Julie's Review: First Comes Love

Author: Emily Giffin
Series: None
Publication Date: June 28, 2016
Publisher: Ballatine Books
Pages: 400
Obtained: Amazon Vine
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction
Rating: 5/5
Bottom Line: How do you accept your family flaws and all, when you can't accept yours?
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

Summary: Growing up, Josie and Meredith Garland shared a loving, if sometimes contentious, relationship. Josie was impulsive, spirited, and outgoing, Meredith hardworking, thoughtful, and reserved. When tragedy strikes, their delicate bond splinters. Fifteen years later, Josie and Meredith are in their late thirties, following very different paths. Josie, a first grade teacher, is single—and this close to swearing off dating for good. What she wants more than the right guy, however, is to become a mother—a feeling that is heightened when her ex-boyfriend’s daughter is assigned to her class. Determined to have the future she’s always wanted, Josie decides to take matters into her own hands. On the outside, Meredith is the model daughter with the perfect life. A successful attorney, she’s married to a wonderful man, and together they’re raising a beautiful four-year-old daughter. Yet lately Meredith feels dissatisfied and restless, secretly wondering if she chose the life that was expected of her rather than the one she truly desired. As the anniversary of their tragedy looms, and painful secrets from the past begin to surface, Josie and Meredith must not only confront the issues that divide them but also come to terms with their own choices. In their journey toward understanding and forgiveness, both sisters discover that they need each other more than they knew—and that in the search for true happiness, love always comes first. ~amazon.com

 Review: First Comes Love is another fantastic book by Emily Giffin. I was thrilled when I read that she was going to tackle familial love in First Comes Love. Meredith and Josie are sisters that have never seen eye to eye or even gotten along. Meredith is wound tight and Josie is the free spirit. Meredith thinks that Josie's life is easy and that she has no clue on how to be responsible.

Josie thinks that Meredith has a great life and should loosen up a bit with her rigid rules that even Josie should follow. I will admit that Josie got under my skin and annoyed me. I had to keep reminding myself that she was the "older" sister because she seemed so selfish. Josie is single and looking for Mr. Right but she's tired of waiting to be a mom so she takes the matter into her own hands and decides to go with IVF. I wasn't sure if this was Josie being responsible or impulsive and selfish. Even at the end of the novel, I still wasn't sure.

Meredith had her issues as well but I could just identify with her a bit more. She felt stuck and worn down by life. She wasn't sure if the life she was living should be the one she was meant to live.  Meredith isn't sure that the choices she made after her brother died were the right ones. Meredith isn't a very happy person and even a prescription for anti-depressants can't shake the feeling that something isn't right.

Closing the book, I'm not sure if Meredith and Josie will ever be each other's confidant but I do hope that they can find a way to see each other in the best light. It also made me extremely grateful for my sister and our relationship. I couldn't ask for a better best friend.

What Ms. Giffin does so well is write about relationships. I mean either Josie or Meredith could be your best friend complaining about their sister. She writes the heartbreak of losing someone close to you and the after effects with care and heart.

If you are a fan of Ms. Giffin's, you won't want to miss First Comes Love.

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Julie's Review: Where We Belong

Summary: Marian Caldwell is a thirty-six year old television producer, living her dream in New York City. With a fulfilling career and satisfying relationship, she has convinced everyone, including herself, that her life is just as she wants it to be. But one night, Marian answers a knock on the door . . . only to find Kirby Rose, an eighteen-year-old girl with a key to a past that Marian thought she had sealed off forever. From the moment Kirby appears on her doorstep, Marian’s perfectly constructed world—and her very identity—will be shaken to its core, resurrecting ghosts and memories of a passionate young love affair that threaten everything that has come to define her. For the precocious and determined Kirby, the encounter will spur a process of discovery that ushers her across the threshold of adulthood, forcing her to re-evaluate her family and future in a wise and bittersweet light. As the two women embark on a journey to find the one thing missing in their lives, each will come to recognize that where we belong is often where we least expect to find ourselves—a place that we may have willed ourselves to forget, but that the heart remembers forever. ~amazon.com

Review: Where We Belong hits a bit close to home for me but not necessarily in a bad way. We are first introduced to Marian as she is having a lovely dinner with her boyfriend and TV executive, Peter. As Marian approaches the subject of marriage, Peter isn't as open as she thought he could be and this causes Marian to pull away, which is only the beginning of the rift between them. We already know what secret Marian is hiding from her friends and family but the person she hides it from the most is herself.

