Book Review: All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin

All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: June 26, 2018
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville’s elite. More recently, her husband made a fortune selling his tech business, and their adored son has been accepted to Princeton.

Yet sometimes the middle-class small-town girl in Nina wonders if she’s strayed from the person she once was.

Tom Volpe is a single dad working multiple jobs while struggling to raise his headstrong daughter, Lyla. His road has been lonely, long, and hard, but he finally starts to relax after Lyla earns a scholarship to Windsor Academy, Nashville’s most prestigious private school.

Amid so much wealth and privilege, Lyla doesn’t always fit in—and her overprotective father doesn’t help—but in most ways, she’s a typical teenaged girl, happy and thriving.

Then, one photograph, snapped in a drunken moment at a party, changes everything. As the image spreads like wildfire, the Windsor community is instantly polarized, buzzing with controversy and assigning blame.

At the heart of the lies and scandal, Tom, Nina, and Lyla are forced together—all questioning their closest relationships, asking themselves who they really are, and searching for the courage to live a life of true meaning.

Nina and Kirk Browning are new money and very, very wealthy. Their lives look perfect from the outside. However, one day their lives are turned upside down when their son Finch is accused of taking a lewd photo of a classmate and sharing it with his friends. To make matters worse, he added a racist caption on it. The photo quickly makes its way around the elite private high school he attends. The school intends to bring him before their Honor Council, who will no doubt issue a severe punishment. In addition, Finch has just been accepted to Princeton and they will probably revoke his acceptance when they find out about the incident.

Finch’s parents have vastly different reactions to Finch’s situation. His father Kirk feels like this is just a case of boys being boys and will do almost anything to make sure that Finch attends Princeton as planned. Finch’s mother Nina struggles with how she feels about what Finch has done and puts much more thought into what should be done with him than Kirk.

Giffin casts Kirk as a one-dimensional villain in this drama and doesn’t give Finch and his friends much depth either. However, the other characters are well-developed and flawed but sympathetic.

All We Ever Wanted would make a great book club selection. Groups could talk about how they as parents would handle it if their child found himself in this sort of predicament. There are other issues that are good discussion topics but too spoilery for me to mention here.

This book is more serious than the lighter beach-read type books that Giffin is known for. I was surprised by that but in a good way. I thought she did a great job and I enjoyed reading it. I think her fans will as well. Recommended.

(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)