same time even though one of them had supposedly died. If Jesse had never disappeared, she would never have had the opportunity to fall in love with Sam. But if Jesse had actually died, she would have certainly loved Sam for the rest of her life. Both were good men. Neither one is ever made out to be a 'bad guy' (a decision for which I applaud the author because it made the story seem much more real when there was no 'easy' solution). At different times in her life and under different circumstances, she'd fallen in love with both of them. She loved them both. How could anyone choose?!
“I love you.”

“I know you do,” he says. “But I’m not the only one you love. And you can only have one. And it might not be me.”

I'm so interested to see what you guys think about this story. Personally, I was torn at first about who I wanted her to end up with. After reading the blurb, I formed one opinion. That was the one I went into the book with. I wanted her to end up ***** for sure!! But then the more I read, the less sure of my choice I became. By page 100, I actually formed my final choice. I wanted her to end up with ***** without a doubt in my mind. And I stayed with that decision right up until the end. And guess what?? She chose him!!!!! Oh, the relief!
“I have something really important to tell you,” he said. “Are you ready? It’s really important. It’s breaking news.”

“Tell me.���

“I’ll love you forever.”

“I already knew that,” I said. “And I’ll love you forever, too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll love you until we’re so old we can barely walk on our own and we’ll have to get walkers and put those cut up yellow tennis balls on them. I’ll love you past that, actually. I’ll love you until the end of time.”

The message at the end was really beautiful. If I tell you what it is, that'll kind of give things away so I'll just let you discover it on your own. But the last few lines of the book brought happy tears to my eyes.

This is one of those stories that'll tear your heart in two directions as you read and make you really think about how you want the story to end. It's a bittersweet and yet deeply heart-warming romance that takes a really intriguing look at the concept of love. Can a person have more than one true love?
It has always been him.
My whole life.
It has always, always been him.

Rating: 4.5 stars. Standalone.

Pre-order ONE TRUE LOVES (Kindle)
Pre-order ONE TRUE LOVES (Paperback)

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Profile Image for Christy.
4,081 reviews34.6k followers
May 28, 2023
4.5 stars!!!

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Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author that has a talent for making you think about her stories and your life in general. This is the second book of hers I’ve read, and my mind is going a mile a minute. One True Loves is definitely a book that will make you think. It also gave me all the feels, which I love. It’s a book about a woman who had an impossible choice to make. I don’t envy this heroine at all. Being in love twice isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…

Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse, and they are happy. They’re in love and doing what they always wanted to do. Traveling the world. Then something traumatic happens. They’ve only been married a year, and Jesse goes missing in the Pacific ocean. He’s lost forever, so Emma thinks. She moves back home and settles running the family business. After years pass, she moves on. It’s time. The grief has consumed her for far too long.
You start to understand that grief is chronic. That it’s more bout remission and relapse than it is about a cure. What that means to you is that you can’t simply wait for it to be over. You have to move through it, like swimming an undertow.

Emma runs into Sam, a friend from high school, and sparks fly. Emma will always love Jesse, but he’s gone. She realizes that maybe she wasn’t meant to only have one love.

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What she and Sam have is different than what she and Jesse had, but it’s just as strong. She’s settled with Sam. She loves who she is with him and can see a future. They become engaged and things are looking up for them. Until she gets a phone call from a ghost- her long lost husband. It shakes her to her core.

Emma now has a husband and a fiancé. Her past, her present, they are both colliding. As I said before, I don’t envy Emma at all. Her choice is impossible to make. I personally loved both Sam and Jesse. I knew my heart was going to break no matter who she chose.
“Just… just do me a favor.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t stay with me if you want to be with him,” he says. “Don’t do that to me.”
This story really toyed with my emotions. I was a mess while reading. I cried more than once. I bit my nails to the quick. The angst really got to me at times. Then there came a point where I came to terms with what was happening and I was okay with it- then .

Reid’s writing is top notch and this story is equal parts heartfelt and heart wrenching. For those readers who are looking for something that will make you feel, make you think and want to read a story about finding yourself and true love- pick this one up. This is a book I will never forget!

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Profile Image for lila ✽.
143 reviews2,249 followers
December 31, 2023
this was a book i more learnt things from than truly enjoyed as an experience of reading. it taught me to know when to let go and when to hold on. taylor’s writing is an experience in itself ⸺ it’s beautifully expressive and simplistic in the best ways. a few things i felt while reading this:

the fact is that there is no one true love in someone’s life. i know, i’m a romantic and i’m supposed to believe in soulmatism and fate and destiny. but it’s a fact. the truth is that there are many loves in one’s life, and one will grab your heart for a lifetime and cut it wide open and make it bleed and split you wide open in the best ways.
✦ this was just so gutwrenchingly real. it made me feel so much, think about so much.
✦ the truth is, fundamentally, if you have to choose between two people you think you’re in love with, it’s not about who you love more, but which version of yourself you like more when you’re with that person. what that person makes you feel.
✦ there is such a thing as right time right place, and also wrong time right place. and while one can be the love of someone’s life at one point in time, things change. people change. and it’s a lesson to be learnt.
every type of love impacts you and your life. even love that doesn’t last. your past love, your present love, your future love. because in some way or another, they have touched your life and have changed it ⸺ for better, or for worse.
Profile Image for Christina Loeffler.
147 reviews17.3k followers
February 5, 2019
4.5, I stayed up too late reading this in one sitting - once you pick it up, you wont want to put it down stars!!!

