Meant to Be is loosely based on the lives of JFK Jr and his wife, Caroline. Meant to Be tells a reimagined story of Cate and Joe. I loved the play on history and the classic story you know but also one you don’t. Giffin takes many liberties with the original. It’s more inspired by true events and less a complete reimagining.

Meant to Be follows Cate and Joe. Cate is headstrong and independent. She wants to make her own way in the world and not be reliant on anyone. Joe has been born into a life of privilege as the heir to the Kingsley family, but also the Kingsley curse. Joe has no idea what he wants to do with his life, but greatness is expected of him.

I loved the romance between Joe and Cate. They meet under unlikely circumstances and seem to keep running into each other. Joe is completely enamored by Cate. Cate has always followed Joe’s family but is hesitant to believe someone like Joe would have anything more than a fleeting interest in her.

If you like reimaginings or if you are fascinated by stories about the Kennedys, I highly recommend this one.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Not every book is for every reader, and there are, surprisingly, lots of 5 star reviews for this one. As someone who has been obsessed with the Kennedy family my entire life, especially JFK Jr. and his stunning wife Carolyn Bessette, I had high hopes. The cover is so pretty and evocative! Alas, I found the actual plot to be thin and the characters one-dimensional.

Told in alternate points of view, the book is the story of Cate and Joe's relationship. Joe is a member of the famed Kingsley family, modeled on the Kennedys. Cate's story does not exactly mirror Carolyn Bessette's, but I was interested enough in these two to keep reading in the hopes of feeling a deeper connection with the characters.

I am always disappointed when an author uses all caps in dialogue. And this book has several all-caps moments. I kept waiting for there to be something to sink my teeth into. I do love the author's Instagram, and her in-depth discussions of the famous wedding photo of JFK Jr. and Carolyn, taken by close family friend and relative-by-marriage, Dennis Reggie. I think she has lot to offer and to her credit, I did finish this book. Since this was my first Emily Giffin book, I am going to definitely try some of her other books which seem to be beloved by readers. 'Meant to Be' was just not for me.

(Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.)

When I read this I did not know the author had been inspired by the John Kennedy Jr’s life. But is was obvious and I was a bit taken aback. When I read the final author’s note that she had taken her inspiration from his love story I felt better about the book. It is basically a nice romance.

My friends have come to expect me to tell them the great love stories of our parents' time, regaling them with tales of Marilyn's drama, Reagan's love letters, and JFK Jr.'s plane crash with his wife and sister-in-law. I truly believe I was born at the wrong time and finding myself living the JFK Jr. story through Emily Giffin's imaginative Meant to Be is a feeling I cannot describe. I was only a few pages in when the first tears hit, realizing that Giffin had taken a story, famed in pop culture, and brought it to life in a fiction novel. Sure, it's based on a true story and those true pieces are easy to pull from the pages, but the way she fictionalizes the rest and fills in the blank truly is amazing. We can't know what truly went on behind closed doors in the Kennedy home, but this imagining feels accurate and just the right amount of true.

Meant to Be is the story of Joe Kingsley and Cate, two individuals who do not know one another, whose lives are taking two very distinct paths, but who will find those paths crossing in unimaginable ways. While Joe is the boy in the poster on every girls' wall, Cate is the girl with the poster. Where Joe is raised with family money and a family name, Cate's been raised in the chaos of a single-mother home and a stepfather who she wish she didn't have. Each is on their own, creating their life and figuring out who they are, and Meant to Be is Giffin's story of their adolescence and young adult hood, from the perspective of each character. While Joe is going to school and dating beauties, Cate is finding her footing on her own as a model. Neither could predict their paths would cross and certainly they did not see their relationship becoming what it does.

As far as fictionalized retellings go, Meant to Be is a great one. It's younger in writing style and character voice, but I think that will grab readers around my age and younger who have only heard the JFK stories in passing. It's a romantic, what-if story, the kind romance readers like me will love and that equally historic fans will find joy in. It's heartwarming and well-written, told like many other Emily Giffin novels, and just as fun to read for someone who knows the real story as it would be for someone it is totally new to. This one was a win for me.

Like Ms. Giffin I am fascinated and intrigued by the royal American family, the Kennedy’s.
It took me a while to read this because I wasn’t sure about a book that somehow told a fictional story about a family with so much tragedy. I had so many emotions but ultimately I loved it. 4 stars

Meant to Be
Emily Griffin

Emily Griffin is a master storyteller that knows how to create characters that will stay with you long after you have read them. The stories are emotionally grounded, tugs at your heartstrings, and transcends multi-generational family stories.
The story of Joe and cate and their opposite backgrounds – with Joe in his privileged upbringing and Cate’s struggling family, sets up in this very emotional story that I adored. Loosely based on JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette, this story re-imagines the what-ifs on this well loved couple.
This is the perfect read you can take on a vacation by the beach and enjoy the story for hours being transported to another place and time by the queen of romance, Emily Griffin.

