book 34

Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
342 pages


OK, Emily Giffin.  I get it.  Disloyalty and infidelity are, like, totally your niche.  Please leave your niche.  Now.

I put off reading this book because I was told it had the SAME THEME as all her other stuff.  And it did.  But I'm getting low on my book supply here, and I had to suck it up..  As a result, I am now two books behind on my goal.  Thanks, Emily.

I gave this book three stars because I think Giffin writes beautifully.  The alliteration in her sentences is effortless, flowing, and lovely.  Her story-telling prowess is fantastic.  Her inability to write about a theme other than infidelity is really annoying.  I think Giffen is effortlessly able to tell her tales, and she sucks you in with the inner dialogues of her characters, but is she really a one trick pony?  I'm told her latest book FINALLY diverges from her hard worn path of cheaters, but I'm still gonna wait for it to come out in paperback because I'm mad.

Love the One You're With is the story of Ellen, a young married woman living in NYC with her husband Andy.  It opens with Ellen crossing paths with an old flame in a NY crosswalk, and goes from there.  She must sort out the feelings she never resolved for Leo while moving forward in her marriage to Andy.  Giffin explores the dynamic of intense love vs. platonic love in relationships, of worry vs. comfort.  She has conflict down pat.  Again, the language is beautiful, the sentence structure perfect.  I just cannot give this any more stars because I'm so so so so sooooo tired of her hackneyed theme.  Although this story is told differently than the others (they are all different), I can't get passed that one detail..  It is not a tiny detail.

Overall, I enjoyed reaping the benefits of Emily Giffin's clear gift for writing, but could not stomach the tale.  I'm begging you, lady, just do something different.  Skip this one  if you've read her other stuff.  Nothing new to see here.