Sweeping, beautiful prose - but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t struggle with the pacing of this one. I think reading this in audiobook format would have been a better fit for me. 4*.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing this e-arc.

Welcome to my favorite read of 2025, and my new obsession!

Sometimes my favorite books are just a really deep look at very normal people. My heart ached for these characters, from their pain, mistakes, and longing, but also from the beauty of their strength, growth, and love.

The way Marie Rutoski knew exactly how to draw me into Emily and Gen's element of the story, and then the precise moment to pull me back to Emily's marriage was so frustrating in the best way... leaving me with that edge of longing for more of what I hoped would happen!?!? MASTERFUL

The final stretch left me pressing one hand on my chest as I flipped pages with the other... devastated, hopeful, and so freaking nervous for how it would all wrap up.

Well done Marie Rutoski... and thank you!

Thank you also to Knopf, Penguin Random House, and #netgalley for my advanced copy.

ugh I LOVED. I love reading about queer love and seeing how it plays out for characters like these, I'll definitely be thinking of this one for a while after putting it down. I couldn't get enough!

This is a beautifully written book spanning through childhood and adulthood. I liked the main characters and their flaws but I didn’t like the main supporting characters, namely Emily’s husband and the children. I thought they were too grating at times and it impacted my experience with the book.

A page-turner, Ordinary Love is one part queer romance, one part nuanced picture of emotional abuse and isolation. The relationship between Emily and Gen holds a constant charge, no matter how long they may spend apart (in years or pages), and when they come together, sparks fly. Sexy and raw, their relationship swings on a pendulum from vulnerability to reserve, thwarted by words left unsaid.

While the relationship between Emily and Gen is satisfying, for me, the true measure of Marie Rutkoski's talent lies in the way she renders Emily's abusive marriage. We meet Emily just after she's separated from Jack for the second time. The instinct to make excuses for him permeates the prose as she describes his insidious moves to isolate her and the slow dissolution of her friendships.

This is a good one to pick up if you're in need of a fast-paced romance with a little more going on.

Gosh I loved Emily and Gen. I really appreciated the reflection on being bi and married to a man and not feeling gay enough in queer spaces. And I loved the second chance romance aspect. I will say, a good majority of this book is about an abusive marriage which I was not expecting. And the ending was not super satisfying in that regard. But still definitely worth a read; the characters are compelling and the writing is lovely.

THIS WAS INCREDIBLE! I love queer love. I love queer longing. I will never forget Gen or Emily. They live rent-free in my head!

Had to part ways with this book and DNF for personal reasons. This is a neutral three star rating. Thank you Knopf for making this copy available to me.

Hell YESSSS this book! I was completely enthralled from the first page. I love unexpected romances, especially since the other book I've read by Marie Rutkoski was much more akin to a dark thriller so I did not realize how swoony this book would be when I cracked it open. However, yes it's swoony but it's also very sad. A lot of the book details an emotionally abusive marriage, so please know that before diving in.

I had such a hard time putting this one down. It was so emotionally and enveloping. I was rooting for Emily, our main character, so much. This is a must-read if you like second chance romances, lesbian love stories, relationships between famous and non-famous people, and redemption arcs. It is such a great summer read and I really don't want to spoil too much more so please seek this one out and enjoy!

Ordinary Love was phenomenal. I am so glad I requested this because I have loved Marie Rutkowski's other books and was excited to see her venture into queer literary fiction.

After her marriage to a white man dissolves, Emily is left to pick up the pieces of her life and care for two young children who will be impacted by her decisions going forward. As she reflects on this, her past resurfaces and she remembers her first true love- a woman named Gen, and possibly her only genuine friend from her youth. The reader is taken on a beauty journey into self-relfection and how denying the truest parts of ourselves only leads us into a life we don't recognize.

Rutkowski excels at writing authentic, genuine romance. The chemistry and love between Gen and Emily jumped off the page and pulled me further into the narrative.

Ordinary Love by Marie Rutoski tells the story of Emily as she comes into her true adult self, survives trauma, and rekindles her relationship with Gen. There were times that Emily annoyed me but all in all I thought the book was well done.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Ordinary Love is available now. 4 Stars

Marie Rutkoski’s first adult novel is a deeply moving queer romance and personal journey. It follows Emily, a former stay-at-home mom trapped in an emotionally and financially controlling marriage, who reconnects with Gen, her high school sweetheart turned Olympic athlete, after more than 15 years apart.

