Come to the Edge

by Christina Haag

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The Love Story of JFK Jr. and Christina Haag
"Lyrically and precisely recaptures the frenetic ecstasy of early love."-- Washington Post

An elegy to first love, a lost New York, and a young man who led his life with surprising and abundant grace . When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him at a discreet distance at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University and were living in New York City, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair. Glamorous and often in the public eye, but also passionate and deeply intimate, their relationship was transformative for both of them. With exquisite prose, Haag paints a portrait of a young man with an enormous capacity for love, and an adventurous spirit that drove him to live life to its fullest.

A haunting book, Come to the Edge is a lasting evocation of a time and a place--of the indelible sting of the loss of young love, and of the people who shape you and remain with you, whether in person or in spirit. It is about being young and full of hope, with all the potential of your life as yet unfulfilled, and of coming of age at a moment in New York's history when the city at once held danger, magic, and endless possibilities for self-discovery. 

Rarely has a love story been told so beautifully.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Biography Memoir, New York, Book Club

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Christina Haag is an actress and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, COME TO THE EDGE, which chronicles her childhood friendship and five-year love affair with John Kennedy Jr. A People magazine and USA Today pick, her book "lyrically and precisely captures the frenetic ecstasy of early love."[Washington Post] COME TO THE EDGE was heralded by Publisher's Weekly as "a piercing portrait," and Entertainment Weekly called Ms. Haag, "a beautiful writer." She was featured on The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, CBS Early Show, the Joy Behar Show and Hardball with Chris Matthews, and profiled in People magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Winner of the Ella Dickey Literacy Award, her writing has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Hamptons Magazine, and Vanity Fair, and she is a contributor to the anthology, The Brown Reader, along with Jeffrey Eugenides, Marilynne Robinson, Rick Moody, Edwidge Dandicat, Donald Antrim, and Meg Wolitzer.

Winner of the Dramalogue for Outstanding Actress, Christina continues to work in film, theater, and television, most recently on Law and Order:SVU and the new film, Half Brother. A graduate of Brown University and Juilliard, she lives in New York City and is currently working on a novel.

Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter:
http://www.facebook.com/christina.haag3
http:// www.twitter.com/christina__haag

Reviews

[Kate Childs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is captivating. I stayed up until 1:30 AM finishing it last night because I couldn’t bear to put it down, and woke up this morning with a pounding headache because I fell asleep crying after finally reaching the last page. COME TO THE EDGE is beautifully written, universal in nature, and tinged with a bittersweetness because you know how it all ends. Those searching for salaciousness in the pages of COME TO THE EDGE won’t find it. Instead they’ll find one of the most achingly true love stories—a story full of adventure, romance, hope—and you’ll immediately compare it to your own stories and find a common ground with author Christina Haag. She’s an actor by craft, but COME TO THE EDGE proves that she’s also a talented writer.

[Jana · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a child I came across this article about Romy Schneider. In 1959, she was 20 years old and met Alain Delon, 24, while filming a movie called Christine. They were together for 5 years. She never recovered after their love affair but they managed to remain friends until the end. She died in Paris in 1982. Her heart stopped after she took the combination of pain killers and alcohol, not long after her teenage son died in a strange accident, puncturing his femoral artery after slipping while climbing a spiked fence. Alain arranged for her son to be buried alongside her. He placed a piece of paper with the following words on her tomb: "You were never so beautiful. You know, I learnt some German for you: "Ich liebe dich, meine Liebe."









Some loves are like this. And we all have a chance to experience love like this; it is magnificent and out of this world. The only thing about it, is that it doesn't last as it can’t. It has to become a story, ''come back to me'' dream at 4 o'clock in the morning. A wish for that person to be somewhere near, just the presence somewhere in the world; to know that he is breathing. And it would be enough.

It is not its path. Its is to conjure the happiness of the moment. Its road is inevitable. And this love hurts the most since the great loss is ahead. The absence of physical, the acknowledgement of the biggest lesson ahead: to let go, forgive and try to move on. To silently surrender your sorrow to grace and to learn to handle it. To make room for this never ending hollowness that true and deceased love has in its core. The spell, the heartache, the pull, the fact that you will never be unwounded again. That you will never love like this anymore. It is impossible.

