Marie Rutkoski is, without exaggeration, one of my absolute all-time favorite living writers, so I was absolutely over the moon to see an adult release from her this year--and a gay romance, no less!

I generally like second-chance romance--I like to think that most people have a permanent spot of vulnerability around their first big heartbreak. It's something you carry forever, even after it stops being painful or even particularly memorable. I'm always drawn to books that get at that minute, archival soreness, so the premise of this one was an easy sell for me. This book explores ideas of first love, regrets, growth, and reconnection in a way I found intensely engaging and often moving. In many ways it's a straightforward manifestation of the second-chance trope, but there's a depth and tension beyond what's necessary or expected for a bog-standard romance. I also think this author is particularly adept at writing hot self-effacing soft butch love interests, and it's nice to see that skill at work in an adult book.

I will say that the husband character definitely veers into villain caricature more often than not, but 1) men really do be like that, oftentimes, and 2) Colleen Hoover is the biggest author in the world right now, and she is all about ridiculous villainous men. I would LOVE to see Marie Rutkoski get a piece of that audience.

Wow. This is a gorgeous, at times frustrating, book. I’ll be the first to admit that I HATE miscommunication/lack of communication and a conflict plot point, and Ordinary Love was FULL of that. But as a bisexual woman myself, who navigated my first queer relationship along the same timeline this book was set, the tension felt all too appropriate to me. Before social media and the age of much more acceptance (though it feels like it’s slipping away again), simply not admitting queerness publicly felt like a plausible option. And backing away from conflict or uncomfortableness versus fighting for love was heartbreaking, but necessary. I sympathized with Emily and Gen and I loved their love story. My heart ached for all the missed time and secrets - feeling for both them and myself.
This book not only addresses bisexuality so well, but also friendship, the ease at which it slips away with time, and the ability to regain bonds that felt irreparably broken. There’s also the all-too-real “abuse” in an outwardly perfect marriage and the idea that money and class makes everything perfect, even with one partner walking on eggshells.
I don’t quite know how to describe how purely this book touched my soul. It felt like it was written for me and I’d definitely recommend to lit fic fans and/or anyone interested in a coming-of-age books revolving around queerness and later in life self-discovery.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski is anything but ordinary. This novel is a stunning exploration of love in all its complicated, messy, and deeply human forms. Rutkoski writes with such emotional clarity and quiet power that every page feels like a revelation.

I absolutely loved this book! This is a very minimal plot, character-driven novel. It started out slow and I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel at first, but once I got to know these characters and started piecing together their story, I fell in love with them and felt like I was walking right alongside them.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced digital copy!*

I was really taken by this beautiful book. I haven’t seen much conversation about this but really thought the author created an immersive story. Totally recommend. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Years ago, I said: "REAL EASY is crackling crime fiction: Marie Rutkoski crafted characters that come alive on the page."

And gosh, did she do that again, but this time with a contemporary fiction (romance?) novel.

I have been highly anticipating this one for months so maybe it should be no surprise I inhaled it in 24 hours. But oh how I loved doing so! I was gripped, and then I was immediately disappointed because I no longer have a Rutkoski novel on my "to be read" list, and my reading life is the worse for it.

Highly recommend! Don't miss this one.

Marie Rutkoski’s Ordinary Love is anything but. This novel is a quiet storm—achingly intimate, sharply observed, and emotionally layered in ways that linger long after the final page. It’s a story about love in its many forms: romantic, maternal, platonic, remembered, imagined, and unspoken.

At its heart is Emily, a woman navigating the wreckage of a marriage, the unfinished business of a former love, and the fragile, high-stakes terrain of parenting. Rutkoski renders her with striking vulnerability, capturing the complexity of a character who is brave, flawed, protective, and profoundly human. There’s a breathtaking precision to the emotional details—those moments when memory and longing crash against the present—that makes this book feel deeply lived-in.

The writing is exquisite. With restrained lyricism and clarity, Rutkoski offers up passages that feel both piercing and true. There are lines in this book that feel like they were written to be underlined, whispered back to yourself, or tucked away for hard days. The prose balances softness and sharpness, often within the same sentence.

