I didn't expect this book to break me but I spent the last few pages unable to stop crying.

It was a beautiful and at the same time an incredibly hard book to read. The story focuses both on Emily's relationship with her emotionally abusive husband and her first and only girlfriend from high-school.

There are multiple parts of the story focused on Emily's marriage that are extremely hard to read. The cycle of abuse that she just cannot escape, all the tricks her husband uses to make her fall in line. It's tough.

At the same time this book is filled with so many beautiful moments between Emily and Gen. Their relationship isn't easy and isn't perfect but I love how the author managed to paint such a beautiful portrayal of how their relationship develeoped when they were kids. It was so easy to see how that love would survive so much between them. Aside from that I loved all the relationships between the characters and their friends, and how true friendship isn't temporary.

Beautiful writing, beautiful story, it all makes for a book that is worth reaching out for.

Emily had plans to be a lawyer but then she met Jack. His ability to sweep her off her feet and his conviction that his wealth meant she would never have to work meant she never fulfilled her dreams. As their marriage wears on, and their children are born, his controlling, manipulative behaviour surfaces more and more often and Emily finds herself adjusting herself in order to anticipate his moods.

At a party one evening, she sees Gennifer Hall. Now an Olympic runner, Gen Hall is a powerhouse. But to Emily, she is still the girl she fell in love with all those years ago.

As they rekindle their friendship and Emily navigates her broken marriage, she begins to find herself again and in doing so, gains the confidence she needs to live authentically.

Ordinary Love is a sensual story about second chance love. The book moves between past and present, allowing us to gain a full understanding of where Emily has come from and who both she and Gen were before they meet again at a mutual friend’s house. The narration was beautiful and introspective, allowing us to see a depth to Emily that perhaps those around her may not have ever known. The characters are so well written that I felt like I knew them all personally. Jack is awful. Obvs. And the scenes that he was written in always made me feel quite tense which shows just how skilled Marie Rutkoski is at creating the baddie. The love between Emily and Gen is tender and supportive and the maturity with which it evolves to feels even more satisfying as we know their history and what it’s taken to get where they end up.

A gorgeous, summer read that sizzles just as much as it confronts.

Ordinary Love is a quiet, emotional story about Emily, a woman whose life gets shaken up when her first love suddenly reappears just as her relationship with her controlling husband breaks up. It’s all about second chances, old regrets, and how the past never fully lets go.

Marie Rutkoski’s writing is beautiful and introspective, and she captures the tension of rekindled love really well. That said, the pacing can be a bit slow and there is a lot of back and forth between past and present which can be confusing.

Still, it’s a thoughtful, heartfelt read if you’re in the mood for something tender and reflective.

3.5 stars

Ordinary love tells the story of many loves, one of first love, love of family, falling out of love including a toxic form of love and the love of a rekindled relationship.

The story is sent around Emily from her youth with her first love in Ohio to battling a toxic relationship from her husband at 32 in New York. We have Gen, the first love who will always be unashamedly herself from being outed at a family dinner to just wanting to be a run. This is a first love that’s rekindles through years lost where they know they cannot be just friends.

During the story we also have Jack, the toxic money boy husband that plays various manipulations to their relationship and that of their children that finally Emily breaks and sets her sights on freedom away from him.

The love is gentle and kind, the story goes back and forth from a broken relationship to something new blossoming between the two women. A healing touch for both of them. This is very well written and does hook you in but the story in places does feel a bit too long.

Would highly recommend, I was given an opportunity to ready this via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was so different from what I was expecting, it's beautifully written and on one hand an emotional, convincing love story between two old lovers. On the other it's a painful and confronting story of an emotionally coercive relationship, one that I was so invested in it was difficult to read at points. I couldn't stop reading it, and the structure made it especially compelling.

