Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffen

Part I- No Spoilers:

GoodReads/FirstReads ARC win.... I really, really enjoyed this book. Once I actually had a little time to devote to it, I found myself flying through it. I just HAD to find out what happened next and what resolution, if any, there would be.

The alternating POV's, one in first-person and one in third-person, was a very interesting dynamic. It forced me to really analyze all sides of the story and also to waiver in which characters I was rooting for at different points throughout. I found myself identifying/sympathizing with everyone involved instead of with just one side. It was a very effective method of conflicting (and therefore engaging) the reader.

I seem to really enjoy Giffen's writing, even as someone who does not like much chick-lit. This is definitely a book I would recommend as a really good read.

Part II- spoilers:
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I had no idea that this book was going to go in the direction it did. I picked up on the looming affair fairly early on (but to be honest, if I had thought about it and really read the description on the back of the book I would have been prepared for it) and I was a liitle off-put at that fact that we were going in the same direction as the other 2 Giffen novels I had read, but as I continued I realized that this was a very different story. The dynamic of an affair and possible seperation/ new relationship becomes completely different when there are children involved and that made this story completely opposite from Borrowed or Love the One You're With.

What I found most interesting reading through this was that I flipped back and forth between supporting Tessa and then rooting for Valerie (whose name I hate by-the-way). There were times when I would get to a Tessa chapter and think "ugh... I wish Nick would just leave her, I just want to get back to Val & Charlie" and other times it would be the opposite. I found that I wanted to cheer for Tessa, but had a soft spot for Valerie as well. The multiple POV's was definitely a factor in this.

I hated Nick and loved him at the same time. I hated what he was doing to his family, but I loved reading about the way he was with Charlie. I wanted both Valerie and Tess to leave him, and yet I wanted them to be together. It was this back and forth that kept me to invested in the story.

My only complaint about this book was the final conversation between Tess and Nick where he assures her that Val never loved him and that he wasn't sure that he loved her. I had a hard time believing this because we don't know how he got there. There's such a gap between his final conversation with Val in which he tells her he loves her (on the same day he confesses to Tessa) and then this explanation of confusion that I found it difficult to accept. I wish there had been more development on his side of the story. And, I guess I would have enjoyed a little more detail on how things turn out for Valerie and Charlie because I really did like them and couldn't bring myself to hate Valerie as the other woman.

But, when it was all said and done I really enjoyed this book and spent a delicious day devouring it.