We are made of learning from our experiences so second time around doesn't stand a chance to this beauty. Love is always possible and it has to be found again, but it will never burn this mikado orange red.

Some loves are like this.

John F. Kennedy Jr. and Christina Haag were as well together for 5 years, and during the time when they were starting to part away and the love was slowly turning into shadowing incandescence John John said this to her: ''You’ve always been my compass. I would be lost without you. I think of the time ahead and it is like a dessert.'' I said nothing. I closed my eyes and held him. He had imagined it, the desert, but I hadn’t. I couldn’t.''

He compared her to a E.E. Cumming’s poem.

''somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers
you open always petal by petal myself as spring opens
(touching skilfully, misteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending,

nothing we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility; whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain has such small hands''

Christina Haag met John when they were 14 years old, but not until they were both 25, ex Brown students, ex roommates and best friends, did they start their love story that ended beginning of the 1990. When she started dating him, one of her friends told her to be careful. A wise advice to give anybody let alone a person who is falling in love with the Kennedy.

Just like Pat Conroy writes love letters to South Carolina in his books, Christina Haag gave her vision of the NYC during the 70s and 80s. It is really deeply sweet and melancholic place. I have to be little cynical and say a perfect place to grow up for mostly rich white Catholics but still, it is not my prerogative to judge it, but just to observe it, since it is her world which she knows the best as she longingly described the vanished time.

But the book alone is really told in a completely different manner than I thought it would be. It is elegant and it’s intimate, and I love places, books, poetry, stories references. Christina Haag wrote journals and diaries her whole life so she had a lot of details but there is the unspoken/unwritten side of this book too. She knows a lot more than it is between the covers, which is of course normal since it is her life and you cannot simply put all the words in, but this is not what I mean. She told their story in a very detailed way but she kept a lot of memories to herself: this is not a tell-all.

This way she wanted to protect his personality and still place him in the world; this loving persona - clutched by family, society and business demands but tattoo him too as humble, real, soft and powerful man as he as well was. They had a very gentle, down to earth yet palpable and rich romance since they have previously been good friends and it was an outdoor adventurous life she had with him, so I understand why she wrote this memoir. I don’t see it as a chance to earn the money, but because she too lost him in more than one way, she needed him somehow alive. She managed to do this with her poetical style of writing and with the need to give his soul a place among the human senses.

It is a vulnerable, pure and honest memoir about growing up. Initiations, rituals, bridges...that lead us to go through fire, as each one has to face. It is what drives us, makes us who we are, confuses in many ways. John F. Kennedy and Christina Haag took the risk, fell in love and changed themselves to become better people. They didn’t last but they had found each other in the time they needed each other the most. They were instinctual, genuine and for me as a reader, utterly heartbreaking lovers. And in the end, just like she quoted Thornton Wilder, ''There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.''

Gentle read with beautiful prose, written to describe one time long gone, one man long gone and one truly tender and beautiful love which with this memoir endured its end.

[Jayne Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that touched my heart... and shall remain forever imprinted there. With writing as intricate and exquisite as finely-woven lace, Ms. Haag weaves a powerful story of a great and passionate love with a figure whose life was chronicled endlessly from the day he was born and yet remained a mystery to most of us long after his tragic death. The book succeeds on many levels: On a personal note, like so many of my generation who also fell in love with the three-year-old John-John, watched him grow, and invested in him the hopes and dreams that we'd also invested in his father and his uncle, Haag's generous telling their personal relationship for me, at least, finally lays bare the man and the mystery that was John F. Kennedy, Jr. I could never understand why he chose to go up in that plane on that fateful day. Now, although still sadly, it makes perfect sense. As a love story, one could not possibly ask for more. Haag's own story of growing up in New York, her childhood intersecting with that of John's from grade school through college and beyond, beautifully captures a city and a time of that would set the stage for a relationship born of friendship and the innocence of youth with its belief that, with love, anything is possible. As a story of adventure, the element of risk is detailed in the telling of their many harrowing adventures together, when John would literally beckon Haag to "come to the edge," times when she would risk not only her heart for this man. Haag is a remarkable writer, as well as a remarkable woman. I loved every beautiful and lovingly chosen word of this very special book. Thank you, Christina.

