Ordinary Love
'An exquisitely tender portrayal of enduring love' Observer
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
A STYLIST BEST NEW RELEASE OF 2025
'This summer's smart beach read' GRAZIA, '25 Things for 2025'
'Profoundly moving' EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL, bestselling author of STATION ELEVEN
'A sweeping, decades-spanning tale of queer desire' MARIE CLAIRE
'Almost unbearably beautiful' EMILIA HART, bestselling author of WEYWARD
'Had me hooked from the first page' JENNIE GODFREY, bestselling author of THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGS
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There's no such thing as an ordinary love story
When Emily catches sight of Gennifer Hall at a party, she is transported back to the moment they fell in love as teenagers. Their connection was electric, and they thought it was forever.
Twenty years later, Gen is an Olympic runner, the career she strived for, while Emily is living a picture-perfect life: Manhattan townhouse, two young children and a wealthy husband, Jack. But Jack's controlling behaviour is spiralling, and Emily has lost sight of who she once was.
Now, despite Emily's fracturing marriage and the pressures of Gen's career, they are drawn back together by a magnetic attraction. After years of heartbreak, missed chances and misunderstandings, will they finally get a second chance at first love?
A sweeping love story about desire, friendship, mistakes and the possibility of second chances, for fans of The Paper Palace and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
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'I loved this moving, tender story about lost love and second chances' RED
'Immersive and insightful' LISA OWENS, author of NOT WORKING
'[A] raw, gorgeous debut' THE i PAPER
'A tender romance' WOMAN & HOME
'A gorgeously written love story' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
'Shining with rare clarity' SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE
READERS ARE ALREADY RAVING:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'So raw and so real . . . If there's one book you read this year, it should be this one'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I absolutely devoured this one . . . You will want to clear your afternoon to read this one straight through'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'The characters were so real that I miss them now the book's over. This novel is one for the ages'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Boy did this pack a punch, have a box of tissues by your side - you will need these'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Sexy and sensual . . . I found myself not wanting to stop reading'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'So emotionally wrecked by this book [that I'm] still thinking about it obsessively months later'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I fell in love with this story and these characters right from the beginning'
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Teenage love isn’t supposed to last, but can those wild sparks ever be rekindled? Twenty years after their first romance, Gennifer is an Olympic athlete while Emily is an outwardly perfect Manhattan wife and mother. They are drawn back together by chance and find the intense attraction they used to feel is still present.
Reuniting with a former love is no guarantee of happiness, and many stories have explored the disappointments and moral questions of these second chances. But in Ordinary Love, both women are in high-pressure circumstances and the new shoots of their attraction are a sweet escape.
Gennifer faces the pressure of both athletic discipline and fame. For Emily, the tension comes from her husband: The insidious nature of his control and coercion, and the crumbling of Emily’s sense of self, is well depicted and makes for hard but rewarding reading.
This is a beautifully written book that deals with big issues on an intimate level.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestselling YA author Rutkoski (Real Easy) makes her adult debut with a raw and moving second-chance love story that tenderly tracks a woman's determined efforts to regain self-worth as she heals from an abusive marriage and reunites with a past love. For many years, Emily has convinced herself that she's happy with her affluent and seemingly doting husband, Jack. But as Jack's red flags accumulate—including controlling tendencies, bursts of anger, and a dangerous punishment for their young son—the happy facade fractures. Amid major emotional upheaval as Emily considers how to safely extricate herself from her marriage, she runs into her high school best friend and first love, Gen, at a fundraiser. Once a gangly teen with lofty ambitions, Gen is now a stranger to Emily but is known to the public as a distinguished Olympic athlete with a heart of gold and a reputation as a heartbreaker. Both women are responsible for deep wounds in the other that have persisted despite their years apart, but their unmistakable bond draws them back together. Rutkoski tracks their slow rekindling in stunning prose that skillfully weaves past and present. The result is a brutal yet beautiful story that captures what it means to genuinely support, cherish, and love another person.
