Normally, I don’t like to give feedback if I’m rating a book lower than a three, but this book... ugh. I give it two stars because I cared just enough to finish it, but that’s it. I’ve truly enjoyed other books by Giffin, but this one was flat out insulting. At first I thought I was just too old for a story that starts out with an easy hook-up, but it got worse. Coincidences, obliviousness to the emotional impact of ones actions, easy solutions - all set against the backdrop of September 11 was just...mind boggling. Though I was tempted to DNF at 48%, I read on, hoping it would redeem itself somehow. It didn’t.

I absolutely loved this book from the first few pages. I couldn’t put it down. With everything going on right now it was a great escape, but it was a ride of emotions with both Grant and Matthew. Emily also brought us back to that emotions of that terrible day in September 2001. I love Emily Giffin’s books and this did not disappoint. Grab a glass of wine and start reading.

The main character Cecily is just too needy, gulliable and simplistic and seems unable to go a day without a man in her life. She is just too bubble headed to get any enjoyment out of the story.

I have read several of Emily Giffin’s novels and the one thing I can always count on is being entertained. The Lies that Bind was no exception. It is fast-paced and Cecily is such a likable character that I couldn’t help but root for her.

Cecily is a reporter for The Mercury in New York City. She and Matthew have broken up and during a moment of weakness while drinking alone at a bar, she almost calls him. A random stranger suggests that she should put down her phone. Heavy flirtation with no names and no specific details ensues. A carefree sex filled evening with a stranger was gratifying but it could end up being much more.

Grant has some family baggage. His job is complicated. And some things sound a little rehearsed, a little too perfect. Is Emily wearing rose colored classes? Is this random encounter the beginning of a beautiful love story? The truth whatever it may be always comes out.

Giffin has an incredible ability to parcel out clues that could lead to many possible outcomes. I often questioned my thoughts and perceptions and continuously changed my mind.

I received an advance copy of this novel; all opinions are my own.

I have been hearing about Emily Giffin's books for years so when I read the summary for her newest one, I jumped right on it! I have found myself needing fast-paced women's fiction/romance stories during these stressful times of the pandemic and before I knew it, I had read over half this book in just one sitting!

I found the writing to be smart, witty and the story line to be VERY surprising! Wow, I did not see that ending coming! The book opens with Cecily in 2001 in New York City. The timeline should give you an idea of where this book is going. I personally love reading about love stories set during this time and how the tragic events of that day impacted lives forever. Cecily is about to drunk dial her ex-boyfriend Matthew when she is stopped by a handsome guy named Grant. They strike up a fun conversation and although he is quite mysterious, he seems as taken with Cecily as she is with him.

They begin a beautiful yet somewhat distant relationship. Is Grant the love of her life, or is he hiding something from Cecily? She wants to believe him when he professes his love for her, but the horrible events of September 11, 2001 change everything.

“So you believe in God?” he asks me.
“Yes. Definitely. Do you?”
“I’m not sure,” he says with an expression I can’t quite read. “Ask me again in a few months.”

Suddenly what I though I knew about the main characters shifted and the result was a thoroughly surprising and very insightful book about love, loyalty and honesty. There are lots of plot twists and I love how Emily Giffin resolved all of the conflicts and the tangled relationships.

"If I’ve learned anything, it’s that secrets always turn into lies when they’re kept from the people we love."

I very much enjoyed this book and could not put it down. Although there is a tragic tone to the story due to the setting around the events of 9/11, it has a wonderful ending! I definitely want to read some of Ms. Giffin's earlier books because I connected with her style of writing. Apparently a few side characters make an appearance here from an earlier book. I sympathized with Cecily and the hard choices she had to make. If you love romance stories set in New York City, and love a good plot twist or two, then you will love this book.





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This is a perpetual page turner. I really enjoyed the first half of this book and thought it would be a five star read. As I continued, the main character was so naive that I found myself yelling out to her and rolling my eyes. I had to see what happened. I went through a wealth of different emotions. Albeit, predictable.

Thank you for this book!
I wrote about it for Ms. Magazine
https://msmagazine.com/2020/05/17/8-books-that-will-transport-you/
8 Books That Will Transport You

Reading Emily Giffin’s newest book during COVID-19 quarantine was very triggering for me: I was in New York City on September 11, and my company went bankrupt within eight days. To be clear, I was one of the lucky ones—I only lost my job, where many people lost their lives or family members. I was grateful to be alive.

But like many other people, 9/11 changed my career and my life. I nearly gave up on this book several times—but as Cecily struggles with whether to stay in New York City after 9/11 and who to love and what job will fulfill her, I realized that we too will get through this #alonetogether time. My hope is that someday soon COVID-19 will be context, not content, of the story—just as with 9/11 and The Lies That Bind.

