Where To Start With Emily Giffin

Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas — a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead, she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most — and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.

Growing up, Josie and Meredith Garland shared a loving, if sometimes contentious, bond — Josie impulsive and outgoing, Meredith hardworking and reserved. When tragedy strikes, their relationship splinters. Fifteen years later, Josie, a first-grade teacher, is close to giving up on finding the right guy and is determined to become a mother on her own terms, a desire that intensified when her ex-boyfriend’s daughter joins her class. Meredith appears to have it all: A law career, a husband, and a four-year-old daughter. But lately she’s wondered if she built the life she was expected to want rather than the one she truly does. As the anniversary of their tragedy approaches and painful secrets resurface, both sisters must confront what divides them and reckon with their own choices — and discover that the happiness they’ve been searching for begins with each other.

Four freshmen arrive at college from completely different worlds: Lainey, a California party girl; Tyson, a brilliant aspiring lawyer from D.C.; Summer, a recruited Midwest athlete; and Hannah, a mild-mannered southerner content to balance the group’s big personalities. Friendship takes root quickly, and over four years, the four become inseparable, until a desperate act near graduation leads to tragic consequences. Shattered, they make a pact to always be there for one another. Ten years later, Hannah is on the brink of a major life milestone when everything falls apart. Reaching out to her closest friends, she discovers they’re all at their own crossroads. True to their promise, the four reunite — stepping away from lives headed in the wrong direction to embark on a shared journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and second chances.

The Kingsley family is American royalty. Celebrated for military heroics, political service, and unmatched elegance. When patriarch Joseph Kingsley Jr. dies in 1967, his charismatic but reckless son Joe III inherits the weight of that legacy. Free-spirited and well-intentioned, Joe struggles to meet the expectations of a nation and his exacting mother, Dottie. Cate Cooper grew up with nothing expected of her. Fatherless and largely on her own after her mother marries an abusive man, she’s discovered by a model scout at sixteen and decides her looks are her ticket out. Soon her face is everywhere, yet she feels like a fraud in a world she’s never truly belonged to. When Joe and Cate cross paths, their connection is instant and electric. But can their relationship survive the spotlight, the scrutiny, and the so-called Kingsley curse?

It’s 2 a.m. on a Saturday in spring 2001, 28-year-old Cecily Gardner sits alone in an East Village dive bar, questioning everything – her career, her move to New York, her decision to end things with her longtime boyfriend. Just as she reaches for the phone to call him, the stranger on the next barstool says, “Don’t do it — you’ll regret it.” Over tequila shots and hours of unexpected conversation, Cecily and Grant forge an unlikely connection. They agree it should go no further. His timing is terrible, hers worse. But they can’t seem to say goodbye, and for the first time, Cecily follows her heart instead of her head. Then Grant vanishes in the chaos of 9/11. When Cecily spots his face on a missing-person poster, her reporter’s instincts take over, and the questions multiply fast. How well did she really know him? And can you love someone who wasn’t who he seemed?

Nina Browning has embraced Nashville’s elite — her husband recently sold his tech company for a fortune, and their son is Princeton-bound. Yet the small-town girl she once was still wonders if she’s lost herself along the way. Tom Volpe is a single father working multiple jobs to raise his headstrong daughter, Lyla. Life has been hard and lonely, but he finally exhales when Lyla earns a scholarship to Windsor Academy, Nashville’s most prestigious private school. Lyla doesn’t always fit in among the wealth and privilege, but she’s happy and thriving — until one photograph, taken at a party, changes everything. As the image spreads and the Windsor community erupts in controversy and blame, Tom, Nina, and Lyla are thrust together — each forced to question their closest relationships, reckon with who they really are, and find the courage to live with intention.