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Heart of the Matter [Paperback]

Emily Giffin
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (480 customer reviews)

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Book Description

March 15, 2011
A powerful, provocative novel about marriage and motherhood, love and forgiveness.

Tessa Russo is a stay-at-home mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie—a boy who has never known his father. Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, they are strangers to one another and have little in common, aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.

This is the moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most.


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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Product Description

A powerful, provocative novel about marriage and motherhood, love and forgiveness.

Tessa Russo is a stay-at-home mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie—a boy who has never known his father. Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, they are strangers to one another and have little in common, aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.

This is the moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most.

From Publishers Weekly

In the popular Giffin's latest, Nick Russo is a pediatric plastic surgeon; his wife, Tessa (sister of Dex, from Something Borrowed), is a professor turned stay-at-home mom living a cushy life in Boston. Nick is called in to care for a six-year-old burn victim, and Nick's devotion to his work is soon tangled up in his attraction to the boy's mother, Valerie, a single attorney. Narrated in turn by Tessa and Valerie, the action centers around—will they or won't they, and, if they do, will Tessa forgive him? While unclear what Nick finds so unsatisfying in his marriage, adultery is always tempting and Tessa and Valerie both have their charms. Longtime fans will enjoy the cameos, but for the best of Giffin, don't miss her earlier works. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; Reprint edition (March 15, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312554176
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312554170
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (480 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Emily Giffin is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the University of Virginia School of Law. After practicing litigation at a Manhattan firm for several years, she moved to London to write full time. The author of six New York Times bestselling novels, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof, Love The One You're With, Heart of the Matter, and Where We Belong, she lives in Atlanta with her husband and three young children. Visit www.emilygiffin.com.

Customer Reviews

I liked Darcy's character way better than Rachel's. KMG  |  64 reviewers made a similar statement
Great read...highly recommend it. G. Marzec  |  71 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
143 of 158 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Both sides of the story. May 11, 2010
Format:Hardcover
I like Emily Giffin's newest book HEART OF THE MATTER because it explores something fundamental, basic and easy to understand about human nature, that we rarely if ever see ourselves as the villain when we tell the story of our lives. For every mistake we make, we can justify it by telling ourselves the reasons we did it. For every choice that we decide that affects other people, we know what led us to them. And when every small choice we make suddenly puts us square in the middle of some disaster and we're the "bad guy" in the situation, it's not like we didn't have good intentions at the start. And it's that sort of disaster that leads HEART OF THE MATTER's two narrators, Tessa and Valerie, to find themselves at odds with one another. And because each of them gets to tell their version of events to us, there's not really a villain in this story of injured children, gossipy private school moms, broken families and, more than anything, infidelity. Tessa and Val are just two women who've made mistakes and bad choices for very good reasons. And, under different circumstances, they'd probably be really close friends.

Tessa and Val's story begins with an accident. Valerie Anderson is a strong, determined, stubborn single mom to Charlie, a very sweet, sensitive little boy who's a student at a private school in Boston. She reluctantly allows Charlie to go to a friend's birthday party, even though she finds the parents involved to be rich and snotty. At the party, Charlie is seriously injured in a campfire and rushed to the hospital. Val beats herself up over these choices, not trusting her instincts, massively upset over her hurt little boy. Her twin brother Jason tries to comfort her. But no one is able to reassure her until her son's excellent, attractive pediatric plastic surgeon, Dr. Nick Russo, arrives and tells her that Charlie is a beautiful child and would continue to be. It's just what she needs to hear at a very tough time.

Nick, though, had to rush to the hospital from his seventh wedding anniversary dinner with Tessa, his loving, fun wife who's struggling to redefine her identity after she's given up her job as a professor to be a stay-at-home mom to her two little kids, Ruby and Frank. Tessa's mom advised her not to quit her job because she was afraid that Tessa might lose herself or become resentful of her frequently busy, often absent genius husband. Tessa feels inferior to all of the other private school moms around her, even her friend April, a cold perfectionist, and Romy, a rich woman who's panicked because the campfire accident that burned Charlie happened at her house.

