Emily and Gen meet as children and by the time they are in their teens they are in love ... or so they think. They eventually grow apart and part ways.
Emily marries young and Gen goes on to become an athlete.

Emily's husband is rich and they have a great life with two children. Or that's how it appears. Jack can be cruel and after several years Emily decides it's time to leave. By chance she meets Gen again after 20 years and their relationship, although strained, draws her back in and old feelings, deeply buried for so long, now surface.

This is a beautiful love story, well written and engaging. It tells of Emily's story with Jack and then with Gen. Their childhood home, friends and experiences are all explored.

I have not read anything by this author before but would be happy to read her again.

Thank you to all for letting me read an advance copy which I very much enjoyed.

I thought this was a really well written and beautiful book. I loved how the past and the present were weaved together. Some parts are absolutely frustrating (see Jack) but I loved the second chance romance element.

Ordinary Love was inevitably a book I would enjoy - it's Marie Rutkoski, after all, and I've never disliked one of hers. And, lo and behold, I did like it! The writing was as gorgeous as ever and the characters fully drawn out. Rutkoski takes the time to establish and develop the past relationship too, which is an area I always find second chance romance plots to struggle with, so you're rooting for the mains all throughout (although I did at times find I wanted the present-day plot to get a move on). Probably the only issues I had were that it never really felt like a new story, in that I felt like I'd read this one many times over, and also I just need to stop reading books about motherhood because I do not get along with them. That's all.

Emily and Gen met in high school Ohio. The early part of the novel is a coming of age tale of friendship and young love. However, the young friends go their separate ways after school, and the novel mainly follows the life of Emily. Until…

The book explores the themes of being true to yourself, enduring life in the wrong situation for fear of seeming to have failed, queer love, family problems, and the importance of friends. It mixes Emil’s suffering the psychological torture from her husband and the suspense of whether she will have the courage to do something about it and follow the course that her life should have taken.

An outstanding passionate, tortured, hopeful and gripping novel, which has parallel threads with ancient Greek literature as an interesting by-line. Thoroughly recommended.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC review copy.

This is another book I've been really excited about, and because I was in a bit of a reding slump, there was a lot of hope riding on this one. But it didn't quite live up to it.

I was a little concerned to begin with. I've read quite a few books about abusive husbands and relationship issues and the imbalance of power, and I was worried this would be the same and I'd have no real compassion for it, but Marie did prove me wrong there at least.

I really felt for Emily, she is a wife and mother who may have lost herself somewhere on the way, and seems to do everything her husband says because he owns the house, he earns the money, and she goes with it because it's not worth refusing, especially in regards to her children, and I can't blame her for that. She was lovely. I immediately disliked Jack, which I suppose is what Marie wanted.

Marie is telling two stories I think. There's one about this tumultuous marriage, and the other is a decades-long love, just not to the same person. This gives her the chance to write two different Emily's, with different loves, moods, interests, and passions, which I thought was interesting.

This is my first of Marie's books and it was an interesting one. Entertaining, well written, and fleshed out characters. But I do think it was a tad long. The story was good and had a lot going for it, but I did find bits were drawn out and could have been dealt with quicker. Which in turn makes some of the dialogue stilted. Yes I know it's a novel and isn't real, but this isn't a fantasy story, it's a real-life contemporary piece of writing and therefore I expect the dialogue to be closer to reality than other genres. But some of it, it just made me very aware I was reading a book instead of a real conversation.

I've seen some reviews that talk about how emotional they found it and maybe I've just got a heart made of stone because I didn't really find that. The love stories are lovely and Marie can clearly write emotion, but I didn't feel anything strongly about the story in terms of how moving it is Although it definitely did get better as it went along, and the final 1/4 of it definitely made up for the rest in that regard.

I think my overriding issue with it - and I know this is a me thing, rather than an issue with the book - but I found not much happened. My favourite books have something happening, a danger or peril or shock or big romantic gesture. This sort of toodled along nicely, pleasantly, but sort of all on one level and I was wanting something a bit more to happen. But again I' aware that is my preference. I can't fault her actual storytelling ability.

Wow, I devoured this! I feel like we often hear books described as unputdownable but my relationship with this book was almost obsessive and slightly addictive. When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. The story, the characters, how it would end.

Emily is in the throws of what's sure to become a messy divorce with her manipulative, abusive, powerful ex husband. Simply put, he's not a good guy. Married and pregnant straight out of college, Emily's world has become so small, Emily has become small. She's isolated from everyone in her life who cares about her and she's looking back on her first love - Gen - who she never really got over. Stuck in this life she never imagined for herself, terrified of losing her children and starting over in life as a single parent, Emily and Gen reunite after over a decade and their connection is immediately electric.