Enter Kirby Rose, an 18 year old girl in search of her herself, her birth mother and father and trying to figure out just where it is that she belongs. You see Kirby feels that she's never belonged to the family that adopted her, she's always felt like an outsider. Her adoption wasn't sprung on her at 18, she's always known she was adopted but she's always felt like something was missing.

Of course the first meeting between Kirby and Marian is awkward which is understandable and it will continue to be that way until they can get a rapport going and build a relationship. Kirby isn't sure how to approach the subject of her birth father and Marian isn't sure how she should tell Kirby about him either. 

What happens through the book is a journey for all the characters in the novel. It is a journey into the past for Marian. A past that she stuffed away and buried because she didn't know how to deal with it at 18 and doesn't know how to deal with it at 36. It is also about where she is in life. Is she truly happy with her job and her relationship with Peter?

For Kirby, it's trying to figure out her future and where she wants to go in life. It's trying to figure out where she fits in and where she wants to fit in. It's trying to figure out how to blend two families together.

Ms. Giffin writes an excellent novel about love and life. Her characters are always easy to relate to and their struggles and triumphs are something that everyone can relate to even if you've never experienced it yourself.

This is perhaps my favorite quote in the book because it really applies to everyone and perhaps most of all to female friendships:

"Even if we no longer have much in common, we would have always had the past, which, in some ways, is just as important as the present or future. It is where we come from, what makes us who we are." -page 290

As a side note, I love how a character or characters show up from Ms. Giffin's previous novels in her current work. It's always fun to get a glimpse into their lives since we saw them last.

Heart of the Matter remains my favorite Emily Giffin novel, but Where We Belong is a close 2nd.

Where We Belong goes on sale on July 24, 2012. It will make a great summer read while you are lounging at the pool or at the beach.

Final Take: 4.5/5

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for an ARC of Where We Belong!

Book to Movie: Something Borrowed

Summary: The smash-hit debut novel for every woman who has ever had a complicated love-hate friendship. Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself. ~amazon.com

Review: Admittedly, it's been years since I've read Something Borrowed but I think I remembered enough about the story to judge the movie. Also, I'm NOT a Kate Hudson fan at all so when it was announced she was going to play Darcy I was a bit miffed. Then, I thought about it and decided she would be a perfect Darcy. The rest of the casting was very well done, especially after putting Gennifer Goodwin in the role of Rachel.

As far as my memory serves me I think the movie pretty much followed the book. The movie ended exactly as I remembered and of course I wanted it to. Sure, I don't think cheating of any kind is right, especially if the guy is engaged and about to marry your best friend. Now, of course you are always rooting for Rachel. The consummate good girl who always catered to her best friend Darcy. Darcy's always gotten what she wanted, even Dex, who she knows Rachel was crushing on.

Dex is played by the extremely good looking Colin Egglesfield. You feel for him. He's stuck, he's trying to do the right thing, he's trying to please his hard to please father. On the other hand, he needs to man up and do the right thing. He needs to live his life and love who he needs to love. Rachel needs to quit being the door mat to her friend Darcy. Let's face it, it's pretty much a one way friendship.

Who stole the show for me though was John Krasinksi. He played the childhood friend, Ethan, of both Darcy and Rachel; although now he was more in Camp Rachel. His comedic timing was perfect and he had some great lines.

I have to say, I think that Emily Giffin did an excellent job on promoting this movie since it's based on her book. She took to Facebook and Twitter to tell her fans about the process from the start. If she doesn't feel like writing any more books (which I would not be happy about) she could definitely do PR for Hollywood.

