Indigo Presents: All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin

Photo credit: Girl Well Read.  Do not use without written permission.

New York Times bestselling author Emily Giffin visited the Indigo Books & Music store at Sherway Gardens in Toronto to talk about her highly anticipated new novel All We Ever Wanted. The event was hosted by the lovely Afiya Francisco, one of Canada's leading style experts. (Afiya is an on-air personality, brand ambassador, and founder of TheStyleHouse.ca.) The energy in the room was palpable, everyone was super excited to see Emily and her daughter, Harriet, who was wearing the most adorable "Canada or Nowhere" shirt.     

Told from three points of view, Giffin's ninth novel is about two families with teenagers that attend the same elite private school. It involves an inappropriate photo of the female teen in a compromising position with a racist caption and what happens when the mother of the boy who is accused of sending the picture starts questioning her own moral standards. Emily tackles some incredibly weighty topics: sexism, racism, elitism. Of the story, she said that it is about "how one woman is forced to choose between her family and her values." The book makes one question just how far they would go in order to protect their children. 

Following the chat, there was a mini QA session. Emily is engaging, funny, and real. She posed for pictures, signed books, and chatted with her guests.  

Giffin continued her whirlwind Canadian stop on the All We Ever Wanted book tour with an appearance on Your Morning, The Social as a co-host, and eTalk where she sat down for a chat about the royal wedding with Ben Mulroney. Emily is always on royal watch—do you follow her on Instagram? Jessica, Ben Mulroney's wife, is one of Meghan Markle's best friends and also her stylist. The Mulroney children were in the wedding party: seven-year-old twins, Brian and John, were the pageboys and four-year-old sister, Ivy, was a bridesmaid. Giffin is also the mother of twin boys, so they had lots to chat about.

Emily, thank you for coming to Toronto and for signing my books!  I can't wait for your next novel and to see you when you visit us again. 

All We Ever Wanted

Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville’s elite. More recently, her husband made a fortune selling his tech business, and their adored son has been accepted to Princeton.

Yet sometimes the middle-class small-town girl in Nina wonders if she’s strayed from the person she once was.

Tom Volpe is a single dad working multiple jobs while struggling to raise his headstrong daughter, Lyla. His road has been lonely, long, and hard, but he finally starts to relax after Lyla earns a scholarship to Windsor Academy, Nashville’s most prestigious private school.

Amid so much wealth and privilege, Lyla doesn’t always fit in—and her overprotective father doesn’t help—but in most ways, she’s a typical teenaged girl, happy and thriving.

Then, one photograph, snapped in a drunken moment at a party, changes everything. As the image spreads like wildfire, the Windsor community is instantly polarized, buzzing with controversy and assigning blame.

At the heart of the lies and scandal, Tom, Nina, and Lyla are forced together—all questioning their closest relationships, asking themselves who they really are, and searching for the courage to live a life of true meaning.

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EMILY GIFFIN is the author of eight internationally bestselling novels: Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Baby Proof, Love the One You’re With, Heart of the Matter, Where We Belong, The One & Only, and First Comes Love.

A graduate of Wake Forest University and the University of Virginia School of Law, she lives in Atlanta with her husband and three children.