Taylor Jenkins Reid Backlist
In After I Do, Lauren and Ryan fell in love fast and fell in love young, and when they start to realize several years after their wedding that they are having problems, neither of them is sure what to do. They had each always been the other’s person, and now they can barely stand the sight of each other. So they agree to take a year away–to see other people, to live their own lives–and decide at the end of it if they want to pick back up with their marriage, or go their separate ways. This is a book about what love truly means, and what makes it last or dissolve.
I’ve been a Taylor Jenkins Reid fan for years, but I have not loved some of her most popular recent books (with the exception of Daisy Jones and the Six, which is phenomenal). Her back catalog, however, definitely speaks to me, and I can’t wait to read more.
My favorite part of this book was all the different ways to approach marriage and love. One character decides to handle marital strife by putting her partner first and trusting things will get better. Another character marries a woman he only knew for a few months. Lauren’s mother struggles whether to even invest in a long-term relationship. Her sister isn’t in a relationship at all. These are all happy, healthy, functioning adults who are not buying into the stereotype that true love or marriage has to look one way.
This book made me think about how I have defined love, and what I have expected from my marriage because of those definitions, some of which are so ingrained that I had not examined them closely. I do believe in a happily-ever-after kind of love, but I think that comes in staying with a person and knowing you are choosing each other day after day, in remembering why you liked each other, in doing things to concretely demonstrate that you mean the good stuff and not just the irritations. I also think that while marriage is wonderful, you can find this love in friendship and in family too. Marriage is not the ultimate kind of love to sustain you.
Love and marriage are both simple and complicated. We all make a mess of it, and we say we’re sorry, and we forgive and try again. We keep holding on to the people who are important to us, even if that sometimes means letting them go. Taylor Jenkins Reid did a fantastic job of illustrating a variety of characters grappling with these issues. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time.