Review: The One You’re With by Lauren K. Denton

Title: The One You’re With by Lauren K. Denton
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: 368 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

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.

Review:

The One You’re With by Lauren K. Denton is a heartfelt novel about a married couple dealing with unexpected revelations.

Mac and Edie Swan are childhood sweethearts who have been married for seventeen years. The yjuggle the demands of parenting eleven-year-old Thomas and fourteen-year-old Avery with the demands of their respective careers. Mac is a pediatrician who owns his own practice while Edie is an interior designer. Nineteen years earlier, Mac and Edie split up for a summer during college. Mac spent the summer working at a marina and stayed with his best friend Graham Yeager. Edie spent her summer in New York as an intern at a design firm. She and Graham, who is also her friend, exchange letters while also dreaming of opening a business together since he is going to be an architect.  Both Edie and Mac have left that summer behind them, but the past does not stay buried after a stranger walks into their lives and turns everything upside down.

After their lives implode in the present, Edie and Graham work on a project together. As he draws up the plans for a coastal home, she comes up with the interior design. They are a compatible team which revives thoughts of a possible partnership. Edie has been unhappy with her boss but she doe not know if she wants to leave her job. At home, things are tense between her and Mac as they contend with the revelations of a  long-held secret.

While events are unfolding in the present, chapters flashback to the summer Mac and Edie spend apart. Through alternating chapters and points of view, details emerge about what happens in the different cities. Edie revels in the praise of the interior designer she is working with and dreams of her future. She also very excitedly exchanges letters with Graham. Mac works hard at the marina along the Gulf shore while pondering what he wants for his future. At summer’s end, they return to college where they resume their relationship. Unfortunately, their friendship with Graham does not survive and they do not see each other for almost two decades.

The One You’re With is multi-layered novel that is quite thought-provoking.  Mac and Edie are multi-faceted characters with relatable flaws and strengths. Mac’s decisions years earlier are a bit inexplicable especially since he is not very forthcoming about what is troubling him.  Edie tends to play it safe and stay with what she knows instead of stepping out of her comfort zone. The secondary characters are interesting and easy to like.  The storyline is well-written with relatable dilemmas that add to the characters’ growth. Lauren K. Denton brings this captivating novel to a realistic conclusion.