This is the first book that I have read by Marie Rutkoski, it is a very well written story about Emily's life and loves.
Emily met Gen at school, Gen was tall, lanky and angular, she looked underfed, Emily only ever had peanut butter sandwiches but she started making two, one for Gen and the friendship grew.
Emily had never had a relationship and even though she fell for her straight talking, honest best friend, the friend who taught her how to love, she didn't class herself as gay.
When Emily went to Harvard, she and Gen parted ways and not amicably.
When Emily met Jack she was smitten, all her friends liked him, Jack was generous, Jack was kind, Jack was thoughtful...........Jack was controlling and manipulative.
Emily and Jack were married and went on to have two children, Stella who adored Jack and Connor who clung to Emily and was a little scared of him.
In his own insidious way, Jack separated Emily from her friends one by one, Jack twisted everything that Emily said, he laid the blame for everything that was wrong with their relationship at her doorstep in such a way that Emily began to believe him until.........quietly she left him.
Jack raged, Jack pleaded, Jack threatened, Jack made promises. promises that Emily knew he wouldn't keep, would she give him another one last chance ?
Emily never forgot Gen, her first love and when they met up again she knew that she never would but Gen wasn't the awkward schoolgirl who licked the inside of milk cartons, Gen was now a much lauded Olympic athlete with a string of famous lovers, would she ever look at Emily again ?
This story covers all manner of emotive subjects sensitively but I must admit that I couldn't invest in any of the characters and I thought that the book could have been condensed quite a bit.
I received a free copy of this book and my review is voluntary.

When Emily catches sight of Gennifer Hall at a party, she is transported back to the moment they fell in love as teenagers. Their connection was electric, and they thought it was forever.

Twenty years later, Gen is an Olympic runner, the career she strived for, while Emily is living a picture-perfect Manhattan townhouse, two young children and a wealthy husband, Jack. But Jack's controlling behaviour is spiralling, and Emily has lost sight of who she once was.

Now, despite Emily's fracturing marriage and the pressures of Gen's career, they are drawn back together by a magnetic attraction. After years of heartbreak, missed chances and misunderstandings, will they finally get a second chance at first love?

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

as much as i tried to read and like this book i struggled with it... can see its well written and very truthful about relationships but alas its not for me

other people may like it and can make their own minds up about the content

sorry

I absolutely loved Ordinary Love. It’s the kind of book that quietly gets under your skin and stays with you. Marie Rutkoski has such a gift for capturing the emotional complexity of everyday life—especially when it comes to love, regret, and figuring out who you are outside of your relationships.

Emily, the main character, is one of the most relatable protagonists I’ve read in a while. She’s messy, introspective, smart, and trying her best to navigate a life that didn’t go exactly as planned. I appreciated how honest and vulnerable she felt on the page—her doubts, her hopes, her attempts at reconnection, all of it. You can’t help but root for her, even when she’s unsure of herself.

The writing is quietly stunning, with lines that just stop you in your tracks because they’re so emotionally true. It’s not flashy or plot-heavy, but it doesn’t need to be. The power is in the subtle details and the emotional depth Rutkoski brings to each scene.

If you love books that are thoughtful, character-driven, and deeply human, Ordinary Love is a must-read. Emily’s story is one that will stay with me for a long time ❣️

Ordinary Love is a profoundly moving experience. The raw and tender depiction of love is beautifully written. Reading this evoked so much emotion within me. I felt rage and sadness for Emily the main character. Her husband is controlling and the way this is portrayed is expertly done. I feel this is the kind of domestic abuse that sometimes can be overlooked but is so important to address. In terms of a second chance romance and the sapphic nature of this is a delight to read. It’s truly romantic and felt so real. I loved the transitions between past and present, this made for a compulsive read. Overall this is a hopeful book that shows that love endures. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

"Truth is we were never really friends. Never just that.”

Ordinary Love is not your typical summer romance. It's a second chance at first love, and it hurts in all the most beautiful and necessary ways. It’s a story that unfolds over decades, steeped in longing, and memory, and the ache of what could have been.

There’s a quiet intensity that builds in the push and pull of this relationship and by the end I just felt emotionally wrecked and deeply grateful for the journey.

This isn’t a retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, but fans of Anne Eliot and Captain Wentworth will recognise echoes of that story reimagined through a queer lens with a raw modern edge that makes it feel entirely new.

