A really great story of modern day issues, well written with believable characters and even more worrying a believable scenario that could happen to any young person. The plot is taught and your sympathies sway throughout the story. A well deserved 5 stars from me!

This is first Emily Griffin novel I have read and it certainly won’t be my last! An engaging tale with fantastic characters that teaches us that money can’t buy happiness and that morals can mean a lot, regardless of the outcome. I highly recommend this book. Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

My first book by this author & I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Although subject matter was sensitive I felt it was handled very well and everything was very relevant in relation to social media & how quickly negative can spread.

Wouldn't hesitate pick up another book by this author

A wonderfully written book about two families and the dramas after an indecent photo is taken....a modern day story that really tugs at the heartstrings, but what jumps out even more then that are the characters, you can visualise them so much and you wish you knew them (or didn’t!!) loved it!

A nice easy read an interesting take on a well worn story. Not as predictable as I first thought and interesting enough to keep me reading all the way through.

This book is told from several different viewpoints. A boy is accused of taking inappropriate photos of a girl passed out at a party and you don't know quite who is telling the truth. It feels as though this book is trying to tackle too many issues and that makes them a tiny bit less effective. It's well written and makes for a good read although wasn't quite what I expected.

Very well written and a great story full of twists while reminding us of the very relevant, ongoing risks and issues of social media.

Very well written book that gives a good insight from all perspectives into how different people can see a situation. This story is scarily apt for all ages.

I really like Emily Giffin and her style of writing and have enjoyed all of her previous books. This did not disappoint and I was captivated by the storyline and the morale dilemma that was faced in the book. I’ll definitely read more of her books in future.

When a photo of 15 year old Lyla semi naked on a bed is passed round through snapchat by Finch with a racist tagline it soon goes viral and Finch's parents Nina and Kirk and Lyla's father Tom are soon involved. Both Finch and Lyla are pupils at a prestigious school, Lyla on a scholarship and Finch with his father as a big benefactor of the school...... so who's side will the school be on and is everything as it seems.... who is telling the truth!

A good story with quite a dilemma, I really liked Nina and how she thought her son should face the consequences of his actions, whereas his father had no redeeming features!

This book, which I received from Netgalley was billed as adult fiction. As I began reading it I started to assume it was a bit of a chick lit type of cliched novel full of perfectly presented rich women and the tedium that can enter their shallow lives but boy was I mistaken.

I was quickly drawn in to this compelling drama which has twists and turns throughout, never choosing the obvious, always catching me out.

Beautifully written, well drawn characters, wonderful conclusion, I could not recommend All We Ever Wanted more.

Do you know what I was pleasantly surprised with this book.

I already wanted to read it just going by the blurb but what I got was a story with much more grit and drama.

Having four daughters myself I was left questioning just how I would react if I found one of my girls in Lyla's situation.

Do you defend your family even when you know they're in the wrong?

Is blood really thicker than water?

With the subjects of rape and racism both called into question in this novel, All We Ever Wanted is unbelievably thought provoking.

Written in a way that is sensitive to the subject matter at the heart of it all, my only complaint is that it all seemed to end rather quickly.

I would have liked more detail on the aftermath of the events when guilty parties were finally revealed.

Great idea to show this very emotive and topical issue from a number of voices and I particularly liked the view of the young woman, which was not what the reader might expect. Well drawn characters and sensitively handled subject matter

A great story where you disbelieve everyone at some point whilst working towards the truth.

Captivating throughout.

I have been wanting to read this book since it got published and was quite happy the day I could lay my hands over it. The story felt in sync with what was happening in social media nowadays. A semi nude photo of 16 year old Lyla with a racist remark was circulated on Snapchat, it reached the parents of both the boy who took such a pic, Nina and Kirk and the father of the girl, Tom. And the story followed their reactions and repercussions.

My first book by Emily Giffin, the story quite captured me due to its relevance. I kept finding myself getting angry over the injustice of it all, even more than the main characters. I loved the gamut of emotions I went through while reading this. The husband Kirk and boy Finch had this outlook that boys under the influence of alcohol do silly things, as if this could be classified as silly, which enraged me absolutely. They had skewered views about people. I wanted them annihilated.

I liked Nina, I felt the author has depicted her as a woman with a core of strong morals. She was the only one who wanted her son punished for what he had done. BTW the son Finch appeared to be a complete sociopath, the father Kirk came a close second, drunk on the power of new money. At the end, she did what was right for her. The girl's father Tom was understandably angry. He couldn't understand his daughter's reaction, and neither could I.

My niggles came swiftly down the book, the story lacked emotions from the characters. They all feel bad, but the depth of pain and anger was not shown. Secondly, it may be totally my outlook. I wouldn't be so blasé about such a photo being circulated amongst school mates and say - everyone does it, like Lyla was. She even started dating Finch and had sex with him because he was soooo good-looking. Do they? I don't know. The ending felt a bit rushed.

Overall, the book gripped me completely because I was caught up in my own sense of justice and righteousness and rushed through the pages as I wanted to know if the perp would be caught and made to pay.

A brilliant book, showing the consequences of how quickly something can go viral and the far-reaching consequences to so many people. I could not put this book down, finishing it in two days. This is the first book I have read by Emily Giffin, but I will definitely be reading her back catalogue.

A disturbing story of how money and social media can control American teenagers

The story revolves around two separate families, one rich and powerful with a privileged lifestyle and a spoilt son, the other a single parent father trying to bring up his teenage daughter.

Both Finch, the son and Lyla, the daughter are students at a prestigious school, Finch due to his father's money and Lyla by winning a scholarship. Their worlds collide when Lyla attends a party where she becomes drunk and is photographed passed out on a bed in a provocative pose with a racist tag attached. The photo goes viral, and it turns out that it has been taken by Finch.

