Review: Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin

Title: Something Borrowed (Darcy and Rachel #1)
Author: Emily Griffin
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Heat Index: 1 out of 5
Release Date: June 1st, 2004
Word/Page Count: 322 pages
Format: Borrowed from friend

The smash-hit debut novel for every woman who has ever had a complicated love-hate friendship.

Now A Major Motion Picture - In Theaters May 6th

Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid of honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself.

Warning: Contains spoilers and some rantiness.


Arai's Review:

I was lent this book by a friend who told me that I absolutely needed to read it. I proceeded to sit down the next day and wonder if she had either been paid money to sucker people into reading this book or if she had been rip-roaring drunk when she read it. Either way, she's now on the list.

I knew the premise of the book before I started reading, but thought that the infidelity between Rachel and Dex would take place a little later in the book, rather than in the first chapter. By having it in the first chapter, I can realize the author might be going for that shock factor, but there was a failure to get me over the hump after that. Once the shock fades, all you are left with is the result of the main character's actions and her pages-long internal monologue justifying her actions. This is then followed up by a book that mainly exists in flashbacks used to help demonstrate how Rachel, the main character, is the good girl and Darcy, Dex's fiance and Rachel's best friend, is the opposite, which I think hinders the reader's sympathy rather than enhances it. You're never really truly given a feeling of who each character is, or so I felt, before another name is tossed your way and you have to come up with some vague way to distinguish them from the multitude of other clones.

I can understand how it could be possible to relate to the love/hate relationship that exists between Darcy and Rachel. There are a large number of people who have had a relationship like that, though perhaps not to this extreme. However, it just felt as if there was no depth; I felt as if I was just given surface glances, part of which is a result from only getting the majority of their relationship in flashbacks.

In regards to when we are actually in the present and with engaging (or as engaging as they get) characters, you're left wanting with each interaction. There is never any place where you want to go back and reread the dialogue because it fills you with that giddy/warm fuzzy feeling. Instead, most of the dialogue is interchangeable throughout the book and I found myself hard-pressed to recall any instances where the characters actually had something of relevance to say to each other, other than when they decided to put off discussing their infidelity, that is. Normally, when I come to the end of a chicklitty style book that I've enjoyed, I can pick up the book at a later time and immediately flip to a section that I want to reread, simply to get that stomach-flip sensation. I can't do that with this book. I can't even come up with a section of dialogue that actually had a part where they teased each other or even made comments that weren't on the same level as something you'd say to a stranger on the street.

Finally, I found the character wishy-washy and one-dimensional. Throughout the book, she fails to make a decision for herself, from the first initial kiss that lead to the affair, to the next time she hooked up with Dex (both times the responsibility is inherently placed on his shoulders), to even being able to order a drink at a bar when she goes out with friends (she apparently is only capable of drinking "whatever you're drinking"). Thus, her transformation into someone who is completely strong-willed at the end of the book is more than a bit unrealistic and highly unlikely.

I was left wanting with this book and with a feeling that I never even got to know the characters that I'd just spent a couple hours reading about.