I have become a huge fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid, especially loving Malibu Rising and Daisy Jones and The Six, so I searched for an earlier book of hers and found this romantic tale. Emma is a young woman who falls in love with Jesse during their senior year. They marry young and move out to California and lead an adventurous life with lots of traveling. But on their one-year anniversary, Jesse is lost at sea during a helicopter trip to Alaska. Devastated, Emma moves back home to Massachusetts and settles into a more sedate life with her family and working at her parent’s bookstore. After a few years she begins to date again, re-meeting Sam who had been a co-worker at the bookstore when she was in high school. The two become engaged and soon after Jesse is shockingly found alive, after spending almost three years alone on a deserted island (few details are given to explain this implausible Cast Away plot contrivance). So who does Emma pick when she loves both men??

Despite the possible corniness of this narrative trope, Reid pulls it off. An added bonus was finding out that this book is being turned into a movie, with the yummy Simu Liu portraying Sam. Reid really captures characters’ voices and capably juggles large casts. Her books have such an accurate sense of time and place and I look forward to her next new book!