Ordinary Love is about accepting the love we think we deserve. It's about speaking your truth and being true to who you are. It's about sexuality, identity, desire, first love, misunderstandings, complex relationships and family. It's about telling the people you love that you love them, telling them you're sorry when you are, it's about how it's never too late for a second chance.

If you love emotionally charged stories, this one is certainly for you. If you want yearning, tension and passion, this one is for you. There's so much heartache, I felt overwhelmed by the emotions this book made me feel - heartbreak, sadness, pure blinding rage but also hopefulness.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group for the opportunity to read this early copy. A huge congratulations to Marie on such a stunning novel - in my opinion, it was perfect!

(Lastly, I feel strongly about protecting your own peace and mental health, please check the trigger warnings as this book contains various issues that might be destressing to some readers).

Marie Rutkoski’s Ordinary Love is a rich, layered exploration of human connection, told through the lens of a woman grappling with the weight of her past and the constraints of her present. At its surface, it’s a love story — poignant and passionate — but beneath that, it’s a profound meditation on all the ways we give and receive love: romantic, platonic, parental, and self-directed.

The novel follows Emily, whose life unfolds from adolescence into adulthood, charting the arc of her early queer romance with Gen and her later entrapment in a controlling and emotionally abusive marriage. Rutkoski handles these dual threads with nuance, contrasting the tender, electric connection between Emily and Gen with the chilling unpredictability of her relationship with Jack. The depiction of emotional abuse is both haunting and heartbreakingly realistic, showing how fear and manipulation can erode a person’s sense of self.

One of the novel’s great strengths lies in its emotional intimacy. The characters feel wholly lived-in, their desires and struggles rendered with care. Emily’s journey toward self-acceptance is deeply moving, particularly in how it intersects with her queerness, which is denied or dismissed by significant figures in her life. Through Gen and her found family, Emily is gradually able to reclaim and reframe her identity.
The secondary characters — Florencia, Violet, Rory, and Elizabeth — are more than just background figures. They’re vital threads in the tapestry of Emily’s world, each offering love and frustration in equal measure. Their presence reinforces one of the book’s central messages: that love, in all its forms, is often messy, imperfect, and deeply human.

Rutkoski’s prose is elegant and immersive, allowing the emotional weight of the story to unfold naturally. Some may find the pacing leisurely, but this expansiveness allows the novel to fully delve into the complexity of its themes without rushing. The portrayal of mother-daughter dynamics, in particular, is handled with sensitivity, showing how love can persist even through missteps and silence.

Ultimately, Ordinary Love is about the courage it takes to choose happiness — especially when that choice isn’t easy or obvious. It’s a beautifully told story of rediscovery, resilience, and the many shades of love that shape a life.

Thanks, NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Emily and Gen met at 10. Their connection was something new to them both but became the strongest connection either of them would ever have.
The story is of the 2 growing up and finding their attraction for each other but it doesn’t last through college. Emily married and has children and Gen becomes famous as a track star. I love the twists and turns and the pure honesty of their feelings in findings themselves separately and ultimately together.
A lovely book that makes you smile at the end. What’s not to love.

The relationships in this book were beautifully written. Emily’s relationship with her controlling husband and how she attempts to break free of it was particularly intriguing. The way the book peeks behind the curtain of a seemingly perfect marriage was just fascinating. The structure was cleverly handled, gradually revealing the problems in both Emily’s marriage and those that lead to the initial break up with Gen. Emily journeys to reaching a level of maturity to handle the relationship and life she really wants and that made for an enjoyable read.

I liked this book! It was a lovely read about first love, second chances and the people who stay with us. The central relationship between Emily and Gen is written really beautifully, not perfect but real. The book handles an abusive marriage and flawed family relationships really sensitively. The writing flowed easily and the characters were well fleshed out. It’s not my usual type of book but I’m so glad I gave it a shot as I enjoyed it a lot. It’s a beautiful, if not heart-wrenching story and I’d definitely recommend it. Thanks for the ARC.

Overall an enjoyable book but sometimes I found it hard to follow with the switching back and forth at the start of this. However I’m glad I stuck with it as it was a beautiful story about resilience and love.

Ordinary Love is the story of Gen and Emily. From a fledgling relationship in their teens, circumstances – and their own personalities – force them apart and in their own way, each moves on with her life. However, not all loves can be forgotten.

