Tag Archives: Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

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Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publisher: Atria Books
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Stephanie at Atria Books

Goodreads:  From Taylor Jenkins Reid comes an unforgettable and sweeping novel about one classic film actress’s relentless rise to the top—the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.

Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated. Regardless of why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s Upper East Side apartment, Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way. As Evelyn’s life unfolds through the decades—revealing a ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love—Monique begins to feel a very a real connection to the actress. But as Evelyn’s story catches up with the present, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Filled with emotional insight and written with Reid’s signature talent, this is a fascinating journey through the splendor of Old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it takes—to face the truth.

Ope’s Opinion: If you are a historical / Hollywood reader, you would probably give this book a five!  As I am not usually a historical reader nor old Hollywood reader, but I am a Taylor Jenkins Reid reader, this book intrigued me.

I did not like or enjoy Evelyn Hugo.  She was self centered and egotistical from the beginning to the very end.  All of her decisions, even having her book written, and who was to write it, was all about her and how she wanted to be portrayed to the public.

Taylor Jenkins Reid brought this story to life for me, she is such an awesome writer.  To me each of Reid’s books are unique.  She weaves wonderful story lines and her characters become real people. – she did it again this time.  Although this one did not hit a home run for me, I will read another TJR without reading the synopsis, I like her so much.

 

One True Loves

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one true loves

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Source: Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

Goodreads:  From the author of Maybe in Another Life—named a People Magazine pick and a “Best Book of the Summer” by Glamour and 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.

Ope’s Opinion:  You know how some authors have a similar rhythm to their books and after you have read a couple, you sort of know where the story is going to go?  Well Taylor Jenkins Reid is not one of those authors.  Each of her books is amazingly unique.  You will not know where she is going until she goes there. 

If you have not read Reid before – go get any one of ( or all )  her books.  You will not be disappointed in any one of them.   One True Loves took me down a road I did not expect and I enjoyed the journey.  She made me feel each character’s deep feelings.

Do you believe there is only one person in this world for you?  If you do, read this book and see if you still believe it or if this book changes your mind….

The ending is wonderfully satisfying.

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This Just In….

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From Kristin of Kritters Ramblings

sleepless

Published: May 31, 2016
Publisher: HQN Books

Goodreads:  USA TODAY bestselling author Sarah Morgan introduces a sizzling new trilogy about three best friends embracing life—and love—in Manhattan 

Cool, calm and competent, events planner Paige Walker loves a challenge. After a childhood spent in and out of hospitals, she’s now determined to prove herself—and where better to take the world by storm than in the exhilarating bustle of Manhattan? But when Paige is let go from the job she loves, she must face her biggest challenge of all—going it alone.

Except launching her own events company is nothing compared to hiding her outrageous crush on Jake Romano—her brother’s best friend, New York’s most in-demand date, and the only man to break her heart. When Jake offers Paige’s fledgling company a big chance, their still-sizzling chemistry starts giving her sleepless nights. But can she convince the man who trusts no one to take a chance on forever?

This sounds like a really fun read!

griddley girls

Publication Date: June 21, 2016
Publisher: Sparkpress

Goodreads: Sometimes you have to go back before you can move forward. Meg Monahan was born to be a secret keeper. From the moment she became a peer counselor in high school, Meg has been keeping her friends secrets from sordid family drama to their sex lives that she never wanted to know. Flash forward to adulthood when Meg is a recruiter for the world s hippest (and most paranoid) high-tech company and now Meg is a professional secret keeper. When sudden tragedy strikes before Meg hosts the wedding of her childhood BFF, Anne Calzaretta, the women are forced to face their past and their secrets in order to move on to their future. In 1978, Meg, Anne, Jennifer, and Tonya were such close friends, they were known as The Group in their hometown of Gridley, California. But in ninth grade, their lives were changed forever. Loss, lies, and secrets separated them, but could not break their bonds of friendship. Thirty years later, Meg and Anne reminisce about those days dealing with parents, school, boys, sex, love, and betrayal. Anne remembers their freshman year as an easier time, but Meg, still feeling guilty about a betrayal of Anne s trust, is haunted. Even now, Meg is keeping a secret she s not prepared to face, let alone share. In her debut novel, based on true events, Meredith First tells a timeless story about the bonds of friendship, loss, and betrayal and the forgiveness that is within everyone. Can anyone really keep a secret forever?”

This looks like a good friendship book.

meternityPublished: April 26, 2016
Publisher: Mira

Goodreads:  Not quite knocked up… 

Like everyone in New York media, editor Liz Buckley runs on cupcakes, caffeine and cocktails. But at thirty-one, she’s plateaued at Paddy Cakes, a glossy baby magazine that flogs thousand-dollar strollers to entitled, hypercompetitive spawn-havers.

