One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Read

I read One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid because she had written one of my favorite books of 2020, Daisy Jones and the Six. I didn't realize it at first, but she also authored one of the best audiobooks I have ever listened to, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. If I did not know the same person had written all three, I never would have guessed. The storylines are incredibly different, but her writing is superb in all of them.

One True Loves opens with teenage Emma Blair questioning her relationships, with her sister, her parents, with books, with her big butt. She is surprised to discover it is possible for her to have a wicked crush when she sees Jesse Lerner for the first time during her freshman year of high school. They don't end up together then, but by senior year they are a couple, and move across the country together to live the life they've both felt unable to live in Massachusetts. Their love is real and true and all-encompassing, and comes to a sudden end when Jesse is lost in a helicopter crash off the coast of Alaska the day before their wedding anniversary.

Emma's grief is explained, but not a real focus of the story. Instead, it is ruminated on briefly and then the focus becomes whether or not Emma feels ready and able to get back out there. She decides she does, so she goes on a date with a guy from her past, and quite quickly finds herself in love again. Shortly after she and Sam cement their future, she gets a call she never thought would come. Jesse is on the other end of the line, telling her he is alive and coming home.

The rest of the book is devoted to Emma choosing. Choosing between Jesse and Sam, between the old and new versions of herself that she cultivated with two very different men. Jenkins Reid's writing is sharp, she gets the point across without belaboring it, and while much about the supporting characters does not get beyond the surface level, they still bring meaning to the central character's story. I knew with certainty which man she should choose shortly after Jesse was back. I liked that the ending wasn't totally predictable, but went the way I was hoping it would. One True Loves was much different from the other two books I mentioned reading by the author, but it was very good in its own right.

Final rating: ★★★★☆

ATY prompt 13: A book written by an author of one of your best reads of 2020

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