If you are a fan of the book or even if you aren't; Something Borrowed is a great movie to see with your girlfriend(s).

Final Take: 4.5/5

And The Winner Is....

Congratulations to ham1299 (aka @proudbooknerd) for winning a copy of Emily Giffin's newest novel, Heart of the Matter!

Please email me (Julie) your mailing address so we can send the book off to you as soon as possible. Thanks to all of you for participating.

Girls Just Reading uses Random.org to produce the winner.

Giveaway: Heart of the Matter

Julie some how got her hands on an extra copy of Emily Giffin's newest book Heart of the Matter and guess what: GJR is going to give it away!! You can check out the review here.

In order to qualify for the giveaway, you must:

1. In the comments section, tell us how you follow our blog (Google Friend, Twitter and/or our Facebook page).


2. Tell us what excites you about this book and why you want it


3. Enter the contest by August 6th, 2010 at Midnight EST.

Good luck!!

Julie's Review: Heart of the Matter

Summary: In the popular Giffin's latest, Nick Russo is a pediatric plastic surgeon; his wife, Tessa (sister of Dex, from Something Borrowed), is a professor turned stay-at-home mom living a cushy life in Boston. Nick is called in to care for a six-year-old burn victim, and Nick's devotion to his work is soon tangled up in his attraction to the boy's mother, Valerie, a single attorney. Narrated in turn by Tessa and Valerie, the action centers around—will they or won't they, and, if they do, will Tessa forgive him? While unclear what Nick finds so unsatisfying in his marriage, adultery is always tempting and Tessa and Valerie both have their charms. ~amazon.com

Review: I've been an Emily Giffin fan since my sister bought me Something Borrowed, Something Blue and Baby Proof a few years ago. She writes clear and identifiable characters. You always attach yourself to one of the main characters. Heart of the Matter is no different; in fact I think this is her best book yet.

The opening chapter introduces us to Tessa, a happily married women with 2 kids and recently decided to give up her career to stay at home. She's at dinner with her husband, Nick, when he gets paged. See, Nick is a pediatric plastic surgeon and there's been some kind of emergency. We later find out that it was their anniversary and it will be the night that she looks back at that changed their lives.

We are next introduced to Valerie. She's the mom of the little boy that Nick is coming into to work on. Valerie is a self-sufficient single mom, who has a a wonderful support system in her twin brother Jason and her mom, Rosemary. While, Ms. Giffin did a great job of writing Valerie and telling her POV, I just didn't like her. I felt awful for her son Charlie but I didn't feel anything but disdain for her. I don't care how lonely you are and vulnerable, you know a man is married, you back off. You put the brakes on and you stop having contact except when needed. I understand that Nick is Charlie's doctor but what doctor makes house calls?? Now, is it all Valerie's fault...of course not; Nick shares a lot of the blame.

This book had me in tears at the end. (Thank goodness my husband fell asleep when I was finishing it). My heart really went out to Tessa. I could feel everything she was feeling, I could see where she was headed before she got there and like a bad horror movie, I found myself saying "No!! Don't do it". "Don't go there".

I'm sure by my comments you can tell who I sided or identified with so I don't think I need to be too specific. Was Nick a bad guy? No, I think he was bored. I think his life was so good that he didn't know what to do, so he set out to destroy it.

I won't turn this into a bashing men review because that's not the purpose of the book. It makes you think about the situation through the eyes of both women. What makes us tick? What makes solid marriage, go off course? Can you get back on course? Do you even want to? It's a hard look at the state of marriage in today's society.

I wasn't too happy with the ending. To be honest though, I'm not sure how it could have ended with me being happy. Maybe, just maybe that's the lesson. Nothing turns out the way you think it will and you are the only one responsible for your happiness.

Final Take: 4.75/5

Movie News: Something Borrowed Casting

I have to say I'm pretty excited about Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed becoming a movie. I think the casting is spot on. I think people think this will be a standard rom-com but I disagree. The books are a bit more serious than your standard chick-lit fare. What do you guys think? Are you happy with the casting so far?