What makes Ordinary Love extraordinary is how it threads tenderness through tension, how it honors the emotional realism of relationships without ever lapsing into melodrama. It’s a novel that understands the quiet heroism of choosing honesty, the messiness of becoming, and the courage it takes to love again—with or without guarantees.

For readers who appreciate literary fiction with emotional intelligence, beautifully drawn characters, and prose that hums with honesty, Ordinary Love is a standout. It left me full of feeling, and deeply grateful. Thank you Knopf for the gifted book!

I cried SO MUCH. I was devastated, hopeful, sad, scared, joyous - very in my feels through this whole read. I couldn't put it down. I was so in love with the characters and their story and what was going to happen.

This will 100% be one of my favorite books of the year. It was SO good. I absolutely loved the characters, the plot....everything! The examination of motherhood, queerness and privilege was spot on. The ending was perfect (not a typical HEA which I appreciated as those are so cheesy to me). I'd recommend everyone read this one. Plus, the cover is stunning!

Ordinary Love was an emotional, hot, and thoughtful exploration of bisexuality. I'm a sucker for late bloomer sapphic stories, and this struck that chord for me. I was also deeply affected by the abuse Emily experienced in her marriage - at times gasping at the manipulation her husband used to keep her in his control. Gen was an excellent foil to him, and her cast of queer friends was a lovely group for Emily to meet as she revisited their relationship, having experienced it in more isolation the first time around.

I think this book could be a good fit for readers of All Fours by Miranda July, or those who enjoy the Sex and the City reboot, ...And Just Like That.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for a copy of this arc, all opinions my own.

I really liked this story but it was a little too slow for me a times. I had to push through several times to get past some plot points that were dragging.

I liked the story though, and enjoyed the authors writing style. Will be reading more from Rutkoski in the future for sure. Overall a great book with a beautiful story, just be prepared for it to be slow.

This book is so beautiful and so heartbreaking at the same time. I loved having a bi main character and so easily fell into the worlds of past and present. Although there was romance, I liked the tug between both people, the ways both are remembered, and the challenge of leaving a partner.

This novel left me deeply conflicted—in the best way, I believe. Did I love it? Did I hate it? I keep thinking about it, so it clearly did a great job! The pacing is undeniably slow, and the story feels a bit too drawn out for what’s ultimately accomplished. Despite that, the writing is incredibly immersive, and the characters where richly flawed, messy, and maddening. I found myself disgruntled and enraged at certain characters (*Jack*, I’m looking at you), while overall just sad for the journey of others. This story explores themes of sexuality, desire, and a woman's sense of duty.

TW: Psychological abuse, mild physical abuse, divorce, miscarriage, and death of a family member

Sincere thanks to NetGalley, and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ordinary Love is a beautifully written, emotionally layered story about first love, second chances, and figuring out what you really want when your whole life already looks “perfect” on paper. I was totally hooked on Emily and Gen’s complicated, magnetic connection; there’s so much tension, longing, and history between them. It’s messy in the most human way, and I couldn’t stop rooting for them. A heartfelt romance that really delivers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the eARC of Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski.

So, wow -- first off, I'll just say that this book made me cry in all the right ways. It was an emotional journey, mainly following the protagonist and 3rd person limited narration of one Emily, trapped (willingly) in an emotionally abusive relationship with a character that I can't believe how much I actively despised and hated as much as I did this person, her husband Jack. Every time he opened his mouth, I got chills for the wrong reasons. He was chilling, and that Rutkoski created such a blatantly horrible human that was still such a key part of the story is a testament to her writing.

But happening in the background of all of this, as Emily makes a decision at a critical juncture of life, is her past romantic interest Gen, an Olympic athlete whose fuck-boy lesbian image is but a mirage, for underneath is a well of kindness and the kind of ever-lasting love and devotion that true romances are made from. Gen helps Emily in ways that are both monumental and intangible, and their romance, while far from perfect, was the perfect counter to the toxic relationship between Emily and her husband.

