The One & Only

The One & Only by Emily Giffin
Published May 20, 2014

About the Book:

In her eagerly awaited new novel, beloved New York Times bestselling author Emily Giffin returns with an extraordinary story of love and loyalty—and an unconventional heroine struggling to reconcile both.

Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade.

But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.

Thoughtful, funny, and brilliantly observed, The One & Only is a luminous novel about finding your passion, following your heart, and, most of all, believing in something bigger than yourself . . . the one and only thing that truly makes life worth living.

My Thoughts:

I had the absolute pleasure of meeting Emily Giffin last night at an event in Dallas.  She is lovely and charming, and she was one of the authors I've been dying to meet for years.  

Now on to the book, like all other books of Giffin's, I loved it.  She really knows how to write a story that hooks you and doesn't let go.  She also has a gift for writing characters that I always care about and want to read their stories.  She also got Texas and football right, which both feature heavily in this one.   I felt really unsure about the direction the story headed in (I won't give away any spoilers, though!), but the more I read, the more I became okay with it.  I'm still not sure I would say it's a love story that I would root for, but at the same time, I loved the book.  You don't always completely get the choices of those you care about, but you respect them because you care about them if that makes sense.  That's how I can best describe this book.  Giffin made me care about the characters she created and the story ending with them being happy works for me.  That's all I can say, as I don't want to give anything away.  I gave the book 5 stars on Goodreads because the book drew me and kept me interested and it was true to what I expect of Emily Giffin.  All I really ask of a book is to give me characters I want to read about (and I can even hate them actually, hello Gone Girl), and give me a story that sucks me in and makes me not want to put down the book.  Giffin always delivers on that, and I always really like her characters as a bonus!