What if the husband you buried came back — after you'd finally found love again? A tearjerking impossible-choice romance, narrated by Julia Whelan.
In her twenties, Emma Blair marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build an adventurous life far from their small Massachusetts hometown, traveling the world and chasing every opportunity — until, on their first wedding anniversary, Jesse's helicopter goes missing over the Pacific. Just like that, he's gone. Emma quits her job, moves home, and slowly rebuilds. Years later, now in her thirties, she reconnects with an old friend, Sam, and falls in love again. When they get engaged, it feels like a second chance at happiness. And then Jesse is found. He's alive — and he's spent all these years trying to get home to her. With both a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to figure out who she's become, who she loves, and what it even means to love truly.
Julia Whelan narrates, and it's another reminder of why Taylor Jenkins Reid keeps coming back to her: Whelan is a master of the interior emotional turn, and this whole novel lives inside Emma's impossible position. She carries the grief, the guilt, the tentative new joy, and the wrenching return without ever overplaying it, so the story earns its tears honestly. This edition also includes a lovely bonus: an exclusive recorded conversation between Whelan and Reid about the book, a treat for fans of either. At around eight hours, it's the shortest of Reid's recent audiobooks — a compact, gut-punching listen that's easy to finish in a sitting.
Fans of emotional, high-concept romance, Taylor Jenkins Reid readers working through her catalog, and Julia Whelan devotees who want to hear her carry a whole story solo. A perfect short tearjerker for a weekend or a long drive.
If you're after a light, frothy rom-com, be warned that grief is at the center of this one. And a handful of listeners find a single narrator's male voices less convincing — minor, but worth knowing if that tends to distract you.
Listen to it. A short, emotional, beautifully narrated love story, and a great entry point to the earlier, pre-Hollywood side of Taylor Jenkins Reid. Bring tissues — and stay for the bonus Whelan-and-Reid conversation.