Something Borrowed

Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed is narrated by Rachel White, a thirty-year-old attorney in Manhattan and a consummate good girl who has always done the sensible thing. She and Darcy Rhone have been best friends since childhood, and hard-working Rachel has spent much of that friendship in the shadow of flashy, sometimes selfish Darcy. After a night of drinking on Rachel's thirtieth birthday, which Darcy has arranged, Rachel sleeps with Darcy's fiance, Dex. She wakes up intending to put the night behind her, and is horrified to discover genuine feelings for the man she ought to be avoiding.

What began as a single mistake turns into an affair, and Darcy's wedding is still going ahead in September. Rachel is also the person Darcy relies on for everything connected with the wedding, so she has to manage the arrangements and her own feelings at the same time across the months between the party and the ceremony, with the choice in front of her becoming harder rather than easier as the date approaches. The title comes from the "something old, something new" rhyme that lists the items a bride is supposed to carry.

Something Borrowed was Emily Giffin's first novel and was developed into a film by Hilary Swank's production company.