Meant to Be

Fictionalized story based loosely on JFK Jr/Carolyn Bessette. The story is new enough and familiar enough to keep you reading. All the characters are well written, with strong voices lending well to the story. A nice escape down memory lane while longing for what was Meant To Be. Another win for this accomplished author.

Thanks to Ms. Giffin, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

Emily Giffin's latest book, Meant to Be, was inspired by the lives of John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bessette, whose lives ended tragically in July 1999 when the Piper Saratoga light aircraft Kennedy was piloting en route to Martha's Vineyard plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing the couple and Bessette's sister, Lauren. Giffin says she "began to obsess over the personal component of their very public lives and deaths." She pondered both the pressure Kennedy must have endured as the world watched him grow up and expected him to follow in his father's footsteps, as well as how challenging it must have been for Bessette to find her place in the Kennedy family. She found herself returning to the "unfulfilled promise" and show more unanswerable questions about what might have been had they lived. She was motivated to create an "entirely fictional work" in which the real lives of John Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette serve merely as the underlying "framework." In Meant to Be, a story about the most eligible bachelor in America and a girl with a troubled past, Giffin considers the proverbial question, "Can love conquer all?"

To relate their stories, Giffin employs dual first-person narratives from Joe and Cate. The technique proves highly effective because Giffin takes readers into the minds and hearts of her protagonists in this character study. Joe Kingsley explains his storied family's history and the death of his famous father, who left the U.S. Senate to join NASA and perished when Joe was just three years old. (Giffin places him inside the Command Module of the Apollo 1 that burst into fire in January 1967 killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.) In the aftermath, a grieving nation questions what might have happened if only things had gone differently that day and Joe grows up in the shadow of a great man taken too soon. He has never known life without privilege and wealth, as well as "the heavy weight of so many expectations." His own mother, with whom he has a difficult relationship, regularly compares him to her deceased husband. Fortunately, Joe enjoys a close relationship with his grandmother.

Cate is a few years younger than Joe. Like him, she grows up with the knowledge that her father was killed in a motor vehicle accident when she was three years old. Cate's mother, a waitress, is fixated on finding a new husband. Along with money, a husband is, for her, a prerequisite to happiness. Money is tight, but Cate is a happy child except when her mother finds a new boyfriend, sometimes leaving her with an elderly babysitter for days at a time. Eventually, her mother finds Chip, a police officer, who physically and verbally abuses her mother.

Joe has the benefit of a first-class education and the unwavering friendship of Berry Wainwright, a new student that he is asked by the headmaster to "shepherd" when she moves to New York from London after her parents die. She becomes the gatekeeper to Joe, providing advice about which girls he should date and trying to dissuade Joe from reckless pursuits. Cate and her mother finally achieve middle class status, but Chip's presence in the household convinces Cate that boys and men cannot be trusted, and nothing good can come from romance. Her childhood experiences inform her determination and inner strength. Still, she is well aware of handsome and charming Joe Kingsley, and even has a poster of him on the wall of her bedroom because, like most girls her age, she is a bit obsessed with the closest thing America has to a prince and his royal family.

Cate is discovered as a teenager and begins earning money as a model. Her career is far more important to her than school because it is her ticket out of her mother's house as soon as she turns eighteen. As she finds herself becoming increasingly famous and financially secure, she also suffers from "imposter syndrome," convinced that if the truth about her background comes to light, her career will come to an end. and she'll find herself back in New Jersey. Meanwhile, Joe just wants to be the best version of himself, not a carbon copy of his father. After passing the Bar Exam on his third try, he becomes a Deputy District Attorney in New York, but his heart is often not in the fight to convict, especially when the defendant is charged with low level or drug offenses. He dates a woman that his family and Berry approve of, and he genuinely cares about. But one day he happens upon a photo shoot featuring "a gorgeous blond" who seems vaguely familiar -- "the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen . . ." He doesn't believe in love at first sight, but his chemical reaction to Cate is undeniable. "A little explosion in my chest."

Having established her characters' histories and emotional struggles, Giffin deftly portrays their meeting and the development of their relationship. When they meet, Cate is dating another man and reluctant to get into any serious relationship. Giffin believably depicts her conflicting feelings, the basis for them, and the slow, hesitant way in which she acknowledges that her attraction to Joe is growing. Cate is still harboring secrets about her background, including her failure to finish high school and Chip's ongoing abuse of her mother, who steadfastly refuses Cate's offers of help to extricate herself from the marriage. Cate is painfully aware that her life has been far different from Joe's and wants to avoid the media frenzy that will inevitably ensue if it becomes known that they are dating, even though she segues from modeling to fashion styling and sales, giving her a lower public profile. She is also desperately afraid that if the truth about her childhood and how she achieved career success comes to light, Joe will succumb to pressure from his mother, Berry, and others to align himself with a more suitable woman, especially in light of a shocking revelation that further complicates and threatens their relationship. After all, as the only surviving son, it falls to Joe to tangibly carry on his family's legacy. Does he love Cate enough and is he strong enough in his convictions to withstand the stressors that jeopardize their future?

