2 years ago, i bought something borrowed by emily giffin, at the recommendation of a friend who said that all of giffin’s books were “so cute” and i had to read them. i ordered the book on amazon, but never got around to reading it (partly because the used copy i bought looked like it had been run over… but i washed off the cover and it was fine).
then i saw the movie was coming out… i decided i should probably read it before i saw the movie. i’m so glad i did. but i won’t review the movie right now (well, i’ll try to hold back).
Something Borrowed: my friend was right, the books are really cute. they’re easy reads (a good contrast to all the books i’ve been reading for my english major this semester). The story is about rachel, a quiet and focused lawyer, who finds out that she’s in love with her best friend’s fiancé. and he, dex, is in love with her too. unfortunately, dex is unwilling to call off the wedding and rachel thinks she’ll have to be the maid of honor as her best friend marries the man she’s in love with. finally, rachel tells dex he has to decide and call off the wedding, or she won’t stay with him. she goes to london to forget about dex (and in the movie they say the friend in london, ethan, falls in love with her, but that’s dumb…. sorry i just had to say something), and she’s ready to fulfill her maid of honor duties when she goes back to new york.
* ok that’s all i’m going to tell you so i don’t ruin the ending completely *
my comments: i think the story is adorable. being a quiet person who loves to support my more outgoing friends, i relate to rachel. if these were real people, i would say that losing your life-long best friend is really tragic, but the best friend is an obnoxious liar, so i guess it’s ok? my policy is choose friends over guys, so i would have to say that rachel missed her chance with dex in law school and she has sacrificed him to her best friend– it’s over for her. as much as i want the good girl to get the perfect guy, it never should (and realistically never would) happen.
but overall, a perfect book for reading on the beach 🙂
Something Blue: this is the story of rachel’s best friend, darcy, as she deals with the loss of her fiancé and her pregnancy from another man. at first, she believes she’ll marry the other guy, but he tells her he can’t. so she flies to london to escape. she moves in with ethan who can’t stand her and has always been closer to rachel. darcy spends the days shopping and throws away her life-savings without thought for her babies. finally when ethan can’t take her anymore, he tells her how selfish she has been and that she’ll be an awful mother. the next morning darcy takes action and attempts to become a better person. she begins to make friends in london, finds a doctor for her baby, and cleans ethan’s apartment. she really does become a better person, starts dating a great guy, and her relationship with ethan is restored. she prepares for the babies to come and everything starts working for her again, and not because she manipulated it or flirted with someone to fix her life.
* ok, once again, that’s all i’ll say so i don’t ruin the ending *
my comments: when i started reading this, darcy really annoyed me. i know she’s probably supposed to, and if she doesn’t annoy you, you may be like her :/ she’s completely obsessed with sex and makes decisions based on her feelings instead of what’s best for anyone else. she intrudes on ethan, who she has been trying to manipulate since elementary school, and expects him to be completely happy to see her.
but
i think i like this story better… because darcy changes so much, it’s impossible not to love her by the end and appreciate the struggle she’s been through. she’s not the perfect person who deserves all the good things in life, and eventually she realizes that. when she is confronted with all her problems, she is willing to change instantly and starts to love people for who they are instead of what they look like or how wealthy they are. she turns into a lovable character.
i’m sure that emily giffin loved both rachel and darcy when she wrote something borrowed and she had to redeem the terrible, awful, lying darcy somehow. something blue successfully shows readers the good in darcy… if you can handle the first couple chapters of the bad darcy.
while i’m in summer school, i’m reading under the tuscan sun and some of the other emily giffin books… i might tell you about them. i’m also sewing 🙂 finally i have time! and i’ve started some other projects too. i’ll post pictures sometime…
