Sometimes you have to break a family to fix it.From New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins, a new novel examining a family at the breaking point—in all its messy, difficult, wonderful complexity.The Frosts are a typical American family. Barb and John, married almost fifty years, are testy and bored with each other…who could blame them after all this time? At least they have their … them after all this time? At least they have their daughters– Barb’s favorite, the perfect, brilliant Juliet; and John’s darling, the free-spirited Sadie. The girls themselves couldn’t be more different, but at least they got along, more or less. It was fine. It was enough.
Until the day John had a stroke, and their house of cards came tumbling down.
Now Sadie has to put her career as a teacher and struggling artist in New York on hold to come back and care for her beloved dad–and face the love of her life, whose heart she broke, and who broke hers. Now Juliet has to wonder if people will notice that despite her perfect career as a successful architect, her perfect marriage to a charming Brit, and her two perfect daughters, she’s spending an increasing amount of time in the closet having panic attacks.
And now Barb and John will finally have to face what’s been going on in their marriage all along.
From the author of Good Luck with That and Life and Other Inconveniences comes a new novel of heartbreaking truths and hilarious honesty about what family really means.
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One of my Top Five Favorite Books of the Year! I loved these women so much. Flawed, messy, well-intentioned just like so many of us are. Kristin Higgins brings each one beautifully to life. This is one of those book where you become so invested in the characters’ lives that you tell yourself to slow down and savor the story so you don’t finish too quickly–at the same time you’re turning the pages as fast as you can. A keeper.
Kristan Higgin’s continues to impress with another terrific women’s fiction novel that delves deeply into the female psyche and family relationships. This novel hits on themes involving the necessity and power of self-acceptance, while also delivering a sweet romantic subplot for those who long for that in a story. Although most women will relate to certain aspects (mental/emotional) of both sisters and the mother in this story, every woman will relate to at least one of them. This is the genius of her writing—she always finds a way to take a plot doesn’t resemble the reader’s life yet simultaneously makes it feel as if it is completely tailored to the reader’s life (inner life)! All that delivered with her engaging voice and terrific wit make this a summer beach book not to be missed.
Always the Last to Know keeps Kristan Higgins at the top of my favorite author list. The characters in her books feel like they could be members of my own family or close neighbors. Kristan’s writing style is humorous and keeps me turning the pages, and I enjoy the varying POV. I recommend Always the Last to Know as a great beginning-of-summer novel.
Always the Last to Know by Kristin Higgins for me personally was a well written complicated heart wrenching story of a family struggling to deal with tragedy, friendships, love and loss. Although the author did a great job of creating the characters, I didn’t like the people they were and how they treated one another. I was surprised at myself a few times when I found myself smiling, not because of the situation, but the sad, almost funny, sarcastic mother’s choice of words when talking about her husband. I was shocked but realized it was also true in life because so often it’s how families feel, treat and address one another. This is a story that a great many people can relate to and I rated it a five.
One of my deep dark secrets for the last couple of years was that I’ve had coffee with Kristan Higgins but never read one of her books. I can now say that grave oversight has been rectified and I’m very happy it has been.
ALWAYS THE LAST TO KNOW is an unexpected, witty, and life-affirming novel that explores the many facets of family, marriage, and love. It shows the underbelly of relationships, careers, and people who seem on the surface to be perfect, but does so with a light touch, giving us a reality that’s not gritty but simply very human.
Higgins manages to write about real people and real problems while keeping the story moving, interesting, and even inspiring in its examples of human beings who make mistakes but never stop striving for a better life for themselves and those they love.
This isn’t really what I was expecting. I don’t mean that in any bad way, it was just more intense than I expected. Don’t get me wrong, I am used to Kristan Higgins wringing my emotions out of me. Which, she does here. The way the women of this family are thrust into a terrible situation had me questioning my pre-conceived ideas about them.
I’ll start with the mom, Barb. She was the most confusing character for me. At times, I wanted to dislike her. I wasn’t a fan of her blasé attitude when it came to Sadie. And, with all of her internal complaints about John and their marriage, I couldn’t help but question how many times she had actually expressed her sadness, dissatisfaction, ennui, and irritation to her husband. Then, Barb would admit to herself that she wasn’t the best wife or mother and I’d start to sympathize with her. So, one minute I’d be fully Team Barb, then she would annoy me, then I’d come back around. Quite honestly, even when I was not all in on Barb, I could understand her bad feelings toward John. He truly wasn’t a very good husband.
As for John, there is a bit with his perspective and I think that was extremely important. I don’t want to get into too much with him because it will end up spoiler-ish, but I do want to say that I feel the author was brilliant with her inclusion of John’s mindset. Without it, this would have been a very different story and I would have had quite a different feeling about the situation had I not had that look into John’s thoughts.
