Emily Giffin, the beloved author of such novels as Something Borrowed and Where We Belong, returns with an extraordinary story of love and loyalty—and an unconventional heroine struggling to reconcile both. Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best … Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade.
But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.
Thoughtful, funny, and brilliantly observed, The One & Only is a luminous novel about finding your passion, following your heart, and, most of all, believing in something bigger than yourself . . . the one and only thing that truly makes life worth living.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The beloved author of Something Borrowed and Where We Belong returns with an extraordinary story of love and loyalty—and an unconventional heroine struggling to reconcile both.
This ebook edition contains an excerpt from Emily Giffin’s First Comes Love.
Praise for The One & Only • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY POPSUGAR
“A page turner.”—Southern Living
“The One & Only is one to read.”—Associated Press
“Giffin scores again by bringing her discerning understanding of matters of the heart.”—Family Circle
“A poignant story about growing up and growing into your own skin.”—BookPage
“Touching.”—New York Daily News
“Deep, beautifully written . . . [Emily Giffin’s] latest focuses on a forbidden love of sorts, but in a new setting: a fictional small college town in Texas.”—Marie Claire
“Each and every page of this story is entertaining. . . . Find a shady spot; get a cool drink, and just luxuriate in the joy of a book well written.”—The Huffington Post
“Brace yourself for a tearjerker: A tale of friendship and loyalty in a small, football-crazed Texas town shows how quickly things can change when tragedy challenges all that the characters hold dear . . . [A] page-turner.”—InStyle
“[Giffin’s] protagonists . . . live full, interesting lives outside the purely personal realm—no more so than Shea Rigsby, the funny, flawed, but sympathetic central character in the The One & Only.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“In bestseller Giffin’s much-anticipated latest, a young woman’s life is upended when tragedy strikes the football-obsessed Texas town she’s always called home.”—People
“To fill your Friday Night Lights void: A tale of die-hard love in a diehard Texas football town from the bestselling author of Something Borrowed.”—Cosmopolitan
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This is my favorite book by this author, and that says a lot. I have read almost all of hers. The characters always draw me back.
I would read this book again.
I love all of Emily’s books, but this one lingers with me even now and every once in a while, I read it again because she makes me feel…
One of my favorite books.
Love Emily Giffin, but found the relationship in this one to be creepy and quit halfway through.
It’s my first time reading non-fiction in quite some time and I LOVED it. Long book but hard to put down!
This is – by far – my favorite book of Emily Giffin’s and I can’t recommend it enough! It’s a great read.
It was a nice easy read and you really wanted to get to know the characters. Felt like you really knew what it was like to be them.
Not one of Giffin’s best stories, but an okay read.
didn’t enjoy the story line about her falling in love with a man who could be her dad.
Typically like this author but this book was slow…..the characters were not particularly likeable.
I loved this book! The characters are wonderful and really draw you in. Didn’t want this book to end!
Rather boring.
Always love reading Emily Giffin. Maybe not her best, but certainly and enjoyable, easy read. You get wrapped up in the characters and want to keep reading to see how it all turns out.
What you would expect from from Giffin, she never disappoints!
Book was too football-centric for my tastes. If some of that were stripped from the book I would have liked it more.
For anyone who loves sports, but may not really know why; for anyone who ever imagined an opportunity to write about things he/she loves and never got a chance to do so; for anyone who knows the difference between what he/she wants versus what should be wanted…The One and Only is an absolute find. Perhaps my enthusiasm is colored by the fact that I finished it the day Frank DeFord died and I am writing this after having just read Sally Jenkins remembrance of him, but I loved it.
A little predictable, but still a good read. Light, easy, kept your interest.
Ever felt attracted to someone who is completely wrong for you? Shea finds herself in this predicament when she begins to have feelings for her best friend’s Lucy’s widowed father, a nationally-renowned college football coach. As a young girl, Shea always had a bit of hero worship for Coach Carr, but that has grown stronger, up to the point of Shea leaving her (admittedly loser-ish) boyfriend and changing her job, all because of his advice. Even starting a steamy new relationship with the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys (a fellow college alumnus friend of Shea) can’t completely erase her feelings.
Emily Giffin’s characters are never “simple”, and Shea follows right in the track of other protagonists – and goes further. What would seem like a total taboo made me instead feel sympathetic – and wonder throughout the whole book how Shea would ever make this work.
There are always deeper themes woven throughout Giffin’s books, and this one deals incredibly well with issues like growing up with divorced parents, losing a parent. domestic violence, college sport environments, and – probably most notably – NCAA regulations and their enforcement. So much more than just “chick-lit”!
For a fun read, with unpredictable characters and Giffin’s signature on-point view of the lives of 20- and 30-somethings and their relationships, check out The One and Only!
Good read, but predictable. I read it over 2 or 3 days.