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From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Billie Wright left her small Wisconsin hometown to go to medical school in New York, which frayed the relationship between her and her high-school love Mick, who had no interest in leaving Wisconsin. When it became clear that Billie's future was in New York, Mick ended their relationship. At 37, Billie has established herself as a prominent fertility doctor and gotten engaged to a driven trauma surgeon, but her world is turned upside down when Mick calls to tell her that her childhood best friend Erin has been killed in a car accident, leaving her 11-year-old daughter Phoebe without a guardian. When Erin's mother, Joan, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, tells Billie and Mick that Erin wanted them to share custody of Phoebe, Billie finds herself at a crossroads, torn between her desire to take care of Phoebe and her life in New York. Despite a soapy reveal and a rushed ending, Giffin (The Summer Pact, 2024) will once again galvanize her legions of readers with another of her engrossing signature tales in which there are no easy answers.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A happily engaged woman is pulled back to her hometown—and her first love—when tragedy strikes. Billie Wright is living her dream, running a thriving fertility clinic in New York City and engaged to a wonderful trauma surgeon named Dean. Her happily-ever-after meant giving up her life in Wisconsin, where she left behind many friends as well as her high school sweetheart, Mick. Although they’d been deeply in love, when Billie’s ambition pulled her away from home and toward the city, Mick couldn’t handle either the distance or her busy schedule. Billie has finally moved on from that heartbreak—but then she receives a phone call from Mick, the first communication between them in years. Her best friend, Erin, died in a car accident, leaving behind an 11-year-old daughter, Phoebe. Now Billie must return home to help sort Erin’s affairs and provide some kind of comfort to Phoebe while grieving the loss of her best friend. Of course, being back home also means being in close contact with Mick. Their feelings for each other may not have ever gone away, and their proximity leads to big decisions for Billie. Can she ever reconcile her current life in Manhattan with her past in Wisconsin? And which one will be her future? Giffin knows how to do drama, and she ratchets up the stakes with every page as she continues to reveal new obstacles for Billie. The ending wraps up quite neatly, but the nostalgia-filled ride is full of twists and turns that will keep readers flipping the pages. A deliciously dramatic look at how one woman’s past influences her future. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.