So Tessa and Val are connected by community, by mutual acquaintances and now through Nick, whom they both come to care for and have issues with.

Giffin's writing style and the alternating points-of-view allow us to care about both women, building suspense as we wonder just how far their lives will become entwined and just how far the love triangle that eventually becomes central to the novel will go.

HEART OF THE MATTER is arguably Giffin's best book. Like her other novels, it's occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. But, in her fifth book, Giffin allows herself to explore the deeper, darker mistakes and the minutae that can harm well-meaning people trying to find themselves while coping with marriage.

HEART OF THE MATTER is deep and serious, occasionally incredibly sad and moving. She lets us get to know Tessa and Val and care for them in the way that her readers came to love her SOMETHING BORROWED/SOMETHING BLUE heroines Rachel and Darcy. And she mines new territory by criticizing the privileged, gossipy culture of moms that the two women live in.

HEART OF THE MATTER is occasionally as funny, tangled and bitterly insightful as Tom Perrotta's LITTLE CHILDREN, another great book that I found myself thinking of often as I read this. But the voice of HEART OF THE MATTER is distinctly Giffin's, and fans - in particular fans of SOMETHING BORROWED - will not be disappointed by HEART OF THE MATTER.

There is much to love in this new book.
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101 of 111 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Something Borrowed is my favorite modern novel. Period. I love how it shows a balanced, thoughtful, emotional account of infidelity, friendship, and the complexities of turning 30 with unrealized expectations...with flawed characters whose voices and backgrounds are varied and ring true.

It seems, though, that in each subsequent release, the narrators of Giffin's stories become more cookie-cutter, more self-absorbed, more whiny. In fact, the first few chapters of Heart of the Matter were boring...too much exposition, to much 'tell,' flashback, character descriptions. What happened to letting us know the characters by their behaviors and actions? Honestly, I was thrown back to Sweet Valley High when Jessica and Elizabeth's physical appearances, down to their aquamarine eyes, were described in detail around page 6 of Every. Single. Book.

Also: female novelists: PLEASE stop giving every mommy-protagonist a single BFF who is longing to have what the mommy has. Is it possible that some single women are happy with their lives? Is it possible some married mothers are best friends with... other married mothers? You don't need that cliche character in order to cultivate a random bar/hi-jinks plot excursion. Cate was unnecessary. Completely. (And don't get me started on Romy. People DO have layers...even rich, entitled ones).

That said, this story did get better as time went along, although I found the character Val, because of what she exposed her child to, to be not nearly as sympathetic as she should have been. I found Tessa to be fairly bland. I found the re-appearance of two of my favorite characters from Giffin's original storyline (I won't name and spoil it) to be very exciting at first...but also... a little vanilla.

I am worried that Giffin has shown us all her tricks, kind of like Danielle Steel did with her first 2 or 3 of 8 million novels. We have a lawyer...we have a competitiveness among well-to-do women...we have infidelity of some kind...we have a female character who basically has it all but is inexplicably unsatisfied over conditions she could change if she tried... oh, and we have twins. (It's not a bothersome recurring happenstance, but again, we get it. Giffin has twins...)

The relationship between Tessa's parents and the culmination of their past was my favorite moment in the book. I also appreciate that The Conflict was handled with sensitivity toward all parties involved. For once, though, I would appreciate a mommy story in which the mommies are not too busy trying to one-up each other and make their kids into organic-Stepford-moppets to actually support and advocate for one another. There was a great passage in the book in which Tessa describes all the things the mommies compare in each other... their husbands, their houses, their problems. What I loved most about the passage was that the things listed were all things I discuss with my mommy friends...in a NON-critical or competitive way.

Why is it so hard for female novelists to give females credit?