[Mary Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never in recent memory has a story brought me such a strong sense of time and place as Christina Haag's Come to the Edge.
I bought the book in anticipation of learning things I hadn't known about John Kennedy Jr., which I absolutely did. What I didn't expect was to connect so much with Christina's story- from her Sacred Heart schooling to her close bond with her father; her college days as a thoughtful, free spirit; and the years following when she and John finally became a couple and came of age together in New York. NYC itself is another character in the book, and although I've never visited, thanks to Christina's loving and unsparing descriptions I have such a vivid picture of the intriguing, fun, colorful place it was in the 70s and 80s. Her recounting of other places (Cumberland Island, the Kennedy family's homes, Brown University in their college days, even the restaurants & bars they frequented) are equally vivid and inspire one to visit them all. Christina's writing is poetic, honest, and clear- the kind of writing that begs to be read aloud, underlined, earmarked, re-read. After finishing Come To The Edge, I can truly say that I am much more familiar with John Kennedy as a person, which feels like a gift. My only regret is that there aren't more chapters in the special relationship of this very special couple. But then, in the words of Heraclitus, "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." Instead it stays crystallized in the past- a tribute to what was, and what could have been- much like my own story, and so many other people's. Thank you, Christina, for sharing your story with the world- and for all the ways in which it helped me reflect upon my own.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Oh, JFK Jr. why do you still fascinate me more than a decade later? Basically this book is a love story told by John’s college/twenties girlfriend Christina Haag. That this girlfriend is now in her 50s is somewhat disconcerting. But that’s neither here nor there. The memoir starts out extremely slow, to the point I thought “this is the most boring book about the Kennedys ever written.” The first few parts are about the author’s early, privileged, easy days as a young girl in Manhattan. I realize it’s the context for her bigger story (and where she first encounters John) but there’s no drama, no intrigue and does not make for interesting reading (nor would my teenage years). However, once I reached the meat of the story, I found their romance surprisingly poignant and beautifully drawn. Honestly I was skeptical of this memoir, of her intentions, of how close they really were. But the writer won me over. I was right there with her through the ups and downs and then the relationship’s end. I got teary-eyed more than a few times and my heart broke for her.

The writing itself is quite lovely. My favorite part is when she says marriage is an ongoing conversation and romance is something else entirely. Romance comes from the French word for story and thus, by definition, has a beginning, middle, and end. (Instant tears). Also, I loved the end of the book when she is looking at Navajo pottery in the Southwest and a spirited, spinning, happy little girl draws her attention. I don’t want to ruin the review with spoilers but it was a very special part of the story.

It’s worth noting the author never married. Plenty of people never marry and plenty of people never want to. But one can’t help but wonder if her relationship with John was too present in future relationships. I read an interview with the author where she says they didn’t work out because of timing (or some such thing) and at the time I thought “yeah, right” but it really does come across that way. I found myself gravely disappointed that it didn’t work out. I would’ve loved to hear JFK Jr.’s take on it.

I wish the author delved more into their relationship after they broke up (if there was one) and how she felt when he did finally marry. Especially considering Cumberland Island was “her” place and, eventually, “their” place and then he married Carolyn Bessette there. Ouch. That had to have hurt. Also, oddly enough, I didn’t feel like I knew the author herself all that well. Why did the most sought-after man in America love her so much? I suppose that’s hard to address when you’re writing about yourself, versus a fictional romance. All in, though, when stripped of the things that didn’t work as well for me, this book is, at its heart, a moving, bittersweet love story.

[Sophfronia Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There is something in the air, something ancient that makes you move more slowly. You turn a corner, you catch your breath, and the pale color of the sky reflects back the sheer measure of your soul." This book is the best of everything a memoir can be: lyrical, reflective, deeply affecting. Haag's writing is simply beautiful and you sense her strong abiding love on every single page. She does well by her friend, his family, and herself. An admirable work and a must read for all who study creative nonfiction.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully Written

I rarely give 5 stars to books about "celebrities", but this one is different. Haag wrote this with love, respect and beautiful articulation. The reader gets a feel for Kennedy and his family, but she doesn't sensationalize her knowledge of the family. She weaves a memoir that pays tribute to the love they had, his life and does it with class.

