ORDINARY LOVE

A recently separated writer and an Olympic track star reconnect.

Emily lives a privileged life as wife to hedge fund partner Jack and mother to two bright, inquisitive children. She married immediately after graduating from Harvard; after all, Jack was perfect: kind, handsome, enamored with her, and “his happiness—like his wealth, his love—felt good.” She said yes without looking back, and, after becoming pregnant unexpectedly, chose to forgo law school for a life as a stay-at-home mom. When her marriage hits a breaking point—and she realizes Jack might not be the man she thought he was—she’s thrust into a new reality, facing down threats of financial ruin and even loss of custody. It’s during this separation that she reconnects with her first love, Gennifer Hall. But it’s been 15 years since they fell for one another in small-town Ohio, and Gen is no longer the lanky, adoring teenager with worn-through shoes whom Emily first kissed in the bed of a pickup truck. She’s a world-famous athlete now, with a new wardrobe and a string of glamorous ex-girlfriends, and she’s still stony over their abrupt breakup. As Emily takes account of her priorities and desires, she and Gen drift back into one another’s now very different lives. The novel, which leaps between the present day and various points in Emily’s life, is tender and finely written. The women’s love for one another—at times hesitant and strained, but ever-present—is central, but Emily’s journey to rescue her autonomy and creativity, and protect her children, is just as stirring. This dialogue-heavy novel burns slow, drawing the reader deep into the protagonist’s interiority and through the emotional turbulence that shakes Emily’s most important relationships as she conjures “a vision, clear as fact, of what could have been.” By the end, readers will feel they know Emily and Gen backward and forward, and they will almost certainly miss spending time with them.

A sexy, bittersweet novel with characters that peel off the page.