What do readers think of Ordinary Love by Marie Rutkoski? Write your own review.

Many readers will be offended by this story, others will have questions and some will be happy this tales is being told.


Emily and Gen knew each other in school, became best friends and lovers in high school. As is expected in college years they moved into different paths. Gen became an Olympic athlete. Emily married Jack. Years later Emily takes her 2 children and divorces. Also to be expected Gen comes back into Emily's life. Can they rekindle the past?

The author delicately shows the feelings of love and uncertainty in her characters. I am not sure Ordinary Love is an apt title for this book. Neither the love of Emily and Jack nor the love of Emily and Gen are ordinary..

Emily and Gen meet as high school girls, and begin a very close friendship. Gen is being raised by her grandmother, as her single mom has died of a narcotics overdose. Emily is being raised by a single mom, with occasional visits from her distant father. When they part after a contentious visit during freshman year of college, Emily has strong regrets. She masks these by beginning a relationship with an extremely wealthy Jack.

He falls deep for her; they marry, have children, but Emily cannot forget what she had with Gen. Though some of the book is from Gen's point of view, this is Emily's story, and she is a difficult character to deal with. Her decisions were too long in the making. Gen, on the other hand, becomes an Olympic athlete, and the look into her world as both an athlete and an "out" lesbian were much more authentic. The book did hold my interest until the end.

When I started reading this book, I thought, okay, this is a good story, but then, when the explicit description of sex between the two women was not anything I wanted to read about. That was too much information!! Why the author decided to add that to what otherwise could have been a good story is beyond me. It wasn't necessary!! Personally, sex between two people is private and doesn't need to be spelled out.
Also, the ending was strange. What happened with Emily's divorce from Jack? Because of his previous behavior, was he going to give Emily custody of their children when she was in a lesbian relationship? I don't think so. I was happy the two women were together, but I thought their life together would be difficult because of Jack. The author left the reader hanging about their divorce.