I imagine Caroline Kennedy reading this, and being thankful. The book had me in tears at one point because not only is it about Kennedy, it is is also about love that ends, and how truly poignant that will always be in one's life-even when it is over.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to read a really touching memoir- but not to anyone who just wants to try and get "an inside scoop".

Kudos to Haag. Hope she writes more.

[Book Riot Community]

Sleepily browsing my Audible library on the plane home for Christmas, I clicked on one of my very favourites – the author’s tender memoir of her time with John Kennedy Jr, growing up in one another’s orbit in NYC, sharing a house at Brown, and then finally being a couple and losing each other. It’s been a long time since I’ve read it, and it’s every bit as good as I remember. The audio is wonderful – Christina Haag reads it with emotion but without ever overdoing it. This book is romantic and heartbreaking and so evocative, with a wonderful sense of place and beautifully crafted writing. It’s perfect for reading by the fire or listening to while dozing off jet lag – in other words, holidays are a great time to read or re-read this one. — Claire Handscombe


from The Best Books We Read In December: http://bookriot.com/2015/12/23/riot-r...

[Kate Spears · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first heard about this book I wanted to read it to get a glimpse into the lives of the Kennedys. As I was reading it, I found myself forgetting who it was about, but really just focusing on the story. Even if the names weren't already known to us, the book would stand out as a beautiful love story. It's also hauntingly sad. For anyone who has criticized the author's writing it, I say it's her story to tell just as much as it was John's and I'm glad she told it.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautiful and heartbreaking memoirs I've ever read---one that will stay with me for a long time. I almost abandoned it at the beginning, but I'm so glad I kept reading. Haag has an amazing gift for recounting memories and how they stay with us- through scent, what the weather was like, and tiny, insignificant details. It's astonishing that she never married JFK Jr., and you feel as if you're reading the truest account of his life from someone who really knew him.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was ok. Definitely over-hyped which led to my substantial disappointment. Mildly interesting, although the phrase much ado about nothing frequently came to mind.

*This Advanced Reader's Edition was provided through the GoodReads First Read program with the expectation of an honest review. My opinions are my own.

[Cindey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why do I feel so connected to the Kennedys? Could it be that I am 2 days older than Caroline, that John-John was born on my birthday, that their father was buried on my and John-John's shared birthday when I was in 1st grade? I used to imagine that they were really my brother and sister, separated at birth, living such a different life from mine. I lived vicariously through them.

I guess I should also mention that I don't like romance books. One person's idea of "romance" is another person's gagging with a finger in the mouth. But this book is wonderfully, dreamily written -- like a fairy tale, but one in which I am a character.

Without telling secrets or spreading gossip, Christina Haag has given life to the Kennedy family and love to John. Her tenderness in writing about the family is a refreshing escape from tabloid journalism.

Maybe you had to have a time in your life when you thought you would meet Prince Charming. Or maybe you DID meet Prince Charming and lost him.

In the 1970s there was a quote I had hanging on my wall: "If you love something very much, let it go. If it doesn't return, it wasn't meant to be yours. If it does return, love it forever." For Christina, I would also add that some people we love are always, always with us, even if they are not physically with us.

Read this book! In one sitting, if possible! You won't want to put it down.

And watch for a red hawk!

[George Cleveland · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, so this is not the "kind" of book that I would normally pick up for myself. My prejudice is that a woman writing about her relationship with a man is a "girl book". Nevermind that I might make a much needed discovery about what makes a relationship work, much less thrive.

Add to that another prejudice towards books about Illuminated Celebrities. Not something that perks me up. And with "Come to the Edge", I "know" the ending: she doesn't get the guy.

All my prejudices were seriously tempered when I heard Christina Haag talk about her memoir and then was fortunate enough to spend some time with her over a surreal couple of days.