Giffin's affinity for her characters is evident throughout the tale. She compassionately portrays their doubts and fears, along with the joy they experience when they are together. Joe explains that before he met Cate, "I had believed that passion came with a price. That you had to choose between being madly in love and being at peace. With Cate, I had both and it was magic." She believably explores the judgment Joe is subjected to by family and friends, as well as his personal growth as he journeys toward becoming the kind of many he really wants to be and focusing on what matters most to him. Because her characters are fully formed and deeply sympathetic, Giffin inspires readers to care deeply about them and their well-being. This is particularly true of Cate who, as the story progresses, embodies internal strength, resolve, and power, largely because she has had to take care of herself. Giffin expertly enhances the story's tension, accelerating the pace of the narratives, as Joe's reckless nature again surfaces. Will Joe and Cate's story end tragically? Or can Joe overcome the "Kingsley curse" so that he and Cate can enjoy the future they have envisioned together -- madly in love and at peace? Giffin provides a somewhat surprising and thoroughly satisfying conclusion to the story.

Giffin says she believes in "the magic and beauty of fiction -- we can take a sad story and transform it into something completely different." In Meant to Be she invites readers to ponder what it would be like to confront the challenges that Joe and Cate face: how different life would be under the crushing weight of others' expectations, how much courage it would require to defy those expectations in favor of designing a meaningful life, and how difficult it would be to risk privilege, wealth, comfort, and the alluring aspects of fame in order to spend your life with the one person who truly makes you happy.

Is Joe and Cate's romance meant to be . . . and meant to end happily or, like their real-life inspirations, tragically? Meant to Be is meant to be read on a beach or by a pool in order to find out.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book. show less

It's got Giffin's signature readability; I read this super quickly, was super invested, but I felt like it had the opportunity to be more of an ALL WE EVER WANTED elevated novel and this was definitely just pure romance. Good, but disappointing as I know there could be so much more.

"Meant to Be" by Emily Giffin started off well enough. However, less than half way through, I kept finding myself comparing it to the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. The novel wasn't an exact replica of their lives, but close enough. Unfortunately, I didn't find the characters to be that interesting and the plot was quite predictable. This novel would be a better fit in the YA genre.

Very loosely based on the Kennedy family. Joe Kingsley III is expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, a hero who died during a NASA mission. His mom, Dottie, expects much of him, and would like him to enter the world of politics. The Kingsleys are a wealthy and polished family. Enter Cate Cooper who is also fatherless. After her mother marries an abusive man, Cate realizes that her only way to escape this situation, is to accept a modeling contract at age 16. This leads to her being in the Hamptons when Joe Kingsley comes down the beach and they meet.
Joe pursues Cate, but she resists, as she doesn't feel worthy of the Kingsley status. Her insecurity and concern for the difference in social status, and how her family secrets show more might pull down Joe's dreams causes her to be uncertain.
When odds are stacked against you, can there be a love that is meant to be? This is a sweet story of love and loss. It touches on some serious subjects. It also hints at the spotlight and scrutiny put on JFK Jr, although this story ends differently. show less

2 / 5

sure, who doesn’t love the glitz and glamor of american royalty a la kennedy? but this book did not give me any of that. this book gave me awkward, stilted dialogue and boring main characters. let’s dive in.

joe’s dialogue involves wayyyyy too many exclamation points. how excited is this guy to be alive? VERY! how much does he love cate? SO MUCH! it’s disingenuous and flat - i don’t believe his character at all. not his stress level (he never seems stressed), i don’t believe he’s smart enough to prosecute anyone (he’s an idiot), and i especially don’t believe he’s a man - he talks and acts like a woman, and this is because GIFFIN didn’t do such a great job of writing this damn character. he’s boring of show more course, but that’s a given. more importantly, he’s not believable in the slightest.

cate sucks. she’s described as elegant and timeless, but she? has no personality? honestly neither of them had any personality. and i didn’t really understand why they liked each other so much? they didn’t really have anything in common and i never felt the SPARK! it’s so disappointing when i read a romance novel and the romance IS SEVERELY LACKING. i didn’t even give a fuck that this was supposed to be a recreation of a kennedy story - who gives a shit about the kennedys now in 2022? you know what i wanted? I WANTED TO FEEL SOMETHING. and this book did not get me there. at most… this book was a good way to waste an hour or two.

ughhhhh i just wanted something with some pizzazz. somebody recommend me a romance novel where the main characters actually make sense together. and have chemistry. this book just did not deliver! i’m being generous with 2 stars… trust me. show less

#FirstLine ~ I don't remember my father.

I loved this book. It was sweet and captivating. I thought it was such a wonderful love story mixed with a deep and thoughtful characters. I was drawn in immediately. I felt a deep connection to this story because it was an imperfect story with flawed characters and missteps. A perfect book for book clubs.