REVIEW: Love You More by Emily Giffin

In Love You More by Emily Giffin, Billie always knew in the back of her mind that she would leave Wisconsin someday to chase her dream of becoming a doctor. She just didn’t realize that it would come at the cost of her relationship with her college boyfriend, Mick. Now in her late thirties, Billie has a thriving career in NYC. She just got engaged to Dean, who is also a doctor. And things are looking up. But then she gets a call from Mick about a tragic situation back home. Somehow just when she was on the cusp of having the happiest of futures, Billie’s plans will need to be put on hold until she sorts through everything in Wisconsin.

‘I wondered whether two people could truly be soul mates when they wanted such different futures.’

Being out of the bustle of the big city is quite an adjustment for Billie. But seeing her family and long-time friends is a blessing she didn’t know she needed when everything changed after Mick’s phone call. While many decisions still need to be made, Billie knows she’s where she needs to be. Even if it can only be for short bursts of time at first. As she and those around her try to do the right thing for everyone involved, she knows she has some potentially huge life changes on the horizon. And it has her wondering if the time is finally right to explore the love that is right in front of her.

‘No matter how much you love someone, they may not be yours to keep.’

In what might be my favorite Emily Giffin novel to date, LOVE YOU MORE had a wide variety of genuine emotions and life-changing situations that put heroine Billie through her paces. The relationships as well as the multilayered characters themselves, though, is what had me flying through the pages, wondering how Billie would find her way to a HEA. Thankfully, she did after much soul searching and honesty–with herself and her loved ones.

Told strictly from Billie’s POV over multiple timelines, she was a person with whom I could really connect. Giffin went deep with Billie’s shifting feelings through each change that threw her sideways. The angst level was on point. And it felt like her reactions were real, combining the almost clinical mindset of being a doctor with her own natural questions and hangups.

Being a Midwesterner from Wisconsin who moved to NYC right out of college changed Billie’s perspective on a few things, so it was interesting to see how she interacted with everyone after she visited home in her late thirties when tragedy struck. Things became quite complicated in her personal life. Billie was just starting to plan her wedding with her fiancé Dean when she became torn between Wisconsin and NYC. While I found the ending to be a bit quick with how everything wrapped up and wanted more details about how Billie came to the decisions she made, I thoroughly enjoyed the overall story arc and the careful way the characters all rallied around one particular young person.

TROPES/THEMES:
💞 Friends-to-lovers
❤️‍🩹 Second chances
⏳ Multiple timelines
🏡🏙️ Small town vs. big city
🛤️ Life-changing choices
💭 What-ifs
🫶 Love in all its forms

CW: View Spoiler »Alcoholism, child neglect, infertility & medical procedures (somewhat detailed), grief & loss, Alzheimer’s (detailed) « Hide Spoiler

LOVE YOU MORE is the perfect sentimental beach read. With its down-to-earth dialogue, emotionally charged plot twists, sense of nostalgia, and of course romance, Emily Giffin wrote a nicely balanced story that will have readers hooked from the first chapter.

QOTD: Do you prefer books that are tied up with a neat ending? Or do you like things left open ended for your own interpretation?

Book Info:

Publication: Published: July 7th, 2026 |  Ballantine Books |

A woman is newly engaged to a man she adores when she receives a call from her first love—with news that shatters her carefully ordered world—in this emotional, powerful novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Pact.

Billie has built the perfect life. Her practice as a doctor in New York City is thriving, and she’s finally found the right partner in Dean after years spent trying to move on from her high-school sweetheart, Mick. Their young love had been intense and true, but distance and ambition pulled them apart when she left Wisconsin for medical school.

Then one morning, just after accepting Dean’s romantic marriage proposal, Billie’s phone rings. It’s Mick—calling for the first time in nearly a decade. His news is urgent, and in a moment, everything changes.

As Billie boards a plane back to Wisconsin, the past comes rushing in—her friendships from home, the love she shared with Mick, and the choices that shaped them. What awaits her is a reckoning with what she’s lost, what she’s built, and what she still wants.

Gripping and deeply moving, Love You More is a story about the plot twists life throws at us—and how love, in all its forms, has the power to change everything.