Full review featured on my blog Recipe & a Read!

Emma Blair fell in love with her future husband Jesse Lerner the moment she laid eyes on him at a swim competition her freshman year of high-school. Jesse is popular, handsome, charming and seemingly completely out of Emma’s reach. Living in a small town in Massachusetts, Emma’s parents own a local bookstore and through the bookstore Emma meets Sam. As Emma and Jesse grow and change, their love blossoms and becomes the all-consuming love of high-school sweethearts.

It’s a scary thought, isn’t it? That every single person on this planet could lose their one true love and live to love again? It means the one you love could love again if they lost you.

After graduating high-school Emma and Jesse set off as far away from home as they can and move to California. They’re married and living their *best lives* traveling the world together and falling deeper in love with who they’re each becoming, along with one another. When Jesse jets off for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, the day before their first wedding anniversary neither Emma nor Jesse realize this will change both their lives forever.

As Emma grapples with this profound loss, she moves home to work in her parents book store. As she heals and grows into this new person, who lost her husband in such a tragic way she reconnects with her old friend Sam. A new, different but profound love grows between them and just as they get engaged the other shoe drops. Emma receives a call from a voice she thought she'd never hear again - Jesse is alive, not dead, and he's back and wants to see the wife he's been trying to get back to this whole time. Only that wife, is now engaged to someone else.

People aren’t stagnant. We evolve in reaction to our pleasures and our pains.

I’ve had a really hard time fully deciding how I feel about this book. When I first read Reid’s work (Evelyn Hugo) last year I was immediately enamored. I don’t read a lot of straight romance so I didn’t get around to picking up more of her works super quickly. One True Loves was one that I kept re-visiting but couldn’t bring myself to pick up because of my own irrational fears. However, I’m really happy I waited because I really adored this book. I picked this up as I was getting into bed, thinking it’d help me wind down and go to sleep. What ended up happening was me staying up until two in the morning because I couldn’t put this down.

You can tell I am the one taking the picture. You can tell, just from the smile on his face, how much he loves me.

In the end, this had all the elements of a great romantic drama. I laughed, I cried, I felt inspired and heartbroken exactly when Reid wanted me to. As someone who has really only ever truly loved one person, I’m still not someone who believes in “one true love” and the premise of this drew me in immediately and didn’t let me go until the very last page. I loved the writing, the characters and the story – all of which were grounded in reality and incredibly well-developed. There were a couple of little implausibilities (like Jesse’s survival) that ultimately weren’t enough to sway my overall enjoyment but were there none-the-less. The more works I read by Reid the more I enjoy her masterful story-telling and I’m so excited to continue to read more by her.
Profile Image for Bel Rodrigues.
Author 3 books20.9k followers
February 22, 2021
3.5 ⭐

até os 80%, a nota seria três estrelas. o final foi bem mais emocionante do que eu imaginava, principalmente quando a emma discorre sobre quem ela se tornou e como isso diz respeito às conquistas e evolução DELA apenas, sem homem sendo o centro das atenções.

é um livro muito bem escrito, mas nem isso me fez ficar tão grudada a ponto de considerar a leitura fluída. achei entediante desde quando o jesse volta, sendo que era pra ser o contrário. ele é insuportável e não teve empatia no mundo que me fizesse pensar diferente. entendo que a personalidade dele foi construída dessa maneira pra que tenhamos, junto com a emma, a noção de que as coisas mudam e nem sempre gostamos dessas mudanças. acontece que, pra mim, foi só um obstáculo no processo de leitura. eu queria terminar pra saber se tinha "algo a mais" do que o que parecia óbvio, mas algumas situações e draaaaama (muito drama MESMO) me afastaram da história.

não me surpreendeu, não acho que ele figure entre os melhores da autora e também não acho justo compararmos com evelyn hugo ou daisy jones. são histórias totalmente diferentes, tanto em enredo quanto em narrativa.
Profile Image for Elyse Walters.
4,010 reviews11.2k followers
May 3, 2017
Update: The Kindle download is a $2.99 special today. I liked this book -- but what I especially enjoyed was the 'audiobook' narrator, also. I didn't 'read' this book. (could add 'audio' to the price)

I notice that Taylor Jenkins Reid has a new release --not in stores 'yet' --but soon-- (saw it a couple of months ago on Netgalley) -- but didn't request it --because I have enjoy 'two' of her other books by 'audio' --so much -- that I'm going to wait and listen to her new book in audio-form. Reid chooses great narrators....
but thought I'd mention the 'daily-deal' today for those who might be interested. The story had me hooked 'with' the audible.

Audiobook.....
FABULOUS NARRATOR!!!

Jesse has been gone for three years.....considered dead from a helicopter crash....but he is alive and returning home to Emma....his wife.

Emma was in shock - and experienced horrific loss when the crash happened. Her grieving process was almost unbearable. At some point she began to be ready to let go of the sadness - not the memories- but she was ready to put the pain down... only come back to visit that pain & loss 'at times'.
She knew she had to look forward -- to find joy in her life.
She worked hard moving through her loss with Jesse.
When she was ready to take a step forward, she wrote a -cleansing-phantom-spiritual type letter to Jesse, (then tucked it away in a drawer).... saying how sorry she was that they never would have the chance to complete their dreams together. She asked for his blessing to move forward with an open heart. She wants another love like she had with him.

