Exclusive Guest Post from Taylor Jenkins Reid on One True Loves

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid was an immediate favorite. I loved everything about this book, from the concept to the characters and their impossible, heart-wrenching predicament. It’s an evocative, gripping narrative where Reid dissects the concept of true love, examining how it evolves and endures, how it defines and shapes who we are especially after unimaginable loss. I had to know how the idea behind this poignant story came to be, so I’m thrilled that Taylor Jenkins Reid was able to give us the insight behind the book with this exclusive guest post.

• Related Posts: Read an excerpt | Read my review
• Buy Now: Amazon Kindle | Amazon paperback | iBooks | Barnes & Noble

Synopsis

From the author of Maybe in Another Life—named a PeopleMagazine pick and a “Best Book of the Summer” by Glamourand USA TODAY—comes a breathtaking new love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life.

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.

Guest Post

I was out to dinner one night with my husband and I asked him a question I’d been pondering as a story idea. I said, “If you thought I died, and you moved on and met someone else who you loved and could see a future with, and then I showed back up… what would you do?” I would love to tell you what his answer was but he didn’t answer. He capsized and uttered various different versions of, “I don’t know,” “Why would you ask me that??” and “What is the matter with you?”

So I asked my friend over Facetime one day and she thought about it and gave a firm answer and then immediately changed it and then changed it again. And then texted me hours later to change her answer once more.

And then, finally, I asked myself. And I realized that it’s an impossible question to answer because, if you were faced with that actual situation, your decision would be based on something you can never predict: What your heart says.

So, I wrote a story about a woman named Emma Blair, facing this impossible question, desperately trying to listen to what her heart is saying. And that book is One True Loves.

Subscribe for Updates: