If You Only Knew by Kristan Higgins (Aug 25, 2015)
Book Description:
The drama, hilarity and tears of sisterhood are at the heart of the thoroughly captivating new novel by New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins—a funny, frank and bittersweet look at marriage, forgiveness and moving on
Letting go of her ex-husband is harder than wedding-dress designer Jenny Tate expected…especially since his new wife wants to be Jenny's new best friend. Sensing this isn't exactly helping her achieve closure, Jenny trades the Manhattan skyline for her hometown up the Hudson, where she'll start her own business and bask in her sister Rachel's picture-perfect family life…and maybe even find a little romance of her own with Leo, her downstairs neighbor, a guy who's utterly irresistible and annoyingly distant at the same time.
Rachel's idyllic marriage, however, is imploding after she discovers her husband sexting with a colleague. She always thought she'd walk away in this situation, but her triplet daughters have her reconsidering her stance on adultery, much to Jenny's surprise. Rachel points to their parents' perfect marriage as a shining example of patience and forgiveness; but to protect her sister, Jenny may have to tarnish that memory—and their relationship—and reveal a family secret she's been keeping since childhood.
Both Rachel and Jenny will have to come to terms with the past and the present and find a way to get what they want most of all.
This review is from: If You Only Knew (Paperback)
Have you ever read a book that you just knew right from the very beginning you would be best of friends with these characters if they were only real? This is how I felt once I was a couple of chapters into this novel.
This book was almost everything I love in a book - it was filled with realistic characters, realistic situations, some happiness and a lot of sad...the one thing, and an important thing, it was lacking was humor. Not that there was totally none, but it just wasn't there in big enough doses to make this a 5 star rated book.
I read to escape the realities and trauma's of everyday life -this book just left me weeping through most of it. The love of the sister's for each other was plain to see, the love that Jenny pours into her creations is obvious, Rachel's love for her triplets is plain to see...but the heart-aches just took a bit too much out of me and out of this book.
Getting to the 'happily-ever-after was almost too painful to get to and didn't last long enough to satisfy me or to make up for all the other trauma.
Seeing two such smart women mess up their lives for two such worthless men was astounding to me.
What is even odder for me is even with all that said, I could not put this book down -even though it was a painful journey through Rachel and Jenny's lives, it was fascinating and so well written that I can look beyond my own petty problems with this book and see that the author was trying to tell us - that we as women are so much more than just being a shadow to the men in our lives. We shouldn't forgive lying out of hand, we need to have a spine...and I'm happy to say that each of these women did learn this lesson. It was a difficult and rocky path, but they learned.
Most of Ms Higgins other novels may have the sadness, frustrations and problems of everyday life that this one had but they also usually include a good dose of humor. Yes, the humor is mostly the self-depreciating kind, but it is humor nonetheless. You need to really look closely to see the humor interspersed with the pain in this book.
It really was a satisfying read for me, even with the issues I had with it.
This book was almost everything I love in a book - it was filled with realistic characters, realistic situations, some happiness and a lot of sad...the one thing, and an important thing, it was lacking was humor. Not that there was totally none, but it just wasn't there in big enough doses to make this a 5 star rated book.
I read to escape the realities and trauma's of everyday life -this book just left me weeping through most of it. The love of the sister's for each other was plain to see, the love that Jenny pours into her creations is obvious, Rachel's love for her triplets is plain to see...but the heart-aches just took a bit too much out of me and out of this book.
Getting to the 'happily-ever-after was almost too painful to get to and didn't last long enough to satisfy me or to make up for all the other trauma.
Seeing two such smart women mess up their lives for two such worthless men was astounding to me.
What is even odder for me is even with all that said, I could not put this book down -even though it was a painful journey through Rachel and Jenny's lives, it was fascinating and so well written that I can look beyond my own petty problems with this book and see that the author was trying to tell us - that we as women are so much more than just being a shadow to the men in our lives. We shouldn't forgive lying out of hand, we need to have a spine...and I'm happy to say that each of these women did learn this lesson. It was a difficult and rocky path, but they learned.
Most of Ms Higgins other novels may have the sadness, frustrations and problems of everyday life that this one had but they also usually include a good dose of humor. Yes, the humor is mostly the self-depreciating kind, but it is humor nonetheless. You need to really look closely to see the humor interspersed with the pain in this book.
It really was a satisfying read for me, even with the issues I had with it.
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