Emma accepts a date with Sam.
Sam and Emma date for about a year. They get engaged to marry.
About a month before the wedding, Emma gets word that Jesse is alive. He is coming home.

Emma now has a husband and a fiancé.

I found this story really engaging. It was more authentic than 'silly'. Yes, I'm sure it's considered woman's fiction - but I am a women....and I liked it. So, sue me! The Audiobook...'especially' enhanced this story. One afternoon I drove up to a favorite local 'kinda-secret' hilly trail high up on the mountain...with ranges of hills and views to keep the terrain interesting. I started at noon - finished just before 3pm..listening to this book the 'entire' time....(still had more to listen to later), but point is .. I never once switched to music during those 3 hours. The 'voice' of the storytelling was so natural...it became the perfect blend - intriguing ease -with the natural beauty around me. Lovely experience.

Emma loved both men -- but what man will she choose? The process in which she chooses -- was honest.
I suppose as I describe this story, it sounds kinda schlocky...but I'm guessing even a few men would have enjoyed this audiobook if they were walking next to me - listening- looking out at the open horizon. The voice narrator was a pro. Audiobook-listening, I'm discovering is an art - all the colors must match up....the novel itself and the reader -- and THE TYPE of book.
I consider myself still somewhat a newbie, but audiobooks definitely has a place. I still don't really consider it reading. It's not the same. At one time, I was sure I would hate audiobooks: never do it I said. Memoirs by the author tend to be a good risk worth taking -non-fiction varies if you like the topic and the reader....
And fiction is the rare breed. It's fabulous 'only' when the reader is fabulous.
For fiction audiobooks, the voice narrator almost needs to be slightly better than the novel itself. Example was: "City On Fire", by Garth Risk Hallberg.
And, like "City on Fire", it's how I feel about "One True Loves", too. Kudos to the author Taylor Jenkins Reid, but I must say, her audible reader enhanced her story!

I was left with a couple of questions, after listening to this story....
Does anyone know of a similar situation in real life??? It must be possible- and if so...I'm curious about the details...
And
Last: An inside funny for those who have read this book:
....."do not leave a note on your parents kitchen table when coming back home at 2am in the morning to sleep in your own room"!!!!
Profile Image for Lucia.
737 reviews888 followers
April 26, 2016
WARNING:
I rarely use spoilers in my reviews but I couldn’t do without them this time. But don’t worry, they are all tagged and they are storyline spoilers only. There are no names of guys mentioned in spoilers so you won’t find out that happened to Jesse or Sam even if you read spoilers.

RANTY REVIEW:



One True Loves started with great intro and I truly liked scenes from Emma’s past. But once story caught up with present, it went downhill pretty fast. All I got was unhealthy relationships and love triangle that made me feel disgusted with heroine instead of feeling sorry for her. I read this book because blurb promised emotional story. And “emotional” it was, just not in the way that I had expected…

Just to make things clear before I explain why I hated this story, there is one thing you should know about me – indecisive and selfish heroine is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to books. And Emma was exactly that.

I get it, heroine of this novel was in special and very peculiar situation. I can’t even imagine how I would feel if I widowed, mourned my husband and fell in love again only to find out that my husband wasn’t dead after all. It’s crazy situation so I understand that Emma was confused. But instead of facing situation like an adult and making mature decision, she did stupid thing after stupid thing that hurt everyone involved.

The way Emma dealt with the situation and played with other people’s feelings and prides angered me tremendously on personal level. I mean, if she wasn’t sure who of the two guys was her “true love” or with whom she wanted to spend rest of her life, she should have taken some time to think it through or something instead of I just couldn’t condone or understand such behavior. And I can’t call such story romantic or emotional. The only emotion I felt was disgust and I’m sure that author aimed to achieve different emotion. Heroine didn’t have backbone , one of her “loved ones” was a pushover and the other guy too pushy. Simply said, none of main characters won me over.

I don’t deny that writing was high-level and story had nice flow to it, but storyline and characters evoked only negative emotions in me. And since I contemplated to DNF this novel couple of times (and probably would if it wasn’t review copy), I can’t bring myself to rate it any higher than 2 stars. I admit that Taylor Jenkins Reid is talented writer but personally, this story isn’t my cuppa. If you don’t mind love triangles, cheating and indecisive heroine, go for this book. Otherwise stay very very far away from it.

*ARC provided by publisher as an exchange for honest review*

MORE REVIEWS ON MY BLOG Reading Is My Breathing

Profile Image for Chelsea (chelseadolling reads).
1,494 reviews20.2k followers
February 28, 2019
Re-read 2/27/19: Hi hello I still love TJR a whole heckin' ton. No one is surprised lmao

Original read 1/8/18: Hi, my name is Chelsea and I have become OBSESSED with Taylor Jenkins Reid. Omg. I loved this.
Profile Image for Isa Cantos (Crónicas de una Merodeadora).
1,009 reviews41.7k followers
December 31, 2022
“Just because something isn’t meant to last a lifetime doesn’t mean it wasn’t meant to be”.