I will continue to read Giffin, because she created Dex and Rachel and Darcy and Marcus and Hilary...but when the next novel comes out, I might be on the library's waiting list instead of on the Amazon pre-order...
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46 of 54 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Giffin March 26, 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
I usually love Giffin's books, and this one was no exception. She draws you in with three-dimensional characters and engaging situations. This story is told from two points of view: Tessa, a stay-at-home mom married to a pediatric surgeon, Nick; and Valerie, a single mother whose child is badly burned at a slumber party. Valerie's child, Charlie, is under the care of Nick, and Valerie finds herself drawn to Nick, who is compassionate and skillful. Soon, Nick and Valerie's friendship turns into more, and Tessa is suspicious.

I read this book in less than 24 hours, and was able to relate to both mothers. I thought the story was wonderful. My only objection was the ending; I would have ended it differently. Still, I recommend this book to all Emily Giffin fans.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Heart of the Matter
Real life problems. One that many women have lived through. Heart of the Matter tells the feelings of those wounded.
Published 14 days ago by CW
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read!
This book had me hooked from the first chapter. I couldn't put the book down! The strength that Tess showed after learning that her husband was cheating on her was amazing. Read more
Published 17 days ago by Tammy Chism
5.0 out of 5 stars Love it!
I know it's a reall good book when I start to picture myself in the story! Emily really captures my attention. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Kimberly
4.0 out of 5 stars Good book
This was my first Emily Giffin book and I enjoyed it. It did move a little slow at times but I really got into the characters. Read more
Published 26 days ago by Herman munster
5.0 out of 5 stars Great story
Emily Giffin is my favorite author. So very talented. I wasn't sure that I was going to like this book, not really knowing much about the storyline when I bought it. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Lisa
5.0 out of 5 stars Heart of the Matter
I chose this rating because I was totally engrossed in the story line and found it difficult to put it down.
Published 28 days ago by Carolyn Harp
4.0 out of 5 stars It's a Small World
Does anyone have the "perfect" marriage? Everyone looking at Tessa and Nick think so.
Nick is a pediatric surgeon and Tessa has recently quit her teaching job to be a... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Threein3
3.0 out of 5 stars Heart of the matters
It's okay. Well for me is Ok! I expected more interesting scene compare to her other book. But still I want to read some of her books.
Published 1 month ago by jennifer
5.0 out of 5 stars I wanted Nick's perspective!
I listened to the audiobook and I enjoyed Cynthia Nixon's reading very much. I have always viewed adultery as this very black and white thing where someone in the marriage was... Read more
Published 1 month ago by MzKara
4.0 out of 5 stars Ope's review of Heart of the Matter
As usual Emily Giffin has hit another one out of the park. This was a very good story, very well written. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Margie
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I LOVE this book (I just read an advanced review edition)
**SPOILERS**
YES! Thank goodness! I feel like way! too many people feel for Valerie and I dont know I just couldnt. Its not the same as Something Borrowed because Darcy was made out to be a not so nice person. I just really couldnt see what was wrong with Tessa. She was down to earth and I think... Read more
May 31, 2010 by E. Stelford |  See all 13 posts
Sequel?
I also felt like I needed more closure with the story of Tessa, Nick, and Valerie. I felt unsatisfied with the ending, largely because I (surprisingly enough) found myself rooting for the somewhat taboo romance between Nick and Valerie. While I would have chosen an alternate ending, I also wanted... Read more
May 19, 2010 by J. Im |  See all 12 posts
Dex's sister...
You will learn more about how Dex and Rachel are doing in this book, but they are not the main focus of the story. I just finished an advanced copy of this. It is a good story, extremely well written, but the subject matter is dark - extra marital affair. I was really sad at the end of the... Read more
Mar 19, 2010 by G. Beaverson |  See all 8 posts
Kindle Version
They will either release it at 14.95 or hold it for 2-3 months to force us to buy hardback. Just put it on your wishlist and check every week or two. Eventually, either the Kindle or the paperback will be around 9.99. If the paperback and the Kindle are within a dollar in price, I buy the... Read more
Apr 28, 2010 by B. Blanton |  See all 2 posts
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