This is an achingly beautiful love story – two people clearly meant to be together, but their insecurities mean that they make mistakes and throughout the whole book the reader is asking the question of whether they will be able to overcome their own struggles successfully enough to be genuinely happy.

Stories like this can run the risk of becoming angst ridden and overly introspective, but Ordinary Love avoids this trap. Both women have such genuinely hard choices to make and that they struggle to resolve these in a way that is both practical and centred around their own wishes, is only to be expected. The reader never gets frustrated with their decisions and inability to be honest with each other, because both are completely understandable. Instead, we are rooting for them to work things out because like all the best fictional relationships, these two characters are so clearly meant to be together, that we feel there is no other option. There ‘has’ to be a happy ending. But of course, at the back of our minds, we know the author may not feel the same way and so there is a sense of real jeopardy that things might not work out the way we want them to.

The antagonist, Emily’s husband, Jack is also an interesting character, albeit not one I would wish to encounter in real life. Their story is an all too familiar one and makes for scary reading. It brings home quite how easy it is to end up stuck in a toxic relationship, isolated from your friends and family. That Emily is an intelligent, well-educated young woman is also vitally important because it breaks the stereotype that women who fall for the ‘charming’ men lack intelligence for not being able to see who they were before the relationship became serious. Away from the realm of fiction, it is so important that people recognise how easy it is for anyone to get taken in by such men and also how difficult it can be to leave the relationship. Too many people find themselves in this predicament and it’s important for literature to reflect this, if only to educate people about their own friends.

This was a brilliant read and I loved it from start to finish.

Oh my goodness. Exquisite. No notes.

This book was an absolute marvel and I devoured it over a long weekend. It was absolutely brimming with rich imagery that had me captivated from page 1. I actually had to stop myself from highlighting on each page of my kindle, at the stunning descriptions.

The interweaving of past and present, and the timeline leaps within single pages was very unique and gripping, and was such a fresh way to read such a novel.

The way Rutkosi writes the slow development of Emily’s abuse is so poignant and insidious, and had me wanting to shout to he through the pages for her to run, and similarly the way she narrates Emily and Gen’s second chance romance was so deeply emotional and nostalgic.

It felt like a beautiful cousin of The Paper Palace and It Ends With Us, and I absolutely adored it.

A huge thank you to Marie Rutkosi, Little Brown Book Group UK | Virago and NetGalley for the EARC in exchange for my honest and rave review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Group for the early copy of Ordinary Love.

Loved this story and didn’t want the book to end - Marie Rutkoski is a master at creating characters and I always love a book with a bisexual main character.

In a way, it’s a simple story of a failed marriage and a second chance at teenage love, but the characters are complex and nuanced and you really find yourself drawn into their world. I loved Emily and Gen’s story and was rooting for it to work out for them, despite all the complications.

Really enjoyed this and will definitely be looking for more of Rutkoski’s books in future.

Emily and Jen first met at Elementary School but Jen and her Mum moved away. They then meet again at College where they are on the same track team. They eventually become lovers but split up during their first term at different Universities.
Emily then goes on the meet Jack, a rich businessman who she marries just after graduation. But Jack is coersive and controlling, will they stay together? Will Emily and Jen's paths cross again?
A study in what love is.

**3.5 Star**

I did like this, though it was a bit of a slog at points. This is one that I would have gotten through a bit quicker if I had read it physically and not as an e-book. I liked the second chance at love plot line, especially in the midst of leaving an abusive relationship when you have kids, AND when the abuse was not physical for the most part - you could see the way he had twisted her brain with years of manipulation and gaslighting.

I also just really loved Gen.

Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for an arc for an honest review.

Not sure if it’s just me, but I always find the distance between 3 and 4 stars seems like the greatest between all the star ratings. For that reason, Ordinary Love is a solid 3.5.

There's lots to like here. Rutkoski is telling two stories-- a story of an abusive marriage and tumultuous separation, and a decades-spanning love story. The problem is it's a very slow-burn tale that I feel would have benefited from losing a hundred pages.

I thought the portrait of this particularly insidious form of abuse was very powerful. The way someone can make a casually callous comment, subtly manipulate their partner, so that they end up wondering if they are being too picky, too sensitive. As the reader, we watch in horror as Jack slowly isolates Emily from her family and friends, her support network gradually falling away.

One of the ways this abuse manifests is she can never be sure what he will do and she is constantly trying to anticipate his reaction. This goes beyond dealing with the reaction itself because she must also deal with the constant anxiety. One part of the book captures this perfectly— she imagines Jack's reaction to a change in Halloween plans, her mind catastrophizes the whole thing, and it isn’t what she thinks… but it’s the fact he put that anxiety in her, that never knowing when he will blow up and punish those around him.