This is SO *NOT* another tale of American royalty. Yes, that element is there because they happen to be part of the story. And there is a building poignancy because we know what eventually is going to happen.

I think that with Christina's hand, this book would have impact if it was about her relationship with Joe Blow who happened to be a wild and crazy guy.

Have I learned more about women and relationships with them as a result of reading this book? Maybe. Time will hopefully bear that out.

This is a tale of a smart man and a smart woman who have a really "good" love. I'm pretty sure thoughtful women will appreciate this firm but tender memoir. And guys...it's kind of fun so give it a rip.

[Loular · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous memoir by Christina Haag about her once in a life-time love affair with one of America's royal family, JFK Jr.

It is expertly, carefully crafted to focus on the way a love like that can mysteriously carry on through the years, across many challenges and become the kind of romantic narrative which are both complex, profound, maddening, yet spiritually impossible to walk away from. It's a beautiful tale of growing up in NYC in the 80's and life as a working actress in that time. It's an expertly crafted narrative that focuses on the love binding them along with wonderful detail from the surrounding lives they lead. Never once does it digress into any cheap tell all: This is a wonderful, heartbreakingly romantic memoir I found simply impossible to put down, nor stop think about long after having finished it. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Christina Haag: Great actress, great writer and noble soul.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is deceptively slim. While seemingly short, we travel around the hemispheres with Christina & it is exhausting. I am finally, mercifully, finished.
I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with the book. I think it's me. I haven't been enamored by the Kennedy's; I couldn't care less about New York. Why read it, then? you ask. Because I had to read something recommended to me by someone I just met, & it came highly recommended by a chick over a Bookstagram account I follow. So.
Not that the book isn't worthwhile. My favorite passages include when she's at Cumberland Island in Georgia. I also enjoy the spare bits about Jackie O. But it wasn't enough for me. I see John as petulant & Christina as privileged but pretending not to be.
Honestly, I'm just glad it's over so I can move on, as she should.

[KS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christina Haag has written an achingly beautiful memoir. Her respectful portrait of John Kennedy not only reveals him as a flesh-and-blood human being but at the same time captures the larger-than-life aspects of his story. Christina tells of how their paths wove themselves together and apart during their childhoods in New York and beyond, culminating in an intense, five year love affair -- what John called the longest courtship ever. Also of great interest is Christina's portrait of John's mother, whom she obviously admired and adored. Their friendship continued even after the affair with John was over. But this book is more than all that. It is a delicate tale of coming of age, of first love, that transcends its connection to a famous family.

[Han · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir is possibly the best book I've read this year. I loved EVERYTHING about it, and I have zero complaints. Haag's writing is both eloquent and honest. She does an incredible job of showing, rather than telling, especially when it comes to explaining the simple, yet complicated nature of her relationship with JFK Jr. However, I may be slightly biased, as I appreciate any story set in 1970's/1980's New York. (What I would give to have been there...)

[Erika Robuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fondness for memoir is growing, and I can now add another book to my pile of favorites. Christina Haag writes about her relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr. with honesty and depth. Her reflections are thought provoking and powerful, and her style matches the ebbs and flows in the relationship. From full-bodied prose to episodic whimsy, Haag captures the story of their love and her personal growth with immediacy and wisdom. I highly recommend COME TO THE EDGE.

[Phyllis Runyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to give this book five stars. I was always a fan of JFK Jr. and even more now. I'd like to thank Christina Haag for writing this memoir about growing up in New York City and first becoming his friend then falling in love with him. It is not gossip or sensationalism. It's a love story. I like the way she describes the Kennedy family and their closeness. Well done.

[Dominique · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is proof that anyone can write a memoir, including a hanger-on who fancies herself an "actress" and has nothing to offer other than she may have dated JFK Jr. Sadly, a better book got passed over so this waste of ink could go to press.

[Alicen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir took me by surprise with its candor and emotion. I was totally swept up by it, and could not put it down. Highly recommended.

[The Contented · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Wow - I was not expecting this to be good. It was excellent.

Forget for a moment that she was writing about JFK jnr. This would have been really touching and honest as a book about any relationship.

I had zero expectations, but the book turned out to be great.

