I received a free copy in exchange
Content warning: Fat Shaming, miscarriage, fertility issues, two characters with OCD

Remember, this story is Women's Fiction.

This review is full of spoilers

Spoiler

So, I'm a huge Jill Shalvis fan but I'm learning that I love her romances. This is not a romance, this is women's fiction. I knew that going in, and while I loved many parts of this story there were a few things that just made me angry. Full disclosure, both sisters have a HEA.

I adored Brooke and Garrett's second-chance love story. Brooke's journey was the story arc I cared the most about. She experienced huge tragedy, had a huge problem with internalizing her pain and trauma, and needed to learn how to process this and start living her life the way she wanted to instead of being afraid. The way Garrett is presented as not the solution for her problems but as the partner she could work on them with was beautifully done, as was how Garrett handled his own issues. They have big huge pain to work on and I felt their HEA was emotionally satisfying.

Brooke stepping in to care for her older sister's three children while her sister took a break from her life was the impetus to bringing Brooke back into Garrett's life. Garrett is Mindy's neighbor, and also a constant fixture in Mindy and her family's life. So much so Mindy admits to having been a little in love with Garrett herself, despite having married her high school sweetheart Linc years ago.

Hey, I'm a mom and I get Mindy's desire to run away from her life. Bully for her she has the money and wherewithal and a sister who can leave her job to help her do so. Bully for Mindy that she can hang out with her single sister's "sassy pansexual friend" who is willing to take her clubbing and let her live the idealized life Mindy believes her sister is living.

Mindy's story arc was hard for me. Mindy is the tightly wound Type-A perfectionist white mother who has everything she ever wanted, but is now unhappy with the hand she's played. I get this on a visceral level, but I'm personally over the fat-shaming (Mindy constantly thinks and talks about her weight, talks about her sister's weight, envies her sister being skinnier than her, worries her husband doesn't love her because she's "fat" (Mindy is not fat)). Mindy is also concerned her husband is cheating on her with the nanny who is "young and beautiful" but as soon as it is found out the nanny has a girlfriend, everything is just hunky dory. Sigh.

Mindy's family doesn't appreciate her, makes fun of her massive binder of rules, regulations, and family inner-workings, but also don't talk to her about it until she's "had a breakdown." Linc, her husband, is a physician who works massive amounts of hours and is totally checked out, but is then changed into being a "better dad" and "husband." I kind of wanted Mindy to tell him to hit the bricks, but at the same time I appreciated how Mindy did make him work for it. I don't know I'm so conflicted.

The children are between the ages of 3 and 8. They were depicted as kind of feral and allowed to rampage through the story as a point of contention between Brooke and Mindy (grass is always greener syndrome).

Brooke cannot bear her own children (but as we learn in the epilogue suddenly she CAN have biological children, just not carried by herself), so is jealous of Mindy, and Mindy has no idea Brooke had her uterus removed after the helicopter crash, so is constantly making comments to Mindy about not understanding what it is like to be a mother, etc. Very dramatic, but also could be very hard for a reader to get through if they didn't know this was coming in the story.

Another subplot is that Brooke and her niece both have OCD, but as someone who is not familiar with OCD or how it should be portrayed, I felt leery about the depiction. I'm not sure if the author has a personal connection, but I felt there was a lack of discussion of therapy. OCD just seems to be something Mindy kind of deals with, that Garrett kind of knows about, that Mindy may have had some therapy for but no longer (??), and that no one discusses medically about the child who has it. They just accept it and figure she's fine. So, not sure about the rep here but wanted to mention it.

Frankly, for the amount of trauma and drama the characters go through, I wish there was more discussion of therapy as a way to help or alleviate some of the issues. For someone. Even marriage counseling!