It was Jesse who had held my hand when my parents were furious to find out I’d never sent my application to the University of Massachusetts, and in doing so, had forced their hand to send me to California. We had a deep meaningful history together. I was madly in love with him and had been for as long as I could remember. They come face to face at a party in their senior year, then they hide in the bushes when the cops come to bust it up and then they are revealing their innermost selves to each other – and I get it, sometimes chemistry just knocks the wind out of you. We don’t see any of their travels or any of their growing up. The pronouncements would be so much more effective if I actually felt as though I got to know any of these characters on anything more than a superficial level. I say suddenly because all the relationships in this novel are sudden and soul-mate deep.

Then, she runs into Sam Kemper, the other boy from high school whom she’d friend-zoned. Eventually, though, she decides to return to Acton and takes a job at Blair Books, something she swore she would never do. She demonstrates this by climbing up onto her roof with a pair of binoculars to watch the sliver of ocean she can see, sure that she will see Jesse trying to make it home to her. Then, just before their one year anniversary, Jesse takes a job in Alaska and the helicopter he is on crashes.Įmma’s grief is all consuming. Emma is a travel writer Jesse works as a production assistant on wildlife documentaries. The connection is instant and before you can say “I love you”, they are actually saying “I love you.” And that’s pretty much my problem with the entire book.įast forward several years and Jesse and Emma have settled – after years of traveling the world – in Los Angeles. One day at a swim meet, Emma sees Jesse Lerner, high school swimming star and the boy Emma develops a crush on that lasts until the night at a senior year party where they finally speak to each other. In this story, Emma Blair lives with her older sister, Marie, and their parents in Acton, Massachusetts where they own a bookstore called Blair Books.

One True Loves sounded totally like my jam because there is nothing I like more than people who love each other but can’t be together (Buffy/Angel, Sid/Vaughn after Vaughn thinks Sid is dead and marries she who will not be named). It was my first book by Jenkins Reid and so I knew I would be dipping into her back list and that is how I ended up with a copy of One True Loves.

It had all the things: humour, nostalgia, angst. So I will preface my thoughts about Taylor Jenkins Reid’s 2016 novel One True Loves by saying that Daisy Jones & the Six was one of my favourite reads last year.

One true lovers book