At its core, Ordinary Love is about love in all its forms, not just romantic love. It explores female friendships, motherhood, marital dynamics, and the emotional fallout of re-examining choices you thought were set in stone. It’s a story about origins, how we become who we are, and the quiet power in realising that you can’t undo the past, but you can choose differently going forward.

One of the most impactful threads in this novel is how it handles coercive control. It creeps in, quietly, plausibly, and it may catch some readers off guard with its recognizability. There is a moment around the 60% mark where I sobbed, the scene hit so hard I had to put the book down and breathe.

Ordinary Love didn’t just peel back layers, it felt like it removed my skin entirely and left my nerves exposed. I felt everything, too much sometimes, but I'm so glad I read this book. This is a summer read with substance. It would make an unforgettable buddy or book club pick.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for sending me an advance copy of Ordinary Love in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This is a love story_Emily seemingly has the perfect life but she doesn’t feel it. Reconnecting with her first love, she has serious choices to make. A great read for anyone who has ever felt lost.

I am so sorry for the late post! I lost track of the days, but better late than never!

Firstly, thank you so much to @viragopress and @marierutkoski for letting me be a part of this blog tour!

This book is a great read for those who love literary romance, and are looking for a sapphic read for the month of June🏳️‍🌈. Just a warning though-please check your trigger warnings. (DA)

Throughout Ordinary Love we follow Emily, whilst in the midst of leaving her abusive ex-husband, as she reflects on her life and rekindles a relationship with her ex-girlfriend.

I really enjoyed this book. It hit me deep and was very emotional for me. I really appreciated the fact that the main abuse portrayed in this book is emotional. Which we don’t see a lot. Marie did a really good job of showing how isolating it can be. How it can wear you down until you feel small, and how it will strip you of everything you once were. I also loved seeing the friend of Emily’s that tried to convince her to stay for the money and the children etc. I had a friend like that, (we are no longer friends). It’s crazy when we reach out for help and advice and get told to suck it up. That is something people don’t talk about enough. That it’s not just the partner that keeps us in place, it’s those around us as well. The ones we trust to be our shields.

I really loved the bi-sexual representation in this book as well. A group that doesn’t get a lot of attention and is quite pushed aside even inside the community. While we don’t see a lot of Gen until the end, I really enjoyed their relationship. I appreciated the difficult choice that Emily had to make and I saw myself in her journey.

If I were to give this a star rating I’d give it a 4.5 ✨

Thank you so much again to the publisher for my copy. This author will definitely be one I look out for in the future!

4.75 stars

ARC review

Emily and Gen met as teenagers and fell head over heels for one another. Emily has some struggles with her bisexuality but she knows she has found something worth fighting for with Gen. Pride and adolescent angst see their relationship come to an abrupt end and their fates split.

20 years later, Emily and Gen are both living the dream from the outside looking in. Gen has achieved all her dreams and become an Olympic runner, and Emily is a mother and wife to an affluent man in Manhattan, struggling to remember who she is outside of this dynamic. When Emily’s husband callousness becomes too much and she leaves the home, only to be brought back into Gen’s path and the two are just as drawn to each other as when they were young.

Ordinary Love switches between the past and present so the reader experiences the first love and the second chance simultaneously which was a really great choice. This narrative style is also a phenomenal vessel for Emily and her husband’s story because it begins with a climax that will have some readers asking: how did it get this bad? and then the author takes you on the spiral of controlling behaviour, social isolation and emotional abuse Emily experienced during her marriage.

Gen is a powerhouse who knows what she wants and the two women balance each other out. When Emily is lost, Gen is grounded, and when Gen starts to waver on her life path, Emily comes through when it’s important. At the end of the day, they both need to decide what sacrifices and risks they’re willing to make and if they can overcome a decades-old misunderstanding.

This book feels to real and raw to be fiction, and I think this could bring a lot of hope to queer young people. 🏳️‍🌈

This was almost a book I really liked/loved! I really liked the first 50% and was glued to it but then the second half felt a bit drawn out and I got a bit distracted 🙈 if I had been a bit shorter I think I’d have loved it overall!

