Ordinary love A novel

Review by Booklist Review

Rutkoski (Real Easy, 2022) adds a literary relationship drama to her oeuvre, which includes books for children, young adults, and adults. When Emily's abusive husband Jack pushes their son below the surface of a pool, it is the last straw for their marriage. She moves out immediately, yet she struggles with her search for direction. Before continuing the contemporary story, flashbacks reveal multiple episodes in Emily's past. Emily's relationship with a high-school friend, Gen, looms large in her mind. She loved Gen with an aching passion, but after an epic fight in college, they broke up. She loved Jack too and built her family with him, but he became manipulative and demeaning. On her own in the city, she reconnects with Gen, who is now an Olympic athlete--but Emily's life is much more complicated than it was back in Ohio. Emily's inner battle is the main focus of the novel; she tangles with her bisexual identity, her pull toward Gen, and her obligations to her family. Recommend to fans of complicated, emotional love stories.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Bestselling YA author Rutkoski (Real Easy) makes her adult debut with a raw and moving second-chance love story that tenderly tracks a woman's determined efforts to regain self-worth as she heals from an abusive marriage and reunites with a past love. For many years, Emily has convinced herself that she's happy with her affluent and seemingly doting husband, Jack. But as Jack's red flags accumulate--including controlling tendencies, bursts of anger, and a dangerous punishment for their young son--the happy facade fractures. Amid major emotional upheaval as Emily considers how to safely extricate herself from her marriage, she runs into her high school best friend and first love, Gen, at a fundraiser. Once a gangly teen with lofty ambitions, Gen is now a stranger to Emily but is known to the public as a distinguished Olympic athlete with a heart of gold and a reputation as a heartbreaker. Both women are responsible for deep wounds in the other that have persisted despite their years apart, but their unmistakable bond draws them back together. Rutkoski tracks their slow rekindling in stunning prose that skillfully weaves past and present. The result is a brutal yet beautiful story that captures what it means to genuinely support, cherish, and love another person. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, CAA. (June)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A recently separated writer and an Olympic track star reconnect. Emily lives a privileged life as wife to hedge fund partner Jack and mother to two bright, inquisitive children. She married immediately after graduating from Harvard; after all, Jack was perfect: kind, handsome, enamored with her, and "his happiness--like his wealth, his love--felt good." She said yes without looking back, and, after becoming pregnant unexpectedly, chose to forgo law school for a life as a stay-at-home mom. When her marriage hits a breaking point--and she realizes Jack might not be the man she thought he was--she's thrust into a new reality, facing down threats of financial ruin and even loss of custody. It's during this separation that she reconnects with her first love, Gennifer Hall. But it's been 15 years since they fell for one another in small-town Ohio, and Gen is no longer the lanky, adoring teenager with worn-through shoes whom Emily first kissed in the bed of a pickup truck. She's a world-famous athlete now, with a new wardrobe and a string of glamorous ex-girlfriends, and she's still stony over their abrupt breakup. As Emily takes account of her priorities and desires, she and Gen drift back into one another's now very different lives. The novel, which leaps between the present day and various points in Emily's life, is tender and finely written. The women's love for one another--at times hesitant and strained, but ever-present--is central, but Emily's journey to rescue her autonomy and creativity, and protect her children, is just as stirring. This dialogue-heavy novel burns slow, drawing the reader deep into the protagonist's interiority and through the emotional turbulence that shakes Emily's most important relationships as she conjures "a vision, clear as fact, of what could have been." By the end, readers will feel they know Emily and Gen backward and forward, and they will almost certainly miss spending time with them. A sexy, bittersweet novel with characters that peel off the page. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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