I was drawn to the depiction of Emily’s marriage to Jack as it was full of coercive control, emotional manipulation, gaslighting, and even violence against their child. This last description left me feeling truly affected by the level of emotional abuse. On the other hand, I found Emily’s rekindled connection with Gen to be tender, charged, and fraught with unresolved history. Their intimacy is vividly drawn and deeply felt. I felt Emily’s internal conflict of balancing maternal responsibility and the desire for personal authenticity really anchored the story with relatability.

Ordinary Love is a quietly powerful, emotionally layered novel about finding yourself again after trauma, honoring identity, and rebuilding love on your own terms. Rutkoski excels at capturing the gut-wrenching realities of abusive relationships and the tentative hope of reconnection with emotional nuance.

This is a difficult book for me to review because, for many people, this will 100% be a five star read. It just didn't quite hit for me in the way I wanted. I probably went in with the wrong expectations: I thought this would primarily be a love story.
I can say this is a gorgeous book. From the first chapter, I was immediately impressed by how realistic everything felt. Emily felt like a real person as she describes the inciting incident for why she finally leaves her abusive husband. It was like I was reading a memoir and I had to remind myself that this is a fictional narrative.
However what I also realized, now that I've finished, is that this is primarily Emily's story. About how she leaves abuse, how she raises her children, and navigates her relationships with her friends & family. Gen, the love interest we're rooting for, is just one of many threads of Emily's story. Gen & Emily have a past, and their present day relationship happens on page, but I feel like I never got to know Gen as well as I wanted to. We know her career as an Olympic runner, her family life, & her reputation. But, if I'm being honest, I feel like I know more about the manipulative (soon-to-be) ex-husband Jack than Gen. We spent so much time going over Emily's past, that Gen & Emily's relationship never got to be fully fleshed out.
Don't get me wrong, we got Gen & Emily's history too, albeit briefly, but I just kept waiting for their second-chance romance to start. Then, when we finally get there, new challenges appear (old mistakes, the Olympics, custody battle fears & miscommunication) that get in the way to truly see their relationship grow. The last few chapters were close to what I wanted but then the book abruptly ended.
Still, once I re-calibrated my expectations, this really was a stunning book in other ways. It's about having the strength to leave, the support systems we have, & the care we give to others. This book deals with a lot of heavy topics (tw: loss of parent, drug overdose, abuse, miscarriage, divorce, homophobia, cancer, etc.) and all these themes were handled with such care. I was especially impressed with the handling of the grief & processing behind a character's miscarriage (left vague to avoid spoilers). As a story of overcoming adversity and finding love in the end, it really succeeded. I highly recommend this book, just go into it with better expectations than me.

“Ordinary Love” by Marie Rutkoski, is a quiet, emotional read about the complexities of love, divorce, and motherhood. It felt honest and raw, and I found myself reflecting on my own relationships. The writing is beautiful—simple but powerful. It stayed with me.

I stayed up until 2 am last night because I could not physically rip myself away from this book!

If you were a fan of In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado for its accurate, poignant glimpse into abuse- this book is for you. I have never seen a book so clearly and distinctly show the cycle of abuse. I love the way this book jumps around in timelines, starting off with the final event that forced her to leave her abuser, and then going back in time and showing the ways in which abuse creeps in, amplifies, and normalizes in your life. We follow Emily, a queer woman, whose neglectful childhood and internalized homophobia echoes in the background of her subconscious when she is deciding every step of the way to leave her relationship. We watch how a “nice, caring” man who loves to spoil you and take care of you quickly can turn into financial, psychological, and physical abuse. We see all the ways she talks doubts and gaslights herself into normalizing his behavior, we see her being forced into a dependent relationship, and we see how quickly time can pass until you realize how far deep you are in it until you lose memory of who you were before. This was haunting, gripping, and so real. We watch a woman find strength in community, friendship, true love, and herself to leave and it’s beautiful.

In the background we get one of the most beautiful sapphic love stories as well. Emily’s childhood best friend and first love Gen. Their devotion to each other, the way they see each other, and the YEARNING. The way desire is shown so delicately in this book reminds me of The Safe Keep by Yael Van der Wouden. It’s dripping with intimacy and passion in a way that offsets the abuse story line.

I adored this story with my full heart, and I am so glad that we have books that are talking about abuse in such honest and difficult ways, especially for queer people. I also think this book is such a beautiful story for bi/pan/queer identifying people in a world that wants them to doubt their identities, to fall in line with the binaries of straightness or gayness, instead of existing in a world outside of that binary. This is such an important story that I hope people learn to stop asking “why didn’t she just leave?”

