I received an early copy of All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin from NetGalley and this is my review.
This was a fantastic book. I loved every minute of reading it! It was about an every day family and their struggles; Mostly the struggles inside themselves. It’s about family and how difficult it can be to reconcile your differences (or not). Mostly it’s about being true to yourself and who you are.I really enjoyed it so much. It reminded me a lot of Jodi Picoult.

This was an amusing light read like many of the author's other books. It deals with current topics such as sexting and covers the rich kid/poor kid scenario. This is a great book if you simply want to spend a few relaxing hours reading. Suspenseful enough to keep the pages turning and fairly light not to keep you awake at night. Would definitely recommend to anyone who likes this type of book.

All We Ever Wanted
Emily Giffin
Available: June 26, 2018
Thank you to NetGalley.com for the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
I’ve read all of Emily Giffin’s books since Something Borrowed and Something Blue. Some I’ve really liked; some not at all. I LOVED this book. I could NOT put it down and would have probablt read the entire thing in less than 24 hours if I didn’t have some stupid work function on a Saturday (or as I see it – a perfectly good waste of a reading day). I’m not sure if its because I was really realting to Nina (both have only kids going off to college in the fall – not the super wealthy thing) but I was also realting to Tom with my fears of having a teenage daughter in this digital world.
What I loved: Nina’s mother was my favotire! I live to have no filter once I hit a certain age. Can we please get a spin off book of her? I would also like more from the best friend from home – I think there’s a good story there too.
What I didn’t love: Most of the time, I really just wanted to smack Lyla, but that’s how I feel about the decisions that most teenage girls make today, including my own. I wish there were more motivational speakers for girls/ladies/women who would let them know that high school is NOT the end all be all and he WILL morph into the not hot guy in 20 years…
What I learned: Verdict is still out
Overall Grade: B+

www.FluffSmutandMurder.com

Very interesting book dealing with teenagers and the damaging effects of posting inappropriate images on social media. This issue is quite prevalent today with many kids just not comprehending the negative effects of the click of a button. This book does a fantastic job of portraying the scene through the viewpoints of the parents and the teenagers. It deals with the division between a rich family and a not-so-rich family. There are several twists that keep you guessing, making it a great book that keeps you interested the whole way through. Beautiful plot development and great characters!

My very first book by this author and I wasn’t impressed. I couldn’t connect with the characters and I really didn’t like the development of the story. I guess I was hoping for a more captivating story with more interesting characters. The book was overly descriptive at times and I found myself skimming through a lot of it.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Emily Giffin’s best novel yet, telling the story of Nina, Tom and Lyla. Each has a side in the telling of a story resulting in a he said she said situation. When Nina’s son, Finch is accused of taking a compromising picture of Lyla, sides are taken and allegiances tested. A powerful and timely story with important themes..

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Talk about a book for the times. I believe majority of parents and teens have experienced this kind of hurt, confusion and discrimination. Emily did a wonderful job weaving this story and showing it from everyone's perspective. Very enjoyable.

This book is a very fast read. This book clearly sends an important message about the difference between the elite, entitled and the working class.

Emily Giffin creates characters so three-dimensional that reading her novels is like watching a play compared to watching a movie. I don't know how she does it, but I always truly <i>believe</i> when I read her novels. As always, Emily Giffin delivers very real, believable characters in this novel. But, unlike many of her previous books, the subject she tackles in this novel is fairly dark and very socially relevant.

<i>All We Ever Wanted</i> opens with a sexually and xenophobically charged screenshot that gets circulated around a private high school. We hear from three narrators who all see the event from different angles: the mother (Nina) of the boy (Finch) who apparently took the photo; the father (Tom) of the girl whose photo was taken; and finally, the high-school student (Lyla) herself. Each voice is distinct and believable. I finished high school long before shared screenshots were a thing, and I was impressed with how well Emily Giffin helped me see what my own opinions would likely have been if I were a teenager now. All three of the narrators were simultaneously aggravatingly flawed and eminently sympathetic.

Most of this novel was riveting for me. It tackled a fuzzy issue with nuance, and the characters had personal motivations for their decisions. And the screenshot didn't exist in a vacuum, of course; all of the characters have other realistic things going on in their lives. Finch has just been accepted to Princeton; Finch's family is wealthy enough to have its name on buildings at the school; Lyla's mother is an immigrant and also an alcoholic. Also, what actually happened the night of the photo is unclear, so the story kept me guessing and fretting throughout.