Debo confesar que tenía mis dudas con Taylor Jenkins Reid después de que leí Malibu Rising y me aburrí, pero Los dos amores de mi vida me encantó e incluso me hizo llorar. Sí, lo confieso.

Aquí nos encontramos con Emma, una chica que en sus veintes se casa con Jesse, su amor del colegio. Juntos viven una vida alejada de las expectativas de sus familias, viajando por el mundo y conociendo nuevos lugares. Han estado juntos muchísimos años, pero cuando se acerca el aniversario de su boda, a Jesse le ofrecen ir a grabar un documental a Alaska, cosa que el acepta. La cosa es que, en el último trayecto para llegar allí, el helicóptero en el que iba desaparece… Emma, por supuesto, queda destrozada, pero después de un tiempo de duelo, decide volver al pueblo de sus padres y asentarse en la vida segura que siempre habían pensado para ella. Años después, con ella ya en sus treintas, se reencuentra con Sam, otro amigo de la infancia y se enamora de él. Los dos son muy felices y se comprometen, pero las cosas se van a poner tensas cuando, de repente, una llamada le revela a Emma que Jesse ha reaparecido, que sobrevivió al accidente y que logró volver después de muchos años.

La verdad es que el único misterio del libro es con quién se quedará Emma al final, pero me fascinó cómo Taylor Jenkins Reid jugó con los tiempos, con ir al pasado y volver al presente, para contarnos toda esta historia. Es increíble cómo, poco a poco, nos damos cuenta de cómo Emma conoció a Jesse, cómo empezaron a salir, cómo se enamoraron y cómo todo era absolutamente hermoso. Y es igual de cool ver cómo Emma, después de pasar un tiempo destrozada por la pérdida, se dio la oportunidad de conocer de nuevo a Sam, de volver a sentir cosas por alguien. En serio amé todo ese proceso de ir y volver, de ver cómo las dos historias de amor de Emma eran únicas, poderosas, bonitas, sanas.

Y es que creo que esta es una de las mejores fortalezas del libro. Taylor Jenkins Reid no crea a dos personajes masculinos desiguales para ponernos las cosas fáciles a los lectores y saber a quién apoyar cuando sucede la revelación. No, para nada. Tanto Jesse como Sam son los mejores hombres que una mujer podría esperar encontrarse en la vida, se los juro. Los dos aman a Emma con cada fibra de su ser, son increíbles, apasionados, sinceros, en fin… ya entienden. Los amé mucho a los dos.

A medida que avanzaba todo, me sentí muy dividida, y creo que esa era la intención, pues es exactamente lo que Emma va sintiendo cuando se reencuentra con Jesse, cuando ve la cara de Sam, cuando entiende lo que todos están sintiendo. De verdad que no podía parar de leer, todo era tremendamente adictivo.

Y el final… ¿se vale decir que lloré y a la vez lo amé? Creo que si han leído el libro lo entienden, pero de verdad creo que no pudo ser más perfecto. Se los recomiendo infinitamente.
Profile Image for Gabby.
1,432 reviews27.7k followers
August 19, 2023
I just reread this book for the first time in 7 years, and I had a complete change of heart about it, which kind of sucks. The first time I read this book, I absolutely loved it and it was a new favorite. But this time around, the writing felt so simplistic and surface level, I couldn't connect to these characters because they all felt so one dimensional. I made an entire Patreon exclusive video where I reread this book and watch the movie adaptation and compare them, here's the link if you want to see all my thoughts: https://www.patreon.com/posts/patreon...

Down below is my original review from 2016:

“When you love someone, it seeps out of everything you do, it bleeds into everything you say, it becomes so ever-present, that eventually it becomes ordinary to hear, no matter how extraordinary it is to feel.”

God damn, this book is amazing. This story line is so interesting and it's a crazy, passionate love triangle. Emma is married to Jesse, who she has known since high school. They've lived a wonderful, crazy life together full of travelling and passionate love and doing things they only ever dreamed about. She loves him with everything in her and vice versa. Then one day, on the day before their one year wedding anniversary, she gets a phone call saying he's been in a helicopter accident and has most likely died. Emma obviously grieves for years and doesn't want to live anymore let alone find love again with someone new. That is, until she meets Sam. Sam is a man she's also known since high school who always had a crush on her, but was always in the background. Sam is patient and kind and generous and he doesn't want to replace Jesse by any means, he just wants to be there for Emma, and they both fall in love. Then by a crazy turn of events, after she is engaged to Sam, Emma gets a phone call saying Jesse is alive and has been rescued and is coming home. Emma has a husband and a fiance. This is one of those bizarre scenarios that nobody ever could imagine finding themselves in, so it was very interesting to read about how this affected Emma's life.

