One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Blurb (on back of book): 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.
MY OPINION: ****
Yet another Taylor Jenkins Reid novel done and finished. I loved this book, though maybe not quite as much as her other books. I found the premise very intriguing and unique and I actually liked all of the characters for once, which is becoming rarer and rarer for me.
Emma and her high school sweetheart were meant to be. Her and Jesse have been married almost a year and are living their happiest lives, traveling around the world and falling more in love everyday. However, Jessie disappears one day without a trace after taking a helicopter over the Pacific Ocean. Emma finally is forced to become resigned to the fact that her husband and first love is gone forever.
Emma reconnects with her childhood best friend, Sam, and soon finds herself falling in love with him. Although she never saw him in a romantic way in the past, she soon realizes that he is the right person right time now. She soon becomes engaged to Sam and is starting to rebuild her life and find herself again, creating a new identity without Jesse.
Then, Jesse is found and is ready to come back into her life.
The plot is very unique. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time, ready to see what would happen and who she would choose. This book is a romance novel at its core, despite its overarching themes of identity and finding yourself. However, this book read very differently from conventional romance novels and fell more into the realm of literary fiction than fluffy rom-com. I loved seeing Emma grow into her new self with and without Jesse and truly accepting the changes that are thrown her way. She's placed into an impossible situation and I felt all of her emotions along with her.
The idea of "right person wrong time" is very present throughout this book. Emma and us readers learn through her journey that you can love multiple people in different ways and different people can be your soulmate at different times, depending on who you are and where you're at in that moment. The title, while simple, artfully catches all of that in its three words. I loved the themes throughout this book, which felt very similar to Reid's other book I just read, Maybe in Another Life.
Reid tends to tell her stories in alternating timelines or different worlds. I am usually not a fan of that format and find that the jumping back and forth can be quite annoying and confusing. However, this book is mostly separated between the "Before" with Jesse and Emma's happy life, the period where Jesse disappears and Emma is forced to reconcile her grief with her new life, and the period "After" where she meets Sam. However, within those eras, the book is split up even more. It's all consecutive, however, and I liked how the book was set up. I do think the pacing was a little slow at times and then too fast at others, but for an earlier Reid novel, I didn't have the highest expectations.
I like love triangles but I'm not the biggest fan. This book, while it follows the two-men-and-one-woman trope, is not a conventional love triangle. Emma finds herself torn between two men she loves equally but it's not told in the way that most romance novels include love triangles.
I do think the book was sort of lacking in depth in many of the core parts of the plot. Emma's grief, while clearly strong, was not told in a way where I also felt like crying. I think the sad-emotional aspect of this book was very dulled down in comparison to the love-emotional parts and I would have liked to see more of Emma's recovery after finding out that her husband and true love is supposedly dead. Also, after he returns, I was expecting a lot more confusion and angst and grief and joy but instead, it felt very apathetic. I'm not sure if that was just me but the emotional factor in this book could have been ramped up fifty levels and would have made it that much more powerful.
I loved Emma. While I didn't really resonate with her character, I think she was a lot stronger than I made her out to be initially. I felt bad for her and wanted to help her with her conflicted feelings. I can't imagine what it must be like to finally start to move on from a period of intense grief only for those feelings to be reopened with the return of the "dead."
Jesse was not my favorite but I loved his obvious care and protectiveness for Emma. I loved seeing them in high school and their opposites attract sort of story and seeing them evolve into adults was fun. I do think he was very pushy and a little irritating once he made his big return but I can't really fault him for that, considering everything he went through. I wish we had gotten more of his story in the years he was gone because I'm sure it was very interesting, more so than the two pages we got of his side of the story.
Sam was adorable and I loved him with my whole soul. He deserved the world. He waited for Emma his entire life and was content to stay by her side even when she hurt him again and again. I don't want to say that he deserved better but I think that he was often treated poorly (not that it was Emma's fault). He's sweet and kind and a genuine nice guy and the way he is constantly overlooked made me think of the "nice guys finish last" saying. He's basically the opposite of Jesse and yet somehow both of them fit perfectly with Emma.
Emma's friendship with Olive (I believe that was her name) was everything I strive to have with my own friends. I loved Olive and her constant support for Emma, even when it seemed like the world was against her.
I loved reading this book and I can't wait to pick up more of Reid's novels. I'm currently reading Malibu Rising, which is really highlighting the evolution of Reid's writing from her older books like this one to her newer ones. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a more serious, literary-fiction-esque romance novel.
Main Character: Emma
Sidekick(s): Jesse, Sam, Olive, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, death, confusion, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
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