Monday, June 2, 2014

Book Review- The One & Only

I finished reading The One & Only by Emily Giffin last Thursday on the plane on the way to California for a BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge Blog Tour.



About the book:

Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade. 

 But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.

 Thoughtful, funny, and brilliantly observed, and brilliantly observed, The One & Only is a luminous novel about finding your passion, following your heart, and, most of all, believing in something bigger than yourself . . . the one and only thing that truly makes life worth living.

I enjoyed reading my first book by Emily Giffin.  I have most of her other books on my bookshelves, but this is the first one I've read.

The story was pretty predictable.  I could figure out how it was going to end early on but that was okay.  That being said, her infatuation with Coach was a little disturbing to me.  It shouldn't be, I guess.  The whole love knows no boundaries thing and all.  But being in love with your best friend's father just creeped me out for some reason.

But the football part.  Oh, the football part.  I am a football fanatic.  My undergrad degree was in sports broadcasting.  I would have to loved to have had Erin Andrews job (in fact she is only a few years older than me and graduated from the same college).  So to read this book, which revolved around football and reporting football was right up my alley. And it wasn't dumbed down.   It was so perfectly detailed and just thoroughly entertaining to me.  Emily Giffin did some great research to get this book right. I was completely engrossed the whole time!

I gave this book a rating of 3.5/5.

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge Book Tour.

Praise for the Emily Giffin: 

 “Emily Giffin ranks as a grand master. . . . She has traversed the slippery slopes of true love, lost love, marriage, motherhood, betrayal, forgiveness and redemption that have led her to be called ‘a modern- day Jane Austen.’ ” —Chicago Sun-Times

 “Giffin’s writing is true, smart, and heartfelt.” — Entertainment Weekly

 “[Giffin] excels at creating complex characters and quick-to-read stories that ask us to explore what we really want from our lives.” — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 

“A dependably down-to-earth, girlfriendly storyteller.” —The New York Times 

“Giffin’s talent lies in taking relatable situations and injecting enough wit and suspense to make them feel fresh.” —People

 “When it comes to writing stories that resonate with real women, bestselling author Emily Giffin has hit her stride.” —San Francisco Chronicle 

Buy the book:



About the author: 

 Emily Giffin is the author of six New York Times bestselling novels: Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof, Love the One You’re With, Heart of the Matter, and Where We Belong . A graduate of Wake Forest University and the University of Virginia School of Law, she now lives in Atlanta lives with her husband and three young children.

Connect with the author: 

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