Ordinary Love
A STYLIST BEST NEW RELEASE OF 2025
'An exquisitely tender portrayal of enduring love' OBSERVER
'A sweeping, decades-spanning tale of queer desire' MARIE CLAIRE
'Profoundly moving' EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL, bestselling author of STATION ELEVEN
'Almost unbearably beautiful' EMILIA HART, bestselling author of WEYWARD
'Had me hooked from the first page' JENNIE GODFREY, bestselling author of THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGS
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When Emily catches sight of Gennifer Hall at a party, she is transported back to the moment they fell in love as teenagers. Their connection was electric, and they thought it was forever.
Twenty years later, Gen is an Olympic runner, the career she strived for, while Emily is living a picture-perfect life: Manhattan townhouse, two young children and a wealthy husband, Jack. But Jack's controlling behaviour is spiralling, and Emily has lost sight of who she once was.
Now, despite Emily's fracturing marriage and the pressures of Gen's career, they are drawn back together by a magnetic attraction. After years of heartbreak, missed chances and misunderstandings, will they finally get a second chance at first love?
A sweeping love story about desire, friendship, mistakes and the possibility of second chances, for fans of The Paper Palace and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
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'I'm obsessed with this novel. It demands obsession' HOLLY BRICKLEY, author of DEEP CUTS
'Funny and moving and sexy' J. COURTNEY SULLIVAN, bestselling author of THE CLIFFS
'A gorgeously written love story' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
'I loved this moving, tender story about lost love and second chances' RED
'Immersive and insightful' LISA OWENS, author of NOT WORKING
'[A] raw, gorgeous debut' THE i PAPER
'A tender romance' WOMAN & HOME
'Shining with rare clarity' SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE
READERS ARE RAVING:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'So raw and so real . . . If there's one book you read this year, it should be this one'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I absolutely devoured this . . . Clear your afternoon to read this one straight through'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'The characters were so real that I miss them now the book's over. This novel is one for the ages'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Boy did this pack a punch, have a box of tissues by your side - you will need these'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Sexy and sensual . . . I found myself not wanting to stop reading'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'So emotionally wrecked by this book [that I'm] still thinking about it obsessively months later'
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I fell in love with this story and these characters right from the beginning'
Marie Rutkoski is a New York Times bestselling author of several novels for children and young adults. She grew up in Illinois as the oldest of four children, and has lived in Moscow, Prague, and Paris.
She holds degrees from the University of Iowa and Harvard University, and is now a professor of English literature at Brooklyn College, where she teaches Shakespeare, children's literature, and fiction writing. She lives in Brooklyn with her family and two cats, Cloud and Firefly.