This book is a wonderful exploration of love and grief and how grief can change a person. I think it's naive to think that people don't change after they deal with such an intense amount of grief and this book captures so perfectly how drastic a person can change over time. The writing style is beautiful and lyrical and it made me cry a few times. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't a huge fan of the beginning of this story. You may have noticed I knocked off a star and here's why: the beginning of this book felt a little rushed. We meet Emma and Jesse right away, and she's crushing on him from afar. Then, before you know it they are together and we see the first scene when they meet and it's cute. Then the next chapter jumps to the proposal, seven years later, and I'm just like...? I don't know, I just really like to get to know the people I'm reading about and see all the little moments leading up to them being together forever. I felt like I didn't get the chance to really connect with Emma and Jesse and appreciate their love before they were married. I understand why it was written this way, because those chapters were only meant as flashbacks and weren't actually apart of the main story, but I would have appreciated more story on Emma and Jesse's early relationship, that's all. The story did this again after she met Sam again and they had a great night out - then the next chapter skips to four months into their relationship, and then the next chapter skips to when they are moving in together. I don't know if I'm nitpicking but the pacing of this story just kind of threw me off at times. I never knew when it was just gonna jump ahead by a few months or a few years.

"He smiles and it's honestly just as striking as watching the sun shine through the clouds."

There is no doubt though that this book is a new favorite of mine. I loved Jesse and Sam in their own ways. I loved that Jesse is so passionate and wants to experience the world with her. He fought every single day hoping to see her again and be with her and his love for her is so pure and genuine. Sam, however, is also head over heels for Emma and he always has been. He cares for her enough to let her explore if she still has feelings for Jesse, and that says a lot about him as a person, and about how confident he is in him and Emma's relationship. Sam is one of the sweetest, most caring male characters I've ever read about, and I absolutely adore him. He only wants the best for Emma all the time and he's so selfless and it's really admirable the way he loves her.

"I think it's a good sign though," he said, "that I was crazy about you at sixteen and I'm still crazy about you now."

I loved every moment while reading this book. It was such a heartbreaking, but beautiful journey seeing Emma go through discovering the loves of her life. I am a strong believer in the idea that there is no one love in your life. I believe that different people can be your soul mates at different times in your life. And just because you move on and grow apart doesn't mean that your love with them wasn't real and true. This book captures that idea so well, and I struggled alongside Emma going back and forth between Jesse and Sam - because you can tell how amazing of men they both are, and they are both extremely passionate and loving towards her.

I think it's very powerful that people can change due to love and grief. This book ended on a beautiful note and it gave me all the feels. I adore this story so much, and my heart feels like it has been on an emotional roller coaster after finishing this. I adore both Jesse and Sam. The only reason I knocked off a star is because the pacing felt a little random at times and I didn't like the time jumps, I would have liked just a little more flashback scenes of Emma and Jesse before they were married so I could really get attached to their romance before Jesse disappeared, but other than that, I really loved this book. This was my first time reading a book by Taylor Jenkins Reid and it certainly won't be my last. If you're a fan of new adult romance - and love triangles that are written beautifully then I would definitely recommend reading this one.
Profile Image for Melissa.
647 reviews29k followers
October 2, 2017
I hate this feeling—the nagging, incessant, soul-crushing thought that I should have loved this one more. Ugh . . . why oh why didn’t this work for me? This was supposed to be an epic read or so I thought.

There is no doubt that Taylor Jenkins Reid can spin highly emotional stories and always with a unique take on a relationship. She has the ability to make you sit back and think—to struggle with your own emotions and conflicted heart—in a way that sets her work apart, but it didn't totally work for me this time.

The first line certainly made me pause—can you blame me though?—it's a doozy.

“I am finishing up dinner with my family and my fiancé when my husband calls.”

I like to think I’m a person that can handle a love triangle, but this definitely tipped the infuriating scale for me. Not because both guys were great or I was worried about one of them ending up unhappy, but because of the way that Emma handled the whole situation. She flip-flopped way too easily between between Jesse and Sam. Not to mention, things were resolved a little too neatly and quickly. In my mind, I think it would take more than a 3-day weekend to come to the realization that Emma did. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great message, one that made total sense, but I think things could have been developed a little bit more.

When you love someone, it seeps out of everything you do, it bleeds into everything you say, it becomes so ever-present and ubiquitous, that eventually it becomes ordinary to hear, no matter how extraordinary it is to feel.

If I’m being totally honestly, I struggled with the ending, too. I’m not unhappy about the way things turned out—I actually love the choice Emma made—I just think she need to do some major groveling. It felt like a missed opportunity.

*Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*
Profile Image for Michael David (on hiatus).
695 reviews1,840 followers
September 15, 2020
Imagine you marry your best friend...your confidante...your one and only.

Imagine they are presumed dead after a tragic helicopter accident, while working.

Imagine a couple years go by, and you find the strength to love again. Now, you’re engaged.

Imagine that your spouse survived, and makes contact with you a few years later...

Yeah. That’s One True Loves.

Such a sad, hopeful, poignant and beautifully told story. Another win from TJR. I shouldn’t be surprised. She could write the advertisement for an antifungal cream, and I’d devour it.

I also found it interesting that Greer Hendricks was one of her editors. #themoreyouknow

What are you going to hit me with next, TJR?
Profile Image for Bibi.
1,288 reviews14 followers
December 19, 2018
Clearly I've been living under a rock because until last week I'd never opened a TJR book, yet here I am, binge-reading. One True Loves resonates with me on a personal level and brought back memories long buried, but more than that, it was an exceptional emotionally wringing story that was sadness and happiness intertwined.

Breathtaking, really.
Profile Image for Larry H.
2,591 reviews29.5k followers
February 11, 2020
As if I wasn't a huge fan of hers after reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and The Six , reading this book has further convinced me that Taylor Jenkins Reid is a freaking goddess, y'all!

