Something Borrowed - Emily Griffin [May/06]

I must admit, this is not a book that I would normally read, but for one it came up on my Amazon recommendations all the time and for another my friend was willing to lend it to me, so I decided to give it a try. When I first started the book, I was a little bored by the premise. I mean, it is actually a pretty predictible novel, if one must be honest. As the back of the book states:

Meet Rachel White, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been
the cosummate good girl - until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend Darcy throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy's fiance. Although she wakes up determined to put the one-night fling behind her, Rachel is horrified to discover
that she has genuine feelings for the one guy she should run from. In her wildest dreams (or worst nightmare?) this is the last thing on earth Rachel could ever have imagined
happening. As the September wedding date nears, Rachel knows she has to make a choice. In doing so, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings
aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk all to win true happiness. S0mething Borrowed is a phenomneal debut novel that will have you laughing, crying, and calling your
best friend.

Okay, so what more can one say about the novel? We have Rachel, the perfectionist that works her heart out to get ahead in the world. She does the things that she feels are expected of her, and would never do something underhanded or wrong. Then we have Darcy, that person in school that everyone loved, the one that did not have to do anything to get ahead in the world. Rachel has always lived in Darcy's shadow, she has felt that Darcy deserves the good things from life, while she should live with the lesser things. This novel may be a romance novel, but at the same time it is about the battle between the popular crowd and the girl that always hid in the shadows. When Rachel begins to understand that she is worth something, that Darcy is not any better than she is, I was cheering for her! It may take something underhanded to get Rachel to claim her own life, but she does it. She tries to continue to play the "good girl" role, but I have to say, even when she understands that she likes him as more than just a fling, you feel good for her. It was totally a novel about the good overcoming the evil, in other words, Rachel actually standing up for what she wants, not what Darcy should have.

All in all, not a bad novel. Predictable, yes, but it was not really about the predictibility, it was about a woman coming to terms with herself and what she wants out of her life.

3.5/5