Very readable - through it all in less than a weekend.

[A Book Vacation · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this through goodreads first reads on Feb 22nd.

I am on the fence with this memoir. I liked it, but I don’t think the style of writing is necessarily for me. This is the very beautifully told story of Haag’s relationship with JFK Jr, and I learned a lot of information about the Kennedys. Haag writes beautiful descriptions and creates breathtaking visuals. However, as a lot of this story banks on description, I found myself having difficulty pressing on within the memoir. I am more interested in the meat of a story, and a lot of time is spent denoting Haag’s background, which I personally find unnecessary to the novel. Yet, this aspect provides much insight into the author, which I believe many readers will enjoy; it’s just not for me.

I also had some difficulty with the sequence of events. Haag tends to jump around from memory to memory and, while a majority of the time this was not an issue, at times I had to re-read sections because I was unable to follow along. I believe many readers will have no difficulty following the sequence, but I need a little more structure to my novels...



To read my full review:

http://bookvacations.wordpress.com/20...

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a romantic and I was never really "into" JFK Jr. It just wasn't ever an interest of mine. I do like memoirs though, so Christina Haag's story was interesting to me. Honestly, my first thought was, OK, this chick knew him a little and decided to sensationalize it, but that is NOT the case at all. She in fact came very close to marrying him. I enjoyed the parts about Jackie O. because I do enjoy reading about her.

Come to the Edge was filled with memorable quotes I have sticky noted throughout the book. Here are a few:

"I also discovered that memories of pleasure-of what I longed for & what no longer was - had calmed me."

"I did not know then that there are those you love no matter how much they hurt you, no matter how many years have passed since you felt them in the morning."

"It was the distinct impression that I had two lives and I would have to choose."

"Remember this time. Soon it will start going fast."

My online book club chatted with Christina Haag the other night and it was exciting. She was really sweet. One thing I love, and this isn't a spoiler, is that she is a strong, determined woman. She could have easily given up her acting career to be with JFK Jr., which I think many women would do. But she didn't.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

At 43, I am too young to care about the Kennedys. They are a relic of generations before me, and I have the privilege (?) of seeing them both through more unbiased reporting and the lackluster current generation. JFK Jr included.

But I heard this was a book about young love and I am a sucker for poignant love stories that don't pan out.

Christina Haag is a fantastic writer. She made me care about these two super-privileged kids and their unconventional relationship. And while she confirmed my suspicion that Jr. was a risk-taking dudebro who wasn't very bright, I didn't hate him. I couldn't. I even warmed up to Jackie, whom I always regarded as a cold, money-focused debutante.

There is an ache that can only be caused by loving someone wildly in your 20s and having that love die for no real reason at all. This book completely captures the ache.

My only beef is that it's not written chronologically. One paragraph she's at John's memorial service, and the next it's a week before their play. But even though I knew how the story ended, I still held hope that it wouldn't.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough account of the author's five-year romance with JFK Jr in their late 20s. She's quite poetic and I did enjoy reading it, but it didn't feel like she had enough for a full memoir. There were some inconsistencies in timeline and almost no discussion of his life after her. Missed opportunities.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this one but I found the timeline too scattered. The author went back and forth and it was impossible to follow the actual events in her relationship. I did love seeing an intimate side of JFK Jr., which was heartbreaking at times.

[Megan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haag captures some of the classic feelings of youth & early love while also painting a picture of coming-of-age in her specific social class and geographic location. The book starts out quite slow to create context, but altogether, it’s artfully written & beautiful.

[Emma Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this! Kind of a new genre for me but very much into it. Sad beautiful tragic etc etc

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written about 10 years after John F. Kennedy's death, and shortly after a cancer diagnosis, Christina Haag chronicles her 5-year love affair with JFK Jr. This didn't come across to me as a sensationalist book. It was more like a loving salute to, possibly, her first true love. She also loved Jackie Onassis, and it was very interesting to read about their communications as well.

Sometimes I was confused about the timeline jumping around, and I feel like there were a couple digs aimed at Daryl Hannah. Learning about JFK Jr.'s personality was interesting. Her stories were very kind and loving, and I enjoyed the writing style.