I have always been a fan of Emily Giffin and am so happy to have read Meant to Be. This was a great imagining of the story of a young couple that captured the fascination of so many Americans. I think all of us of a certain age can remember the day that there plane crashed as well as the days that followed. I know I certainly can. What if they had survived and went on to live fulling lives? This book helps us to imagine that, and loved it!

Emily Giffin has done it again. How does she do it? Sweet story, easy read. Loosely based on JFK Jr and Caroline Bessette. Living in Massachusetts, the Kennedy's are a big deal here. I can say that this is LOOSELY based on them. If I didn't know any better I wouldn't know it was them.

A fabulous read, Giffin's best yet! A compelling story of what might have been in Camelot. I love Giffin's storytelling, characters, all that she does is dripping in Kennedy-esque gilt!

Thank you to Ballantine Books and to NetGalley for an ARC of this book

I have a friend that is a big Emily Giffin fan, and so she recommended several of her books to me. I really enjoyed all of the books that I have read by her so far. I was really excited when I saw this book come up, so I requested it.

This was another great book by Emily Giffin. I haven't really found a book by her yet that I didn't enjoy. This one is another one to add to the list. This book was just a fun easy read for me. I always like Emily Giffin's characters too.


This is just a fun and enjoyable easy book to read. I can't wait for her next one.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was the second book that I have read of the author’s. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the last because it seemed far more over the top. While I generally enjoyed the story, I thought some of the characters were Just too unrealistic. I liked the concept of the story told by both main characters. I thought that kept it interesting. There were a couple surprises I didn’t expect.

"Meant to be" a loosely based story on the Kennedy Family but with a happier end! A great Romance story that will keep you reading to find out what happens. If you know about the Kennedy's some parts are predictable but the author wrote this book beautifully.

If you love reading about a family that is seen like Royalty and how a families expectations can impact someone's life. I love Emily Giffin's books and I recommend all her books.

Meant to Be is has a great, easy flow that will have you continuing to reach for this book. I loved the dual POVs and how Joe and Cate’s paths cross, especially loved that Cate had a teenage celebrity crush on Joe. Knowing Emily Giffin loves the Kennedy family, I’m not surprised she wrote a book that would show some similarities between the Kennedy family and the characters in the book. It’s a quick and enjoyable read. 3.5 rounding up to 4.

I am a fan of Emily Giffin and Meant to Be does not disappoint. Joe Kingsley' family is American royalty, beloved for their military and political service, and elegance. Cate Cooper grew up fatherless and after her mother marries an abusive man, she is forced to fend for herself. After being discovered by a model scout at age sixteen, Cate’s face is in magazines and on billboards. Yet she feels that she is living in a world to which she’s never truly belonged. When Joe and Cate unexpectedly meet one afternoon, their connection is instant and intense. But will their relationship survive the glare of the spotlight as well as their family background.

LOVED! Such an interesting take on the Kennedy family curse. Heartbreaking, yet beautiful. The hype surrounding this book is real!

While there wasn't really character development for the main characters, I did love watching Berry and Cate's mother grow a bit.

This book was beautiful in every sense of the word. It was incredibly well written and kept you clinging to every moment of the story.

Through every turn I was rooting for Joe’s happiness and just hoping things would work out. Every chance for there to be something sabotaging him, I clung to the next chapter to make sure things would resolve themselves. Like every romance novel, I expected there to be bumps in the road, but this was truly a step beyond. It didn’t feel like a trope when something would go wrong, my heart broke more than once and felt light again as the story continued. Everything just felt so real and so raw that I had to question more than once if this was truly a work of fiction.

After reading the inspiration at the end, I found myself loving the book for than I had already. Her words about dating to think about “what if” really put a ribbon around the gift that is this book. The parallels between the Kingsley and Kennedy families weren’t lost on me, and it never felt like a forced connection.

I really adored this book and I’m afraid that whatever I read next won’t hold a candle to this one.

Joe grows up in the public eye. He is a Kingsley -- a family loosely based on our Kennedy clan. Cate is a self-made woman. She becomes the face of a Calvin Klein campaign and then works with an up and coming designer. They meet on the beach. Are they meant to be? Can they build a relationship that will not crumble under the expectations of his family or the baggage from hers? This would make a fabulous vacation read. Just open it up and escape into this "what might have been" story from Emily Giffin.

Meant to Be was mixed for me, but I would recommend it to fans of Kennedy lore. I loved the historical connections and it was great to see how the author tied in real-life tragedies to the fictional characters in the book. Joe and Cate were well-developed, with very real flaws and strengths. I probably liked them better as individuals than as a couple. The relationship didn't seem very high stakes to me. However, the author is a talented writer and I enjoyed the dual points of view.

Review posted on Goodreads and Amazon

I love all of this author's books and this one was no exception. I tore through it and will recommend to my readers as a fun book this summer.

I like to think that Giffin is beyond the point of emotionally wrecking me, but her last few and Meant to be have continued to push her to that point and beyond.