I chose to read this because I liked the cover and was intrigued as to what amounted to ordinary love. Perhaps the author was trying to normalise this relationship, referred to as queer, in the context of someone who has had a gay relationship, but then followed convention to a heterosexual marriage. That the marriage turns sour because of the controlling and emotionally abusive husband is key to why her thoughts turn back to her earlier love. The lack of proper communication in the love story is why everything keeps getting set back, which is disappointing to say the least. There are quite important issues here, obviously the social and familial objections to gay love are there, but not as many as I would have expected at an earlier time. The usual bad press of promiscuity when her former girlfriend becomes famous is there, but Emily is a wife and mother and we understand her fierce protection of her kids. She slowly finds her independent spirit, and inevitably will become a successful author, which is becoming quite a cliche in these rites of passage novels.
I can’t say that I was that interested in the outcome, which was always headed in the right direction, and held little surprises.

'Ordinary Love' is one of my favourite books this year. Rutkoski has written a beautiful love story about how no matter the direction life takes us, you'll always find the people you're supposed to.
Emily and Gennifer have an instant connection when they meet as teens, but as with first love, life gets in their way and it isn't until twenty years later that the two women reconnect. Once again life just seems to keep trying to pull them apart but the magnetism between Emily and Gen is just too undeniable.
I loved the strength that both women present with but also the fragile vulnerabilities that they trust one another with. Their pain stems from so much heartache so when they are together that trust in fate becomes infallible. I truly invested in their story and loved the brutal honesty that comes with Emily as the primary protagonist, she is flawed but she is also a mother and a woman and the balancing act is written beautifully,
This wasn't a story that I expected to adore so much but it became one that I couldn't stop thinking about once I finished, truly a celebration of LGBTQ+ love that I strongly recommend.

I really enjoyed this book. Emily and Gen had a passionate relationship when they were teenagers, but they broke up when they both went to university. Now, 20 years later Gen is an Olympic runner and Emily is married to Jack and has 2 children. However, the marriage is becoming very difficult owing to Jack's controlling behaviour. So when Emily and Gen meet again they are still drawn to each other. This is the story of their relationship. I recommend this book as a very good read. Thanks to Netgalley for a preview copy.
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A lovely story, of heartbreak, reconnection with an old friend and self belief. Nice, easy to read tale.

I was swept away on a beautiful journey of love and resilience reading Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski.

Small town girl Emily falls in love with Gen in high school only for them to be separated by their respective differing paths in life. While Gen is a superstar athlete, Emily is a true scholar who enters Harvard university. Ultimately, their relationship does not survive the distance and divergence of their lives.

Emily then meets and marries Jack, a hedge fund manager who comes from Old Money. But however idyllic she convinces herself her relationship with Jack is, it is quite clear that the marriage is not a healthy one to be in.

Emily eventually finds the courage to leave her marriage, allowing her to re-connect with her first love Gen, who has constantly been on her mind all these years.

Rutkoski’s writing is just sublime and so lyrical, I found myself highlighting so many passages for future reference. She expertly characterises the truly insidious nature of psychological manipulation and abuse in a relationship. Emily’s feelings of her toxic relationship became my feelings, so atmospheric and though-provoking.

The sapphic romance aspect of the novel is not only tender but also expertly highlights the experiences of queer people everywhere, making the book a truly eye-opening experience.

I believe this is Rutkoski’s first foray into literary fiction, and she really hit it out of the ballpark.

Beautiful story about friendship, queerness, toxic relationships and what it means to be in love – it was, in my opinion, not just an Ordinary Love but a transcendent love.

Thanks to Litte Brown Book Group, Virago and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thankyou NetGalley & little brown book group for this arc copy this is my first ever queer/sapphic representative book and i absolutely loved it, this book gave me a turmoil of emotions as I cheered on the main characters having a second chance, the heartbreaking stories they both went through in their own life & together. I absolutely loved the depiction of the all the characters expect a couple but I’m not saying any spoilers and how they they linked well with the history. This book will definitely be my book of 2025 and I can’t wait o read it again. This book had so much beautiful depth with a beautiful ending i 100% recommend

Old habits die hard, and some never die at all. Emily and Gen may have left their relationship well behind them, many years in the past, but that mutual chemistry has never left them, as they discover when a chance encounter brings them into contact years later.

