First Comes Love

A Novel

By: Emily Giffin

Narrated by: Emily Foster, Catherine Taber

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A pair of sisters find themselves at a crossroads in this dazzling new novel from the author of Something Borrowed, Where We Belong, and The One & Only. First Comes Love is a story about family, friendship, and the courage to follow your own heart—wherever that may lead.

Growing up, Josie and Meredith Garland shared a loving, if sometimes contentious, relationship. Josie was impulsive, spirited, and outgoing, Meredith hardworking, thoughtful, and reserved. When tragedy strikes, their delicate bond splinters.

Fifteen years later, Josie and Meredith are in their late thirties, following very different paths. Josie, a first grade teacher, is single—and this close to swearing off dating for good. What she wants more than the right guy, however, is to become a mother—a feeling that is heightened when her ex-boyfriend’s daughter is assigned to her class. Determined to have the future she’s always wanted, Josie decides to take matters into her own hands.

On the outside, Meredith is the model daughter with the perfect life. A successful attorney, she’s married to a wonderful man, and together they’re raising a beautiful four-year-old daughter. Yet lately Meredith feels dissatisfied and restless, secretly wondering if she chose the life that was expected of her rather than the one she truly desired.

As the anniversary of their tragedy looms, and painful secrets from the past begin to surface, Josie and Meredith must not only confront the issues that divide them but also come to terms with their own choices. In their journey toward understanding and forgiveness, both sisters discover that they need each other more than they knew—and that in the search for true happiness, love always comes first.

©2016 Emily Giffin (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“An engaging story of sisterly love . . . Illuminating and engrossing.”—People

“Giffin delivers another emotionally honest work. . . . First Comes Love is a heart-stirring novel about the many layers of sibling rivalry.”—Associated Press

“Kudos to Giffin for it takes a talented and resourceful writer to create a wealth of characters and have them all be fully described for the reader to understand and enjoy. . . . Two years is too long to have to wait for a new Emily Giffin book, but First Comes Love brings her back with a vengeance. Tales of sisters have been at the core of other great novels, but Giffin turns that relationship upside down and makes her view a fascinating one.”—Huffington Post

Good Story Line

Always enjoy Emily's Griffin books! This one was more serious than others she has written.

Love this book

I could not stop listening! The characters suck you in just as much as the story does.

I loved this book!!

Family love and forgiveness are one in the same!! I truly loved this book!! Thank you Emily!!

Chick lit at its finest.

My review might be slightly skewed, as it comes on the heels of finishing a different sister-centric novel that was truly ho-hum. This one, however, has everything any good audiobook should have: relatable, well-developed characters, an engrossing storyline, and authentic narration (though I did prefer the narrator for Meredith over the narrator for Josie.) It's worth the credit!

Good story

A very good story. Reminds me of my relationship with my own sister. Although I as Josie am the younger sister and my sister as Meredith is the older sister. Sisters can have complicated relationships.

Horrible ending

The book was great but the ending was so unsatisfactory that it tainted my entire experience. The performances by both narrators were subpart

Beautifully Written

Another great book by Emily Giffin. The characters are so well-developed and the plot is real and even heartbreaking at times. Beautifully written and very well narrated! I was lucky enough to meet this fabulous author last week and she was simply amazing in person!

Mediocre all around

Josie is a 1st grade teacher, and the narrator reads like a first grade teacher would to a class. It was incredibly irritating.

Meredith is bored with her current life. The narrator for her sounds bored with the book.

The book is very depressing and highly unbelievable. This is not typical Emily Giffin. I think that the story line would have been more believable if something had triggered all of the past sad feelings. For example, Josie and her boyfriend broke up maybe seven years earlier than this book and is about to have her ex's daughter in her class. This story would have been more believable if having the child in the class reminded her of her ex-boyfriend and therefore triggered sad stories about an evening where she realized her part in her brothers death. Instead, she has been obsessed with the guy for 7 years and has had these depressing feelings the whole time. Get over it, get help. These details made me dislike the somber depression of the characters, rather than relate.

The depression that these girls carry around each day (that they should have gotten therapy for a decade ago) paired with their petty and shallow dislike for each other makes this book depressing.

Josie wanting to randomly have a baby and everyone jumping on board to be the daddy is unbelievable. Also, that movie was already made and stars Jennifer Lopez.

I will buy anything written by Emily Giffin, and will continue to do so. However, I could have skipped this book and I am disappointed by that.

Not what I expected.

Thought it would be a more passionate story but truly was a mental and self acceptance story.

Easy listening - not that engaging

Every now and then I like books like this one - harmless, easy to pick up and put down, and ... Forgettable. In this case, I feel like it could have been more - it seems a little phoned in. Too tidy an ending, too many opportunities lost, and no real connections.

Also. Can someone PLEASE tell readers that they don't need to try to sound like the opposite sex or children??? We can use our imagination. When the narrator does Harper in this book (or Nolan) my skin crawled. Blech.