Author: Emily Giffin
Publisher:  Ballantine Books
Genre:  Women’s Fiction
Source:  BookSparks

Goodreads:   In her eagerly awaited new novel, beloved New York Times bestselling author Emily Giffin returns with an extraordinary story of love and loyalty—and an unconventional heroine struggling to reconcile both.

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, 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.

Ope’s Opinion:  I have heard this book compared to Friday Night Lights.  I agree with this!  If you liked the show, football, and Texas, you will probably want to read this story.  It took me a while to get into this book – there was a lot of back ground you need to understand the relationships between the people and football to enjoy the rest of the story.

The friendship between Lucy and Shea was strong and wonderful.  It was great to see one friend who wanted the family and kids, while another was more into the career, yet they remained close friends their whole lives.

The romance relationships in this book were not my favorite.  I think Shea was smart enough to get out of a bad relationship, but I didn’t really care for the relationship she end up in.  I would have liked the ending to have been different.

Rating: Four Chairs – I like this book so much I know several friends to share it with.