Rachel = Ginnifer Goodwin
Ethan = John Krasinski
Darcy = Kate Hudson
Dex = Colin Egglesfield

Do you think they'll combine Something Borrowed and Something Blue; kind of like they did with Confessions of a Shopaholic?

Book News: Emily Giffin's New Book

If you read this blog with any consistency you know that Lisa and I have both read Emily Giffin's Books and have enjoyed them. I'm excited to let you guys know that she has a new book coming out in Spring 2010...Heart of the Matter.

The following link will take you to a sign up page so that you can get a adobe file via your personal email to a sneak peak.

Sneak Peek: Heart of the Matter

I just signed up to get mine and I know I'll be anxiously waiting for the book.

Julie's Review: Love The One You're With

Summary:
A chance encounter with an old flame in Giffin's bittersweet, sometimes mawkish fourth novel causes Ellen Dempsey to consider anew what could have been. Shortly after marrying Andy, Ellen runs into Leo, her intense first love. Leo, a moody writer, has secretly preoccupied Ellen ever since he broke her heart, so after seeing him again, Ellen wonders if her perfect life is truly what she wants or simply what she was expected to want. This scenario is complicated by Ellen's past: the early death of her mother and subsequent disintegration of her family have left Ellen insecure and saddled with unresolved feelings of guilt. These feelings intensify when Andy's career takes the newlyweds from Ellen's beloved New York City to suburban Atlanta. As Ellen's feelings of inadequacy and resentment grow, her marriage begins to crumble. The novel is sometimes bogged down by characters so rooted in type that they, and the story line, can only move in the most obvious trajectory. However, Giffin's self-aware narrator and focus on troubled relationships will satisfy those looking for a light women's lit fix.~amazon.com

Review: In the age of Google, Reunion, Facebook, My Space what woman hasn't casually looked for an ex-boyfriend? I say woman because I think it's more of a girl thing than a guy thing. Guys aren't as curious about exes as girls are, at least in my experience. There's a fine line between being curious about what they are doing and finding out on a personal level. Ellen Dempsey (which just makes me think of Patrick Dempsey YUM) bumps into the one guy who broke her heart years ago on a NYC street and that leads to the downward spiral in Ellen's life. See Ellen hasn't even been married to Andy for a year yet and while their life seems perfect, bumping into Leo has sent Ellen on the "what if" path for the whole book! I didn't love or hate Ellen, I just couldn't relate. I've run into ex-boyfriends and while it's nice to catch up, it's also nice knowing that you are where you are supposed to be in life. Ellen's problem is that she doesn't think she got to make that choice, that somehow choices were taken away from her.

I can see why Ellen is charmed by Leo but for me I could see through his crap. He's one of those "wants what he can't have" guys and Ellen telling him she's married just upped the game big time. I honestly believe if she had said she was single his flirting with her would have ended or at least he wouldn't have been as persistent.

I liked her sister Suzanne the best out of all the characters. I found her to be the most realistic of all of them. Granted we didn't know much about her and only from Ellen's point of view, but she did seem to be objective in her descriptions of the people around her.

I enjoyed the ending of the book and the epilogue. I was happy with the outcome of the book if I did feel it was a little too much "neat bow" syndrome.

While I enjoyed Love the One You're With I would recommend Something Borrowed, Something Blue or Baby Proof before it. Even though it wasn't my favorite book, I do like the way Emily Giffin writes and will probably buy her next book when it comes out.

