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Love the One You're With | 
 enlarge | Author: Emily Giffin
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $12.45
You Save: $12.50 (50%)
New (46) Used (34) Collectible (2) from $12.45
Rating:  219 reviews
Sales Rank: 281
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 0312348673
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780312348670
ASIN: 0312348673
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
How do you know if you’ve found the one? Can you really love the one you’re with when you can’t forget the one who got away?
Emily Giffin, author of the New York Times bestselling novels Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof, poses these questions—and many more—with her highly anticipated, thought-provoking new novel Love the One You’re With.
Ellen and Andy’s first year of marriage doesn’t just seem perfect, it is perfect. There is no question how deep their devotion is, and how naturally they bring out the best in each other. But one fateful afternoon, Ellen runs into Leo for the first time in eight years. Leo, the one who brought out the worst in her. Leo, the one who left her heartbroken with no explanation. Leo, the one she could never quite forget. When his reappearance ignites long-dormant emotions, Ellen begins to question whether the life she’s living is the one she’s meant to live. At once heartbreaking and funny, Love the One You’re With is a tale of lost loves and found fortunes—and will resonate with anyone who has ever wondered what if.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 214 more reviews...
 Andy's nice and all, but I would totally bang Leo. May 29, 2008
86 out of 112 found this review helpful
I am an Emily Giffin fan. I am an unabashed, unashamed Emily Giffin fan. Her books pull me in the way a good date does, attracting me with a glossy exterior but keeping me interested by revealing a surprising depth.
LOVE THE ONE YOU'RE WITH contains the usual smart, charmed female protagonist living in a rather romanticized version of New York. But, in the first chapter, Giffin does something different. She introduces us to the main character's tempting dilemma - a charged encounter on the street with a hot, old boyfriend - before even telling us her name.
The character's name is Ellen. She's so analytical that she's practically obsessive compulsive. And she spends a lot of LOVE THE ONE YOU'RE WITH debating what she should - and should not - do about her cute, sweet husband Andy and her smoldering, brooding, dark and troubled ex-boyfriend Leo.
While Ellen's happy with Andy, she keeps thinking, "What if?"
This is the central problem of many a novel, but Giffin manages to hook the reader in with - dare I say it - some of the most erotic, intriguing flashbacks to Ellen's former relationship with Leo.
The husband Andy is a charming character, but, in Ellen's shoes, I would totally bang Leo. Giffin writes him as though he exudes sex through his eyes, through his pores. It's all very hard to resist.
And, it must be said, the inclusion of those scenes alongside many snarky references to my hometown of Atlanta kept me very entertained.
Strangely though, instead of flying all the way through it as I usually do, I flew through to Chapter Ten or so, then found myself taking a small break from it to concentrate on other things. Around the time that Ellen went to the charming, stylized Atlanta for the first time and then to photograph rock star Drake Watters, I was intrigued again.
After that, I was pulled back into the book every time that Ellen's sister Suzanne, a minor character with an edgy point-of-view, appeared on the page, though, for she was the voice I most related to in the long course of the book.
The core family of Ellen's in-laws at the center of the book, though, didn't always have my sympathies. In life, I tend to find those sorts of blessed, charmed, passive-aggressive, let's-put-on-a-smile types suspicious. Giffin makes was a very, very interesting move to have Ellen not just marry a man like Andy, but marry into her best friend and sister-in-law Margot's family. Giffin's excellent at exploring the dynamics of female friendship, and the Ellen-Margot friendship is satisfyingly complicated.
When Ellen is perplexed by her ex, she loses her chief confidante in Margot, for Margot's loyalty might go to her brother when news of what Ellen's secrets might come out.
The changing alliances of the marriage brings out Ellen's insecurity about her place, her feelings about her mother and how her own family must've felt intimidated and outmatched in comparison to the Grahams. Great, great stuff.
