Who Do You Love
Fiction
Simon and Schuster
August 11, 2015
Paperback
400
Publisher via She Reads
From the “hilarious, heartbreaking, and insightful” (The Miami Herald) bestselling author Jennifer Weiner comes a sweeping, modern day fairy tale about first romance and lasting love. Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she’s intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy’s taken back to the emergency room and Rachel’s sent back to her bed, they think they’ll never see each other again. Rachel, the beloved, popular, and protected daughter of two doting parents, grows up wanting for nothing in a fancy Florida suburb. Andy grows up poor in Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent that will let him become one of the best runners of his generation. Over the course of three decades, through high school and college, marriages and divorces, from the pinnacles of victory and the heartbreak of defeat, Andy and Rachel will find each other again and again, until they are finally given a chance to decide whether love can surmount difference and distance and if they’ve been running toward each other all along. With honesty, wit, and clear-eyed observations about men and women, love and fate, and the truth about happy endings, Jennifer Weiner delivers two of her most memorable characters, and a love story you’ll never forget.
My review:
I'm a big fan of Ms. Weiner's books. Her novel All Fall Down was one of my favorites of the summer of 2014. This story started out fantastic, and reminded me of why this is a go-to author for me. But I was disappointed with the last half of this book. When Rachel and Andy were young, I thought their respective stories were fascinating, and I was completely caught up in their lives. After they grew up (and after the first breakup), their stories paled for me, until I found it pretty hard to believe why they were still so fixated on each other. The writing was classic Jennifer Weiner, and I always enjoy her writing style. I thought the characters were well done, even if I wasn't on board with where they went with regards to each other. I was bothered by the reasons behind why they broke up, and felt that these were issues that would always be present (particularly for Rachel), so why would they not be problematic later on in life? It's hard for me to articulate this well without giving away the plot, so I'm going to tell you to give this a try and see if you agree, or if I'm off base in my pessimistic attitude about soul mates 🙂
A big thumbs up for the beginning of this book, and a so-so second half make this a novel worth reading. Why?.......because it's Jennifer Weiner, and even her so-so books are worth the read every time.
This book is one of the She Reads books of spring. Thank you to the publisher for providing me a copy of this book. As always, my opinions are my own.
Hmm I haven't really read her, and now I am not sure I should start with this one, I'll see what my reading is like next month.
Try All Fall Down, I really enjoyed that one, or maybe some of her earlier works. This may work for you, I just don't have that whole "I believe everyone has a soul mate" philosophy which is why I think it faltered for me.
I was just looking at this book and thinking of buying it. I've not read this author before but have always wanted to read one of her books.
I really enjoyed All Fall Down. I would suggest that one as a starter, or some of her older work (Good in Bed, In Her Shoes).