IF YOU ONLY KNEW

A divorced wedding-dress designer tries to extricate herself from her ex-husband’s new life by moving from Manhattan to her suburban hometown, just in time to see her sister’s marriage rocked by a sexually graphic text.

Ever since Jenny’s husband, Owen, suddenly decided he didn’t love her anymore, she’s felt a little unmoored, especially since he hasn’t actually walked out of her life but only moved her to the best friend column. Confusingly, he's also acquired a new wife who adores Jenny, and they're having a baby, which Jenny desperately wanted to do but Owen was never ready for. Moving back to her hometown, the charming New York suburb of Cambry-on-Hudson, takes her back to her roots and closer to her family, since her mother and sister still live there. She’s excited to start her new life, separate from Owen and with an elegant storefront and workshop where she can design and create her signature wedding dresses. But as soon as she arrives, her sister, Rachel, discovers a sext on her husband’s phone, which puts her previously idyllic marriage in jeopardy. Rachel has never wanted anything but to be married with children, and her beautiful triplets, handsome husband, and stay-at-home life are the culmination of her lifelong dreams. But when it looks like Adam is cheating, her world is rocked. At first invested in saving the marriage, Rachel begins to resent Adam’s long-suffering attitude when she doesn’t forgive him—and get over it—right away, especially when it becomes clear that she can’t trust him anymore. Jenny and Rachel must navigate their conflicted emotions and search their hearts to decide what they really want when their expected futures go off the rails. Romance star Higgins shifts smoothly and poignantly into women’s fiction with this emotionally compelling story, and she brings her ability to create affecting heroines to this new genre. With a secondary cast of characters who buoy an already perceptive study of love, marriage, sisterhood, and loyalty, Higgins delivers.

A powerful, emotionally textured winner.