Emily Giffin | Reading In Winter

Released: July 24, 2012 (St. Martin’s Press)
Author Links: WEB / TWITTER / GOODREADS / FACEBOOK
Source: Publisher, for review
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The author of five blockbuster novels, Emily Giffin, delivers an unforgettable story of two women, the families that make them who they are, and the longing, loyalty and love that binds them together.

Marian Caldwell is a thirty-six year old television producer, living her dream in New York City. With a fulfilling career and satisfying relationship, she has convinced everyone, including herself, that her life is just as she wants it to be. But one night, Marian answers a knock on the door . . . only to find Kirby Rose, an eighteen-year-old girl with a key to a past that Marian thought she had sealed off forever. From the moment Kirby appears on her doorstep, Marian’s perfectly constructed world—and her very identity—will be shaken to its core, resurrecting ghosts and memories of a passionate young love affair that threaten everything that has come to define her.

For the precocious and determined Kirby, the encounter will spur a process of discovery that ushers her across the threshold of adulthood, forcing her to re-evaluate her family and future in a wise and bittersweet light. As the two women embark on a journey to find the one thing missing in their lives, each will come to recognize that where we belong is often where we least expect to find ourselves—a place that we may have willed ourselves to forget, but that the heart remembers forever.

My Thoughts

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Chick Lit books. I have shelves full of my favourite authors, like Sophie Kinsella, Jennifer Weiner, Gemma Townley, and Emily Giffin — I adore them so much that when a new book comes out, I don’t even bother reading what it’s about, I just buy it.

With Emily Giffin’s latest, I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy from the publisher, but I still had no clue what the book was about. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it really wasn’t the normal Chick Lit fare about a man and a woman falling in love, with cute things happening along the way. In fact, all of the love happens right in the beginning — 18 years ago — between a boy and a girl in high school. The result is 18-year-old Kirby, who shows up on Marian’s doorstep, starting a story about love, loss, secrets, and family. Continue reading →

Released: May 11, 2010 (St. Martin’s Press)
Author Links: WEB / TWITTER / GOODREADS / FACEBOOK
Source: Purchased
Buy Now From: Amazon

Tessa Russo is the mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Despite her own mother’s warnings, Tessa has recently given up her career to focus on her family and the pursuit of domestic happiness. From the outside, she seems destined to live a charmed life.

Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie–a boy who has never known his father. After too many disappointments, she has given up on romance–and even to some degree, friendships–believing that it is always safer not to expect too much.

Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, the two have relatively little in common aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.

In alternating, pitch-perfect points of view, Emily Giffin creates a moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most.

My Thoughts (May Contain Spoilers)

Emily Giffin sure knows how to write a novel. When I first started reading Heart of the Matter, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Part of me thought that Giffin strayed from the usual love story to something more serious as the story begins mainly with Charlie, a young boy who gets severe burns after a sleepover incident. But then we meet Nick, Charlie’s plastic surgeon, and sparks fly between him and Charlie’s mom, Valerie. Continue reading →