If You Only Knew. Kristan Higgins.

If You Only Knew
Kristan Higgins
Published: Harlequin
Date: 25th August
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 416
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley


And they lived happily ever after...   well actually not always!  Kristan Higgins has written a story that explores some of the things that happen that might mean no HEA.

As the book began I wasn't that turned on by it, it seemed a flippant chick-lit type story, which isn't my cup of tea.  However reading on I soon realised I was wrong and I became riveted by the lives of two sisters Jenny and Rachel.

Jenny has a friendly relationship going on with her ex - Leo and his wife. He never wanted to have children and now here he is with another wife and a child!  What! Who'd keep a friendship going with their ex when he has dumped her? Seemingly Jenny would.

Jenny is a bridal dress designer and she's good at it.  She has moved back home and set up her own shop - Bliss. She has rented an apartment in a house above the 'super', who doesn't seem to know much about home maintenance.  He teaches piano and has a dog Loki that seems to have a small aversion for Jenny. Leo is a bit of a mystery man, and when he and Jenny develop a friendship he underlines that it's not ever going to be permanent. 

Rachel has three delightful triplet daughters, they are a handful and she is quite adept at caring for them in good times and bad.  However she is somewhat shy and socially diffident. When she accidentally discovers her husband Adam has been sexting someone, her life is thrown into turmoil. This is either going to call for forgive and forget and 'getting on with life' or for Rachel to see things as they are and make choices accordingly.

The sisters have a very good relationship with each other and while it falters for awhile the strength of what they have comes through. Together they wade through lies and untruths, secrets and the impositions of the self-important, and come to stand in their own truth. Some relationships just need to be shed, some need to be looked at with love and forgiveness and some shouldn't be let go.  To find out which relationships survive, which secrets will out, and who is set free - you'll need to read this book. Kristan Higgins has written an emotional story that held me enthralled.

While infidelity, divorce and lies are explored in this book, the delightful way of writing that Kristan Higgins has, along with some of her trademark humor - which is a little muted in this book, all combine to make If You Only Knew a read that I loved.

Great cast of characters, tough issues for them to grapple with, ones whose lives I became invested in. 

Only disappointment was - "What, you mean the book has ended. No....!"