Book Review: The One That Got Away by Melissa Pimentel

Title: The One That Got Away

Author: Melissa Pimentel

Publisher: Penguin, Michael Joseph

Date: September 22nd, 2016

Pages: 352

Format: physical ARC

Source: from Publisher for a review

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 

Ruby and Ethan were perfect for each other. Until the day they suddenly weren’t.

Ten years later, Ruby’s single, having spent the last decade focusing on her demanding career and hectic life in Manhattan. There’s barely time for a trip to England for her little sister’s wedding. And there’s certainly not time to think about seeing Ethan there for the first time in years.

But as the family frantically prepare for the big day, Ruby can’t help but wonder if she made the right choice all those years ago? Because there’s nothing like a wedding for stirring up the past . . .

Review:

When I first heard about The One That Got Away few months ago I was very excited.
The premise sounded like something right up my alley and the gorgeous cover made it even more appealing.
Saying that I was happy when I got a chance to read an early copy of this novel would probably be an understatement. I was beyond thrilled.

As you can probably imagine, when it comes to my expectations for this book, they were pretty high.
But guess what?
I finished this book satisfied with what I read.

The One That Got Away follows the story of Ruby, a woman in her early thirties who has to attend her sister’s wedding where she’ll meet Ethan, her ex boyfriend and the only man she ever loved, who she broke up with ten years ago.
Will the feeling she once felt come back to light or is it really over with her and Ethan?

I had so much fun reading this book.
The writing style was pretty good and easy to read, with fine sense of humor and pop culture references it made the reading experience rather pleasurable.

The story is told in, to me, somewhat unusual way. It follows two different times simply reffered as Now and Then.
Now is written in first person, from Ruby’s point of view.
Then is written in third person and it tells the story of Ruby and Ethan’s relationship.

My favorite part when it comes to The One That Got Away are characters Melissa Pimentel created.
They were believable, gray as I like to say, with their good and bed sides that made them realistic.
While I was reading about their lives I couldn’t help but feel like I knew them already.
I welcomed that feeling because it, in some strange way, reminded me of home.
My favorite was definitely Ruby’s father who would probaby go on some reader’s nerves, but from my perspective he was captured like the most realistic one. I think Pimentel dosed the right amount of his greedines, his atypicall sense of humor, the way he cared about people close to him and brang one certenly interesting and lifelike character to life.
I’d also like to mention that I liked Ruby’s and Piper’s relationship with their stepmother.

The story takes place in Edinburgh.
I was never there, but the way the author described that place, with all the castles and nature, made me go and google images of  that city.

This book did not just put me into happy place, but, at times, it also wretched my heart.

According to publisher, The One That Got Away is a „A smart, funny and modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.“
In my opinion, they got it right. It was smart, and it was funny.
I can’t say how close to original Persuasion it is because I have never read it.
But I can tell you that bacause I haven’t read it, I wasn’t sure how the story’s going to end, and it made me nervous. The closer to the end I got, the more and more I was afraid of absence of Happily Ever After I so wanted to happen’.
In the end, I was satisfied with the way the story ended.

Overall, this was pretty enjoyable read that I would recommend to women’s fiction fans.
I’m not sure how long the story will stay with readers after they  finish it, but I am pretty sure that they will have a pretty good time while reading this novel.