Another quality book by Emily Giffin- and this one will bring you right back to the year 2001, before and after the events of 9/11 changed the world. The use of many pop culture references to that year really makes the book nostalgic and helps to set the scene. Giffin continues to write strong female characters who you instantly feel bonded to. Anyone that lived through 9/11 and wants to experience that time period, while still enjoying a feel-good story, will be attracted to this!

What starts out promisingly gets an unnecessary injection of melodrama and becomes a mess by the end. I knew what I was getting into, as I'm familiar with Giffin's style and was aware of the historical event within the plot; that particular development, although somewhat manipulative in usage, thankfully didn't catch me off guard. Once the book reaches this point and sets off a ripple effect, I was intrigued when the story started to focus on two women who find themselves bound together in an unexpected way. Unfortunately, Giffin instead introduces new problems at nearly every turn and employs a ridiculous, infuriating twist late in the book that leads to an unsatisfying ending, invalidating a lot of what preceded it. I was rooting for Giffin after All We Ever Wanted managed to tackle some serious issues with grace while being told in an entertaining manner, but this is a disappointing follow-up.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After breaking up with her long time boyfriend who wouldn’t commit, Cecily knows better than to go out and drown her sorrows but does so anyway. She meets handsome Grant, who could just possibly be her true soulmate. Her friends tell her that something too good to be true most likely is, but she gives Grant the benefit of doubt , especially after he tell her he’s taking his twin brother Byron who has ALS to England for medical tests. Grant returns home to NYC on September 10, 2001 and that’s the last time Cecily sees him (he works at the World Trade Center)

Things really get crazy from here and I can’t say too much without spoiling the ending. I had several possible scenarios in mind as I read but none of them happened and I didn’t think that the ending was very realistic so 3 stars.

If it's written by Emily Giffin, chances are that I will love it. And I did. To be honest, I thought it was an unusual follow-up to her last novel - lighter - and much more reminiscent of her earlier books. Since I adored her first few novels, I had no problem with this! It was fun to revisit the cast of Something Borrowed (although I could have sworn that Darcy and Dex were already engaged by the time Ethan moved to London and that wasn't the case here). The scenes during September 11th were riveting and brought me right back to that horrible day. Finally, The Lies that Bind was full of surprises, and while I was afraid I would not be satisfied with the ending, the author threw in a twist at the last minute and my wish came true!

The Lies that Bind made me a fan of Emily Giffin as I look forward to reading more of her works. A quick read during the stay home order for Covid-19, it is ironic that in opens up in New York City bar as we are actively social distancing. A plane to London is equally impossible, but reading about it enabled me to look forward to returning to those times. If you can relate to the notion that this is a small world, you will thoroughly enjoy the many occurrences that connect the characters together. Giffin does an excellent job of developing the primary characters, Cecily, Matthew, Grant, Scottie and Amy. I thank Net Galley for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review of this 4 star upcoming release.

Thank you to NG for the ARC of “The Lies That Bind” by Emily Giffin.

In the Spring of 2001 Cecily Gardner finds herself sitting alone in a diver bar in NYC. Feeling lonesome and homesick she reaches for the phone to call her ex-boyfriend, Matthew. As she is about to call she hears a guy on the barstool next to her say, “Don’t do it - you’ll regret it.” A start of an unlikely relationship begins - Grant and Cecily. However, 9/11 happens and Grant disappears. Fearing the worst she spots a missing-person poster and realizes she’s not the only one searching for him.

I’ve been a huge fan of Emily Giffin for over a decade her books somehow always pull at the heart strings and this one was no different. Prepare to ugly cry. First off any book involving 9/11 will involve a crying scenario, but then throw an unlikely “coming of age” romance and I am hooked.

Cecily is an adoring and relatable character. She’s a small town girl trying to make her writing dreams coming true in the big city. When she meets Grant you can’t help but just love him and their relationship. But in good ole’ drama fashion nothing is what it seems. After the shocking happenings of 9/11 you find that Grant had this whole other life that he hid from Cece. I wouldn’t say you hated Grant, but you for sure was “team Cece.”

I also have to admit that you don’t have too many twisty romances - usually in thriller land is the need to keep reading to find out what happened. But this one after you find out the shocking truth of Grant you need more and you need it NOW! There is a twist towards the end of the novel that I personally did not see coming.

Overall, highly recommend adding this to your Summer read list!!
Pub: 6.2

I could not put this down! An utterly gut-wrenching tale with a few twists and turns you don't see coming.