I liked the story and how we got to see the two sides to Emily and how she was struggling with her life. I felt like we got to have a glimpse into Emily’s mind and how she felt trapped.

I also liked the imagery and the way it was written - it felt really beautiful at parts and I felt I could imagine everything really well. I liked the conflict between Emily and Jack, Emily and Gen, Emily and her children and even Emily and herself.

I’d recommend this book!

Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski is a beautifully written, novel that explores the complexities of desire, betrayal, and sexuality. It follows the story of Emily, who lives a life of luxury in Manhattan. She finally leaves her controlling husband., fed up of his coercive behaviour. Emily hooks up with a.n old girlfriend, Gen Hall, now an Olympic athlete, and is forced to deal with the resurgence of an old college passion. The story navigates the nuances of middle-aged longing and the scars it leaves. Rutkoski’s prose is elegant and incisive, peeling back the layers of her characters’ inner lives with precision. It’s a quiet yet devastating portrait of imperfect love—both romantic and familial. Many thanks to @netgalley and to @penguinrandomhouse for the advance copy in return for my review.

This was good, but it could have been so much better with some good editing. I got quite bored somewhere in the middle, and the ending seemed rushed, and could have been much better.

Emily and Gen grew up together and went to school together, and friendship morphed into love. When they fell out at the time of going off to college they didn’t see each other for years. Emily studied Classics, and them met and married Jack who was rich and put her on a pedestal. 2 children later she has tried to leave him a few times, and he always managed to suck her back in, until she leaves him for good. Gen, meanwhile, has become an Olympian and a gay icon with a string of famous ex’s in her wake. When Gen and Emily meet again they discover the feelings haven’t disappeared but can they make things work with Jack trying to get back with Emily, and the children wanting their family to stay together – and then there’s the pre-nup Jack made Emily sign....

This has the makings of a very good story, just needs a re-write.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7625367484

https://maddybooksblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/ordinary-love-by-marie-rutkoski-this.html

Outstanding writing. Such an extraordinary book about extraordinary love, extraordinary people. Difficult topics were handed with care, grace and empathy, and not only was I infatuated with the main protagonists and their narrative arc, but every single minor character was fleshed out, relatable, and an individual - an incredible skill that not many writers can claim. I inhaled this book over a couple of feverish days and couldn’t recommend it more. Such a privilege to receive this arc, and so many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

Ordinary Love is not an ordinary book. I believe this is the first foray [author:Marie Rutkoski|1238111] has made into contemporary fiction and I loved it! Unpopular opinion: I didn’t enjoy [book:The Winner's Curse|16069030] (sorry/not sorry!) but if you didn’t either, then that is no problem because this is just so different. Not just in the subject matter/genre, but the writing is more sophisticated, the characters more nuanced… this feels like the work of a much more mature writer, and not just because it is an adult book.

Emily and Gen (Gennifer) first met as children and had a short, but intense relationship as teenagers. As with many first loves, they thought this was their forever, but they split up for complicated and messy reasons – I love that. Relationships, particularly teenage ones, are messy and Rutkoski portrays this beautifully. It is painfully real, in that concentrated first time that love and loss is.

Twenty years later, Emily has married a seemingly perfect man, Jack, and lives in Manhattan with two wonderful children. But Jack’s behaviour, always on the edge of controlling, becomes worse. Meeting Gen again brings this into sharper relief. Gen always wanted to be a runner, and she is – competing and winning Olympic medals. She’s living her passion, but what happened to Emily’s? Who did she want to be before Jack made the decisions; what were her dreams before she became a young mum? She loves her children, of course she does, but where did she go? Is it simply that she’s changed, as one does becoming a mother – or has Jack taken something from her, that something that makes her heart sing? And, even harder for Emily, what does it mean that she still has… feelings for Gen? Gen has her own life where she accepted and celebrated her Queerness, but Emily is married. She’d die for her children. That makes her choice simple. Doesn't it? (OF COURSE NOT!)

