Reviews with content warning for Medical content - One True Loves

One of the easiest five stars i’ve given. read this in a span of 3 hours - something I have literally never done before, and I adore books. I was crying from page 72 and it did not stop the whole way through. I woke up the next morning and my eyes were puffy and I couldn't see properly. Initially I didn't want to read about the backstory of how she met Jesse and Sam, I just wanted to get into the bit where Jesse comes back. But oh my god it's the backstory that made me sob hard. And the chapter about grief using ‘you feel’ ‘you did’ was soul crushing. I felt so connected to these characters and I actually felt pain in my chest thinking about the situation. Some of my notably favourite/distressing bits were when:

Spoiler

- Jesse returns and meets Marie's daughters and says "These are my nieces" (eeek that hurt)
- Jesse breaks down and tells Emma the pain he suffered those three years on the island (that was horrible :( )
- When Sam is like "I waited this long for you I'm not gonna lose you again" (love him)
- When Emma is on the roof
- Emma sees Jesse that time at the pool and their following run from the police (OMG)
- Jesse and Emma's wedding day when they're so happy
- When emma vomits the morning of their anniversary
- Emma sees Jesse the minute he returns and she's like 'is this actually real'
- When Jesse said 'you're my wife and i forgive you for what happened when I was gone now let's be together' (absolute sobbing)
- When Jesse reads the letter and decides that he and Emma have just been changed so much by their grief that they're not the same anymore
- Jesse and Emma's last night
- Jesse calling Emma telling her about Britt (that absolutely did it for me I am crying again)
- There are so many more but it is actually painful to keep thinking about it
Also, towards the end I knew she would pick Sam because of how Jesse had changed, pressuring her to do things. I think it's so interesting how someone can be so perfect for you and then you fall out of love even though they are perfect for you!!! After reading that book I'm not very literature I am just sad.

Holy hell that was a fantastic read. It really makes me wonder what could happen in an alternate world. A lot of people say they could see what would happen in the end but i don’t think that’s the point. Absolutely chilling. And when reading it I knew that I wouldn't care who she ended up with. The way TJR writes love, you could see both Jesse and Sam were purely in love with Emma. I've never read another book where people are that in love. Amazing storytelling. This was my first TJR book and oh lord I will be reading many more, starting with "maybe in another life". Look its not good to cry as much as I did that night I read it but it was just amazing.

Content Warnings

marybsimp's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

stephs_cozycorner's review against another edition

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4.0

"𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙪𝙥 𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙮 𝙛𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙪𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙨"

I was hooked after that opening sentence. I mean, how could you not be?

Emma marries her high school sweetheart Jessie and they build a life together, travel the world and live a life of adventure. On their first anniversary Jessie goes missing after his helicopter disappears and Emma thinks he’s gone forever……until he is found.

The entire time I was reading this book I kept trying to imagine what I would do if I was in this situation. I can’t even fathom how anyone could truly feel thinking the love of your life is gone only for them to return again, after you’ve tried to move on with your life.

TJR really nails it with describing the feelings and all the emotions of each of the characters. I truly felt for every single person, but as I continued reading their was one character that continued to stand out to me and I felt myself being pulled in a certain direction (trying not to spoil, so my apologies if that seems vague).

The story is broken down into different sections. The first was flashbacks to Emma and Jessie, second was flashbacks to Emma and Sam and the last half is the present day. This is where the story lost me slightly as I felt it was more a highlight showing aspects of each relationship rather than real depth. I almost would have rather had alternating chapters between present and past. But this is more me being picky then anything.

I couldn’t help but think of 𝘾𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮 at times while reading this.

"𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚. 𝙄 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙡𝙮. 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙮. 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙮"

Content Warnings

lasafica_reads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Content Warnings

bookishcoffeedrinker's review

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emotional hopeful reflective

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I have only read one TJR book before this one and DnF'd another.

With all authors there are hit and misses and this one was somewhere in between as a cute contemporary romance to start of the new year.

(For reference I've read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and absolutely adored it. I DNF'd Daisy Jones and the Six. It wasn't quite my style.)

Spoiler
This book centres around Emma Blair who's husband goes missing on their one year anniversary from being married. She grieves, moves on and a few years later she is engaged to an old friend Sam who worked with her at her parents bookshop while in high school. Plot twist her husband is alive and comes home, now she has to choose between her fiancée and recently now not presumed dead husband Jesse (who was her high school sweetheart).

Spoiler
The formatting of the book jumped back to flashbacks to explain the way the mc's met and how they all came together. The dry humour and witty banter from the teenage years was fun and relatable and it didn't bore me. Into the early adult years Emma and Jesse's relationship felt glossed over and abruptly he was gone and boom we've set up a love triangle.

Spoiler
Skip over to the end because I'm too lazy to write a really long review the things that irked me the most were the fact that Emma was able to make her decision in just three days, Jesse accepted her decision in one conversation and the fact that Jesse's return felt unrealistic as he was on a deserted island for 3 years and showed no sign of PTSD apart from saying he didn't "feel right."

I'll come back and write a better review eventually. I am just spouting a summary at this point.

Overall this book was enjoyable. It's not something I'd jump to recommend to people at first look at my bookshelf but if you want a cutesy fast paced romance read this would be appropriate. It wasn't a TJR tear-jerker but I am willing to read more of her books because I am a sucker for contemporary romance.

Content Warnings

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