The Kingsley family is American royalty, beloved for their military heroics, political service, and unmatched elegance. In 1967, after Joseph S. Kingsley, Jr. is killed in a tragic accident, his charismatic son inherits the weight of that legacy. But Joe III is a free spirit—and a little bit reckless. Despite his best intentions, he has trouble meeting the expectations of a nation, in addition to those of his exacting mother, Dottie.
Meanwhile, no one ever expected anything of Cate Cooper. She, too, grew up fatherless—and after her mother marries an abusive man, she is forced to fend for herself. After being discovered by a model scout at age sixteen, Cate comes to a decision that her looks could also be her only ticket out of the cycle of disappointment that her mother has at all times inhabited. Before too long, Cate’s face is in magazines and on billboards. Yet she feels like a fraud, faking it in a world to which she’s never in point of fact belonged.
When Joe and Cate swiftly cross paths one afternoon, their connection is instant and intense. But can their relationship live on the glare of the spotlight and the so-known as Kingsley curse? In a beautifully written novel that captures a gilded moment in American history, Emily Giffin tells the story of two people on the lookout for belonging and identity, in addition to the answer to the question: Are certain love stories meant to be?
