The First Husband

The First Husband, by Laura Dave.

I wanted to argue that that wasn't true - that I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be with Griffin, and make my life work here. I wanted to stay. But in my head, my admittedly bourbon-soaked head, Griffin came out as Nick. So I knew saying the rest out loud was probably not the wisest move right then.

"But consider this," Jesse said, picking the bourbon back up, "maybe you aren't in this position because you forgot yourself, but because you started getting honest about who you really might be."

Before I could say anything to that, Jesse tilted the bourbon my way.

"Welcome to the deep end," he said.

This novel deals with a break-up and then a rebound guy - who soon turns into a husband. Annie Adams has been dating Nick for the past five years, but now he's dumped her to pursue a woman from his past. Annie is devastated, and she heads out to the nearest bar, where she meets Griffin, a chef. They date for three months and then he proposes to her, and she accepts. Griffin is about to move to western Massachusetts to open his own restaurant, which is fine with Annie since she is a travel writer, and therefore can write from anywhere. When she is downsized, however, and Nick wants her back, she must decide if she's cut out for the "rural" life, or if she should move back to L.A. and be with Nick.

The characters are very "real" in this novel and the writing is great too. I had heard of the book and had been wanting to read it for some time now, so I was excited when I saw that NetGalley had it listed. The novel takes a subject that has been overdone, in some cases, and puts a new spin on it, and I very much enjoyed reading it. I had not heard of Laura Dave previous to reading The First Husband, but I will most definitely be reading her other books, London is the Best City in America and The Divorce Party, sometime soon.

4 stars out of 5.

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley to review. The opinions expressed, however, are my own.