Until the last chapter, I would have given the novel five flashing, strobe-light stars. But the epilogue frustrated me. It felt to me like the author or publisher had missed a deadline and there was no time to flesh out the end of the novel. If you are willing to enjoy the novel for the fantastic character study it is and you can handle a mediocre ending, this novel is still extremely gratifying. I'm very happy I read it and am planning to reread Emily Giffin's earlier novels just to enjoy her incredible ability to tell a story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Ballantine Books, for a pre-release copy of this novel.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well developed. I am a big fan of Emily Giffin. I have read all her novels, I think this is the best one!!

My head is still swirling after reading this book. It is almost as if it were an episode of Law& Order SVU. One one hand you are thinking there is no way the things that happened in this book could ever happen in real life but on the other you know they could and do every day. This book is told from the different main characters point of view. Each chapter is titled with the character's name and you see the events from their eyes. One family is from the elite Belle Meade section of Nashville with wealth and privilege. The other family comes from "the other side of the river". These two families have one thing in common the prestigious private school, Windsor Academy. One night sets about changes that both of these families never imagined. My favorite part of the book was the Epilogue. It allows you to see that in the end everyone turned out okay and with the life they were suppose to have. I would recommend that mothers read this book with their daughters and even their sons to open a dialogue to keep the events from this night happening to them.

I enjoyed All We Ever Wanted, the writing is wonderful and the characters are very realistic. However, I must say that I had hoped for a different ending. (What can I say, I love a Happily Ever After). Not to say these characters didn't have an HEA, it just wasn't the HEA I wanted them to have. lol Good book though, I do enjoy her writing.

Giffin tackles social media, coming of age, and sexual assault with perception and depth in ALL WE EVER WANTED. I enjoyed the three pronged narrative approach, which added extra layers to the topics at hand. Thinking about it after I’ve put it down - always the mark of a great book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and it's very on-point with the current #MeToo movement. I love books told through different character's perspectives, when done well, and this one certainly was. As a teacher, parent, and woman, it was very easy for me to connect with all the characters and see multiple sides to the story. It was different that what I was expecting, but in a good way. If you are an Emily Giffin fan already, you will certainly enjoy this book too! Added bonus was the setting in Nashville. 4.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is the first book by Emily Giffin that I've read. It was fast paced read and had multiple points of view that I sometimes found confusing. Overall it was a good book. I didn't like the ending, It was so obvious. I received this copy from NetGalley in an exchange for a honest review.

Ugh one of my favorite books is something borrowed - and Giffin manages to make me fall in love with her main characters everytime. Definitely a must read!

I received this book through Netgalley and the book’s publisher, Penguin Random House.

This is a story of a common man and woman, Kirk and Nina Browning, who fall in love, get married, have a child, Finch, and strike it rich with the sell of the software business. Life seems picture perfect until Finch allegedly misused social media. The story evolves around this social media event. In the event the realization that one’s spouse isn’t who you thought they were and the impact excessive wealth may have on a family is apparent.

At times the story seems very predictable. Several times I got the feeling of “really?” (as in this wouldn’t really happen!). Because of this I didn’t rate the book higher. It is a readable book but not always believable.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2254612342

Love this author. Will read anything she writes.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy of All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffen. It has been quite a few years (maybe 10 years) since I've read any of Emily Giffin's books. I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased to see how mature her writing has become over the last decade. I enjoyed her earlier works (the Darcy and Rachel stories) but found a great deal of depth in All We Ever Wanted, with a very serious storyline to match. Nina is married to Tom and they are an elite, moneyed Nashville couple. Their 17 year old son, Finch, has just been admitted to Princeton. All is well, apparently, until Finch is accused of taking and sharing photos of a local "wrong side of the tracks" girl, Lyla, at a party. Lyla's father Tom is a carpenter and single parent to Lyla. Things spiral downward for the lives of all involved with the word is spread about the photo and other behaviors that Finch has been exhibiting unnoticed. Without revealing too many spoilers or plot points, I will say that All We Ever Wanted is a compulsive, truly suspenseful read well worth the reader's time. Emily Giffin is on the right track if she continues to write stories such as this one.