Kristan Higgins, Now That You Mention It

By all appearances, Nora Stuart has a great life: she’s a successful doctor living in Boston with her gorgeous boyfriend. But when said boyfriend dumps her while she’s in the hospital recovering from a car accident, she decides to reevaluate her life. She returns to her hometown of Scupper Island, Maine, to recover from her injuries, but in doing so she opens a lot of old wounds. Her relationship with her mother has always been distant, and the townspeople in general haven’t forgiven her for “stealing” a college scholarship from golden boy Luke Fletcher. As Nora starts to rebuild her life, she strives to mend fences, with mixed results. But with the help of a few new friends — and a possible new romance — she eventually feels ready to embrace life again.

Overall, I really loved this book. I found Nora very relatable and likable — in fact, almost too likable and sweet, given how much crap she’s gone through in her life. The chapters that describe her high school experience are downright heartbreaking, and I couldn’t help being angry at nearly every other character because they didn’t give her the love she so desperately needed. Also, there’s one absolutely horrifying scene in which she is the victim of a home invasion; her attacker attempts to rape and murder her, and it’s a very, very hard scene to read. On the one hand, I think it’s important to confront the reality that this happens to women all the time, and it should be disturbing and terrifying. On the other hand, I’m not exactly looking for that in my light fiction, you know? Except for that scene, though, the book is a compelling and ultimately uplifting read. Recommended for fans of women’s fiction with some weight to it.

Kristan Higgins, On Second Thought

After years of being single, Kate has finally found happiness with her new husband, Nathan. Their only marital problem so far is that Kate hasn’t yet gotten pregnant. Meanwhile, Kate’s half-sister Ainsley has been with her boyfriend Eric ever since college, and he’s dragging his feet about proposing to her, but she remains convinced that he’s “the one.” But the lives of both women change forever when Nathan dies in a tragic accident. Now a devastated Kate must deal with her grief — a horrible situation made even harder by her discovery that Nathan may have been hiding something from her. Meanwhile, the shock of Nathan’s death leads Eric to break up with Ainsley, who is blindsided by the loss of the future she’d been imagining for years. As both Kate and Ainsley try to move forward, they turn to each other for support and begin to forge a closer relationship.

I always enjoy Kristan Higgins’ contemporary romance novels, and even though this one isn’t quite as focused on romance, I still really liked it! I saw a few reviews that complained it’s depressing because it focuses so much on grief, and I can certainly understand that point of view. But to me, the story felt very hopeful and uplifting, because it’s about how both sisters are able to cope with the great pain and loss in their lives. I loved the relationship between Kate and Ainsley, who aren’t particularly close in the beginning of the book but eventually come to understand and appreciate one another. They both become more confident in their own lives, too, both professionally and in other family relationships. Of course, there is some romance in the novel as well, which I thoroughly (and predictably) enjoyed. I’d recommend this book to fans of romance or women’s fiction who don’t mind a slightly weightier premise.