Review: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published: June 7, 2016 by Atria Books - Washington Square Press
Source: ARC from the publisher

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. [goodreads]

This was my second experience with a Taylor Jenkins Reid novel, and just like the first, I really appreciated this unique storyline that causes the reader to stop and think -- to question the character's choices, and their decisions.  I've come to realize that reading one of her novels will give me much more than just a story to be lost in, it will provide a reading experience that will stay with me long after I've turned the last page.

Emma thought she had her whole adventurous life ahead of her, along side her partner Jesse.  The two of them would travel the world together, live in the moment, and settle down later when the time was right.  What she didn't foresee was Jesse being lost at sea and the aftermath destroying every cell in her body.  The moments as Emma stumbles numbly through the grief and loss of her husband were achingly real.  I felt the pain Emma felt, I could hear her sorrows through the written words.

Just when she thought she couldn't come back from this, she somehow finds her way home.. to her family, to a life she was so insistent on leaving all those years ago with Jesse.  And in return, as she heals, she discovers a new part of herself, also discovering a new love in a long ago friend named Sam.  It was these moments in the story when I felt as though Emma's true character really shined.  Sure she was having the time of her life seeing the world with Jesse, but at the end of the day, being home with her family and making a new life with Sam was where I truly felt she belonged.  So when the phone call came that Jesse was alive, it not only threw Emma for a loop, but it also had my literary heart torn in half.

How does one choose?  Or do they even choose?  I honestly could not imagine being in Emma's shoes in that moment.  I felt that her actions were honest, though sometimes a bit vulnerable and definitely a bit messy, they were REAL.  She didn't choose to break away from Jesse, her husband, he was stolen -- ripped right out of her life.  And she never considered having to start all over again by finding a new life, a new Emma, with Sam.  I knew the decisions she had to make were not going to be easy, and her path in getting there was going to be constant with road blocks and detours.

This novel is so much more than just a love story, it's words about rediscovering who you are as a person, without your other half.  It's how to put one foot in front of the other when your legs seem to stop working.  It's about making choices that aren't necessarily easy, but definitely right.  I applaud this author for pushing the limits and creating a storyline that causes the reader to stop and think, to question "what would I do in this situation?".  That is the true beauty of literature -- taking a story and making it your own.

Review: Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published: July 7, 2015 by Washington Square Press
Source: Purchased ebook

From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do comes a breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him. [goodreads]

This was my first experience reading a book with alternating plots, based on a character's decisions.  I found this concept to be really intriguing.  As the reader, you're able to see how a story may unfold differently based on the choices that the character makes.  This is something I often think about in my own life: if I had chosen option B, instead of A, how different would the outcome be?  For Hannah, her path in life has an alternate route because of a decision she made one night while out with friends.  The series of events that follow weave their way in different directions, yet eerily similar in other ways as well.

Hannah has moved around from city to city after her parents moved to London during her formative years, leaving her without a home and always searching, longing for that belonging feeling.  She finally decides to move back to L.A., where she grew up, borrowing a room in her best friend Gabby's house, until she gets her feet back on the ground.  On her first night back in town, they get together with old friends, including Hannah's high school sweetheart, Ethan -- the one who got away and she has constantly wondered about.  After a night of dancing, talking, laughing, and enjoying the company of one another she has a decision to make: stay at the bar with Ethan and see where the night takes them, or leave with Gabby who is her ride home.  We see the story unfold from here as if she'd chosen both paths.

Is fate determined by our choices?  Or is it something left up to a higher being, lighting our paths as we go?  Hannah questions this in both scenarios that are being told.  In alternating chapters we see how Hannah navigates the consequences of her choices and everything that ensues as a result.  I was never truly tied to one path over the other.  I found myself interested in both, just as equally.  It was the constant of Hannah's relationship with her best friend Gabby in both versions of the story that really pulled at my heart the most.  And quite possibly the stand out star of the entire process.

I recommend this book for fans of alternate endings, or for anyone who questions where we'd be if we'd chosen a different path.  Overall I was very much interested in the storyline itself, and not so much with the characters.  But sometimes, in the end, that's enough to equal a more than pleasant reading experience.