It's May 2001 and Cecily can't sleep and wants to call her ex-boyfriend. She goes down to a bar to take her mind off of him, and to hopefully not call him. While at the bar she's starting to reach for the phone with a voice behind her tells her to not do it. Cecily then meets Grant in instantly feels a connection with him that she never felt with her ex. She brings him home and he spends the night without even having sex. Grant and Cecily spend more time together. He tells her about his family and his brother who has ALS. They are going to spend the summer in London doing a clinical trial which eventually doesn't work. They return home on September 10th and Grant spends the night at Cecily's but leaves early in the morning to head into work quickly. He works in the World Trade Center on the 75th floor. Cecily never hears from after that, all calls going to voicemail then the phone disconnected. She then sees his missing poster and her friend calls the phone number listed. The phone number belongs to Grants' wife.

Thank you to Net Galley for provided me with an ARC of The Lies That Bind. This book started out just as expected, basic light Chick Lit, and then took some interesting turns in all different directions..The main character, Cecily started out with a sort of platonic one night stand after a breakup with her boyfriend. The platonic guy, turned into her passion, and then because a twisty all over the place situation. Cecily ended up back her her original boyfriend following the tragedy of 9-11,but seemed to mature and realize what she was actually looking for in her life. I liked the book more and more as I kept going, and I felt like the story developed more layers , the more I read. I needed something quick and light and easy, and The Lies that Bind definitely delivered. on that. Not my usual read, but kept me entertained

Cecily has just broken up with her boyfriend because he couldn’t commit. The pull to call him is too strong so she leaves her phone and heads to the local bar. When she asks the bartender to use the phone, a voice tells her “don’t do it.” The voice turns out to be a very good looking man, who Cecily ends up talking to until last call. Suddenly, life isn’t looking so bleak…

3.5 stars! As always, Emily Giffin didn’t let me down. I flew through this book and stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it, though what does bedtime even matter anymore right? I really enjoyed this book, but there was one part that bothered me. I felt like like Cecily and Grant moved wayyy too quickly. Meeting and spending the night together (not drunkenly) and then taking a vacation together just a few days later? It just felt like she should have been more cautious as a young female. She really took him at his word on everything, which to me just stood out as a huge red flag. Other than that, I did enjoy the rest of the story, and I felt like Cecily handled things the way many 20-somethings would. Besides that minor plot point, I still really enjoyed this one and would recommend it. It was a quick read that left me wondering what would happen and when the lies would cause a rift.

Thank you Ballantine Booiks and Netgalley for my gifted copy of this book!

I’m really disappointed with this book. I really loved her last book and was super excited to read this. I didn’t know anything about the plot going in and was just bummed about how slow it was. It was also had some unbelievable plot points and I am not sure that there were and characters that I felt were really compelling or more than two dimensional. I just finished it with a meh feeling. I don’t think I would recommend it if you have anything else you’d rather read.

A so-so book until the ending. In reading the other reviews, apparently I’m in the minority. I loved the ending. She found herself, and ended up being with her one true love. Kismet!

Thanks Net Galley for opportunity to read and review.

ARC provided via #netgalley⁣⁣
⁣⁣
This may sound harsh, but I am just going to come right out and say that this was one of the worst books I’ve read lately. The premise started out strong, and then midway through, the book just dove straight into the ground. I feel like I just watched a horrible Lifetime movie (and that’s saying a lot!) ⁣
The premise sounds promising-Cecily meets a stranger in the bar named Grant, who talks her out of drunk dialing her ex. They forge an incredible connection, but after the 9/11 attacks, Grant is presumed dead. Cecily can’t begin to forget Grant or the love they shared, and the more she tries to move on, the harder it is. One day Cecily sees Grant’s picture on a Missing poster, and she becomes determined to find out more about Grant’s life. ⁣
I was quite invested in the book until Cecily dials the number on the poster, but then events become simply far fetched after that. Characters that I was once rooting for became at once utterly deplorable. I grew quite tired of Cecily’s back and forth between Grant and Matthew, her lying, how close she became with Grant’s wife, Grant’s deceit and how he all but gets away with it at the end (there is no way he wouldn’t have gone to prison longer, no matter how tragic his motivation for the crime) and the fact that Cecily FORGIVES him after all of this and they rekindle their romance! Are you kidding me?! Once she finds out about Grant’s deceit she spends the rest of the book bemoaning his behavior and how betrayed she is, but then he shows up like a stalker at her house, makes a big speech, does his time, and proposes to her. Before all of this, Cecily made a big show of proclaiming that she is stronger on her own and is going to be more careful about speaking the truth and who she trusts. Yikes. What kind of message are we sending to women here? ⁣I understand forgiveness, but after being privy to Cecily’s inner feelings, I’m just not buying it.
The only book I’ve read by Emily Giffin was “All We Ever Wanted”. I quite enjoyed that book and was looking forward to this one, and this one just seems like it was written by a completely different author.

