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Something Borrowed is the smash-hit debut novel from Emily Giffin for every woman who has ever had a complicated love-hate friendship. Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.
I just couldn't like Dex very much. And Rachael's martyr complex got annoying after a while, especially while she was using it as an excuse for having an affair. I kept thinking that this story would be much more interesting from Darcy's POV, so by the end I was mostly looking forward to getting it over with. Rachael and Dex deserved each other, and were so unrepentent that I can't help but think they'd better keep a close eye on one another when the thrill wears off and the relationship enters its ho-hum stage. ( )
It was off to a mediocre start: an insecure heroine, a dazzling best friend and a handsome boy. While it did improve as the plot developed, there were definitely some long bouts of annoying introspection and self-pitying. Luckily, Darcy's antics, Hillary's straight-shooting ways and Ethan's charm save the book, and the reader is compelled to follow Rachel's romantic adventures peppered with humour and sentimentality. A novel that is not super high on my list, but makes for a relaxing read. ( )
I was in the fifth grade the first time I thought about turning thirty.
Quotations
Songs and smells will bring you back to a moment in time more than anything else. It's amazing how much can be conjured with a few notes of a song or a solitary whiff of a room. A song you didn't even pay attention to at the time, a place you didn't even know had a particular smell . . . It's like when someone dies, the initial stages of grief seem to be the worst. But in some ways, it gets sadder as time goes by and you consider how much they've missed in your life. In the world.
Last words
I take Dexter's hand as we stroll up Avenue B, looking for a yellow cab headed in the right direction.
Something Borrowed is the smash-hit debut novel from Emily Giffin for every woman who has ever had a complicated love-hate friendship. Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.
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Book description
An unexpected love affair threatens a long-lived friendship in this soap opera–like debut from Atlanta ex-lawyer Giffin. Since elementary school, Rachel and Darcy have been best friends, with Darcy always outshining Rachel. While single Rachel is the self-confessed good girl, an attorney trapped at a suffocating New York law firm, Darcy is the complete opposite, a stereotypical outgoing publicist, planning a wedding with the handsome Dex. After Rachel's 30th birthday party, she knocks back one drink too many and winds up in bed with Dex. Instead of feeling guilty about sleeping with her best friend's fiancé, Rachel realizes that Dex is the only man she's really loved, and that she's always resented manipulative Darcy. Rachel and Dex spend a few weekends in the city together "working" while Darcy's off with friends at a Hamptons beach share, but finally Rachel realizes she'll have to give Dex an ultimatum. The flip job Giffin pulls off—here it's the cheaters who're sympathetic (more or less)—gives Dex and Rachel's otherwise ordinary affair extra edge. Rachel would be a more appealing heroine if she were less whiny about her job and her romantic prospects, and rambling dialogue slows the story's pace, but this is an enjoyable beach read—one that'll make readers cast a suspicious eye on best friends and boyfriends who seem to get along just a little too well.