The One You Are With

Published: Thomas Nelson Fiction
Date: 6th July 2021
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

High-school sweethearts Mac and Edie Swan lead a seemingly picture-perfect life in the sleepy-sweet community of Oak Hill, near Mobile, Alabama. Edie is a respected interior designer, Mac is a beloved pediatrician, and they have two great kids and a historic home on tree-lined Linden Avenue. From the outside, the Swan family is the definition of “the good life.” And life is good—mostly. Until a young woman walks into Mac’s office one day. A young woman whose very existence threatens all Mac and Edie have built and all they think they know about each other.

Nineteen years after a summer apart, with a family and established lives and careers, the past that Mac and Edie thought they left behind has come back to greet them. For the first time, constants in their lives are called into question: their roles as parents, their reputation as upstanding members of the community, and the very foundations of their marriage. 

As I read into the first couple of chapters I found myself hooked into the easy flow of the story. It opens with Mac’s point of view and then moves to Edie’s one. It also goes back and forwards from one summer a number of years ago and the current day.

I really felt on Mac’s side a lot of the time, I was a little impatient with Edie because I felt she should own her own stuff sooner! However I hung in there with her and liked how she eventually figured it all out.

This story explores what happens in a good marriage when something pops up that really rattles the cage. They are great parents and very good members of the community but now they are asked to stretch. To absorb and grow from what presents itself.

I found myself smiling and laughing at times especially there in the last chapter. It was a satisfying, thought provoking read. Happy to have read it.