I hope that this time at home has helped you clarify what you are passionate about, who you want to spend your time with and which location makes your heart sing.

Thank you to netgalley.com for the ARC.

I have read many of Emily Giffin's book and they are all enjoyable. This story was good and enjoyed the time period it took place in as I was about the main characters age and living in NYC at the same time. NYC post 9/11 was very well depicted and still difficult to read about.

The story flowed nicely, but was a little predictable in places but overall was a quick, fun read. Fans of Emily Giffin will definitely enjoy this one also.

Emily Griffin is still on elf my favorite writers! I finished this book in one day! I thought I had an idea of where this story was headed many times and I was wrong...many times. I love when I can't figure out a book and it surprises me even after the big surprise. This book was about independence, friendship, and love and the lies you sometimes think you have to keep to be able to keep all those things. Loved it.

I couldn’t put this book down! I was immediately attracted to the characters and was anxious to read how the title related to them. Cecily is drowning her sorrows in a dive bar in New York. She has recently broken up with her longtime boyfriend and is questioning her career choices. As she picks up her phone contemplating calling her ex, she hears “don’t do it” from behind her. Although the timing is terrible as Grant will be leaving the country to care for his terminally ill brother, they keep in contact. On his return to the US, Grant immediately comes to see Cecily. The next day is 9/11. Cecily is frantic to find Grant. While she is searching downtown, she finds a missing person poster that has Grant’s picture on it. The contact person is his wife! There are many twists and turns in this story. The characters are very well developed and keep the reader incredibly involved in the story.

Emily Giffin's tenth novel, The Lies That Bind, ponders how to recognize the person one is meant to be with, the consequences of choices, and the power of forgiveness.

Set in New York City against the backdrop of the events of September 11, 2001, it's an exploration of two deeply flawed but well-intentioned people who, against all odds, manage to find each other and fall in love. And the ways in which their relationship is tested by timing, circumstances, and their own mistakes. Giffin says her writing is inspired by the power of major events like 9/11 "to cause us to sort of pause and step back, reflect and consider what we really want for our lives, from our lives, and what really matters to us."

As the story opens, Cecily Gardner has just broken up with her longtime boyfriend, Matthew, because he refuses to take their relationship to the next level. She wants a commitment, promises, and a mapped-out future as a couple. Alone, sleepless, and second-guessing her decision, she ignores the advice of her best friend, Scottie, and ventures out to a grimy dive bar on the Lower East Side for a drink. Having left her cell phone in her apartment, she asks the bartender if she can use the land line and begins dialing Matthew's number. But a voice behind her says, "Don't do it." She turns to see an extremely tall, attractive man with an amused look on his face. He repeats, "Don't do it. Don't call him." As they strike up a conversation, he tells her, "He's your ex for a reason. Onward." They continue talking and by the time the bar closes, they have agreed not to exchange names. She nonetheless invites him to her apartment. It's a reckless, out of character maneuver. They sleep together that night -- fully clothed.

The next morning they exchange basic information, agree that they want to see each other again, and Cecily gives the enchanting, intelligent Grant Smith her telephone numbers. When she finally hears from him several days later, they begin spending time together, taking the physical aspect of their relationship very slowly. Grant tells Cecily he's a Wall Street trader but is leaving his job to take his gravely ill twin brother, Byron, to England to participate in a clinical trial. They lost their mother to familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. His brother inherited the gene; Grant did not. And now he plans to devote himself to supporting his brother in the hope that the progression of the degenerative disease can be slowed. Cecily promises that she will wait for Grant, knowing how important it is that he spend time with and care for Byron. She even makes a trip to London with Scottie to visit and meets Byron. Grant returns to New York on September 10, 2011, and spends that night with Cecily, who still, despite all the conversations they have had and all the time they have spent together, does not know the name of the company where Grant is employed, the location of his office, or many other salient details about his life.

Readers old enough to remember 9/11 may find Giffin's frank portrayal of that day, from Cecily's vantage point, painful reading. She is awakened by a frantic call from Scottie as he watches news coverage at his home in Wisconsin. As so many people did that horrible morning, he frantically asks Cecily, "Oh my God! Are you watching?" Cecily's first-person narrative reflects the confusion, shock, disbelief, and utter despair that people around the world experienced as they observed two planes hit the World Trade Center, watched in stunned silence as people leapt to their death from the upper floors, and struggled to comprehend that those two 110-story buildings did, in fact, crumble before their eyes. Cecily joins her colleagues reporting the story on the streets, talking with survivors and gathering first-hand accounts as New Yorkers frantically search for loved ones who worked in the Towers. As the hours tick by, she becomes increasingly convinced that Grant must have worked there, too, because she is unable to reach him.

