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Something Borrowed

By Emily Giffin

(82)

| Paperback | 9780312321192

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Book Description

Something Borrowed tells the story of Rachel, a young attorney living and working in Manhattan. Rachel has always been the consummate good girl---until her thirtieth birthday, when her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party. That night, after too many drinks, Rachel ends up in bed with Darcy'Continue

Critics

Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin

Rachel Miller and Darcy Rhone had been friends forever. Rachel was the older by just four months, but it was Darcy who sailed through life getting everything that she wanted. Rachel might have reached her teens first, got her driving licence first an ... (read full critics)

thebookbag published on Sun, 8 May 2011

Something Borrowed

Something Borrowed A few months ago I read Queen Bees & Wannabes, Rosalind Wiseman’s nonfiction book about cliques and the subtleties of teenage girls’ relationships. I was particularly struck by her observation that girls’ friendships with other gir ... (read full critics)

likesbooks published on Tue, 31 Aug 2010

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10 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

A story about a girl falling in love with her best friend's fiance. I don't agree on such act. Yet, I find it hard to hate this heroine.
A sweet, wonderful romance story. A total page turner.

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Tiny said on Dec 29, 2006 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

Interesting book - throughout most of it I couldn't decide whether to root for Rachel or scold her. I had a difficult time reconciling her disloyalty, even when I knew Darcy had been disloyal as well. All in all though, it was an enjoyable read and look forward to reading the next one.

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JaneofallTrades said on Aug 29, 2008 | Add your feedback

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***
First of all let me say I'm not generally a fan of the first person. However for a first person book, this one is surprisingly well written. It has a lot of the introspection common to a first person novel, but somehow manage not to make a reader feel aw ... (continue)

***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***
First of all let me say I'm not generally a fan of the first person. However for a first person book, this one is surprisingly well written. It has a lot of the introspection common to a first person novel, but somehow manage not to make a reader feel awkward.
Rachel White is a New York City lawyer who hates her job and is pretty unhappy with life in general. She's a loyal good girl who still has many close friendships with the children she grew up with back home in Indiana - including her best friend Darcy Rhone. Darcy is the beautiful one who skates through life on luck alone always having the best of everything. Now Darcy is getting married to a man Rachel introduced her to and about to start her fairy tale life the two girls have dreamed of since childhood.
The book opens with Rachel's 30th Birthday party, a surprise party thrown by Darcy at a NYC bar. Darcy is drunk and stealing the show by dancing on a bar. As you read on you learn this is average behavior for Darcy who thinks the world revolves around her and must always be the center of attention. Darcy thinks she's entitled to be the star of the show because she's beautiful. She's one of those girls you hated in high school because of their snide remarks about what you were wearing and their ability to find your every insecurity then publicly humiliate you with snide comments about it.
Even though Darcy is the victim when Rachel and Dex (Darcy's fiancé') have a drunken one night stand after the party then later in the novel continue to see each other, falling in love behind Darcy back as she continues to plan her wedding blind to her friend and fiancé’s actions, it's hard to find any sympathy for the woman. You know you should feel sorry for her for the kind of betrayal this relationship is, but as you watch her plan a wedding forcing Rachel to make almost of the decisions and never considering asking what Dex actually wants you just can't find that sympathy. You guilt however is later assuaged when you learn Darcy is cheating on Dex with his friend Marcus, a man she's been trying to hook Rachel up with and becomes pregnant with Marcus's child.
Every character in this book is a little screwed up with drama and problems galore that go against what many consider the norm. However despite all of the almost soap opera like drama, the character of Rachel is easy to relate to and root for. Reading this, I saw a lot of myself in Rachel as I think many readers will. The low self esteem, not being able to see what others see when they tell you you're beautiful or even pretty. In her mind she's average, always will be an average looking girl stuck in Darcy's shadow. Constantly thinking about the needs of others before your own and then wondering why it is you're always miserable. The personality traits are common in a lot of women it's wonderful to read a novel and watch a character who finally breaks this mold and learns to pursue what she wants, in the end actually getting it.
Sex scenes are a tasteful gloss over that doesn't force the reader to be present in the actual moment. You have to give Emily Giffin kudos for that, there's nothing worse in first person novel than to experience their sex life from inside their head. As a reader I find the situation awkward and uncomfortable, I like a good sex scene in a third person novel, but a detailed experience in a first person novel is just awkward to read. I don't want to know that much about another person's business whether that person is fictional or not. So I admire Giffin for not succumbing to the urge to give us details of Rachel's sex life, but instead tells us about Rachel's thoughts and feeling after the experience.
The story is less about the love story between Rachel and Dex, though this is a major plot line and more about Rachel finally opening her eyes and coming into her own. As friends point out that as Darcy's "best friend" she's allowed herself to spend her life as Darcy's doormat, Rachel finally starts to acknowledge the truth about her friendship and her life. Her constant internal struggle as she chooses between true love and lifelong friendship is a story not to be missed.
Alternately you wonder how Rachel and Darcy even became friends and how a small town girl could keep small town values years after living in NYC. I found this aspect of Rachel a little far-fetched and hard to believe. Her sexual experience is very limited as is her dating history; at thirty she actually thinks a kiss is a big deal. Maybe this would be realistic if she lived in a convent, but being only a couple years away from thirty myself and even having grown up in a small town I don't know a single person in my age group that would consider kissing even really mentionable in the dating scheme. Many of Rachel's life views are on the naive side and hard to believe considering the location where she resides. Also her work relationship with her boss Les is brought up often throughout the book. She is the man's verbal punching bag and he seems to go out of his way to make her professional life miserable. Though she finally recognizes the behavior is unacceptable and the job isn't that important, she never does anything about it in the book. I would have liked to have seen more growth from this character than her just finally not caring if she has her job or not.
Though some parts of the book are a little farfetched and leave you wanting more, the book is still worth reading. I look forward to reading more from Giffin.

