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 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.
BEFORE READING
Just reading the reviews and seeing the others who hated all the Texas and football in this book makes me want to read it. I'm from Texas and in the South, football is like a second religion. A reviewer seemed pissed off by the books point that no one cares if you've been raped if the guy plays football, and sadly this really does occur in high school, college and pro-ball. The summary intrigued me but so did the other readers opinions. I can't wait to get my hands on this book.
AFTER READING
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I don't really run into books that talk about football in the Texas setting so much. And usually when you see girls like Shea, they don't seem 100% authentic. Girls like Shea who are that into football are usually in romance novels that have a little more emphasis on sex and seem only as a plot device to intense the male lead. However, Shea doesn't seem like that at all. Overall, I'm not sure how I felt about her as a character. Mainly it was her crush on her best friend's coach that got me. I really was psycho-analyzing her reasons for have feelings for Coach.
I figured it was because of her complicated relationship with her father. He is the impiety of guys who don't know what they want. He cheated on his first wife with Shea's mom, married her, had a kid with her then turned around and decided he wanted his first wife and daughter and left them. Coach was the only kind of father-figure in Shea's life so I figured that's why she liked him. I didn't expect for him to return her feelings and I definitely wasn't expecting for them to be together. Especially in light of how The One & Only begins. Lucy's mom and Coach's wife has just lost her battle to cancer and passed away as the novel opens. And this awakens something in Shea as she realizes she's going nowhere in life.
She stayed in town and went to Walker U, (the university that Coach coaches at, and the fictional rival of the University of Texas-Austin) works at Walker.
She's dating this boring but well-meaning loser, Miller and is doing nothing with her life. The funeral at the beginning serves as a catalyst to Shea questioning what she's done with her life and (annoyingly so) it's Coach who actually motivates a change. She quits her job at Walker U and starts working as a sports journalist at the Dallas Morning Post. She breaks up with Miller and starts dating the Dallas Cowboys (fictional) quarterback and Walker alum, Ryan James. Whoo! No more Tony Romo!
Anyway, he seemed nice enough in the beginning. Against her reservations, Shea sleeps over (haha, but doesn't sleep over) the night of their first date. Then pretty soon they're having sex. I was concerned because Ryan just ended a marriage and is keeping in touch with his wife. However, he's not cheating and if anyone is hiding their relationship, it's Shea. She doesn't want to be in the spotlight and she doesn't want Coach to know.
If there was any doubts about Coach and Shea's relationship in the beginning, Giffin did a good job of taking Shea's unrequited crush into genuine love between both characters. She actually developed a relationship past the platonic one that existed before between Shea and Coach that was real and legitimate. One of the things I really liked about this book is that Giffin has no problem breaking Shea's hero worship of Coach. Despite her argument against my (and her father's thoughts) that her feelings for Coach were just due to his role as a father figure in her life, her feelings for him weren't just because of him being who he was. However, it isn't because he's a stand-in father figure that she likes him, but Shea worships him a pure, sinless football god. For the two to truly be able to move forward in their relationship this has to be broken and Shea has to see him as a person.
I had a bunch of questions about the relationship. For a long time, I assumed that Coach wasn't going to return Shea's feelings and she'd end her relationship with Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Ryan Jame and end up alone. However, that's not what happened. So when I saw the direction the novel was going I started wondering how exactly this relationship would work. But Shea insisted that she didn't want kids. But I still wondered if Coach wanted to marry her one day, how exactly would that work? Being her best friends stepmom?
Which reminds me of another aspect about their relationship I kept wondering about: Lucy. Lucy's reaction to Shea and Coach's relationship was valid to me.
a) She was closer to her mother
b) and her mother has recently died
c) not to mention, Lucy can't picture her dad with anyone but her mother
d) ...let alone her own best friend
e) ...who already has a relationship with her father that Lucy's jealous of.
No wonder she was mad! No matter what Shea says, Coach was not a good father to Lucy. She didn't want to have anything to do with his football world and he didn't try to meet her on another level like she tried to with him. Throughout the entire novel this doesn't change. Lucy keeps trying and Coach doesn't care. He tries in his relationship with Shea and Lucy even allows the two to be together in the end. But in the last glimpse we see of them, Coach still isn't trying to create a better relationship with Lucy. He even forgets Lucy's birthday and hilariously enough, his granddaughter called him out on it.
I died!
I will admit, yes there's a lot of football in this book. Maybe a little too much for Giffin's target audience without some kind of glossary or clues. However, I only found myself skimming over one scene that had too much football for me.
