It has been years since I first read a book by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo which I’ve reread multiple times after. However, Daisy Jones and The Six and Malibu Rising didn’t really work for me. The series adaptation for the former did so though. Fortunately, Carrie Soto is Back captivated me again. In early 2023, I got myself the audiobook for One True Loves, one of this author’s earlier novels. It was not until recently that I actually listened to it. Did it captivate me again or have I been proven right yet again that reading older books by authors is not always a good idea?

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
on June 7, 2016
Pages: 331
ISBN: 9781398516687
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, General fiction

In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, far away from the expectations of their parents and the people of their hometown in Massachusetts. They travel the world together, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure.

On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Emma quits her job and moves home in an effort to put her life back together. Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.

That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and he’s been trying all these years to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants, while trying to protect the ones she loves.

Who is her one true love? What does it mean to love truly?

Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.

Unfortunately, this book happened not to be for me fully. I was already a bit hesitant to pick it up in the first place. I have postponed reading constantly since January 2023 and I think that if I just didn’t pick it up now, it still would have been on my TBR forever. Maybe I wouldn’t ever pick it up in the end, who knows. After loving several books by this author so much but not really enjoying others, my expectations were somewhere in the middle. The blurb sparked my attention, but I never felt the urge to pick it up. Hence the constant postponing.

One of the biggest reasons I didn’t enjoy this novel are the main characters. Emma, Sam and Jesse are okay, albeit not memorable at all. I think they haven’t been written well enough for such an emotional story. I should have felt all the emotions, but I felt… nothing except boredom. I didn’t feel any connection to any of them, even when Jesse went missing and was believed to be dead. The character growth was too rapid and therefore unbelieveable to me. Jesse was a red flag for me anyway, because he outright refused to accept that the world hasn’t stand still in his absence and that Emma might have grown as a person as well. He was forcing her into someone she clearly wasn’t anymore and that frustrated me a lot. Also, his character development was too rushed.

Despite the characters being written poorly, the general writing style was okay. Whereas other books by this author were indulging, this one was not. Furthermore, the first person narrative switches into a second person narrative at some point and I absolutely hate that one. Gladly it was short-lived, because there was another switch to first person. The chapters are quite short which made it easy for me to finish this book fast and that’s a good point.

The plot is very basic and is there to support the characters. It succeeded in that job, but it just didn’t suck me in. In fact, I was bored at some point and wanted this book to be over with. Again, I didn’t feel any emotions or connection, so the atmosphere didn’t do anything to me either. It’s switching back and forth between lighthearted and dark. Lighthearted when Emma is happy and dark because of grieving Jesse. The struggles Emma faces when Jesse miraculously returns are written well honestly. I think that was the best point of this entire book, but overall its dull.

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid has proved once again that reading older books by authors whose books you’ve enjoyed, turns out not always to be a good idea. This book in particular was lacking in multiple ways. The characters have been written poorly, which leads them to be not memorable at all. The plotline is pretty basic and definitely not intriguing. It was okay, mainly because of the length of this novel. I was able to finish it rather quickly which is great as I was so bored.