Thursday 11 May 2017

Mini Review | Heart Of The Matter by Emily Giffin

Heart Of The Matter by Emily Giffin
Published On: May 11, 2010
Published By: Orion
Genre: Chick Lit
Pages: 358
Format: Paperback
Source: Bought
Rating: ★★

Amazon | Goodreads

Tessa Russo is the mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Despite her own mother's warnings, Tessa has recently given up her career to focus on her family and the pursuit of domestic happiness. From the outside, she seems destined to live a charmed life. 
Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie—a boy who has never known his father. After too many disappointments, she has given up on romance—and even to some degree, friendships—believing that it is always safer not to expect too much. 
Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, the two have relatively little in common aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.

Maybe I expected too much.
I have read tow of Emily Giffin's books before and really enjoyed both of them. Despite having this book on my shelf for about 5 years before actually picking it up, I was expecting to enjoy it. I was wrong, it seems. I expected more and was left disappointed.

I was bored.
I felt as though there was very little to the plot and nothing really happened. You have this big 'scandal' and that is literally the only thing going on in the whole book. I found myself getting bored while reading so I just didn't want to keep picking it up.

I couldn't deal with the cheating.
I used to be the person that hated any kind of cheating in books but I have since changed my opinion on that. However, I could not tolerate the cheating aspect of this story. Not only was it pretty unrealistic, it was unethical and a complete abuse of power. I also had a very hard time with the 'single parents can't handle things on their own and need a partner' mentality that seemed to be quite prominent.

The characters were the worst.
It is rare that I hate ever single character in a book but I just couldn't like any of them. They were dull and annoying, I didn't want to read about their lives at all. I felt no sympathy for either of the women, even when it was clear that's what the author had intended me to feel.

The Dex & Rachel cameo, though!
There is only one thing I liked about this book and that was the inclusion of Dex and Rachel, from Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed. I loved that book so to get a glimpse into their life a few years on from the end of the book was great.

Overall, I was very tempted to DNF this book but I felt some kind of obligation to finish it since it had been sitting on my shelf for so long. Honestly, I wish I hadn't bothered. I may pick up some of her other work in future but Heart Of The Matter is definitely not the Emily Giffin book I would recommend.

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