Liz has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack for coworkers with kids, and she’s tired of it. So one day when her stress-related nausea is mistaken for morning sickness by her bosses—boom! Liz is promoted to the mommy track. She decides to run with it and plans to use her paid time off to figure out her life: work, love and otherwise. It’ll be her “meternity” leave.

By day, Liz rocks a foam-rubber belly under fab maternity outfits. By night, she dumps the bump for karaoke nights and boozy dinners out. But how long can she keep up her charade…and hide it from the guy who might just be The One?

As her “due date” approaches, Liz is exhausted—and exhilarated—by the ruse, the guilt and the feelings brought on by a totally fictional belly-tenant…about happiness, success, family and the nature of love.

Just the cover makes you stop and want to read this one.

one true love

Published:  June 7, 2016
Published:  Washington Square Press

Goodreads:  From the author of Maybe in Another Life—named a People Magazine pick and a “Best Book of the Summer” by Glamour and 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.

Anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid is worth the read!

sunshine beach

Publication Date: June 21, 2016
Publisher: Berkley

Goodreads: In this brand-new summer read by the USA Today bestselling author of The House on Mermaid Point, three women join forces to bring a historic seaside hotel back to life…
 
There’s nothing that a fresh coat of paint and a few glasses of wine can’t fix…
 
After losing their life savings in a Ponzi scheme, Maddie, Avery, and Nikki have banded together to make the most of what they have left, using their determination, ingenuity, guts, and a large dose of elbow grease. It’s Maddie’s daughter Kyra who stumbles across a once glorious beachfront hotel that has fallen into disrepair. The opportunity to renovate this seaside jewel is too good to pass up—especially when they come up with the idea of shooting their own independent television show about the restoration. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything. With the cameras rolling, Maddie’s second-chance romance with her all-too-famous new boyfriend gets complicated, Avery struggles with grief over the loss of her mother, and Nikki’s reluctance to commit to the man who loves her could leave her to face the biggest challenge of her life. Even the hotel seems to be against them, when their renovation uncovers a decades-old unsolved murder which just might bring their lives tumbling down all over again…

Thanks to Kristin for all these great books to read this summer!!

Maybe in Another Life

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Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid                       maybe in another life
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: BookSparks

 

 

Goodreads:  From the acclaimed author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do comes a breathtaking new novel about a young woman whose fate hinges on the choice she makes after bumping into an old flame; in alternating chapters, we see two possible scenarios unfold—with stunningly different results.

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Liferaises questions about fate and true love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.

Ope’s Opinion:  The synopsis intrigued me from the start and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s writing just kept me turning pages to the very end.  This is the road not taken kind of book.  

There are actually two stories going on at the same time in this book.  I was concerned it might be difficult to distinguish between the two – I was wrong – Reid’s writing had two distinct voices for each of Hannah’s choices.  It was very easy to follow.  It read very fast.

Hannah and Gabby are fortunate to have such an awesome friendship no matter where life took each of them.  Each of these characters is well developed, deep, with flaws that make them relatable.

I have read Reid’s other books and I will read her next one.  She knows how to pull me and keep me wanting to stop the world so I continue to read.

Rating: 5 – This book is so good it will be passed on and on and on…..

After I Do

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Author:  Taylor Jenkins Reid                           after i do
Publisher:  Washington Square Press
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Source:  BookSparks

 

Goodreads:  From the author of Forever, Interrupted—hailed by Sarah Jio as “moving, gorgeous, and at times heart-wrenching”—comes a breathtaking new novel about modern marriage, the depth of family ties, and the year that one remarkable heroine spends exploring both.

When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.

 

Ope’s Opinion:  This book starts out with a quick look at where Lauren and Ryan’s marriage is at the moment.  Then you go back in time.  It is a very cute, traditional courtship. Then the story brings you to the present to see how Lauren and Ryan think they need the time apart from each other.

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s writing  flows and her story is very easy to follow.  Each character has different situations going on, but it does not seem overwhelming.  Since each one has flaws and difficulties, it is easy to relate to them and root for the best for each one.

There is a lot of marriage advice given in this book.  It is interesting to hear all the different characters perspective of marriage, romance and love.  It will make you reevaluate what you think is important in your relationship.

I don’t usually quote a part of a book, but this one will stick with me for a long time –   when Lauren’s grandmother says, ” Just because you can live without someone doesn’t mean you want to. ”

** Side note – I am not sure why the author felt the need to insert the “f” word into odd places in the book.  It did not add any emotion to the book.

Rating: Five Chairs – This book is so good it will be passed on and on and on….
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