Emma Blair wants nothing more than to get as far away from her small New England town and her parents’ dream of her taking over the family bookstore. When she meets Jesse in high school and they fall in love, she finds the key to her dreams.⁣ They move to California and begin exploring the world after college.

They marry in their 20s, having experienced so much of what they both dreamed of. One day short of their 1st anniversary, Jesse gets on a helicopter for a job. The helicopter goes down and everyone, including Jesse, is presumed dead. Emma is utterly overwhelmed by her grief. She decides to move back home and take the path her parents wanted. Suddenly it all makes sense to her and as the years pass, this life seems right.⁣

"Do you ever get over loss? Or do you just find a box within yourself, big enough to hold it? Do you just stuff it in there, push it down, and snap the lid on it? Do you just work, every day, to keep the box shut?"

When she connects again with Sam, a friend from high school, a few years after Jesse's death, she realizes she might have another chance at happiness. She knows she'll never be completely over Jesse, but she can't spend her life mourning him either. Emma and Sam fall in love and get engaged, and look forward to their future together.

And then Jesse is found alive, ready to get back to the life he and Emma had before the helicopter crash. Now she has a husband and a fiancé, and she doesn't know what to do about either of them.

"I don't think that true love means your only love. I think true love means loving truly. Loving purely. Loving wholly."

One True Loves is an amazing book about love, grief, family, and finding your way after setbacks. I read the entire book on a plane and loved every incredibly emotional, well-written page.⁣ Sure, I was able to predict where the plot is going to go, but I loved these characters so much I didn't care. I couldn't get enough of this beautiful love story.

If you've never read anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid, you need to remedy that, stat. Now that I fell in love with this book, I plan to explore more of her backlist, since all of her recent work is so fantastic.

See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.

Check out my list of the best books I read in 2018 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2018.html.

You can follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
Profile Image for Purrfect Novels.
73 reviews40 followers
November 27, 2023
5 ⭐️

-spoilers-

"Good things don't wait until you're ready. Sometimes they come right before, when you're almost there."

At first, I wasn't a big fan of this book and even thought I'd give it 3 stars when I finish it. But towards the end, I realized how emotional this book had left me throughout the pages, and I finally decided to give it 5 stars.

All the characters in this book developed at different stages, times, and places. Taylor Jenkins Reid did a really good job with every character in this book as if I was the one who went through these tough times and overcame all the challenges. I will definitely read her other books!!

Most of those who have read this book have stated that they knew how it would end, but I couldn't say the same. Each chapter changed the way I thought it would end. For a moment, I was angry that she was going back to her ex?-husband because for some reason I was Team Sam all along, not because there was something wrong with Jesse, but I felt Sam's feelings for her loud and clear. He was the one who saw her when she thought she was invisible, and I thought they would be great together.

"Think of all the people in the world," he said, tucking my longest hair behind my ear. "And I was lucky enough to find you twice."

Like how can you not love Sam?! He is such a sweetheart who can play lots of instruments and a cat dad. 🤭

Although I was happy with the ending, I can't say I was emotionally prepared for Jesse and Emma's breakup. I almost cried when he said

"I guess what I'm saying is I've come around to your way of thinking. I am immensely thankful I was married to you once. I am so grateful for our wedding day. Just because something isn't meant to last a lifetime doesn't mean it wasn't meant to be. We were meant to have been."

WE WERE MEANT TO HAVE BEEN 😩🫶🏼

"I am who I am because I loved you once," he says.
"I am who I am because I loved you once, too," I say.
And then we say good-bye.


How is it possible for me to be both happy and sad that things ended this way?
Ugh, such a heartbreaking love story… ❤️‍🩹
Profile Image for Cara.
372 reviews750 followers
February 7, 2023
OH MY GOSH!!! I have no clue what to say, this book has me sobbing!! This story was so beautiful!! I finished this book in one sitting because it was just that good! All of the characters have a piece of my heart. I think Taylor Jenkins Reid is becoming of my many favorite authors. I can't even see through my tears as i'm writing this review, so i'm sorry if it doesn't make any sense. This story was so heart wrenching and so raw it broke my heart. I found Jesse to be a bit petty, but at the same time I felt bad for him. This book had me hooked from the very beginning and did NOT let me go!! There were definitely no dry eyes! I loved every minute of this story, and I wish the ratings went higher than a 5 star, because this story definitely deserves it! I saw so much hype and so many good reviews for this book, I knew I had to read it instantly and i'm not ashamed that I ran to it!!!

"No one could ever replace you. I just want more love in my life".

In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. In high school Jesse was the captain of their swim team. Emma never thought Jesse would ever lay eyes on her, but when he did her world changed instantly. As a teenager Emma worked in her parents bookstore, which she now owns. When Jesse and Emma were seventeen they attended a party where they were caught arrested for underage drinking, in jail Emma and Jesse basically spilled out their truths. Jesse didn't really like swimming, and Emma didn't really like working at her family's bookstore. Emma and Jesse 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 Ocean when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone, forever. Emma quit her job in California where they were living at the time and moves back home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and Emma finds herself falling in love again. Sam worked at the bookstore with Emma when they were teenagers. When Sam and Emma get engaged, it feels like Emma's second chance at happiness. Sam is so sweet, he respects Emma, he's so genuine, and caring, and let's not forget Sam makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever! Sam plays at least 6 musical instruments, at that's where Emma's love for the piano comes in, Sam teaches her how to play when they have a run in at the music store.

