Have you ever done something that you regretted later, especially when you were a teenager? Let me start by saying how happy I am that I did not grow up in the age of social media. I am thankful that when I made a mistake that it wasn't posted for everyone to see in the next moment. That is what happened to Lyla one night at a high school party. One night in a drunken state, Lyla's picture was sent around to her classmates without her permission. This story was told through three different points of view: Lyla's, Lyla's father, and the mom of the boy accused of taking the picture.

I would recommend this book to high schoolers and up, although I would share it with my mature 8th grade students. It's really a book that most students should read about how pictures posted can affect your life, even if you aren't the one in the picture. I enjoyed not only reading it from the adult's point of view, but also the teenager's as well. The characterization was done well, and it was easy to relate to their lives.

I was given this book for my honest review.

This story revolves around the families of Windsor Academy, a prestigious school in Nashville. When a scandalous photo surfaces of sophomore Lyla Volpe, her father demands justice. Lyla was passed out and can't remember what happened at the party. Finch, her crush, is allegedly the person responsible for circulating the photo. His mother Nina finds this to be out of character but begins to question if the life of extreme privilege has led her son's moral compass astray. Who is telling the truth?

Told in the voices of many characters, we have the opportunity to see behind what they may present to others. I'm not sure if anything new was done here, but I still enjoyed this book.

On the surface, All we ever wanted , is a light read built around the contrasts between the privileged world of the very wealthy and that of the working middle class. But at the core of the story are some very timely and important issues - date rape, consent, racism, class, and bias as well as character and values.

Set in Nashville, Tennessee, the story revolves around two families and their different worlds. The first to be introduced are Nina Browning and her old money husband, Kirk. They live in a world where teens attend exclusive private schools from their first day of school and later drive new expensive cars while their parents wear designer clothes and golf and dine at a member’s only country club. Next we meet Tom, a single parent and carpenter by trade, who moonlights just to pay the bills.

These families intersect through their teens. Both are students at a prestigious private school, Windsor Academy. One night, the teens end up at the same party even though Layla, a scholarship student, is only a sophomore and Finch is a senior. After the party, a racy photograph and controversial caption get shared via social media. The rest of the story unfolds as the families and community respond and investigate who was responsible for the post.

All we ever wanted was quite successful as a quick, engaging read about teens today, their parents, and their problems. The story moves through a maze of personal relationships with a few obvious outcomes but also a couple of surprising twists that kept it interesting.

But, overall, it didn’t quite succeed at the deeper levels of the issues it raised. In fact, there were so many side issues and subplots that they distracted from the main focus to the extent that none of them seemed really complete. Sometimes it was small details left hanging. For example, at one point Finch said he wanted to protect his former girlfriend because she had complicated issues. These were never really identified and thus didn’t support what happened later.

More importantly, there were missing pieces that led to a lack of credibility. One of the most critical, I thought, involved a main character, Nina. I was bothered by how quickly she championed Layla but practically abandoned her own son and her role as his parent.

From my perspective, this novel had a lot of unmet potential. There seemed to be a lack of continuity in places as well as uneven editing (?). Emily Griffin seems to be a popular author so I will try another title.




FYI - I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful story. Love before money. Morals and a mothers tuff love to stand up for what was right. Money can not buy happiness. I have read all of Emily Giffen”s books and always look forward to the next.

In 2004, I was a year out of college, in what my husband now refers to as my "single girl, living in the city, working at a magazine" phase.



I was an editorial assistant at Soap Opera Digest when I first came across Emily Giffin's debut novel, "Something Borrowed." Chick lit was all the rage in my last year of college so when I saw a copy at my office, I grabbed in and eagerly devoured the dramatic relationship between Darcy and Rachel.



Eventually I read the sequel, "Something Blue", but it didn't hold the same appeal. Scanning through a list of Emily Giffin's published novels, I definitely had read one other one, "The One and Only", but wasn't crazy about it.



Happily, I grabbed an e-galley of her newest book, published two days ago from Netgalley a couple months back and devoured it.



