Showing posts with label Emily Giffin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emily Giffin. Show all posts

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Something Blue by Emily Giffin

Darcy Rhone thought she had it all figured out: the more beautiful the girl, the more charmed her life. Never mind substance. Never mind playing by the rules. Never mind karma.

But Darcy's neat, perfect world turns upside down when her best friend, Rachel, the plain-Jane good girl, steals her fiance, while Darcy finds herself completely alone for the first time in her life...with a baby on the way.

Darcy tries to recover, fleeing to her childhood friend living in London and resorting to her tried-and-true methods for getting what she wants. But as she attempts to recreate her glamorous life on a new continent, Darcy finds that her rules no longer apply. It is only then that Darcy can begin her journey toward self-awareness, forgiveness, and motherhood.

Something Blue is a novel about one woman's surprising discoveries about the true meaning of friendship, love, and happily-ever-after. Its a novel for anyone who has ever, even secretly, wondered if the last thing you want is really the one thing you need.



When I read the earlier book that is connected to this one, Something Borrowed, I didn't really like any of the main characters. There didn't seem to be a lot of integrity in any of them. I was however sufficiently hooked in the story to want to know what happened then!

The first portion of this book covers a lot of the same ground that was covered at the end of Something Borrowed, but instead of being from Rachel's point of view, it was from Darcy's perspective, and I have to say that I still did not like Darcy at all. She was annoying, bitchy, shallow, hypocritical, particularly in her relationship with Marcus, focusing completely on the fact that her ex fiancee had cheated on her despite the fact that she had done the same with Marcus, to the extend of getting pregnant by him. I did wonder if the author had gone too far and therefore would not be able to redeem this woman at all!!

Having said that, once we got beyond the actual events that occurred in the first book, things picked up. Darcy was left basically with a baby on the way, no boyfriend, hardly any true friends, had fought with her parents, and felt that she had no option but to go and live in London with the childhood friend to both Darcy and Rachel, Ethan. Poor Ethan. He had to put up with a lot from Darcy, but once he gave her an ultimatum about her behaviour, particularly in relation to her burgeoning pregnancy, things got better, and of course being chick lit, Darcy was finally redeemed and found the kind of true happiness that can't be found in designer brand handbags, although they certainly accessorize happiness well! I did like that there was some kind of resolution found between Darcy and Rachel, but I was glad that the author didn't go the most obvious total and fabulous reconciliation between the two of them. There had been too much pain and hurt to ever go back completely, so it would have been unrealistic in my opinion to have done so!

I did like what little we saw of Rachel and Dex (Darcy's ex fiance) in this book. It seemed that despite their tumultuous beginning they did indeed develop a great relationship and partnership.

Given how little I liked the main character in both the last book and the early parts of this book, it did surprise me that I really enjoyed this book. I think probably because I actually was in the mood for reading some chick lit. I was reading something else, and rather optimistically thought I might finish that book and therefore put this one in my bag. I had read one page of the other book, and then thought "you know what...I don't want to read this", so started reading this book, and enjoyed it so much that I basically couldn't put it down and finished it in a day!

Really enjoyable read.

Rating 4.5/5

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

This book first came to my attention when it was chosen by The Book Bitches to be their Book of the Month for June. Yes, I know I am about six months too late in reading it. What can I say...I have had lots of other books on the go!







Meet Rachel White, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl - until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiance. Although she wakes up determined to put the one night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. In her wildest dreams (or worst nightmare?) this is the last thing on earth Rachel could ever have imagined happening.

As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness.

Something Borrowed is a phenomenal debut novel that will have you laughing, crying and calling your best friend.




Now bear in mind when you read this post that I actually finished this book on 25 November. Yes, the distinct lack of book related posts over the last couple of weeks or more is not because I haven't been reading - just that I haven't been reviewing! And now I am looking at my backlog and it is scaring me so I am determined to catch up soon!!

Rachel has been living in the shadow of her best friend Darcy for years. Darcy is gorgeous, fun, generous and has a fantastic job that she just seemed to fall into. She basically could have any bloke that she wanted, but she is engaged to Dexter - a man that was friends with Rachel, and then hooked up with Darcy. The wedding is coming up, and Rachel is looking forward to the wedding, or at least she was until she had sex the groom on the night of her thirtieth birthday, and then did it again a few days later, even though they both promised that they weren't going to! From there the novel becomes one of Rachel's angst as she both wonders whether she is always going to be the other woman, or if Dex will finally grow enough courage to tell Darcy that the wedding is off, if Rachel and Dex are going to be able to pull off the deception required to continue their clandestine meetings or if they are going to get caught.

Another focus was Rachel considering the nature of her friendship with Darcy. Darcy seems to be one of those friends who loves to participate in oneupmanship - you know the ones where you say "gee my knee is hurting today", and they will go off on a convoluted story about how they had to have an arthroscope just yesterday. Maybe a little bit far fetched as an example, but you know the type I mean!

Throw in a sudden side trip to London, and that's pretty much it. The ending felt somewhat rushed to me, especially in the resolution, but it does leave space for the sequel.

I've read a fair to middling range of chick lit over the years, and quite enjoy quite a few authors (for example Marian Keyes), and I liked this book - to an extent. Whilst the voice was fun and chatty, there was an appropriate level of brand name dropping and female angst, what there wasn't was likable characters. I didn't really like Rachel, I didn't like her best friend Darcy, and I didn't really like Dex, who started the book out as Darcy's fiance. So why, if I didn't really like the characters, do I really want to read the sequel, Something Blue. The only explanation I can think of is that I have to know if the characters can all be redeemed into something less...less....selfish is not necessarily the right word...maybe self obsessed.

This was an okay journey into chick lit. I'm hoping for better next time around!

Rating 3.5/5


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