Years later Jesse is found. He's alive. and he's been trying all these years to come home to Emma. 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. Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She's just not sure what it's saying. When Jesse comes home, Sam is completely devastated because he loves Emma, but he also knows that Jesse was her first true real love. Emma knows that she can't be with both of them, so she need to figure out who she wants to spend the rest of her life with. My heart actually heart for Sam. I adored him because of the way he was with Emma.

Who is Emma's one true love? But, what does it mean to love truly?

Okay, so I just found out there's a movie for this book, I need to watch it asap!
February 18, 2024
"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."

With this I finally broke my TJR virginity and what can I say except ⚠️ NEW FAVOURITE AUTHOR ALERT ⚠️

As a person with burning hatred for love triangles, Taylor Jenkins Reid really did the impossible by making my heart bleed over one. And now I'm set on a path to devour every book of hers.

This book was devastatingly beautiful, sad and tragic. It was so thought-provoking, so alluring, like a warm blanket that was cozying your heart one moment, has been snatched away the next.

It was raw, it was painful, but boy was it so good.

Emma

"I didn’t know anything about growing apart. I only knew being ripped apart."
Emma's character arc was the most heart-wrenching to read. And there's no denying the fact that the description of grief and how emma overcame it is the highlight of the book.

"I think that perhaps everyone has a moment that splits their life in two. When you look back on your own time line there's a sharp spike somewhere along the way, some event that changed you, changed your life more than the others. A moment that creates a before and an after. Maybe it's when you meet your love or you figure out your life's passion or you have your first child. Maybe it's something wonderful. Maybe it's something tragic. But when it happens it tints your memories, shifts your perspective on your own life and it suddenly seems as if everyone you've been through falls under the label of pre or post."

"When you love someone, it seeps out of everything you do, it bleeds into everything you say, it becomes so ever-present, that eventually it becomes ordinary to hear, no matter how extraordinary it is to feel."
She's probably the luckiest as well as the unluckiest bitch in the book. Okay imagine falling in love two times with the most perfect men to ever exist, and for both the times the love being returned to her with full burning passion.

"It breaks my heart to be loved like this, to be loved so purely that I’m capable of breaking a heart."
yeah okay miss girl we get it, you won at life 😭

This book is so strong. Emma is so strong. This woman loved great. And when she was ripped of it, she mourned hard. She cherished her epic love, drunk the poison all alone, and learnt to overcome her grief. For her own good. For her own life.

"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 remembered your order. But it does happen. If you're patient and you work at it."

Hold on a little more, cuz things do get better.

Emma and Jesse (or, how to fall in love and fall to pieces)

"The memory of you hurt so much at first. The more I thought about your smile, your smell, the more it hurt. But I liked punishing myself. I liked the pain because the pain was you."

My heart bleeds for Jesse. He is the most tragic character is the story. He was stranded in an islet for three and a half years, hoping everyday that his loved ones would remember him and send a rescue team, but never did. Until one day he realised that no one's gonna come to his rescue, he is on his own, like he always has been.
He has seen hell. Cutting his own finger, being starved and food poisoned, swimming for days, clinging to the last strand of hope which was vanishing every second, mourning for his wife, his family, his halted life. All this to come back and find out that his wife has moved on with another man. (not that I blame any of them but still)

“You’re my wife, Emma. We stood in front of a hundred people right down the road at that goddamn lighthouse and promised to love each other for the rest of our lives. I lost you once and I did everything I could to get back to you. Now I’m here, I’m back, and I’m in danger of losing you all over again? This is supposed to be the happy part. Now that we’re here together. This is all supposed to be the easy stuff.”

I mourned for you Jesse. You deserve all the happiness in this world.

"I am who I am because I loved you once,” he says.
“I am who I am because I loved you once, too,” I say.
And then we say good-bye.


I personally wanted Jesse and Emma to be the endgame. Don't get me wrong, Sam is the most perfect man to ever exist; but Jesse and Emma were meant to be.

"I won’t ever forget you, Jesse. I don’t want to and I don’t think I’m capable of it. I hope you know how beautiful and freeing it was to love you when you were here.
You were the love of my life."

They are childhood sweethearts. They have been together their entire teen years and seen the world together in their entire twenties. They have faced hell and heaven, highs and lows, head to head in each other's arms. And these three years seperation change nothing.

“We loved each other and we lost each other. And now, even though we still love each other, the pieces don’t fit like they used to.”
Yeah, emma moved on. Yeah, she fell in love again. Yeah, things were complicated. But in Sam's own words “I’m the asshole who’s standing in the way of you two being reunited.” (sam my bae you can never be an asshole) and I somewhat agree. Sam was the wild card.

JESSE LEARNER DESERVED HIS HAPPY ENDING.
A two year relationship can't overcome a 13 year one.

But keeping my emotions and personal belief aside, I think the ending is pretty realistic? (idk I'm still bamboozled) But I'll take it. Afterall Jesse ending up with Emma beats the whole purpose of what TJR was trying to depict with this book-
"True love doesn’t always last. It doesn’t always have to be for a lifetime."