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC!

This really stayed with me. It’s subtle and slow in a way I like. Never dramatic, but still heavy. The emotional weight builds quietly. I felt so much for Emily without the writing needing to explain everything. Her relationship with Jack felt familiar in a way that’s hard to name. Not abusive in any clear-cut way, but still draining and hard to pin down. It shows how someone can make you smaller while still seeming kind.

The shifts between timelines added to the story. They weren’t just background. They gave context to how she ended up where she did. Her relationship with Gen stood out the most. Unfinished, but not in a forced way. There’s love and regret there, and it’s all messy.

What stayed with me was how well it captured the feeling of living in something for years without realizing how much it’s shaped you. The loneliness of it. The self-doubt. And the quiet process of trying to choose yourself after so long. It doesn’t tie everything up, which I appreciated. It lets things be uncertain.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski
4⭐
3🌎
3📖
5🖋️
4👭
4❤️

A note to readers from the editor at the beginning of ARC described this book perfectly: In Marie Rutkoski’s novel, which unspools in two timelines across decades, we see a pair of girls growing up in a small town where “lesbian” is only spoken in a hiss, we see the yawning chasm between state school and Harvard, we see the dawn of gay marriage in New York, and we see a culture slowly beginning to shift, to allow for a different kind of love to be considered ordinary.”

This is no small task - Rutkoski is telling two stories that weave and intersect - a story of an abusive marriage and separation between Emily and Jack and a decades-spanning love story between Emily and Gen.

I particularly thought the portrait of this horrific abuse was powerful. The way Jack would make a casually callous comment to subtly manipulate Emily was awful. Jack slowly isolates Emily from her family and friends with her support network gradually falling away. In the midst of this pain, she reconnect with her first love, Gen, and they slowly find their way back to one another.

This book deals with pain, anxiety, and abuse so it's certainly not a light and happy love story. However, Rutkoski perfectly balances between never trivializing the issues or letting any of those elements overshadow strands of the story. Each of the challenges presented directly informs our character and decisions, and of course consequences. Ultimately, it's a book about self, friendship, sacrifice, bravery, and choosing to go someplace you've never been before.

I loved and felt for Emily so much - You know a book is well written when you can identify with a character who has a completely different life from you.

If heavier sapphic romances are your thing, we strongly encourage you to add this to your list!

Thank you to Marie Rutkoski, Knopf, and net galley for the advanced copy!

Readers will find Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski appealing because it weaves together raw vulnerability, second-chance romance, and the complexities of identity, especially queerness, ambition, and motherhood, in a way that feels both honest and deeply human. Readers are drawn to Emily and Gen’s relationship because their emotional scars and longing are portrayed with nuance and care, making them relatable. Many people know what it is like to wonder about a “what if” from their past or to wrestle with the sacrifices and compromises of adulthood, and Rutkoski weaves this into the storytelling beautifully.
The characters’ vulnerability, including Emily’s tangled feelings for Gen, her struggles with marriage and motherhood, and Gen’s own insecurities despite her outward success, invites readers to empathize with their fears and hopes. Emily and Gen’s willingness to risk pain in search of a more authentic life is written with true sincerity. This kind of candor about panic, desire, regret, and the longing for connection makes the story more than memorable. Rutkoski’s honest and tender depiction of imperfect people craving love, understanding and happiness—along with the ordinary yet profound risks they take to pursue it—really hits the mark.
Rutkoski uses flashbacks throughout the story, and this is highly effective given the emotional complexity and themes of longing, regret, and transformation. By weaving past and present together, readers gain a deeper understanding of Emily’s motivations, wounds, and growth. Her choices in the present are illuminated by her formative relationships and experiences. This technique not only enriches the character development but also lets readers see how Emily’s identity evolves over time. Each flashback serves as a reminder of how her past shapes her present decisions, creating a tapestry of moments that reveal the weight of her experiences. As she faces her current challenges, her past shows just how deeply her emotions run. Most importantly though, the flashbacks work to deepen Emily’s character arc, immersing readers in the intensity of her youthful love for Gen while also showing the bittersweet realities of her adulthood. This dual perspective ultimately heightens the novel’s emotional impact and makes it a more engaging and compelling story.
Rutkoski’s true strength lies in her ability to draw readers into Emily’s internal struggles, including her doubts, guilt, and gradual realization of her marriage’s true nature. She does this without resorting to simplistic resolutions. Instead, she highlights Emily’s ongoing process of healing and rediscovery. By contrasting Emily’s troubled, emotionally abusive marriage with her supportive reconnection to Gen and her college friends, the novel shows the difference between abuse and healthy love and what a genuine relationship should offer. This approach resonates deeply with readers, making the portrayal both compassionate and powerful.
It should be noted that Rutkoski’s depiction of abuse in Emily and Jack’s marriage is marked by sensitivity, nuance, and emotional honesty. Rather than sensationalizing the abuse, Rutkoski portrays it as subtle and insidious. Jack’s control and emotional manipulation gradually erode Emily’s self-worth, reflecting the complex reality of many emotionally abusive relationships. The narrative explores the challenges survivors face in recognizing abuse and making the painful decision to leave, especially when complicated by financial dependence, motherhood, and lingering hope for change.
Final remarks:
Ordinary Love stands out for its emotionally resonant, character-driven narrative, evocative writing style, and compassionate portrayal of both trauma and hope. Readers find its exploration of second-chance love and personal rediscovery powerful and unforgettable. Rutkoski avoids romantic clichés by allowing pain, uncertainty, and hope to coexist, creating a story that feels emotionally real and profound. By focusing on vulnerability and showing how it shapes choices, relationships, and healing, Rutkoski transforms Ordinary Love from a simple romance into a moving and realistic story about survival, self-discovery, and true connection. Bottom line: this is solid storytelling, and I give it two thumbs up!
Strengths…