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Jenn Donnelly said on May 31, 2011 | Add your feedback

The first step to recovery is acceptance...

Hello my name is Tori, and I like Chick Lit. For years I have falsely assured myself that I am an intellectual reader. If it's not mentally exhausting, emotionally debilitating, or 80,000 pages long, I am only fractionally interested. When I sit down to read, I want make my comfortable quiet time as ... (continue)

Hello my name is Tori, and I like Chick Lit. For years I have falsely assured myself that I am an intellectual reader. If it's not mentally exhausting, emotionally debilitating, or 80,000 pages long, I am only fractionally interested. When I sit down to read, I want make my comfortable quiet time as difficult and challenging as possible. In addition to powering through the buzz of a bottle and a half of wine (and going strong), I want to read a book that makes me contemplate, gesticulate and later pontificate. I want to read a book that is going to expand my already obnoxious and superfluous use of large vocabulary. I want to THINK.
But, alas, I am tired of living a lie. I am hereby casting aside the cloak of literary arrogance and declaring to the world that I enjoy, no, I DEVOUR, drippy, predictable, cliché, 90210-esque chick lit. Emily Giffin, you have outed me!!!
This book went above and beyond the parameters of normal beach reads. It was not merely predictable, it was embarrassing. The characters were not vapid, they were emotionally retarded. The dialogue wasn't cheesy, it was wrestling match in a bath of Velveeta and I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT.
Women and gay men everywhere: run, don't walk, to get this book. Pull out your brain with the wine cork, and my god, ENJOY!

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ReadingQueen 12/17 said on Dec 2, 2010 | Add your feedback

Love, friendship and complications. Characters very well described, immediatly liked the progatonist and diskliked her best friend (it has a sequel called Something blue)
Characters: Rachel White, Darcy Rhone, Dex Thaler

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Mati said on Jan 27, 2010 | Add your feedback

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

Rachel is the kind of girl who doesn't think she's anything special. even though she's loyal to her friend, Darcy, but secretly, she resented being taken advantage of by Darcy. I don't like how Dex handled their affair. He never promised Rachel anything and I didn't think he has the guts to call ... (continue)

Rachel is the kind of girl who doesn't think she's anything special. even though she's loyal to her friend, Darcy, but secretly, she resented being taken advantage of by Darcy. I don't like how Dex handled their affair. He never promised Rachel anything and I didn't think he has the guts to call off the wedding. But, good thing he did. Because Rachel really deserts better.

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Aimeebox said on Dec 8, 2009 | Add your feedback