They loved. They loved like crazy. But scenario changed, things changed, and time went on.

“I’ll love you until we’re so old we can barely walk on our own and we have to get walkers and put those cut-up yellow tennis balls on them. I’ll love you past that, actually. I’ll love you until the end of time.”

I think you forsake the people you loved before, just a little bit, when you fall in love again. But it doesn’t erase anything. It doesn’t change what you had. You don’t even leave it so far behind that you can’t instantly remember, that you can’t pick it up like a book you read a long time ago and remember how it felt then.

You can’t capture love in a bottle. You can’t hold on to it with both hands and force it to stay with you.

People aren’t stagnant. We evolve in reaction to our pleasures and our pains.

Moving on is the primary rule of life.

It’s a scary thought, isn’t it? That every single person on this planet could lose their one true love and live to love again? It means the one you love could love again if they lost you."

I'm happy for Jesse. He too moved on. And must I admit even this ending is quite satisfactory on its own.

I liked how TJR gave a heart-wrenching, yet important closure to the epic love of Emma-Jesse:

Falling out of love with someone you still like feels exactly like lying in a warm bed and hearing the alarm clock.
No matter how good you feel right now, you know it’s time to go.


"Just because something isn’t meant to last a lifetime doesn’t mean it wasn’t meant to be. We were meant to have been.”

Emma and Sam (or, how to put yourself back together)

"Me and Blair Books and my cats and Sam."

I can't stress enough when I say I LOVE SAM KEMPER SO MUCH. I mean look at him, isn't he the most perfect man to ever exist?

Sam smiled. “Think of all the people in the world,” he said, tucking my longest hair behind my ear. “And I was lucky enough to find you twice."

He's so mature, so understanding, so caring it hurts. Emma Blair you won at life!

"I just want you to know that if what we have lasts, and one day we talk about getting married or having kids, I want you to know I’ll never try to replace Jesse. I’ll never ask you to stop loving him. You can love your past with him. My love for you now isn’t threatened by that. I just...I want you to know that I’ll never ask you to choose. I’ll never ask you to tell me I’m your one true love. I know, for someone like you, that isn’t fair. And I’ll never ask it.”

Sam, when are you taking applications? I heard the wife's post is vacant (I'm killing emma in her sleep)

Okay, his best quality is how openly communicable he is. He is understanding, he adjusts himself according to time, but he also has his priorities straight and he knows how to serve it straight up on the table.

"I want to be with someone who lives for me. I want to be with someone who considers me the love of her life. I deserve that."

Yes you do! I get it emma, I wouldn't have left sam for anyone too. He was the knight in her shining armour. The diamond who shined bright and ignited her halted life.

One of my favourite excerpt from the book-

I was flirting. Me. Flirting.

It feels so good to flirt. No one ever talks about that. But in that moment, I felt like flirting was the very thing that made the world go around.

The excitement of wondering what the other person will say next. The thrill of knowing someone is looking at you, liking what they see. The rush of looking at someone and liking what you see in them. Flirting is probably just as much about falling in love with yourself as it is with someone else.

It’s about seeing yourself through someone’s eyes and realizing there is plenty to like about yourself, plenty of reasons someone might hang on your every word.


Wow it was a long review. But what can I say, this book evoked so many emotions in me I couldn't stop.

It’s messy to love after heartbreak. It’s painful and it forces you to be honest with yourself about who you are. You have to work harder to find the words for your feelings, because they don’t fit into any prefabricated boxes.

But it’s worth it.

Because look what you get:

Great loves.
Meaningful loves.
True loves.


10/10 ✨
Profile Image for Reading_ Tamishly.
4,823 reviews2,967 followers
February 13, 2023
That is one hell of a beautiful story!

Got me embracing all the feels, the tears and the occasional nose blowing 🤧

But it's so damn beautiful!!!!

This is the kind of book I want my romances to be. This is the kind of book I want to get lost in forever.

(True I say this for almost all of my perfect 5 star reads. But the feelings attached to each of them are unique and different though I cherish them all the same.)

The writing is so beautiful. (Okay, what other word can I use for 'beautiful' so that I can describe this book as something beautiful without meaning it to be something else?)

I got attached to the characters....way too much I guess. Yes, Taylor Jenkins Reid's characters are my family forever once I get to know them. Yes, and I am asking for more. Let's grow old together, my fictional family.


My most favourite character has to be, of course, Sam. Because... Duh. Call me a romantic. That kind of devotion is my whole soul burning in calm blue fire. Well, if it happens to me in real life, I might kick his butt for being so romantic. But well, this guy poked my heart.


Jesse. I liked him too. But I got really uncomfortable with him around. Yes, I was standing in the middle of the room when the story was happening, so yes, I didn't blink once when he was around.

But hell yes, I loved both the romances and yes, like Emma, this reader was almost going to lose her sanity trying to decide who to root for.

Well done, Taylor. You got me more heartbroken than the main character. You got me the most happiest when things worked out so well in the end.

I wish there were more parts of Marie, Emma's sister, and their parents; as well as Olive's the bestie of Emma.

I wish there were more of Sam and Emma than Jessie and Emma. But yes, believe me when I say the book is a perfect package.

I have so many favourite lines that I don't know what to do with them except go through them and keep learning.

Yes, I love this book so much!
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