I am so grateful to Random House and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC, what is sure to be one of the hottest summer books of 2020. I love Emily Griffin’s work, and The Lies That Bind did not disappoint. It was just multilayered enough to keep me guessing, and the characters truly came to life in Griffin’s hands. There was poignancy amidst a most interesting tale of love’s journey, and a welcome break from the serious issues of the times. Truly a delight and highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley, Emily Giffin and the publisher first allowing me to receive an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

If you read one book this year, pick this one. This amazing read got me out of my reading slump and I was able to start and finish this in one day.

I truly enjoyed the romance part of this read as well as the total hard to re-live accounts of what happened on 9/11. This book truly pulled my heart strings and I wasn’t expecting how this book ended but I really enjoyed it and it was very relatable.

If I could give this a 10/10 I would!! Thanks Emily Giffin for an extraordinary book and can’t wait for the next one.

As an Emily Giffin fan who has read most of her books, I was excited to read this one as I enjoy her light writing style but I also love her characters--most of the time. I'm thinking back to the first Emily Giffin book I ever read, Something Borrowed, that I absolutely devoured. A previous review that I read had mentioned some similarities to that book, so I was even more excited to read this one.

I'm a setting girl. I love reading about places and transporting myself in that time/place. Since I was 20 when 9/11 happened, I remember it down to every last detail. However, my memories are from the midwest, and my memories are where I was and what I was seeing on the TV. I wasn't in New York, so reading a story that takes place during 9/11 right in the heart of the tragedy was both fulfilling and equally heartbreaking. To also head back to the early 2000s, right in the heart of my college years, I enjoyed the references to style, music, television, etc.

Now, to the plot: I was absolutely sucked in during the first half of the book. I was such a Grant fan, and I was enjoying every second of my reading. After about the first half, the plot seemed to just add one more slightly unbelievable point after another. There was that small voice in my head saying, "Could this really happen?" All of my own hesitation aside, I very much enjoyed this book. I tore through it, and for you Emily Giffin fans, Ethan, Darcy, and Rachel make an appearance in the book, which just made me smile like a giddy little kid.

If you've never read Emily Giffin, you should definitely start. This is a nice, easy, breezy quick read. I highly recommend it if you need something light (though Emily Giffin's last two books have strayed from her typical lightness, I've felt.) If you want REALLY light, start with Something Borrowed, (then obviously read Something Blue...), and then request this one when it comes out in August. Definitely worth the read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for ARC.

I don't think this genre is for me; I had a feeling where the story was going early on and wanted to see if it reached the conclusion I thought it would (yes. It did). The parts about 9/11 - having been there, were both difficult to read but honestly the most compelling part of the story. It was actually when I felt the writing come alive, weaving in a completely true narrative into this romantic work of fiction and capturing certain things so poignantly. I wish that depth and emotional resonance was in other parts of the story for me to be invested in - particularly Cecily. I felt like I knew Scottie and Grant and even Matthew better than I knew her. Adding in more layers to who she was and grounding her more in work and her own life outside of her romantic entanglements would go a long way. I understand that she wanted the kids the house and the husband but she never seemed to think who she was, all of that withstanding. But thats why the genre isn't for me: I'm not that kind of romantic. But for those who believe in soulmates and gut feelings and love at first sight, this book will work for them. It's got some messy complications but if the underlying theme is that love conquers all then those who believe that will find themselves their Labor Day read.

Tore through this book in one night as I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. There were so many twists and turns along the way, I couldn’t guess how it was going to end, but I was pretty satisfied with the happy ending (at least in my opinion) we got. It was fascinating to watch Cecily live through 9/11 and the aftermath, and while she kept a big secret throughout much of the book that felt a little odd, it wasn’t quite Sophie Kinsella-style where I was angry at the silly girl for not just telling the truth. This was so different from Giffin’s other novels (although some of the characters from her other books did, of course, make a cameo), but I really liked how it made me think about the circumstances that cause us to lie, and whether good people can make mistakes and do bad things… but still be good people at heart.

I love Emily Giffin books, and this was one of my favorites. I always appreciate how you can always relate to every perspective in her books, and your loyalty shifts page by page. I"ll definitely include this in my summer book roundup.

I don't even know where to begin with this review, so I guess first, I rarely finish a book that I'm not enjoying, this book was making me angry, but I still wanted to know what happened. I generally enjoy Emily Giffin's writing, but this book was over dramatic with too many frustrating twists and turns.

This book is so great - romantic, mysterious, and hopeful. It is a book that keeps you reading - you just want to find out more. What I particularly loved were the setting and characters. The NYC setting and characterizations were so well-done. Finally, this book offers us hope - hope for love, hope for second chances, hope for finding ourselves. A wonderful read!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy.