one true loves // taylor jenkins reid

"True love doesn't always last. It doesn't always have to be for a lifetime."

"And that doesn't mean it wasnt true."

published: 2016
pages: 327
read: 7/17-18/2020
book: 60 in 2020

SYNOPSIS
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.

THOUGHTS
*not completely spoilery but there are some so beware!*

Ooooh. Definitely liked this one the most of all 3 TJR books I just read.
I'm a sucker for love stories. and i loved this love story because of that ending!!!! *heart eyes*

stories where both parties agree to an ending because it is what it is are even better for me! 

I think it's safe to say that I am a person afraid of time. Afraid in the sense that I'm afraid of losing time with something that's meant to be. I need to learn to let time do its thing. What's meant to be will find it's way....and if it doesnt well then, you shouldn't be wasting time on it anyway. So of course I'd love this book because OMG time is a fickle thing. 

(but how funny that one of my favorite Jack Johnson songs has my most favorite lyric ever: "you tell me time never waits, well that's okay cause i don't wait for time.")

Emma has finally gotten her life back on track and is so happy with Sam when she gets a call from Jesse and everything she thought she knew just falls apart. Now she has to decide what and who she wants and what to do with it all.
I think I liked this story over maybe in another life because it's a singular line type of story vs the two stories we get in that book. It wasnt...idk how to explain it...it was straight forward, you don't get to see two happy endings. It's just time doing its thing. What's meant to happen is....happening.

I did feel like Jesse was never really the one (obvs I know this is a made up story and that only they know their relationship). but I guess my reasoning is because first he doesn't know she exists and then he does, then the next minute they're married and then he's gone.
And once they reconnected....they were both just so different that you could just tell they weren't meant to be anymore. I guess maybe I'm team Sam because you saw them blossom together and you saw him understand her "new" life and you saw them put in the work into the relationship that they have/are building towards. With Jesse it was all in a flash. It didnt seem to me like there was any sustenance to them. BUT maybe that's what TJR meant to do! Maybe this is her genius working its magic. We're sposed to get this love story that was right for the moment but ultimately its sposed to get the back seat to the true love story of this story.

Overall, I'm really happy with the way this one turned out. *sorry if it's a bit spoilery * my favorite thing about this story is the closure. They were grown ups about it, there was no animosity towards anyone and they said goodbye with nothing but love.
They once had their time and now its time to move on. And Jesse might not fully grasp it but he knows....he ends up knowing and it was the best ending ever.

Ah, I love a good closure.

Everything about this story spoke to my time fighting/needing to understand time heart.

jump over for quick spoilers.

thanks for reading!

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SPOILERS

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When the story starts, Emma is with Sam and her parents having dinner to celebrate her dads bday. They're all getting ready to leave when she gets a call.
Its Jesse.
Her husband.
Who had passed away 3 years earlier in a plane crash.

Emma sees Jesse at a swim meet in high school and falls in love with him then & there. It's not til years later that they're at a house party that they connect while running away from the cops.

Emma understands Jesse's desire to leave swimming behind since it's his parents dream because she wants to leave her parents dream for her behind. She doesn't want take over the bookstore and she wants to travel.

They end up going to LA for years (9 I think), he proposes, they get married and on the night before their 1 year anniversary he takes a flight to who knows where but the plane crashes.
she moves back home with her parents and eventually gets her shit together.

She runs into Sam (he used to work at her parents bookstore with her when they were teens) at a music store and they end up going on a date. Fast forward they end up engaged.
But now that Jesse is back she needs to figure out what to do.
At first Sam was understanding but there's only so much he can take. He tells her that she needs to figure it out (in a nicer way of course).

She ends up going to Michigan with Jesse to the cabin where they got married. Of course they hook up and you know, do couples shit but in the end they come to the realization that they have grown apart.
She does indeed love Sam and wants to be with him.
So after 3 days, they decide that it's over between them. They love each other but there's no making it work. ...mostly it was Emma realizing this. it took a bit for Jesse to see it but its not til like 8 months later or some shit that he really sees it. 

Before all this happened Sam told Emma that he would call her when he was ready to talk.
So of course she was worried that she had blown it with him (especially because she got a phone call from their wedding venue about the cancellation) but Sam comes to his senses and tells her that he wont let her leave that easily and that he needs to, he will fight for her. 

just as she was going to look for him, he comes looking for her! <3

They are married sometime later and 8 months after that she gets a call from Jesse.
Hes found someone hes in love with and he can now understand everything that she told him about love and how what they had isnt deemed invaluable just because it didn't stand the test of time.... its just that their time has passed. 

And yes. That's the super short version. 

there's also some beef shit with her sister....but ya know.