Thoughts on Books: One True Loves

Title: One True Loves

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Page Count: 306 (on my iPad)

Where I Read It: On the lounge chair in my backyard, surrounded by new flowers

Summary: (Adapted from GoodReads)

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.

Thoughts on Book:

Sometimes you get stuck in a reading rut, which was what was happening with me and PS I Love You and I realized that I needed something really intriguing and fun to get me out of my rut. This book sounded like the perfect tonic. For the moment I read the summary and some positive reviews online, I knew I had to read it- right away. Then I devoured it in one day.

In my contemporary literature class this past semester, we talked about “coming-of-age” novels where the adults were coming of age. As if the characters grow up, but then grow up again. This book fits into this idea very neatly.

The first fourth of the book is essentially a YA novel. It’s perfect if, like me, you like to dabble in YA once a while. Emma is a high school freshman during the early 2000’s (complete with butterfly hairclips, spaghetti straps, and butterfly tattoos) worried about jeans that fit, concerned with helping her friend Olive figure out her sexuality, arguing with her sister, and struggling to fulfill her parents expectations for her when all she wants to do is travel. So when her long time crush Jesse becomes her boyfriend at the end of high school- it seems as if she’s “come of age.” They move to California together. They find a way to take advantage of college to let them travel the world. They get married and then find jobs that let them travel. It seems at this point that Emma has finally given herself the life that she’s always dreamed about.

So when Jesse “dies,” she must reshape her world and in doing so, she “comes of age” again, realizing that now she wants different things for her life. She realized that her 30-something self doesn’t want the same things that her 20-something self did. This was actually a pretty strange moment for me as a reader, because I realized that I am a lot like her 20-something self- restless and wanderlusty. So it was weird for me to wonder if there will be a point where like Emma, I’ll tire of travel and want to settle down (I did however love that her “settling down” meant running an independent bookshop because that sounds pretty dreamy).

I also loved how well rounded the characters were. Sam is a musician, who wants to work at a bookstore instead of a music store. Jesse is a champion swimmer who wants to do anything but the Olympic trials. Emma’s sister Marie aspires to be a writer, but can’t get anything published, whereas Emma flourishes as a travel writer. The characters are all full of little details that make them real: whether it’s Emma’s dad love for BLT or Sam’s weird obsession with pretentious butter dishes- the little quirks and details make the story breathing.

Maybe my only complaint is that Emma seemed so self-absorbed at some points. Granted, the story is told from Emma’s perspective, so that probably predisposes it that way. However, from the moment Jesse arrives back from “the wild,” Emma seems consumed with who she is going to pick. She never lets herself be happy or relieved that he is home, but always struggling to decide between the two. I wish she had more compassion in those parts- though I always appreciate when authors have characters who are flawed. I suspect that this might be part of it. Eventually, she’ll come to see that it isn’t deciding between two boys, but iterations of herself.

The best part of the book is Reid’s writing style. While the book a rom-com, it’s written with a lyrical style that seems poetic at some points. When dealing with her grief and recovery portion, Emma’s narration switches from 1^st to 2^nd person, which I loved. It really conveyed the detachment she was striving for, as well as taking the reader through a difficult period of time without dragging it out. There were plenty of beautiful quotes that I highlighted along the way because Reid got things SO RIGHT. So I’ll leave you with my favorite one from the end, “I don’t think true love mean your only love. I think true love means loving truly. Loving purely. Loving wholly” (page 283).

Pair With: The Great Gatsby. I’m probably only saying this because I just finished also rereading The Great Gatsby (should I make a post about it? Probably not?). I was struck by how opposite Gatsby’s ideas of love were- as if there had to be only one true love and we should spend our whole loves trying to recreate it. This book is essentially the opposite notion- our past relationships are valuable, but also something we can move beyond.

Listen Along With:

The Future – Anna Barnett// You Are Mine by Spencer Combs// True Love Will Find You in the End- Richard Walters