The One & Only: A Novel

I started reading this book early afternoon yesterday and could not go to bed last night (it was a crazy late one) until I finished it. I am an avid reader, and one who is very particular about the books that intrigue me. I don't have a genre, per say, but probably connect more to certain books at specific stages of my life than others. And, the good books do that - they connect with you in a way you cannot forget. I'm still thinking about this book this morning, and NEVER wrote a review before on Amazon. But I felt very strongly about putting my thoughts out there about this one. I literally laughed out loud and cried at certain points in this book. I felt so connected and apart of this latest work by Giffin - and that is a gift. Love or hate the story (and it does seem to swing very much one way or another with this one), you cannot deny the fact that Giffin does possess the ability to tell a story that wraps the reader into its essence for willing participants. The characters are very real in The One and Only, and you feel a connection in some way to each one of them. The struggle Shea faces with her emotions and "passions", coupled with the complexity that acting upon her wishes and feelings, is very well crafted and unfolded in this one. I think as far as lead female protagonists go in Giffin's books to date, Shea may not be the most complex one but is definitely the best developed, thus showing how much Giffin has evolved since her Something Borrowed debut. The supporting characters - especially Lucy, Miller and Shea's Dad- could easily have been stereotypical, one dimensional characters and like true life they were not. And Coach...he is definitely my favorite male character in any of Giffin's books to date. He was intentionally kept at arm's length for the first half of the book and merely an image of a character, as he was from Shea in the story, but as his character unfolded you could feel the struggle of balancing recent loss and new opportunity and pain and love. And as he became more real, you could literally smell his aftershave when he entered the scene, feel his breathing get heavier at certain points and the pain he feels physically pulling away at certain times from Shea. Some of the best scenes ever written by Giffin were in this book between Shea and Coach. The connection between them literally jumped off the page, breaking the wall between reader and text. You could feel the passion and love between these two in a very real and sincere way, and also the tension and apprehension on both sides. The understanding of how life would never be the same was always present, but also the need to follow the heart, was so well developed and written. There was always the potential for everything to turn into one big cliché --- and it didn't. If it did, I wouldn't be writing a review right now (or even finished the book...) I was a very early adopter to Giffin. I traveled a lot back when her first novel came, and was always picking up books on the fly in airports at random. I remember very clearly finding Something Borrowed the week it came out - I was in yet another airport, on yet another biz trip, and was flying cross country yet again. Instead of sleeping the 5+ hours en flight, I was glued to this book and carried it around during the biz trip to sneak in snippets to finish. One of my anti-chick lit colleagues was intrigued, borrowed it after I finished it on the trip, and then passed it on to somebody else. In a matter of a month, the book made its rounds to almost 10 people, each one as captivated by it as the next. Giffin is a different writer - has always been so. BUT, she continues to up her game with every novel she produces. I've not always resonated with the story or characters in Giffin's books (read every one month it comes out) the way I did in The One & Only, but acknowledged her ability to connect with a reader (NO easy task), create layered characters and tell stories that women would resonate with and like. However, these last few novels by Giffin are putting her in a new category. I cringe when I see reviews of her books being a "good beach read." Mind you, I LOVE reading at the beach, but I equate that label to something more light. When I am literally crying while reading a book, I don't consider that "light." And the fact that people either loved or hated this one just goes to show how her writing evokes such strong emotional reactions - always a token of a gifted writer. Keep it up Emily Giffin:) Oh, and for the many people in these Amazon reviews calling out how this would make an amazing movie, YES. Somebody PLEASE buy the rights to this one! Of all her books to date, this one has the best potential for multi-medium success. And regarding the game of who plays who: Coach: Kyle Chandler (it has to be him...) Lucy: Kate Hudson (she would be perfect..) Miller: Taylor Kitsch (I couldn't be the only one who saw this...) Ryan: Chris Hemsworth (only if he can do an amazing texas accent- which I think he could;) Shea's Dad: Ted Danson (not sure why I saw this, but I did...) Shea: Honestly, cannot think of any actress out there that fits the character image I built in my head...I saw Alison Williams in one of the comments - that could work...Just as long as whomever plays the role has the ability to layer the complexity on screen as we see in the book. Shea is not a one dimensional character by any means.

