Heart Of The Matter

This is the second Emily Giffin book that I have read and she did not disappoint.  I look forward to reading the rest of her books!

This book was an up and down roller coaster of emotions for me. I don’t want to give away the plot of the book but it was uniquely set up telling the story from two different points of view, one of a married woman and then telling the story of “the other woman.” I would go from one feeling to another pretty much with every chapter. Parts of the time the book left me feeling a little melancholy and then for the majority of the book I was mad! So mad but yet hopeful at the same time. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened and was reading with every free second that I had just so I could finish it!!

I love this quote from the book in the very last chapter titled Tessa “I nod, thinking of how difficult marriage can be, how much effort is required to sustain a feeling between two people – a feeling that you can’t imagine will ever fade in the beginning when everything comes so easily. I think of how each person in a marriage owes it to the other to find individual happiness, even in a shared life. That is the only real way to grow together, instead of apart.”


In the end I liked the book and it forced me to think about my own marriage, how there are things that are absolutely wonderful and things that could use some improvement. Overall I left the book appreciating my marriage all the more.

Just as I laid it all on the line in my post about Motherhood, marriage is not easy. You think on your wedding day that life is full of fairy tales, rainbows and sunshine. The truth of the matter is that it is anything but. Marriage takes work. Life can become monotonous, boring, stressful and adding kids into the mix only adds to that. However having that one person to spend the rest of your life with is an incredible gift; one that should not be squandered.

I am in no place to give marriage advice, my marriage is far from perfect and I will be the first to admit that. Brian and I will be married for 7 years this coming August and have come so far in our marriage already but we have so far to go, and I mean that in a good way. Each day that I spend with Brian is an adventure. We have learned how to be spouses together and we have learned how to be parents together. I look forward to learning how to parent a teenage daughter and son with him {although when I really think about that I just want to cry :)} I look forward to becoming grandparents with him and anything else that the future may hold. But there are gaps too, lapses in judgment, hurtful things said in haste, not putting our marriage before other things, but all the more for us to work on TOGETHER.

Brian is my rock, the one that I have leaned on since the day we met. The man that makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the room. The one that I gave my heart and hand to hold all those years ago. Not too long ago we sat on the couch with Lauren between us watching our wedding video and I saw tears streaming down his cheeks as we watched ourselves take our wedding vows. Reliving that moment, bringing ourselves back to that time in our lives, brought me even more hope for the future.