Cecily is assigned to cover a candlelight vigil the next evening in Washington Square Park, and it is there she discovers Grant's fate. She spots a flyer with the word "MISSING" beneath his photo, along with a telephone number and a request for information about his whereabouts.

From there, the story's focus is on Cecily's quest for the truth about the man she loved. She employs her skills as reporter to investigate, crossing ethical boundaries in the process. She never stopped caring about Matthew -- they remained in touch after breaking up -- and after what she has been through, she reevaluates her choices yet again, and assess her goals and priorities in the aftermath of losing Grant. She questions what matters most to her in a relationship, as more details about Grant come to light and she concludes that she never really knew him at all. She becomes obsessed with learning everything about Grant, her instincts telling her that there is still more to the story and, in the process, tipping precariously close to destroying everything she has worked for.

Giffin's impeccable pacing propels the story forward as she injects shocking revelations and complications with dramatic effect. Cecily is forced, at every juncture, to make choices that will have far-reaching consequences for all involved. And she doesn't always choose wisely. But despite her shortcomings and limitations, she is inherently likable even when employing a reprehensible approach to finding the answers she seeks. Her desperation is palpable and credible. Grant and Matthew are revealed to be equally fallible -- in starkly different ways. Cecily turns to her parents, brother, and Scottie for unconditional guidance and support sans judgment. In the process, Giffin believably illustrates how Cecily comes to terms with her own behavior. The different ways in which Giffin's characters express love, and their individual capacities for growth and forgiveness are believable and keep the story interesting, even as Giffin's over-the-top plot twists strain credulity. Redemption figures prominently in the story, as do the freeing power of atonement, and the blessings that flow in the form of second chances.

The Lies That Bind is an entertaining examination of Cecily's search for genuine satisfaction, and her journey to becoming an empowered, confident woman who has learned much from her past, including that nothing is perfect but sometimes, despite all their imperfections, some people really "are better together than we are apart."

I will no longer be reading or reviewing this title. I refuse to support authors that are racist and her treatment of Meghan Markle is unacceptable.

As much as I have loved this author in the past, this book fell really flat for me. I didn't really care about any of the characters and felt that the plot was pushed just to get it written.

With all that is going on (COVID, George Floyd/BLM/protests, economy, etc), I really was looking forward to a bit of light, romantic relief from this book. It started well -first chapter introduced the important characters, had a 'meet cute', and really captured me. But I have to say it fizzled out pretty quickly. The Grant/Cicely relationship just never seemed believable, and when he disappears, the other story lines that followed became increasingly convoluted and improbable. What should have been some fun escapist time turned out not to be so for me. It could be my age, or state of mind from current events, but this just did nothing for me.

I've read a few of her books, and with All We Ever Wanted, I thought her work might have developed more depth, but this and the previous book she wrote have both disappointed and I probably won't read any more.

Thanks to NetGallery, the publisher and author for a copy of this book to review.

Originally rated 2 stars, but have since changed it to 1 star.

I swore to myself that I wouldn’t read another Emily Giffin book, but when I read the synopsis for “The Lies That Bind,” I knew I had to give her one last shot. The synopsis reminded me of "Something Borrowed" and "Something Blue", both of which I reread so many times as a teenager. So I figured one more book wouldn't hurt.

And well * insert regret here.*

Now the first portion of this book, not bad. Add in a nice meet-cute and some insta-love and you got yourself a nice start. But then it turned into one hot mess. It was an awful trainwreck, I couldn’t look away. I had to keep reading because I had to see if it got worse. (spoiler alert… it did) It was like Giffin just tossed a bunch of bad plotlines into a jar and picked 10 of them out to use. Some of them made zero sense & were impossible to come back from. But the last and final straw was using a moment like 9/11 to move her plot. Which didn't even make sense!!

Now that I have given Emily Giffin one last shot, I can safely say I will no longer read her books. Her books are just not for me anymore.

