Event Recap: An Evening with Emily Giffin and Elle Canada

I'm super behind with a two of my bookish event recaps. Like, "this particular event happened in June and it's now September" behind. Oops! On June 16, I, and a whole bunch of other book lovers, crowded into a bar in Toronto to attend An Evening with Emily Giffin and Elle Canada. It was an awesome girls night out!

I try to make every Toronto visit into a social event so I was happy that two of my favourite Toronto authors, Lydia Laceby and Samantha Stroh Bailey, would be attending the event with me. It had been ages since I had seen them and this event was perfect for catching up while having a bookish time.

When we got into the event, which was held at The Citizen, we handed over our tickets and were given our swag bags in exchange. We could hardly wait to dive in to find out what we had been given! First order of business: free drinks! We could have wine or a specialty cocktail (and, of course, I didn't get a picture nor can I remember what was in it other than vodka...it was good though). We got two tickets so I tried both!

After getting our drinks, we decided to get our free Pandora bracelets and charm. Obviously, since it was a freebie, the bracelet isn't one of their high end ones but it's still very nice! I liked how they did the charms for this event - everyone got a charm with their astrological symbol on it. Cute idea, no? (I'm a Gemini, in case you're curious.)

Pic of a pic. Not ideal :)

There was a photo booth up at the Pandora station as well so we, of course, had to get a picture! While Sam and Lydia got one of just the two of them I did my blogger duty and pimped their books to the photographer!

We realized that the seats were filling up quickly so we hurried to find a place to sit (there were not enough seats to accommodate everyone and, even though we got seats, we didn't appreciate that there wasn't enough room).

Emily Giffin finally came out, talked/was interviewed for awhile, and then answered some questions from the audience. A typical sort of book event! She mentioned that she has never written anything autobiographical or based any characters on herself but Shea, the heroine of her latest book The One and Only, ended up being a lot like her. She said Shea's voice flowed more than any other character.

At the time of the event I was still trying to figure out what, exactly, I wanted to do with my life so I found this story meaningful: when Giffin was leaving the law office she worked at to move to London to work on Something Borrowed, a partner said, "Good luck with that whole writing thing" and she thought she'd die if she had to go back. She eventually realized that there was no shame in that as she wouldn't fail because she had tried. 

Other things to note...Giffin did say that she will write a sequel to Where We Belong (which makes me SO happy) and that she was currently at work on the Something Borrowed script (yay! More John Krasinksi!).

There were only a couple of brave males in the crowd who were there supporting their ladies (I think
the Argos cheerleaders thrilled the guys more than the rest of the event!). One guy was sitting next to me and during the interview portion of the night he pulled out his girlfriend's copy of the novel and started reading! Too cute.

Even though I'd met Giffin before, I decided to wait in line to get my complimentary copy of The One and Only personalized (each swag bag contained a signed copy). Definitely worth it to have another signed book in my collection! (Just realized I don't have a pic of the book and it's now at my mom's waiting for her to read it!)

Overall, the event was a pretty good one. I think I enjoyed meeting up with the girls and being in the city more than the actual event itself (you know when an author's personality doesn't thrill you like another author's might? Yeah...that...) but I'm still happy I went. The swag bag, which included delicious cookies, definitely helped ;)

Stay tuned for another couple of event recaps in the next few weeks as I play catch up :)

Review: The One and Only

Emily Giffin is one of my autobuy authors. I'm always ridiculously excited for her new book and her latest, The One & Only, was no exception. I had been looking forward to this one for well over a year, ever since I learned that Giffin had switched publishers and was going to be publishing with Random House for her upcoming book. I scored an ARC (thank you, Lindsey!) and when I was finally able to set aside some time to read it I was rewarded with a typical Giffin novel, heartfelt, with a mix of serious and humorous, and realistic. All in all, an enjoyable read.

Here's the synopsis:

Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade.
But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.
Thoughtful, funny, and brilliantly observed, The One & Only is a luminous novel about finding your passion, following your heart, and, most of all, believing in something bigger than yourself...the one and only thing that truly makes life worth living.

Giffin is well known for tackling issues that are a little bit uncomfortable to read about. Most of the time the issue is infidelity, which isn't a favourite topic for many people. This time around, she writes about another difficult topic: falling in love with someone you're not supposed to fall in love with. The synopsis doesn't give away who she falls for so I'm not going to either. What I'll say is that I sort of anticipated it and I was very conflicted about it. At first I was just as weirded out as I knew others would be but, as the story went on, I found myself desperately hoping that they could overcome the adversity they were facing (had to throw in a sports cliche!).

Cover talk time. I would guess that this cover looks different than her others because she changed publishers. That would be a fair assumption, yes? In a way it's too bad because I really did love the other covers. But, I think the folks at Random House created a cover that had the same feel as the others but was still original. (Not so) fun fact: Giffin had posted something on her Facebook page ages and ages ago asking what colour we thought her next cover would be. I actually guessed teal! I thought it made the most sense. Little did I know the colour would actually reflect part of the novel. Did you pick up the fact that Walker's colour is teal, just like the cover?

I have to admit that, at times, I found myself wondering if I would have loved this book as much if it had been written by a no-name author. Did I enjoy it simply because Giffin wrote it and I've been eagerly gobbling up her books ever since I discovered Something Borrowed? I have no idea. I feel like I probably would have picked this one up anyway (especially with a catchy cover) because I wouldn't have been put off by the football storyline (I think a lot of people seriously disliked that part), even though I'm not personally a football fan. If I'm completely honest, I bet I would have given an unknown author three stars instead of the four I gave The One and Only. Right now I'm choosing not to read too much into that!

I really liked Emily Giffin's latest novel. I didn't love it and I don't think The One & Only is one of her best. It's still enjoyable and if you like Giffin and her usual storylines, I think you'll like this novel, too. I can't wait to hear what everyone else thinks of this one!

*A copy of this novel was provided by the publisher, Random House of Canada, in exchange for an honest review.*