All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin

Description: “In the riveting new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of First Comes Love and Something Borrowed, three very different people must choose between their family and their values.

Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville’s elite. More recently, her husband made a fortune selling his tech business, and their adored son has been accepted to Princeton. Yet sometimes the middle-class small-town girl in Nina wonders if she’s strayed from the person she once was.

Tom Volpe is a single dad working multiple jobs while struggling to raise his headstrong daughter, Lyla. His road has been lonely, long, and hard, but he finally starts to relax after Lyla earns a scholarship to Windsor Academy, Nashville’s most prestigious private school.

Amid so much wealth and privilege, Lyla doesn’t always fit in—and her overprotective father doesn’t help—but in most ways, she’s a typical teenage girl, happy and thriving.

Then, one photograph, snapped in a drunken moment at a party, changes everything. As the image spreads like wildfire, the Windsor community is instantly polarized, buzzing with controversy and assigning blame.

At the heart of the lies and scandal, Tom, Nina, and Lyla are forced together—all questioning their closest relationships, asking themselves who they really are, and searching for the courage to live a life of true meaning.”

Review: I’ve only read one of Emily Giffin’s books, “Love the One You’re With,” and found it to be a quick fluff read. I was expecting something similar with “All We Ever Wanted” but was surprised by the depth of the content. Emily Giffin takes on sexual assault and bullying, something that unfortunately happens way too much. This book especially hit home for me because there was a similar incident in the town I work in. This book is told from several perspectives; Tom the single dad working hard to raise his daughter, Lyla a girl who is trying to fit in at a prestigious private school and Nina a well off woman who is questioning aspects of her life and family. I enjoyed having the different perspectives from each of these characters. They are dealing with the same issue but from different perspectives. Emily Giffin did a wonderful job of portraying how each one is processing and handling the situation differently. It was especially intriguing to see Lyla’s perspective while she tries to push aside the photo scandal, minimize it and then comes to realize how serious it is.

I also enjoyed the multifaceted aspects of this book. It is about much more than a sexually explicit picture going around school. It is also about the privilege of the rich, a single father’s struggle, a girls attempt to fit in and a woman’s attempt to figure out her life. I thought this book was very well written and is a story that needs to be heard. This book didn’t glorify anything and instead seemed very true to how situations such as these play out in real life. I found this book to be a powerful and emotional journey. I highly recommend it, especially to parents of teenagers or school teachers. This book deals with a timely topic.

*please note that I received an advanced copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review