Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner

Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she's intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy's taken back to the emergency room and Rachel's sent back to her bed, they think they'll never see each other again. 

Rachel, the beloved, popular, and protected daughter of two doting parents, grows up wanting for nothing in a fancy Florida suburb. Andy grows up poor in Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent that will let him become one of the best runners of his generation. 

Over the course of three decades, through high school and college, marriages and divorces, from the pinnacles of victory and the heartbreak of defeat, Andy and Rachel will find each other again and again, until they are finally given a chance to decide whether love can surmount difference and distance and if they've been running toward each other all along.

Who Do you Love is the second book I have read by Jennifer Weiner, as I opened the first page of this book but what I found was a rather pleasant read. There were no dramatic twists and turns that kept you on your toes instead it had a consistent flow to the storyline and although it was quite easy to guess what the outcome would be I enjoyed the difficult journey both Andy and Rachel went through.

The book flows at a gentle pace and we meet both of our main characters at a young age when Rachel is in hospital due to her heart defect and this was where she first met Andy who had ended up in emergency with a suspected broken arm. We then follow each of the characters as they grow up and weave in and out of each other’s lives. We see how different their lives are from one another’s. Both of the characters are well developed and easy to warm to and shine above all of the supporting characters.

There are various topics that are covered in this storyline such as racism and broken families but each topic was handled beautiful and made this a deeper more meaningful read. The romance was believable and it makes you see that sometimes love isn’t enough and that at times love comes along at the wrong time.

This was a touching heartfelt love story that took a while to get into but that had a certain tenderness about it that managed to keep me intrigued in the plot. I would give this book a three and a half to a four star rating because I did enjoy the storyline and I loved the characters but the pace of the book was too slow all the way through for me. I remember the previous book I read by this author I found the pace of the book really slow to begin with but eventually it picked up whereas the pace in this book is gently paced the whole way through. I will definitely pick up another of the authors books because I enjoy her storylines and writing styles.

All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner

Allison Weiss is a typical working mother, trying to balance a business, ageing parents, a demanding daughter and a marriage. But when the website she develops becomes a huge success, she finds herself challenged to the point of being completely overwhelmed. As she struggles to hold her life together and meet the needs of all the people around her, Allison finds that the painkillers she was prescribed for a back injury help her deal with more than just physical discomfort - they make her feel calm and get her through the increasingly hectic days. Sure, she worries that the bottles seem to empty a bit faster each week, but it's not like she's some Hollywood starlet partying all night. It's not as if she has an actual problem. Until she ends up in a world she never thought she'd experience outside of a movie theatre: rehab. And as Allison struggles to get her life back on track, she learns a few life lessons along the way.

All Fall Down is not my typical kind of read but having finished it I found it to be a real eye opener. The storyline follows Allison who is married, has a job she enjoys and a gifted little daughter Ellie. Sounds like a normal successful woman who has everything under control but she has one big secret that she has managed to keep from everyone around her, she is consuming more and more painkillers just to get her through the day. As the prescription drugs begin to run out where will she turn next or will she confide in her loved ones?

This was a very intriguing read and I for one don’t like stereotypes but I am guilty of one that is for sure, when you hear of an addict you get a stereotypical image in your head and so it was a slap in the face for me to see a successful ordinary woman next door become an addict. This book really gave the reader an insight into an addict’s day to day life and thought process and I found this very intriguing.

I have to admit that I began to read this book but just didn’t find it gripping me so I put it to one side but after reading a couple of other books I came back to it and I am so glad that I did because after the slow start to the book I did find the storyline gradually began to get me hooked as the pace of the book picked up.

I just really wish we got to know Allison’s husband more so we can also see how it effects the family and his thoughts on the matter but we are only given small parts from Allison’s POV about him, I just think this would have been a great bonus to this book.

This isn’t an enjoyable light read it is a deep, meaningful informative read that will make you question your own judgments when it comes to this topic. It scarily is a really realistic read as we are hearing more and more people who are dying from prescriptive drugs who are not considered addicts so this was a great idea to a storyline that will help to raise awareness as well as bringing us a great read. This book is wonderfully written and is a very touching, sad read and having been my first read by this author I look forward to reading more.

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