"All We Ever Wanted" is the story of the very wealthy Nina, who is thrilled to learn that her son, Finch, was accepted at Princeton. However, her happiness is short lived when she discovers that he took a racy picture of a sophomore from his school and sent it to his friends via text, along with a racist caption.



Lyla Volpe is the victim, but has had a crush on Finch for so long that she just wants to move past the issue. Her father, Tom, a single dad, is much less forgiving. He brings the photo before the school headmaster, demanding justice for his daughter.



Nina is devastated as she learns that her son is not the person she thought he was. She begins to examine her family's wealth and how it has changed who they are. She worries that her son has taken on too many of her husband's characteristics and frets over the example Kirk sets for their son, especially after he offers Tom a large sum of money to drop his demands for justice.



Nina questions everything about her current life as she interacts more with Tom, getting to know him and Lyla better. At the same time, Finch asks to spend time with Lyla, but what is he really after? Is he as contrite as he appears to be or is he playing everyone?



Finch's girlfriend, Polly, plays a crucial role in the book, but I wish her character had been built up more to make us really care about what happens to her. More interactions between her and Lyla or Nina would have enhanced the novel further.



"All We Ever Wanted" is much deeper than it appears to be on the surface. Giffin examines racism, classism and sexism, major issues in America and the world stage these days. She dives into the issues of privilege and entitlement. In a recent interview, Giffin stated that she wanted to write about the importance of holding onto our values and being authentic, something Nina strives to do throughout the book.



Giffin's 9th novel is an engaging, thought provoking read about the impact one picture makes on a community and how it changes the people involved forever. I highly recommend this one!

The book is about a prep school boy and a girl who drinks too much. A picture is taken while the girl is drunk. And what happens when her father finds out.
It was a little long in description at time but I enjoyed it very much and as a educator it’s what we try to explain to the students about Snapchat/social media.

Nina Browning has a good life. She wants for nothing; her husband takes care of her, and her son was just accepted to Princeton. Then a picture surfaces that was sent from her son, Finch's, phone. The picture was of Lyla, a classmate, that had too much to drink and is unconscious and not fully clothed. As Nina sees how her husband and son handle the situation, perhaps, her life isn't as charmed as she thought. Perhaps her husband isn't the man she thought, either. The book is told in alternating view points between Nina, Lyla, and Tom (Lyla's father). We first meet Nina and the story isn't as engaging one might think, but after the initial character introductions and premise setting, I couldn't put it down. Definitely a pertinent story for our current climate.

Loved it!! This was one of those books that I curled up on the couch and didn't move until the book was finished. I just couldn't put it down. I've always been a fan of Emily Giffen, and was excited to be offered a chance to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

REVIEW: I finished reading All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin and I’m absolutely speechless. Some of my favorites from Giffin include Something Borrowed and Something Blue, but I will for sure add All We Ever Wanted to the list. This story follows Nina, her son Finch and one bad decision he makes that impacts many lives. This story explores entitlement, sexism, misogyny, parenting dilemmas, complex family relationships and the bottom line of right and wrong.

I don’t want to spoil this one for anyone who hasn’t read it, but if you haven’t, make it a priority to! I really enjoyed the male perspective in this book from Tom that we don’t typically get and I appreciate his acknowledgment of his own insecurities and how those same insecurities affect his decision making and calls for justice. This book explores some deep topics that in recent years, I think we as a people are choosing to no longer ignore like, sexual assault, suicide and privilege in many forms.

As a mom of twin daughters, I hope , like Nina, that I can intervene when they make bad choices and teach them right from wrong, by leading by example. I hope they never find themselves in any situation like Lyla and Polly and so many others, but if they do, I hope I can be a source of strength for them and show them that their concerns are valid, their voices can and should be heard and most importantly, even when justice won’t be served, have the courage to do the right thing anyway. [Rating: ALL THE STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5]

I haven't read a book by this author in quite a few years. I think that this one was a perfectly good beach read. This is not a book that is able to be read more than once in my opinion. That is the reason I gave it 3 stars. In reality I would have preferred a 2 1/2 star rating for that reason alone.

