review: the one & only by emily giffin

At 33, Shea has never left her small Texas hometown. She’s also only ever worked at one place—the university from which she graduated. Walker University is the center of her life, but others in her life start pushing her toward something more after the death of Shea’s best friend’s mother who was also the wife of Walker’s football coach. Soon Shea has traded in her university job for one as a newspaper reporter covering the Walker beat and has ditched her Walker football alum boyfriend for a different Walker football alum albeit one now playing for the Dallas Cowboys. But Shea still isn’t happy. She ends up spending a lot of time with Walker’s football coach, you know, the father of best friend. Shea has a bit of a crush and the feeling is mutual. That in itself was a huge turn-off, but The One & Only had a lot of other ickiness going on too. While not going into spoilery details, it’s horrible to think that anyone would be so wrapped up in protecting the game of football that crimes are hushed up. It probably does happen, but it was disturbing that all of the characters were pretty ok with it. With Shea being a milquetoast character and there being nothing in the plot to explain why Shea and Coach Carr fall for each other, The One & Only was dissatisfactory.
2/5
Review copy provided by BookSparks PR.