(As a brief aside, I will say that I found Emily's children to be a bit bratty, but will chalk that up to their horrible father's influence and not Emily's.)

The book is part family drama, part romance, part feminist manifesto, part journey of self-discovery and, of course, part beautiful queer discovery and romance. Pick it up -- it's not your typical rom-com, so just prepare for an emotional journey and not the cutesy happy ending you may be expecting. It's worth it, though - I promise.

Emotional and beautiful storytelling of a lesbian relationship when they were in their teens that comes back into fruition — wrong time, right moment. Romance but also family and power dynamics, marrying a man, having a family, and learning so much of yourself along the way. I loved all aspects of NYC too <3

this is a quietly shattering novel about a woman waking up to the life she's been forced to accept, and beginning, finally, to choose differently. it's a story about queerness, motherhood, and survival, but most of all, it's about the courage required to demand more than what you've been told is good for you. i haven't stopped thinking about it since i turned the last page.

on the surface, emily appears to have it all: a nice home, a charming husband, two children, and the kind of ease that seems enviable from the outside. but rutkoski is careful to peel that illusion back almost immediately. the truth is, emily's marriage is rotting from the inside out. her husband jack is controlling, emotionally manipulative, and increasingly volatile. he uses attention as a weapon. he isolates her. he gaslights her. and in one of the most disturbing and heartbreaking acts of abuse to me, he steals her notebooks - her private writing, the most sacred parts of her interior life - and tells her he's destroyed them. it's not the biggest moment in terms of plot, but it gutted me. the way he treats her creativity like something disposable is a specific kind of cruelty.

important content warning: jack is also physically abusive toward their children. in one scene, he holds their young son underwater in a swimming pool too long. it's terrifying, and it's not framed as anything other than what it is - violent, unacceptable, and real.

amid this, emily reunites with gen, the girl she loved in high school and never quite got over. gen is now an olympic athlete with a public life, a long line of exes, and a careful sense of self. their connection sparks instantly, but it's also tentative, fragile, shaped by years of silence and unresolved grief. i loved their romance and the warmth between them, but i do wish it had been given more space. the book keeps a tight focus on emily's emotional growth, which i understand, but i found myself craving more scenes between her and gen, more time to see what healing looks like in their dynamic.

one of the most powerful threads in the book is emily's gradual reckoning with how much of herself she's had to hide. over the course of the novel, she's forced to confront the painful question of whether living honestly is worth the risk, especially when honesty might cost her comfort, control, or even the fragile peace she's tried to build. there's a moment near the end when everything she's been avoiding collides: her past, her queerness, her family, her fear. we get to see if she will finally take a first step toward breaking the cycle that’s defined her life. the novel doesn't promise that healing is instant, but it makes clear that the choice to begin again on your own terms is a radical and necessary act.

ordinary love isn't flashy. it's soft and brutal at once. it's a story about what happens when you stop accepting the bare minimum and start believing that you deserve more. and for anyone who has ever been made to feel like "enough" is out of reach, it's a book that might feel like being seen.

Not my favorite book for sure. I wasn't a fan of the characters and the overall story. I can appreciate books that are "hard" to read emotionally, but I didn't like the dynamics going on here. Thank you, NetGalley.

This is an emotional sapphic romance between two childhood friends, Emily and Gen, whose relationship is filled with so much angst and longing. The story follows Emily who is repeatedly trapped by her indecision and insecurity, further perpetuated by her complicated relationships with her parents, that she is unable to commit to her attraction to Gen. We follow the two characters as they lead completely different lives, one a mother in a toxic marriage with a manipulative and abusive husband, the other a celebrity Olympian whose personal life is the center of attention on gossip sites, until they meet again many years later. The writing is beautiful, and the I thought the book captured the heartbreak of first love and the excitement of second chance quite well. The characters are well-developed, and I was rooting for them to find their happy endings! I highly recommend.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A refreshingly realistic look at growing up queer, and the choices we navigate from adolescence to adulthood. Beautiful cover that captures the longing of our characters.