This was my first book by Emily Giffin. It was a quick read but ultimately not my kind of book. I found the characters to be poorly developed and the whole book seemed very rushed. The plot line felt inevitable and cliche. This book has been compared to Frederik Backman’s "Beartown" but undeservedly so. Perhaps if I hadn’t read "Beartown" first I would have been more intrigued in the premise of this story.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Nina Browning seems to have it all . . . a wealthy husband, a son who has just been accepted into Princeton and a beautiful home in a wealthy neighborhood. She is living a dream life until her son, Finch, makes one drunken mistake at a party and brings her whole world crashing down.

Tom is a single father raising a teenage daughter. When a picture of Lyla, passed out and in a state of undress that was taken at an unsupervised teenage party, starts circulating among the students of the exclusive school that she attends, Tom vows to see the perpetrators punished. Lyla just wants to forget the whole incident.

I enjoyed this book. The characters, some I loved and some I really disliked, were well thought out and the storyline held my interest. I recommend All We Ever Wanted to anyone who likes good women’s fiction.

This was the first Emily Giffin book that I've read, and I have to say, I'm hooked! I've avoided her in the past because I've always assumed she's strictly chick-lit, but this book proves that's not the case.

This story was so timely and such an accurate representation of what could happen if a teenager makes one mistake with social media. Telling the story from three different perspectives provided the opportunity to really think about what you would do in that situation. I couldn't put it down.

I'll be going back and reading all of her books now. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The aftermath of one very stupid decision made by a 16 year old, as told by the accused, the accuser, and their parents. I liked the way the author told the story in first person, changing each chapter. It was interesting to get each characters’ take on the situation based on his or her personal life experiences. The author keeps you guessing about the accused’s guilt or innocence, making the reader long for the truth. I enjoyed this book and will be sure to look for others from this author.

As a big fan of Emily Giffin's I will read whatever she writes and I am never disappointed. All We Ever Wanted is a very timely book and is one that really had me thinking "what would I do?". As the mother of two teenage girls and a young son I thought about both sides of this conflict. It was well written and while I felt the conclusion was a bit rushed it was a very satisfying read. If you are a fan of Emily Giffin's you will not regret picking this one up!

Such a good book. I loved the fact that
Throughout the whole book I was second guessing who really was guilty. Great plot and the characters were unique.

I thought this book was great. Even though the story revolves around an incident involving teenagers, you don’t have to have kids to be able to relate. I liked the different points of view and thought the story provided a realistic look at the negative side of social media.

All We Ever Wanted is the newest book by Emily Giffin. I typically look forward to Giffin's newest books each summer, as they're typically a nice light read while traveling or while sitting out getting some sun. This book, at first glance, had a lot more substance than her books typically do. That's good!

I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it! It was a fast read, told from multiple perspectives, that dealt with an important and timely topic for parents of teens.


My rating: 5 stars.

(to be posted 7/31/18) jerbear8.blogspot.com

A poignant novel regarding the entitlement of teens and their parents in elite Nashville. When a picture of a female student passed out with her breast exposed and a racial slur is passed around, it sets off a chain events that impacts the whole society. Marriages, friendships are not what they seem and the college rape culture is addressed as well as sexism and racism.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

This was a difficult book to read in some aspects. With the storyline of this book Emily weaves a compelling story told from 3 different points of view about an issue that unfortunately has become sort of commonplace in today's society. It is extremely well written and when you add in one of the viewpoints is a 16 year old girl, another her single parent father and the 3rd the mother of the boy accused of taking and distributing explicit photos of the girl, Emily has crafted an explosive story. My personal preferences generally veer to a "happier" story or a mystery, so while this won't go down as a favorite book for me, I did enjoy it. It did take me little longer to read because I had to take breaks from it but I am glad I stuck with it and finished.