If You Only Knew: A Women's Fiction Novel

by Kristan Higgins

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.

• ISBN10: 0373789297
• ISBN13: 9780373789290
• Publish Date: 31 May 2016 (first published 1 July 2015)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Hqn
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[stacey_is_sassy]

DNF 6%

I did not rate this one as I had barely started it before I'd decided it wasn't for me. Yes, I know I didn't really give this one a fair go but this book was making my head explode.

***the rest is spoilerish, proceed with caution***

In this case, I found it hard to relate to the characters. One sister, Jenny, is divorced and still friends with her ex...and his new wife. She loves him so much that having him as a friend is better than nothing at all. He fell out of love with her, didn't want a family and yet two sec's after he divorces he finds the love of his life and starts a family with her. Yicky Yuck!! I'm not that good or nice a person and I can't relate to that level of forgiveness.

Now, the second sister...her triplets are the love of her life...Huh?!?! It's fantastic that her kids are important in her life, but I'm a firm believer that your husband should be the love your life, not the kids. Yeah sure, she's got her hands full...but his hands should be full too. Well, too full to think of getting a bit on the side, in my opinion. As soon as she suspected, she should have confronted him. When she didn't, that put the axe in the coffin for me.

I probably should not have read If You Only Knew as my introduction to Kristan Higgins. A LOT of my friends love her, but I'm sorry to say that if this is her style of characters, I think I'm not her right audience.

Maybe if I had given it more of a chance I could have fallen in love with the characters, but unfortunately, I'll never know.

[Linda]

This review was originally posted on (un)Conventional Bookviews
If You Only Knew is a cute read which still tackles some serious and heavy subjects - I loved the strong friendship between the sisters.



If You Only Knew is a contemporary romance that I would definitely tag as realistic fiction, as it follows two sisters - Jenny and Rachel - through some of the upheavals of adult life. How to deal with things when it's impossible to run to mom and dad, how to stay strong when all one wants to do is to curl into a small ball and cry. How to trust again after that trust has been completely torn apart by someone who should have known better. How to deal with secrets - both those within the family and without. And how to ultimately move forward, without losing oneself in bitterness and anger.

Jenny and Rachel were going through some very different situations, however, in some ways things were quite similar as well. If You Only Knew is definitely about what you would have done if you had known the final outcome in advance, but not only that. As I said the loyalty and friendship between the two sisters worked really well. I did find both of them to be quite immature for their ages in many ways, though. Jenny was almost 40 and Rachel 36, and I really can't say I recognized myself in either of them, which kind of made it a bit difficult for me to fully connect to them.

Written in alternate chapters from Rachel's and Jenny's point of view, in first person present tense, the readers discover the plot alongside the protagonists. And while there were some things I didn't get, because the characters seemed slightly off to me, If You Only Knew is still an enjoyable story and a quick read. Jenny's sarcasm was mostly spot-on, and one of the parts I loved the most!



The gifts - including mine - border on the ridiculous. The shower invitation - engraved from Crane's - asked, at the behest of the parents, for donations to the clean-well-water charity Ana-Sofia founded - Gushing.org, the name of which brings to mind a particularly bad menstrual period, but which raises funds for wells in Africa.

He's tall. And thin. Suddenly, I want to feed him. Also, that's some seriously gorgeous hair, even better than at first glance. Married. Hair like that wouldn't remain single. He's wearing and unbuttoned flannel shirt over a T-shirt, and while he looks like he just rolled out of bed, it kind of...works. [...] "You eye-fucking me?" he asks.

Already, they're bickering over who gets to sit on  which part of the couch. Charlotte keeps taking Rose's sippy cup for no reason. Rose is angry that I didn't let her drink wine with breakfast - "or ever, Mommy! You so mean!" Grace is scowling at the movie, because she wanted to watch Dexter instead, which I recently bought on DVD. Shockingly, I said no. 

[Cocktails and Books]

This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books

Let me preface this review by saying you are not likely to see a bad review of a Kristin Higgins book from me. I LOVE her books. However, I am still objective and this book was fabulous! Higgins writes with such wit but at the same time such compassion for her characters. Her characters are always well-developed and likeable. If You Only Knew is no exception.

Jenny is an accomplished wedding dress designer with a seemingly perfect ex-husband who now has a perfect second wife and baby. She also has a sister she loves & three nieces she adores. When she moves back to her home town she also acquires a new (not so competent) super in her new apartment building.

Rachel is Jenny’s sister and has a pretty perfect life—until one day, she doesn’t. Jenny does her best to support Rachel while maintaining her business and trying to woo Leo, the super/piano teacher. Leo is very mysterious and constantly warns Jenny that he is “for recreation only”, but you know we girls don’t heed warnings like that!

This book will have readers laughing out loud (as all of Higgins’ books do) and crying at other times. I really felt for Rachel’s situation and loved Jenny’s dedication to her sister. I enjoyed all of the humor, as well as the touching moments of this book and I know anyone else who reads it will too. Until the next one, Kristin! Cheers!

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