Final Take: 3.75/5

Related: Lisa's Review: Love the One You're With

Lisa's Review: Love The One You're With

Summary:
A chance encounter with an old flame in Giffin's bittersweet, sometimes mawkish fourth novel causes Ellen Dempsey to consider anew what could have been. Shortly after marrying Andy, Ellen runs into Leo, her intense first love. Leo, a moody writer, has secretly preoccupied Ellen ever since he broke her heart, so after seeing him again, Ellen wonders if her perfect life is truly what she wants or simply what she was expected to want. This scenario is complicated by Ellen's past: the early death of her mother and subsequent disintegration of her family have left Ellen insecure and saddled with unresolved feelings of guilt. These feelings intensify when Andy's career takes the newlyweds from Ellen's beloved New York City to suburban Atlanta. As Ellen's feelings of inadequacy and resentment grow, her marriage begins to crumble. The novel is sometimes bogged down by characters so rooted in type that they, and the story line, can only move in the most obvious trajectory. However, Giffin's self-aware narrator and focus on troubled relationships will satisfy those looking for a light women's lit fix. ~Publisher's Weekly

Review:

I went into this book, thinking "Oh I know exactly how this is going to end". Yeah, not quite. Though not entirely unpredictable, there was a time or two when I was surprised at the direction Ms. Giffin chose to take the story, particularly towards the end. How you walk away feeling in the end is a direct reflection on the things that are important to you in a relationship. I walked away thinking that Ellen may have rationalized a bit too much and I may have made a different decision.

Told solely from Ellen's point of view, we spend a lot of time inside her head as she sorts through, her thoughts and feelings. On the one hand, it's great because you walk away feeling like you know Ellen and why she makes the decisions she does. On the other hand, we don't learnquite as much about the other characters and there seems to be little depth to them and in some ways caused me to question Ellen's truth.

I've always enjoyed Giffin's ability to take a somewhat tricky situation and address it in such a way that neither makes light of the dilemma nor lessens the severity of it. She does an adequate job here, also.

Love The One You're With isn't my favorite of Emily Giffin's novel, but I found myself caught up wanting to get to the end. All in all, an enjoyable read.

Final Take: 3.5/5

Julie's Review: Baby Proof

Summary: The bestselling author of Something Borrowed and Something Blue tells the story of what happens after the "I do"s. As a successful editor at a Manhattan publishing house, Claudia Parr counts herself fortunate to meet and marry Ben, a man who claims to be a nonbreeding career-firster like she is. The couple's early married years go smoothly, but then Ben's biological clock starts to tick. A baby's a deal breaker for Claudia, so she moves out and bunks with her college roommate Jess (a 35-year-old blonde goddess stuck in a series of dead-end relationships) while the wheels of divorce crank into action. Even after the divorce is finalized and Claudia embarks on a steamy love affair with her colleague Richard, she begins to doubt her decision when she suspects Ben has found a smart, young and beautiful woman willing to bear his children. Standard fare as far as chick lit goes, but there are strong subplots involving Claudia's sisters (one is coping with infertility, the other with a cheating spouse) and the childless-by-choice plot line produces above-average tension. - Publishers Weekly

Review: I've read Emily Giffin's other two books, Something Borrowed and Something Blue enjoyed both of them emensly so I'm not sure why this sat on my shelf for over a year (too many books, too little time?!) but I'm glad that I finally read it. I was engaged in the story within the first few pages and was immediately drawn to the main character, Claudia. I enjoyed how the story was told from her point of view and she didn't really hold any punches about how she felt. All of the characters in the book were very vivid and real to me except Ben. For some reason, even though he's an integral part of the story, he felt a bit cartoonish to me. I seriously doubt that's how Emily wanted him to come off but he at least did too me.

I disagree with Publishers Weekly in the fact that this is standard Chick-Lit fare because of the subject matters that it deals with, some might call them social taboos and I don't think they've been addressed in any other "chick-lit" book that I've read before. While the ending was good and seemed to fit within the story, I am a bit disappointed that the author chose the route she did. While I enjoyed the point-of-view from Claudia, I do think it would have been equally as enriching to perhaps have thrown Ben's POV in during the course of the book too. Although in doing that you would have lost some of the twists thrown in at the end of the book.

I enjoyed all the supporting characters in this book. There were many different subplots going on but yet you didn't feel like there was too much going on that you couldn't follow it. Ms. Griffin did a very nice job of blending all the plots together.

I will continue to look for Ms. Griffin's work in the future, she's an excellent storyteller.

Final Take: 4/5