Years ago, I read another of Emily Giffin's books, and I've seen the movie (Something borrowed, maybe?) which was incredibly infuriating. Two people go to school together and are in love but neither one of them will just be freaking honest about it, and her friend ends up engaged to him but then they get together and start cheating and it's a MESS. I hate shit like that. Have a gd honest conversation. But I digress. The Lies That Bind is awful in its own right. The characters are awful, and story is awful, and this book should just go away.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

In The Lies That Bind by Emily Giffin, New York City seemed like the perfect place for Cecily Gardner to make her mark after finishing college. More familiar with small towns like the one she grew up in, it took some time to adjust to apartment living and to her job as a reporter at a local paper . But Cecily eventually begins to thrive. Particularly when she starts dating Matthew. Things are great for a few years, before she realizes they don't seem to be heading towards anything more serious. So after an emotional breakup with Matthew, Cecily takes her lonely self to a neighborhood bar--and ends up meeting a man who will change her life forever.
Grant Smith was the voice of reason, just when Cecily was going to cave and contact her ex. As she and her mysterious barroom friend strike up a conversation, she can tell this is something special. Something that could become serious. But Grant's life is complicated. His plans to travel to the UK with his ailing brother will take him away just when Cecily realizes how hard she's fallen for him. Although she has some unanswered questions about Grant, she trusts the bond they've formed. Then tragedy strikes. NYC is shaken to its core by terrorist attacks. And Grant, having just arrived home, is among the missing. What Cecily finds out after 9/11 is a tangled web of half-truths, unfortunately leaving more questions than answers.

The Lies That Bind was an angsty novel set mainly in NYC, much of it during 9/11. With vivid descriptions of what locals endured at the time, paired with the heroine's ongoing romantic drama, Emily Giffin certainly pulled a lot of emotions out of this reader.
Well that was a wild ride. That was my exact thought when I finished the final page of The Lies That Bind. I'm honestly on the fence about it, though, in terms of rating and the story's conclusion. I went with 3.5 stars, but if it were based solely on how well written the parts about 9/11 were by Giffin, it would have been 4 stars. In some ways it made me relive those moments again, remembering the way it felt that day and the following weeks, months, when we wondered if we would ever be "normal" again. (Sounds familiar in that regard as to what is going on today.) But In Cecily's case, living smack dab in the city and being a journalist, having to carry on in her job...it was heartbreaking but oh so real. And that was where Giffin captured my heart and attention.

The sticking points for me were two things, really: the ending and Cecily waffling over, well, everything. I liked our heroine for the most part. She had a good heart, was compassionate and saw the little details about life that made her a good journalist. But boy didn't she seem to be a feather in the wind most of the time, letting those around her dictate what she should do. I don't think it was that Cecily was a people pleaser or a pushover, per se. It almost felt like it was just easier for her to go along with what she was being pushed into instead of standing up for herself. (If that makes sense) But toward the end of the book Cecily finally showed her backbone. And not surprisingly, that was when her life started to turn around.

You'll probably notice I'm not mentioning the guys--Cecily's ex-boyfriend Matthew or her handsome stranger Grant. That's because there were a *lot* of twists and turns to do with both of the men in Cecily's life, so I don't want to inadvertently give anything away. I had an inkling of how things would likely end and who she'd wind up with. I think many readers will, too. And while the conclusion fit the story, it was very abrupt--which might not work for everyone. I have a feeling that Giffin leaving things open for interpretation. But for me it was a little jarring how Cecily's HFN just came out of nowhere and then the book stopped.

A perceptive novel where deception, large and small, made with good intentions or not, had drastic consequences, The Lies That Bind was what can only be described as quintessential Emily Giffin.

Cecily is a beautiful young woman trying to make it in the big city. Originally from the mid-west, she finds herself stuck in a ho-hum job at a second rate newspaper. When her handsome boyfriend of three years refuses to talk about the future, she ends their relationship and finds herself in a seedy bar, alone at 2 in the morning. Just as she is about to cave and dial his number, a man approaches and tells her not to do it. Throwing all common sense to the wind and following her heart - Cecily begins an intense friendship with Grant that is filled with a passion she never before experienced. Grant has his own issues to deal with but their connection is unmistakable, he is her soulmate. And then 9/11. As quickly as this mysterious man entered her life, he vanishes. Desperately struggling to figure out what happened Cecily learns the meaning of love and just how important the truth really is. Another perfect summer read by author Emily Giffin (albeit with a twist!) It’s a must for the beach!

Emily Giffin is always a hit or miss for me. This book was a miss. I had such a hard time getting through this one. I would love the opportunity to review more of her books, but this book was boring to me. Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I like how this book is at the same time predictable and surprising. There are some predictable twists and turns, yes, but some others are unexpected. Cecily is trying to get over her recent breakup as she meets a charming guy at a bar. They spend the night together - without sex - and she starts to fall in love with that mysterious guy. But then 9/11 happens and after he disappears, she starts to question everything she (thinks she) knows about him. I like how the author is able to portray romances in a non conventional way in her books. This one did not disappoint.