Life has perhaps not entirely delivered on all of its promises, but there is still time. This is a story about the path not taken - and the realisation that the possibility may yet exist to explore that path in some form. A beautiful love story and a testament to the value in staying true to who we really are. It gets 3.5 stars.

I don't really have a lot of thoughts on this one but I enjoyed it! It's a second chance romance told in a literary way, although I have to say the love story was the least interesting part of this book. I found the first half compelling, and the second half less impactful: the book became a bit plottier and a bit less of a thoughtful character study, which worked less well for me, and it felt like there were musings or moments that were supposed to be deep but just kinda rang false.

Can love survive the tests of time?

Marie Rutkoski explores this timeless question with grace in her yet-to-be-published novel “Ordinary Love.” Emily first meets Gennifer Hall, or Gen as she is known, when they’re teenagers. Their friendship is slow to start, their love even slower. After an intense romance, they break up. Emily goes on to marry the wealthy and accomplished Jack, and have 2 children, while Gen goes on to become an Olympian runner. Twenty years later, they meet again at a party, and their lives are upended again.

When you read this blurb it looks like a straightforward queer romance. But it’s not. Rutkoski deftly draws two portraits - that of a crumbling marriage and of steadfast love. Although Emily did fall in love with Jack and marry him, their marriage spirals fast. Jack turns out to be suavely manipulative, often cruel in invisible ways, and quite controlling. He ends up wearing Emily’s sense of self and her confidence down to a nub, leaving her with deep inner turmoil. She has never forgotten Gen, and when they meet in person Emily’s feelings for her resurface in a rush.

The novel’s greatest strength lies in its deeply human characters. Emily is a nuanced, imperfect protagonist, balancing maternal devotion with the weight of her suppressed desires and the ghost of her younger self. Gen, in turn, is as compelling as she is flawed, a woman whose career has demanded sacrifices and left her guarded.

Rutkoski has also excelled in exposing the serious flaws, the inner workings in a marriage that appears perfect to everyone around. It’s difficult to put emotional abuse in words sometimes and to show how it takes a toll on the person going through it. Emily’s inner conflict - Jack is good but he is not, should she leave him or give him another chance - is very well brought out. It’s more difficult to make these choices than they appear to be.

The somewhat minor flaw is that parts of the writing seem a bit forced and contrived, detracting from the story’s natural emotional flow. I felt like Rutkoski was striving for poignancy rather than letting the emotion emerge organically. There were a couple of things that puzzled me later in Emily’s and Gen’s relationship but I can’t expound on that without giving away spoilers.

They really don’t matter that much, anyway. This is such a deliciously immersive book that I would readily recommend it. It’s a story that moved me and got me lost in its pages for a few days. Romance is a genre that I generally don’t pick up but I am glad for this one.

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley for the ARC.

I'm in love with Emily St. John Mandel's work, so her endorsement was a dealmaker for me - the book more than lived up to its promise and I fell so hard for both Emily and Gen and their (extra)ordinary love story. Marie Rutkoski has a real knack not only for character - all the supporting cast of Emily's life felt so real and idiosyncratic that I'd happily have read pages and pages more about them - but also for setting and atmosphere, which made what could have been an intensely interior narrative incredibly vivid on the page. My only quibble was that the ending felt a little abrupt, though I think that's mostly because I was so enmeshed - the openness and uncertainty was very in keeping with Emily's journey of self-discovery throughout, and my lasting impression was that of a quiet yet profoundly evocative and ultimately hopeful take on love, and certainly one that is anything but ordinary.

Thanks to Little, Brown | Virago and NetGalley for the ARC.

*4.5*. I loved this and have been a long time fan of Rutkoski. It was layered and nuanced and human. I found myself hooked and racing through late at night.

*spoilers*
I’ve only taken a very slight bit of a star because the pacing towards the end was a bit off - and towards the resolution (possibly could have been a little more there with the children- a line or two - and possibly a bit more on Shipley in general). Sometimes Emily’s interior monologue didn’t quite fit with her actions, or there wasn’t enough translation space, but that’s also life and part of the nuances. Looking forward to getting the finished copy

This was a very standard, middle-of-the-road novel. Nothing exceptional, nothing egregious--but just okay, middling. The character development, storytelling, writing - it was all serviceable, but I wanted something to really impress me, and nothing about this did.

