Love the One You're With

I recently finished reading "Love the One You're With" by Emily Giffin. I have read her three prior books ("Something Borrowed", "Something Blue", and "Baby Proof") and enjoyed them so I knew I would like this one as well.

Ellen had been married to her best friend's brother for only three months when she ran into an old flame, Leo, the one that made her heart pound like no other. Her relationship with Leo had been intense and passionate so when she ran into him in the middle of the street in New York, all those feelings flooded back. Leo arranged for them to work together (he is a writer and she is a photographer) because it turns out he never got over her. I won't give it away, but Ellen was tempted by Leo as her own marriage was falling apart. I know my description has made this sound quite shallow, but there are a lot of things going on that make Ellen consider wandering and wondering if she married the right man.

What I like about Giffin's writing is that no character is all good or all bad. They seem like real people who struggle and don't always make the right decisions, but they deal with it and move on with life. What I didn't expect from this book was how emotional it made me since I could relate to two main themes through the book...Ellen lost her mother at a young age and her husband moved her to a new city for his job.

This quote from the book sums it up:
"Love, not as a surge of passion, but as a choice to commit to something, someone, no matter what obstacles or temptations stand in the way. And maybe making that choice, again and again, day in and day out, year after year, says more about love than never having a choice to make at all."