Authentic, flawed characters
Relatable emotional arcs
Sensitive treatment of abuse
Tender, realistic sapphic romance
Compassionately written second-chance

This is an absolute tour de force. Wow. This book is essentially two main stories: an abusive relationship deteriorating and a long-ago romance reigniting. Emily has what many would consider an ideal life: she's married to a wealthy man, has two children, and lives in a bougie Upper East Side apartment. But her husband Jack is extremely emotionally abusive, and the book opens with her leaving him. Shortly after, she runs into her high school girlfriend Gen at a fundraiser. Gen is an Olympic track star, and she and Emily had a beautiful and intense relationship that burst into flames. They haven't talked in almost 15 years, but they reconnect and try to regain the trust and intimacy they had so long ago.

This book does many things exceptionally well. To start, Rutkoski captures an abusive relationship with incredible specificity and emotion that punches you in the gut. We follow along as Jack wines and dines Emily, giving her a sense of safety and adoration, and then slowly begins to manipulate her, control her, isolate her from people in her life, and make her doubt her own reality. We see her slowly lose her sense of self and gaslight herself, all while people in her life are desperately trying to get through to her. She leaves Jack once but he reels her back in, which feels so sadly real, and seeing her try to believe in herself and push past Jack's financial and emotional exploitation is really affecting. I was rooting for Emily so hard, and her bond with her children is really lovely. The children actually feel like humans, not just plot devices, which I always appreciate.

In the other story, the connection between Emily and Gen is pure and bright and honest. The flashbacks give us so much context into their relationship and personalities without slowing down the narrative or giving too much away, and the struggle and betrayals between them make sense. Emily's exploration of her queer identity is very interesting and dynamic and added a lot of depth to the story as well (the book is set in 2012, which provides an interesting benchmark where gay marriage had just been legalized but homophobia was still considered mostly acceptable). Rutkoski writes chemistry and intimacy so vividly and viscerally that I almost felt everything Emily was feeling in the ups and downs of her relationship with Gen, and she and Gen both felt really human and complex.

I was so moved by this book from start to finish - this was one of my favorite books in a while.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!

Marie Rutkoski is, without exaggeration, one of my absolute all-time favorite living writers, so I was absolutely over the moon to see an adult release from her this year--and a gay romance, no less!

I generally like second-chance romance--I like to think that most people have a permanent spot of vulnerability around their first big heartbreak. It's something you carry forever, even after it stops being painful or even particularly memorable. I'm always drawn to books that get at that minute, archival soreness, so the premise of this one was an easy sell for me. This book explores ideas of first love, regrets, growth, and reconnection in a way I found intensely engaging and often moving. In many ways it's a straightforward manifestation of the second-chance trope, but there's a depth and tension beyond what's necessary or expected for a bog-standard romance. I also think this author is particularly adept at writing hot self-effacing soft butch love interests, and it's nice to see that skill at work in an adult book.

I will say that the husband character definitely veers into villain caricature more often than not, but 1) men really do be like that, oftentimes, and 2) Colleen Hoover is the biggest author in the world right now, and she is all about ridiculous villainous men. I would LOVE to see Marie Rutkoski get a piece of that audience.