Of course, the protagonist Ellen might divide readers, for Ellen's in what many women would consider an ideal, supportive situation with a rich, successful and essentially sweet husband, loving in-laws, a nice house, a good career and such. Some readers might approach the book with the outset of "What the hell is she doing even thinking about infidelity when she's got it made?" But, once again, Giffin impresses by putting her protagonist squarely in the middle of what, at face value, seems like an indefensible position and manages to make her real, charming, vulnerable, reasonable and a heroine worthy of my attention as a reader and even my heart. Ellen, shockingly, considers infidelity for what feels like very valid reasons involving her heart and her choices.
It's a very smart book.
A strong recommendation August 7, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have read every one of Giffin's books and have loved them all. She tells her stories with lovely plots and interesting characters. Her use of dialog is delightful. I also recommend my favorite book about love I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't
A desperate housewife in need of closure... July 6, 2008
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
Ellen has married the perfect man. Andy is from a rich, old money family in Georgia, a lawyer who hates confrontations and is considerate in every possible way. His family is just as perfect; they have accepted Ellen into their circle with open arms. Her sister-in-law is her best friend, and that is how she hooked up with Andy. Ellen is a successful photographer in New York. Her life couldn't be better. So is she still thinking about her ex-boyfriend? When she runs into Leo by chance, all of the old memories come flooding back. Why did he break up with her when their relationship had been so wonderful and intense? Was he the one? Did she settle for Andy? Overwhelmed with confusion, Ellen falls into a somewhat reluctant game of flirtation with Leo as she tries to keep guilt at bay by pointing out the problems in her marriage to Andy, especially after they move to Georgia.
Love the One You're With is one of the most wonderfully written chick-lits out there. Emily Giffin doesn't write shallow and silly novels about single women wanting to get married. Her novels have substance, and this effort is very profound, more so than Something Borrowed and Something Blue, and those were very well written as well. This novel spoke to me. I went through something similar to Ellen. Most women have an "unrequited" or "star-crossed" love from the past, and it's wonderful to read something from a heroine who is fleshed out and three-dimensional. Ellen's inner musings and feelings are very real -- things that I have thought about myself -- and it's almost as if you're reading about yourself. Again, I absolutely LOVED Love the One You're With. The rather cutesy cover doesn't do this wonderful work justice, which is why I removed the jacket while I read it. I know I called this a "chick-lit," and I guess it is, but it shouldn't be marketed that way. This is a great piece of women's fiction.
Excellent read May 19, 2008
23 out of 38 found this review helpful
I thought this was really well done. At first, I thought the plot -- ex-boyfriend v. husband -- was old and tired. But Giffin always brings a very nuanced eye to her books, and her character development (particularly with the female characters), was wonderful as always. You forget that they are not real people. I think she also did a great deal of research into photography to make the protagonist's career convincing.
I won't give away the plot -- basically, Ellen is married to Andy, then runs into heartbreaker Leo, who starts e-mailing her -- but it yielded a number of interesting insights. The book was a great ride, and a return to form after the somewhat disappointing Baby Proof.
Bittersweet May 24, 2008
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
I have been waiting two years for this book and made sure to go out and buy it as soon as it was available! Totally worth it, as I couldn't put it down and got completely into Ellen's story. Overall, it's another great Emily Giffin book and if you've read any of her first books, you will know what to expect. Lots of smart writing and a lot insights into how people really act and think.
I found this book to be one of her most true to life stories, in the sense that she really talks about how we sometimes can't control our feelings or how we feel about certain people (much like how Ellen can't control how she feels about Leo), but we CAN control how we act on those feelings. And because of that, the ending of the book really stuck with me, as Ellen had to make decisions that really committed her to one life or another. The idea of choice is really important to this story and it's something we all have to do as we "grow up." It is a bittersweet process and I think the book captures that gain something/lose something idea really well (after all, not all endings are completely happy or completely sad).
Great book. I'll be waiting eagerly for the next one.
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