Alongside this is the broody and melancholy love story between Emily and Gen, who met as kids, became lovers, and were later pulled apart by life and misunderstanding.

In fact, the almost constant misunderstandings and miscommunications between them was one of my main grumbles and what really made the story drag. It felt like one simple conversation could have saved years of hurt, and there was enough sighing and sad silence between them to rival Sally Rooney. Still, it has to be said they had chemistry and were very sweet and sexy together.

I'm convinced a shorter book would have been an easy 4 stars for me. It just went on too long, everything dragged out beyond the point of being interesting.

Ordinary Love is anything but ordinary.

This beautifully crafted novel explores the lifelong bond between two girls, Emily and Gen, who fall in love as teenagers but struggle to maintain their connection as life pulls them in opposite directions.

Through a dual timeline, we witness their youthful romance and the present-day realities that shape them, as they navigate distance, personal struggles, and the echoes of their past.

Marie Rutkoski masterfully portrays how former partners’ lives can diverge so drastically - Emily finds herself in a marriage marked by psychological abuse, while Gen achieves athletic success and public recognition.

Despite their stark differences, the novel suggests that, in their own ways, they complete each other.

The push and pull of their journey back to one another is at times tentative, at others agonizing, with every step forward seemingly followed by a step back.

Rutkoski’s storytelling is both emotionally rich and exquisitely nuanced.

The novel addresses themes of pain, anxiety, and abuse with sensitivity, ensuring these elements inform the characters' choices rather than overshadow the story.

The writing is deeply engaging, and full of moments that will have readers racing through the pages, desperate to see if Emily and Gen can find their way to resolution.

What sets Ordinary Love apart is its refusal to follow conventional romance tropes.

While many love stories tread familiar ground, this one carves its own path, offering a poignant meditation on love, identity, sacrifice, and the courage to embrace the unknown.

It’s a romance, yes but it’s also a story of self-discovery, friendship, and resilience.

A heartfelt and thought-provoking read, Ordinary Love is an unforgettable exploration of love’s endurance and the way people shape each other’s lives, even when apart.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ordinary Love is one of the best books I have read in recent months. I found myself not wanting to stop reading but also trying not to finish it too quickly as I knew I would miss these characters!

Emily and Gen are each others first loves in high school but their relationship does not stand the test of long distance and they break up once they are at college in different states. The following years see Emily, give up her dreams of working in law, marry Jack and have two children, settling in a very comfortable life in New York City. Meanwhile, Gen is a very well known Olympic medal winning athlete. After not talking for years, the two meet again by chance at a party and they begin to reconnect. At the same time, Emily has left Jack due to his psychological abuse of her and their children.

Ordinary Love is a sexy and sensual read but also contains the dark themes of abuse and power in relationships and a woman’s fight in divorce. I loved the development of Gen and Emily’s relationship, both times, the use of the flashback to earlier times help flesh out the characters and also creates tension in the present timeline. There were some moving full circle moments involving Emily’s father and Gen’s grandmother. A fabulous queer romance novel.

The story follows Emily from her time at high school onto her adult life in a very unhappy marriage. I found that it was an utterly real description of an abusive marriage . As a teenager, she had a relationship with another girl Gen, and during the novel we see what happens to both girls and what happens when Emily unhappy and her marriage meets Gen again is an adult. The relationship between Emily and Gen the romance of a lifetime is told beautifully in this novel. I was very quickly invested in Emily in particular and her happiness. Ultimately, the story is of pursuing your own happiness, even if this does not seem at the beginning the easiest option.
The author has a beautiful flowing writing star which was a pleasure to read. There were times when the pros bordered on poetry for example I adored this. Paragraph “Emily‘s body was marked within invisible lines Stella at her ribs Connor almost to her shoulder. These lines would shift up until her children were adults are no longer measured themselves against her. “

I’d recommend this novel for lovers of primarily character based novels if you like the novels of David Nichols such as Us then you like this novel I also thought that there was a There is a feeling of The Secret history to this book so if you love the novels of Donna Tatt I think you’ll love this book too
I read an early copy of the novel on NetGalley UK. The book is published in the UK on the 12th of June 2025 by little Brown book group UK.
This review appear on NetGalley UK, Goodreads, StoryGraph, and my book blog bionicSarahSbooks.wordpress.com. After publication will also appear on Amazon UK.