I enjoyed this book! I’ve never read Emily Giffin before, but found her writing in THE LIES THAT BIND smooth and the characters real. The plot took twists I hadn’t expected, which, given my own imagination, is saying something. And I loved the narrator of the audiobook.

The premise? Cecily has just broken up with Matthew, whom she had hoped to marry. She is in a Manhattan bar late at night, trying to drown her sorrow, when she meets Grant. They click. After drinking and talking for hours, they end up back at her apartment, where they fall asleep – innocently, sans sex.

In the days that follow, their relationship deepens. They learn more about each other, though never enough. Then comes 9/11, and Grant is suddenly and irrevocably gone. In the aftermath, Cecily discovers that he isn’t the man she thought she knew.  Heartbroken, she faces untenable choices – and often makes the wrong ones.

She isn’t alone in that. Nearly all of the characters in THE LIES THAT BIND are flawed. They aren’t despicable; they’re simply flawed. As a writer, I probably have less of a problem with that than a pure reader would. If a character is perfect, where’s the reality? Where’s the tension? Where’s the option for growth?

This is a story of love. It’s a story of family and expectations and learning to be true to oneself. I found it light enough, real enough, and thought-provoking enough to be satisfying.