There are two stories being told here – the first of a controlling, abusive marriage, and the complicated, arduous separation; the second of a love story full of misunderstandings, words unspoken, and simmering anger. I think both are told beautifully.

The reader watches in horror as Jack systematically breaks Emily’s world (or at least I did!). The subtle (and later not so subtle) way he isolates her from her friends, insists on things being done His way (boy, can this grown man sulk! But it gets more dangerous than just sulking…), and, most horrifyingly, the way he treats his own children to manipulate Emily. But he simultaneously professes how much he loves her, says that anything wrong in their marriage stems from her anxiety, and all he wants is to make her happy, for them to be a perfect family.

This is a perfect read for anyone who’s ever though ‘why would anyone stay in an abusive relationship?’ Obviously, every relationship is different, but this could really help understanding. It’s painful to read, but steers clear of Full On Triggering Situations (although I can’t say with experience; I just mean that I didn’t find myself overwhelmed). In fact, the subtlety and the gas-lighting are so well written, I almost found myself thinking: ‘Well, maybe she should give him another chance…’ <i>Almost</i>. Not quite. It IS clear from the get-go that Emily needs to escape (to the reader at least), and find the other parts of her – her ability to BE a mother without fear of his reaction, to explore her love of ancient languages, to have adult relationships, to work out what else she wants from life… Her struggles aren’t sugar-coated, but there is a gentleness to the writing, which was needed in telling such a difficult story.

I thought it was going to be dual PoV, but the entire novel is third person past tense, centred around Emily. Now, having read it, I can’t see it being written any other way. We get to see Gen’s story through Emily, but I don’t think we could have seen Emily’s story enough through Gen’s PoV.
Their relationship is fractured, Emily believes irreparably broken, but she's still... Gen. Until she knows how Gen feels, Emily can’t even let herself realise her own depth of feeling – it’s too dangerous. I’m NOT a big romance fan (at all), but this level of romance? – this, I love. There were a few slightly graphic sexual scenes but mostly fade to black – as I like it ;) But – even in my probably asexual, cynical heart – I shipped them HARD. I wanted it to all be okay – but how the hell could it be? There are so many obstacles, decades of lives lived apart, choices about how they live, how they present, <i>who</i> they present. They break each other so much, though never purposefully, so can They ever work? With so much at stake?

Despite this being Emily’s PoV, the reader is also shown ‘behind the scenes’ into the Queer life Gen has made, and this works so well, with Rutkoski writing what existed at the time; she doesn’t use modern terminology about Gen’s circle of friends, she simply describes them. What a wonderful community of people she built around her – I have to admit I am (again) jealous of a fictional character! (Although, who hasn’t been guilty of that…?).* The evident confusion (from straight people) that femme lesbians or bisexuals can pass as straight and that butch women can be attractive was very real, and also of its time. (Not everyone has learnt differently, and current rhetoric is frightening, but I do believe – because I must – that we are progressing. We are a work in progress, and maybe we have to take two steps back to move forwards). <i>TL;DR</i> – I LOVED the Queer rep in this book, and it made me hopeful/wistful…

This wonderful sapphic tale was more than I hoped for. It’s not a traditional ‘page-turner’, and events takes years rather than days, but I didn’t want to put it down. Rutkoski’s prose – and dialogue! I forgot to mention the dialogue! – sings, and I feel so grateful to have read this.

*<spoiler>random annoying thing for me: how can someone just send a book off to a few literary agents, get a bit concerned because they haven't heard for, like, three months or something, and then GET AN ADVANCE?!? I know the publishing world has changed, but this is so damn UNFAIR! *cries*</spoiler>

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Virago for the arc; I’ll be picking up a physical copy because I need to give it to everyone else to read!</i>

Such an emotional read in so many ways, I loved the way the author added so many layers to the characters and they all felt fully developed in ways that added to the story and added more to the main characters personalities.

Definitely a story I will be coming back to, the only thing I felt was missing was an epilogue to see how the future looked like for Emily and Gen