Ordinary Love follows Emily as she navigates separating from her emotionally abusive husband, Jack, and reconnects with her ex-girlfriend and star athlete, Gen. Beautifully bittersweet, this novel navigates divorce as a parent, acceptance of the self after years of emotial abuse and the journey to accepting love and queer joy. My heart ached after finishing this book.

Beautiful story and so well told. Enriched by many themes - endeavour, loss, the hurt we can cause - but, above all, deep and enduring love.

I loved this book. This is not a romance but boy is it a love story.
It is walkthrough of Emily's life, how she got to this point in her life and why.
We look at Emily's life and love from her perspective. We look at her childhood and her friendship and then relationship with her next door neighbour and school friend. They are both devastated by splitting up at college when both of them thought the other had ended their relationship.
Emily meets Jack - who although beautiful and rich is also manipulative, damaged and cruel.
The story follows Emily through this marriage, her children and how she extricates herself from it. As she is finally doing this Gen comes back into her life.
Emily then tries to navigate her life to provide what she wants for herself and her children.
Needless to say when she looks back on things her adult take on it is not the same as the view of the child/young person she was when she experienced it.
There is much information in this book which took research - Emily talks/writes incessantly about the Greek gods, the lifestyle of the rich, grief and of course manipulation and coercive control.
I really enjoyed it.

'Ordinary Love' was an immersive, emotive, deeply moving account of one woman's life told through the lens of her two main relationships. Married young, to a narcissistic and abusive older man, Emily tries so hard to make things work, But her true love, a woman called Gen, haunts her. The characters were so well drawn, I felt I was reading a true account of a woman's struggles. Love is complicated, and Rutkoski writes about our conflicting emotions, and the difficult choices Emily has to make, with precision and insight. Great stuff!

Stunning. Really. In fact there is nothing ordinary about Marie Rutkoski’s Ordinary Love, neither in terms of its impact not in terms of the love story between MCs Emily and Gen.

This is a story of a love between two girls who meet young, fall in love in their teens, and who find it hard to navigate their relationship across distance when both go to college. As their lives drift away from each other, we see how former partners’ lives and paths can diverge so greatly. This is especially shown in Emily’s marriage and the psychological abuse that she suffers, while Gen goes on to athletic success and notoriety. Both of these developments are facets that show just how opposite the girls are in so many ways. And yet, in their apposition, it seems, as we progress through the story told across the present day and the past, both girls need each other to be fulfilled and to complete themselves.

What the author gives us is a superbly engaging and at times heart-wrenching journey as we watch Emily and Jane tentatively find their way back to each other, with perhaps two steps forward and one step back as they go. Or is it the other way around?

This book deals with pain, anxiety, and abuse, but Ms. Rutkoski is clever here since she treads a perfect line between never trivializing the issues or shortchanging the reader while never letting any of those elements overshadow—rather, inform—strands of the story. Each of the issues presented here directly informs character and decisions, and of course consequences and onward story.

The writing is always lush and clever in places, and you will enjoy tearing through the pages enjoying the prose and narrative voice, desperately hoping that Emily and Gen can find their way towards resolution.

Ordinary Love is anything but ordinary. It avoids many of the tropes you would find in a typical romance novel, and that’s because this is romance told differently. Indeed, this s more than a “straight-told” romance. It’s about self, about friendships, about sacrifice, about bravery, about venturing into the unknown. Don’t get me wrong, I love tropes! To hunt, bag, and consume them for tea! But it is very refreshing to once in a while read a book that features a near all-consuming love that charts its own path so brilliantly.

Thank you to the author and the publisher, and to NetGalley for the opportunity to very much enjoy this ARC.

An outstanding exploration into young love, how society and circumstance can pull people apart and push them back together and how timing is everything.
Both female leads are great characters and the story flows seamlessly between then and now and between Gen and Emily.
A must read!

Really lovely, moving book about love and second chances of all kinds – felt, at its best, like one of those really classic 90s romantic movies.

Ordinary Love follows Emily, who meets her old love, Gen, years after their first romance.
The story is easy to read and full of emotions. It talks about finding yourself and taking another chance at love - it’s a book that keeps you hooked until the very end.

A beautifully read about first love, second chances, and the people who shape us.