BLURB
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 THOUGHTS (Spoiler Alert)
What would you do if your husband, who you thought died during a plane crash three and a half years ago, reappears, after you have worked so hard to heal, grieve and open up to love again? Here’s the thing. I wouldn’t know what to do either. On one hand, I wanted Emma to take her time with dating someone else. I thought she moved fast with Sam. But isn’t that how life works? Life just happens sometimes in ways unimaginable. I wanted her to still hold space for Jesse and enjoy her singleness, but she did not.
Taylor Jenkins Reid did a great job with this book. It took me quite a while to get through this book partly because my toddler has been toddlering and life has been happening but it was a good read. I can genuinely say that I liked this book. It was a sweet read. There was just the right amount of romance. I like that TJR gets to the point and doesn’t beat around the bush. She doesn’t over exaggerate sex either. It’s as if she is saying, you guys know what happens here..so I don’t need to go in depth. You get the picture. I like that. It doesn’t need to be too explicit or errotic. It was sweet. It was just enough. If I had to rate this book, I’d give it a solid three out of five stars.
I also liked the concept of the book. I think she did a good job with it. She touched upon everything in the most simple and beautiful way. Sometimes that’s all we need to touch our hearts. I felt for Jesse, Sam and Emma in the most beautiful, heart breaking way. I loved the fact that Sam made the decision to protect his heart and step away from Emma. I loved that he respected himself in that moment and encouraged her to explore what she had with Jesse. It takes a lot for a person to do that for someone they love.
I discovered while reading just how much life can change within three years. Emma changed and she ended up exactly where she was supposed to be. Everything in her life happened for a reason. There’s a silver lining in the tragedy. Had Jesse not had the accident, would Emma have discovered who she really was? Would Jesse have created the space for her to explore that? I don’t think so. I think she would have been traveling the world and become unhappy. Emma obviously loved Jesse, but her heart was with Sam. So can you really love two people at one time? You can love them in different ways, but your heart knows what it wants. It knows exactly who you want.
Happy Reading Folks.
Lavender Bliss 