The story is told from three points of view, Nina, Finch's mother, Tom, Lyla's father and Lyla herself. This really brought the story to life and made me think very hard about how I would feel in a similar circumstance.

Nina has been married to Kirk for many years but originally came from a humble background and is perturbed at the obscene amount of money that her family has. Tom has worked hard all his life and brought up his daughter on his own and is completely horrified at what has happened and is determined to have justice for what Finch has done. Lyla, on the other hand just wants the whole affair to go away as she has had a secret crush on Finch for some time and pleads with her father to let the situation go.

The situation is even more complicated by the fact that Finch has been accepted for Princeton and this whole situation could compromise his place. Finch’s father Kirk decides that money can make everything go away and offers Tom a huge bribe not to bring charges. Tom cannot believe that Kirk even thinks he can be ‘bought off’ and refuses the money. Finch himself seems totally unaffected by what he has done but offers Lyla a token apology and realising that she has a crush on him offers to take her on a date.

This is a disturbing tale of how money and influence pervade American society. I have no doubt that such people exist not only in America but worldwide. We all know that it is not what you know but who you know that often wins through in today's world and the uncaring attitude of not only Finch but also his father is very sad.

The outstanding character for me is Nina who although loving her son deeply can see that what he has done is completely wrong and is torn between ruining his future but wanting him to be punished for his misdeeds. She forms a strong bond with both Tom and Lyla which I think is one of the central themes of this book.

The other strong point made is how social media can affect people’s lives nowadays and is a topic that is so relevant in today’s world.

The author has written a compelling story that unfortunately could be all too true and really describes vividly how social media when misused can ruin people's lives.

It will really make any parent, particularly those of teenagers, think about how they can deal with the modern world and what they would do in a similar circumstance.

I really enjoyed this book but have only given 4 stars due to what I thought was a disappointing ending. Other people may well disagree, but this did actually spoil the book a little for me. However very well worth reading, the issues brought up will resonate with me for a long time.

Dexter

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

All We Ever Wanted was so good I finished it all in one day.

Nina is at a charity event with her husband Kirk when she is told about a scandalous photo doing the rounds, a photo taken by her son. Finch has just been accepted into Princeton and Kirk’s only concern is that the photo may affect his future.

Tom is horrified when he discovered there is a photo of his daughter Lyla semi-naked and with a racist caption being sent around. Tom is furious and marches into the school against Lyla’s wishes to demand action.

One of the things that made this book so interesting to me was that every character in it was believable and you could anticipate what they would think and feel in certain situations.

The central issue in this book over the photo shared on some form of social media is one that has been discussed many times and often with the blame firmly placed on the shoulders of the person being photographed rather than the person taking the picture. I like the way the author explored the topic of victim shaming within the book.

All We Ever Wanted explores the relationship between parent and child in a realistic way. I particularly liked the intricate way the author dealt with the complexities of their relationships.

I sometimes feel that the split narrative form is overused in contemporary literature but in this case, it worked very well and was necessary in order to offer the reader the details from all sides of the story.

The character I disliked the most in this book was Kirk. I knew within minutes of first reading about him that I was going to intensely dislike him. He was a stereotypical arrogant father in a rich family who was more than willing to look away from the unsavoury aspects of his son’s personality.

Having said that there were certainly elements of Tom that I didn’t like. For example, the way he frequently cast aside Lyla’s wishes in favour of doing what he believed was the right thing. The motives were understandable but the manner in which he bulldozed her set my teeth on edge several times.

At first glance Nina comes across as somewhat vapid and I certainly found it hard to take to her despite her refusal to just dismiss her son’s behaviour as a drunken mistake. However, the further I got into the book more I liked her and saw how much depth her character had.

I liked the way she wanted to do what was right even if it meant that she wasn’t fighting her son’s corner at the time in the way you would expect but was doing so by setting a good example for him in his future.

“Because deep down, I know that if every person out there deleted the picture from their phones, and Lyla and her parents and the administration of Windsor never caught wind of it, and Finch truly was sorry, everything had still changed. At least for one of us it had.”

All We Ever Wanted could so easily have turned into a cliché, a story of a girl from the wrong side of the tracks and an arrogant boy from a rich family, but it didn’t.

#AllWeEverWanted kept me gripped and wanting more. Nina & Kirk are extremely wealthy and so proud that their son, Finch, has just been accepted to Princeton. This all falls apart though when Finch takes a photo of an unconscious female classmate, Lyla, whose breast is exposed which he captions with a racist joke and send to a few friends.

Of course the photo races around his school and Nina & Kirk’s friends. Nina is terribly disappointed in her son, while Kirk is more forgiving, saying that Finch did something stupid but he shouldn’t be punished for the rest of his life by it. Kirk goes on to attempt to pay off the girl in the photos father, so that Finch won’t be punished via the school, possibly losing his place at Princeton.

The story is told from the points of view of Nina, Lyla, and Lyla’s father, Tom. Seeing their different reactions to the incident, as well as piecing together what happened that night, was very intriguing.

I felt that the ending was a little unsatisfying, however it was an interesting and entertaining read that forces you to think about the privilege white, male, wealthy men are afforded; but also makes you question how you would react to your son doing something disgraceful.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for my free advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Set in a smart, fee-paying American high school, which has a few scholarship kids from less-privileged backgrounds. The son of a wealthy family posts an explicit and racist photo of a scholarship girl taken without her knowledge to a few of his friends; the image is shared and... Inquiries ensue with the parents of both parties deeply involved. As the story develops, the reader is taken through the attempts of both sides to get to the bottom of what happened - can wealth save the boy's reputation?
An easy read, but pertinent in the current climate of wealthy parents playing the system to get their children into top US universities