One complaint I do have is the alleged rape is dealt very off-handedly and like an afterthought in the story. I still don't understand why Coach decided to bring it up especially since it wasn't really dealt with. It actually kind of pissed me off how Shea and Coach were so sure to dismiss the victim's story because they "'can't believe Ryan would even rape someone."
Are you serious? Do you know how many mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends, siblings and co-workers insisted that alleged rapists weren't rapists when they actually are. You weren't in the room therefore you don't know. Did she not remember just earlier in the book that she didn't think Ryan would ever grab on her and hurt her? Talk about Too Stupid To Live. That really pissed me off. That was some true ignorance that I don't know if the author meant to include in the story or not.
Otherwise this was a very interesting read and I enjoyed seeing my home (properly and realistically) portrayed in literature.
I had to stop reading when Ryan's ex-wife secretly warned Shea about his temper, and then Shea buys Taco Bell and secretly brings it to Coach's house late at night. Too many warning bells going off! Thanks for your spoiler review - now I know what happens without having to finish the book! Your review is nicely written, too!
ReplyDeleteI stopped reading when Coach asked Shea to go for a run...I seriously had to read back to see if I had misread their ages..I thought it was my imagination.....ty for not letting me waste my time on the rest of this book.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of American football therefore the setting for the storylibe intrigued me on how it would affect the relationship between the characters. I thought it would be integrated like how baseball was in the movie Moneyball. I also thought it would be about the heroine trying to find her direction in life regarding the choices she made. It turns out all of these concerns were just to set up the idea that she is ready to have a relationship with Coach. I agree with your review that the author transitioned the relationship well. Age is just a number and I do not mind the difference between the characters-- much. But I still cannot get past the thought left unresolved that maybe she just has a complex from her father leaving.
ReplyDeleteI was halfway through the book when I could not get myself to finish reading because of the many troubling points in the plot. I came across this review after that. Your sentiments are mine exactly, except for a few spoilers. :) but thank you for them at least now I have an idea how it ended.
Maybe I will revisit this book someday when I feel like I no longer see the relationship that blossomed as scandalous or controversial in the least.
This was fabulous... For those of you who didn't like the age difference between Shea and Coach, I thought the author did a superb job of making their love for each other genuine and achingly sweet. One regret for me was that she wasted time with Ryan. I would have liked to see her cut that off long before she did. I wished their would have been more about her and Coach and their life together after finally being a couple.
ReplyDelete(This is a repost of a review I wrote on another blog)
ReplyDeleteI loved this book and I'm amazed by the terrible reviews I have been reading about it! I listened to it on audiobook and I couldn't wait to get in my car so I could hear more.
The interviews I have read with Emily Giffin about this book tell of her wanting to explore the theme of unconventional love; that we often think of romantic love in a specific way and she wanted to break out of that. Commenters are often calling the story weird and creepy, but it doesn't need to be. Shea is 33-years-old. I think this story paints a picture of how we all grow up. There comes a time in life where we stop being a child and become a peer. What a remarkable love story to find a relationship develop like this, especially when you share a history and are already part of each other's families!
When I was young I looked at even teenagers as being so far above me. Now that I am in my 30s, I understand that no matter how old someone is, they are just themselves. Age brings physical changes, life changes, and wisdom. Yet, in our deepest heart we still see ourselves in our prime and we all experience the same emotions.
I greatly appreciate that there was nothing immoral about Coach Carr and Shea's relationship. They did not cheat on anyone, they were considerate of the people around them, they didn't even have sex in the story, and they respected Lucy's feelings.
I can see how a relationship like this has all kinds of implications that have to be worked out, but we should all be so lucky to find someone who loves us so unconditionally, who has been part of our messes and accepts us anyway, and who treats us with such tenderness.
The one and only was very touchy and a bit cheesy but overall Shea was just having growing feelings for Coach Carr. I was suprised he al so had feelings for her. It was also really suprising that Ryan James would be so called SNAPPED. I hated the way they that he tried to rape her after she denied to fall back into a relationship. The good thing was that she called Coach Carr and that he came in time. But I just wish she would dump Ryan sooner so she could be with Coach Carr, she would match up with Coach Carr and get married, but then Shea would be Lucys step mum and that wouldnt make sense so I respect that Emily didnt write that they would marry.
ReplyDeleteGrateful to find this review so I did not have to finish the book. I am glad I am not the only one who could not tolerate the inconsistencies and cringe. If I had read to rape and anger management that was blown off I would be even more annoyed and unsettled.
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