Giffin loves to make us uncomfortable, with difficult emotional situations that place her characters in moral/ethical dilemmas. In Something Borrowed, the story forced us to ask "what do you do when you're in love with your best friend's fiance?" The question posed in this novel is perhaps even more uncomfortable - "how about when it's your best friend's father?" The story begins with the funeral of Mrs. Carr, beloved wife to Coach Carr, the town hero as coach to the local college football team in a small Texas town. He is also hero to main character Shea, who is best friends with his daughter Lucy. Shea is a huge football fan, but realizes soon after the passing of Mrs. Carr (also best friends with her own mother) that her child-crush on Coach Carr has bloomed into full-on love. Although she tries to deny it, and dates other men, her feelings are the center of the story. This isn't the only dilemma posed in the story through, as Shea takes a job covering the team for a newspaper, and discovers the football program is under NCAA investigation for possible ethics violations. In fact, the story layers complicated ethical dilemmas one on top of the other, related to campus sexual assault, college athlete recruiting and grading, journalistic objectivity, and more. Nothing is black and white, everything is gray. I think this is probably Giffin's best writing and character development, and I was engaged from the beginning. I appreciated the complexity and two-sidedness (is that a word) of the way she posed her ethical dilemmas. I even appreciated the discomfort she triggered in me, in terms of Shea's feelings for a much older man. A good book makes you think and feel, and this one did. The only drawback for me was the football talk, which I admit to skimming. If you aren't a football fan, this probably won't be your favorite Giffin. This is really the only reason I rated this a 4 star rather than a 5 star, which some people might not consider fair, but these reviews are opinion after all. But it's still worth a read, as everything else is so well done.

I loved this book and read it multiple times over the course of a week . The story was definitely slow at first but then it picked up after the first 20 pages and kept me turning pages as fast as possible, savouring the best parts over and over again. I know nothing about football so the description of plays, stats, strategies etc were confusing but it didn’t detract from the overall story. This is about Shay realizing she isn’t happy and deciding to take charge of her life, changing jobs as well as her love life. I see a strong woman who refuses to stand for any kind of abuse and who loves deeply. For me, there was no “gross factor”. Younger women date older men all the time. Coach is polite, respectful and a gentleman while trying to navigate his feelings and family obligations. I was crying tears of joy at the end. Definitely a feel good moment!

It was an unexpected and surprisingly sweet story. A bit too heavy on the sports terminology, I found myself glazing over those parts.

Eu sou suspeita no que tange aos romances da Emily Giffin, porque até mesmo quando eu não gosto da estória, eu gosto do livro. Deixe-me explicar, ela pode até escrever sobre um assunto do qual eu não me relaciono, como um de seus últimos livros sobre traição, mas mesmo assim eu simplesmente nunca consigo colocar os seus livros de lado. Isto porque o dom que ela tem de escrever sobre a natureza humana é tal que fica difícil não se conectar com os personagens. Os sentimentos, pensamentos e medos de seus protagonistas são tão bem delineados que a impressão que eu tenho é que eu realmente conheço as pessoas daquele livro, que eles são reais e aí, independentemente da trama eu me envolvo na estória. Devo confessa que The One and Only não é um dos meus favoritos, mas ele também não desaponta, e mais uma vez, apesar do tema tratado não fazer o meu gênero, nem futebol ser a minha praia... eu devorei este livro. Shea Rigsby é uma garota simplesmente obcecada por futebol. Futebol é a sua vida e o time de Walker a sua religião. Ela nunca sequer cogitou a hipótese de deixar sua cidade e após terminar a universidade ela prontamente arrumou um emprego no departamento de esportes, onde trabalha junto à equipe de Walker. Além do mais, ela foi criada ao lado do famoso treinador Clive Car, pai de sua melhor amiga Lucy, que vive e respira futebol. Shea leva uma vida simples, até que uma inesperada tragédia atinge a família de sua melhor amiga e o seu mundo é virado de cabeça para baixo. Como resultado, ela passa a questionar sua profissão e seu relacionamento. A única coisa da qual ela tem certeza é o seu fascínio por futebol e seu afeto pelo popular treinador Clive Carr, que a levará à uma viagem por um território completamente desconhecido e complicado. Eu acredito que até aqueles leitores menos perspicazes perceberão logo no início da narrativa que o fascínio de Shea pelo treinador Carr, talvez seja algo mais... E admito que eu realmente não sei dizer como eu me senti com relação à isso. Não por conta da diferença de idade, mas porque eu o via mais como uma figura paterna. Então, mesmo imaginando o treinador Carr como George Clooney eu ainda considerei esse ângulo da estória um tanto quanto bizarro. Mas, eu entendi o deslumbramento de Shea... Eu acho. Contudo, o incrível da estória é que você sabe que tem algum coisa ali, mas ao mesmo tempo não tem certeza. E até o final do livro eu realmente não sabia o que ia acontecer. Definitivamente, Emily conseguiu me manter entretida até a última página. Eu não entrarei muito no enredo para não estragar a estória. O que eu posso dizer é que a trama é muito bem desenvolvida e traz inúmeros personagens adoráveis ​​e memoráveis ​​que os leitores vão se lembrar por muito tempo. Mas, devo avisar que o tema futebol realmente domina o enredo. Então se você é daqueles que odeiam esportes, talvez esse não seja o livro para você.

Emily Giffin was recommended to me and this was the second book I read of hers , and I absolutely loved it .

A good book for a week at the beach. Not your typical romance story-line, but you can't stop love, right? If you liked Emily Giffin's other books, you will like this one too.