Meant to Be by Emily Giffin is a romance novel centered around a fictional Kennedy-esque family.
While enjoyable, I often found the story to be bland, the characters shallow, and overall less than what I expect from Emily Giffin.
Touching on a plethora of issues—domestic abuse, dead parents, the pressures of being from a famous family and dealing with the paparazzi—Meant to Be fails to connect on an emotional level. Throughout the novel, our narrators Cate and Joe are telling instead of showing us the story. This distance makes it fairly emotionless.
Standard rom-com plot format. Some backstory, a meet-cute, the dating period, “the event” that separates our couple, the subsequent reconnecting, and finishing off with a happy ending.
Thanks to Netgalley.com and Ballantine Books for an advance copy. All opinions are my own.