After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is a different kind of love story, one in which the participants have already walked down the aisle, bought the house, and adopted the dog. But the romance that starts off as a fairy tale may not have a happy ending.

Lauren and Ryan have that relationship that we all want but doesn’t seem to exist in real life. Their meeting in a college dining hall is accompanied by quips and snappy flirting because they immediately know they’ve just met the love of their lives. The fall madly, deeply in love and embark on an intense partnership in which the walk down the aisle seems to represent the beginning of the perfect life, body and soul.
But eleven years in, the relationship has soured. Somehow, Lauren and Ryan have arrived at a place where they can’t stand to be around each other anymore. Not ready to give up entirely, they agree to a year apart, no communication of any kind allowed, to see if they can remember what it was that brought them together so many years ago.

As with Reid’s earlier novel, Forever, Interrupted, it’s impossible to read this book and not feel the emotions of the characters to the point of joy or pain. I had to put the book away one night simply because I couldn’t read through the tears anymore. Reid’s talent for pulling the heart strings is astounding, using just the right language to evoke the sentiment she desires. The dialogue is some of the most romantic most of us will ever hear. There is a sense of longing that cannot help to speak to a longing each of us have had at some point. I’ve read some reviews that find this writing style a little sappy, unrealistic, or dramatic. And maybe it would be, if it wasn’t done so very well. Lauren and Ryan’s story isn’t meant to be our own, or the story of the couple down the street who broke up last year. I don’t think Reid intended to depict the familiar, but rather the wishful. What would it be like to want someone so fiercely? What would it be like to fall so far from that pinnacle? What would it take to climb back there again?

So Lauren—and the story is told from Lauren’s point of view—spends the next year trying to understand what went wrong and what she wants now. After I Do is at least as much about Lauren’s journey of self-discovery as her exploration of her marriage. She never imagined that she could live without Ryan, and she certainly never imagined that she might not want to. She is surrounded by people who all have something to say about sharing your life with someone. Her Mom loves having a boyfriend, just not enough to want him to move in. Her sister, still single, appears to get uncomfortable whenever she’s surrounded by other couples. Her brother does his own thing and vacillates between being Lauren’s rock and being a jerk. And her friend from work isn’t sure what her relationship with her partner is anymore outside of parenthood. Lauren observes them all over the next year, but eventually, she’s going to have to decide for herself whether or not her future includes Ryan.

If there’s anything I would have liked to have seen done differently, it might have been to hear more from Ryan. Was he going through the same kind of trauma as Lauren, or was it something else entirely? But if Lauren had to go through this year by herself, without being able to talk to Ryan, it makes sense that the reader does as well. Ryan does seem to wear his heart on his sleeve, so what we see of him supports Lauren’s telling of the heat behind their connection. But this is Lauren’s telling, and I don’t think the reader can understand the process that Lauren went through if the reader is also in Ryan’s head.

The magic here is that Reid’s writing reflects our cravings for a romance that seems like it could withstand anything it encounters, yet there is some element of reality that draws us in, makes us feel like we could be Lauren. Reid takes an everyday occurrence, the separation of a couple, and builds an extraordinary relationship that evokes a strong empathy by any reader. I’m telling you…make sure the hankie is nearby. Recommend to fans of Julie Buxbaum, Claire Cook, Juliette Fay, Gigi Grazer Levangie, Christina Baker Kline, and Liza Palmer.