Book 10: The One and Only

TITLE: The One and Only
AUTHOR: Emily Giffin
STARTED: April 25, 2015
FINISHED: May 15, 2015
PAGES: 416
GENRE: Fiction

FIRST SENTENCE: I should have been thinking about God.

SUMMARY: [From BN] 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.

THOUGHTS: I am so conflicted about this book. On the one hand, it was not good. On the other hand, I couldn't put it down. In the end, this is one of those bad books that I love reading.

I found this two be a bad book for two reasons. First, the overly detailed writing. Now, I love descriptive, lyrical writing, but this was brand-of-what-I-ate-for-lunch specific. There were several times where I was like, okay, and that detail was necessary because? I understand trying to set the scene, but the description here was just off. Second, this book gave me the willies. The whole romantic/crush plot with the coach and Shea made me so uncomfortable I actually squirmed. It's hard to get behind a character when you hate her motivations and decisions. And the ending, I get what the author was going for but it just felt so damn wrong.

Even with all of that, I still looked forward to reading this book every night. It was well paced and I like the general concept. This book was kind of like binge watching on TLC shows for me. It's not a good idea, but there is no way I'm going to stop and I have no regrets, but there are definitely better things I could be doing.

RATING: 5/10 [Meh]

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