Happy First Line Friday! Today I’m featuring Lauren K. Denton’s newest release, The One You’re With.

Summer 2000

“‘Hey, you.’ Mac heard the deep voice but was sure it wasn’t directed at him.”

The One You’re With by Lauren K. Denton

The Basics

Title: The One You’re With

Author: Lauren K. Denton

Publication Date: July 6, 2021

Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction

My Rating: 5 Stars

From the Back Cover:

Written in Lauren K. Denton’s signature Southern style, The One You’re With tells a story of marriage, choices, and what a good life really looks like.

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 they wade through the upheaval in both their family and professional lives, they must each examine choices they made long ago and chart a new course for their future.

My Thoughts

Lauren K. Denton is a go-to author for richly layered stories with emotionally engaging characters. The One You’re With is a powerful story about regrets, choosing love and forgiveness, and the effects our choices have far into the future. The book alternates between Mac and Edie’s story in the present day and the summer that changed both of their lives in ways they never fully realized. Their family is confronted with the consequences of both the choices Mac made and his decision to keep those choices from Edie, and those consequences bring major upheaval to their lives.

Commitment is not something our society places a high value on, but it is the focus of this book, which I found refreshing and compelling. The story moves at a slower pace, taking the time to develop the characters fully and bringing the reader on the journey with them as they ask, “What if?” I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it, especially to fans of Katie Ganshert and Rachel Hauck.

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.