John’s “favorite” daughter is Sadie. From the description of this book and all through the beginning of this story I really thought I was going to be a huge fan of Sadie’s. Alas, I was not. In fact, I don’t know of many times I’ve struggled to like a protagonist so much. Part of that, I feel, is by design. But a good portion of it was my own bias. I just don’t understand Sadie. I don’t really have anything against her lifestyle choices and her want and need to follow her dreams. What I did have a problem with was her being blind to criticism, feeling people just weren’t understanding her instead of realizing they were trying to help her. Or, later, her blindness to Noah’s hopes and dreams. Sadie and her first and only love Noah are both stubborn and both have trouble with compromise. Yet, I felt Noah tried so much harder to understand Sadie and to bend to her needs. It felt, to me, that Sadie looked down on Noah’s life goals. Even once she realized city life wasn’t for him, she still didn’t try to understand or make any concessions like he had done. That put her on my bad side quite often.
What came as a surprise to me was the connection I felt to Juliet. There are not many similairities between Juliet and me, but the way she tried so hard to be the perfect mom and wife just touched me. It also pulled at my heart because we all know nobody’s perfect, and it was only a matter of time before Juliet, who is in her 40s, learned that harsh lesson. Part of Juliet’s story has to do with a younger female coworker and how hard Juliet tried to never be “that woman” by speaking poorly of her, even when this woman wasn’t being so great to Juliet. The intense feelings of anger and despair were beautifully written, conveying to the reader the emotions every woman in a similar situation has had.
This story is such an interesting blend of familial strife, self-realization, love, and sorrow. It’s stitched together to create a stunning tapestry of the women in the Frost family.
So, so good. The best, in fact. My new favourite Kristan Higgins! I know I say this every book but, seriously, just like the blurb on the cover says, she keeps getting better.
Great book
Higgins’ Women’s Fiction are more relatable to most women than romance novels, dealing with poignant family dynamics in often dysfunctional families. While I had a hard time identifying with the main characters, except for maybe Noah, who was clear from the beginning what he wanted, I was still able to sympathize with them. The story is told from the viewpoint of all the main characters.
Barb Frost does find out that “the wife is always the last to know”, looking through her husband’s text messages on his phone, while she is sitting in the hospital waiting room for news of her husband, John. He had an aneurysm followed by a stroke while riding a bike in the winter, thus falling off causing more damage and not being found for a while. She had been planning to tell him that she wanted a divorce on their upcoming 50th anniversary. Their relationship had ended years ago, but he cheated!
The book explores the dynamics of the family, how each parent had their favorite, and difficulties relating to the other. Oldest daughter, Juliet, married with 2 daughters, a wonderful husband and a stressful job as a top architect, has been having panic attacks and knows about her father’s infidelity. Sadie, whose was the apple if her father’s eye, has not accomplished what she set out to do in NYC, leaving the love of her life, Noah, to become a renowned artist, but drops everything to come home to take care of her father. All most reassess their lives, their relationships and remember that every relationship takes 2 . A lovely book which does end up with HEAs for all.
Another delightful book by this author. There are many times when your heart will ache for the characters, times when you just want them to realize what they have, and times when you will cheer them on.
Enjoyable and heart warming.
I started this book with absolutely no expectations. I have seen the author’s name pop up in my Goodreads newsfeed but I have not read her. This came as a pleasant surprise.
This story is a family drama, told from different viewpoints. Even though it is a serious subject, some of the narrative is quite humorous. Each character gets a fair bit of narrative so we get to know them quite well. Each member of the family had their own story to tell
Barbara is planning on telling John that she wants a divorce, on their 50th anniversary. She does not get the chance because he has a debilitating stroke on the day before the anniversary.
Then there are 2 daughters, slightly jealous of each other. And they each have their own issues. Lots of drama.
Family conflict, secrets (of course!), changing relationships.
My favourite line in the whole book was: “Her vagina is so special, it has unicorns in it.”
And they all lived happily after.
Sadie Frost left her first love, her family, and her home in Connecticut to chase her dream of becoming a famous artist in New York City. But a frantic phone call from her older sister sends her racing back to the past.
Beth Frost loves her life. She has two successful (well, one more than the other, but we won’t get into that), beautiful daughters, a career she enjoys, and a husband of almost fifty years. And yes, there is a reason John comes in on the end of the list. Truthfully, their marriage is hanging by a tattered thread. They don’t have the same interests, rarely talk, and have seperate bedrooms. He doesn’t even see her anymore. He’s planning a triathlon for pete’s sake. She’s ready to move on and plans to ask for a divorce on their anniversary.
But a horrible accident changes everything.
Juliet Frost has worked hard to get to where she is in the prestigious architect company she helped grow into an international corporation, and expects to become partner any time now. Her husband is one in a million. Her two daughters are beautiful (if moody), and her house is perfect. So why is she having these stupid panic attacks? And then she sees her father practically making out with a woman on the sidewalk near her work and Juliet’s already teetering world, crashes.
This story is of a dynamic family whose secrets almost tear them apart. I love Beth. She’s seventy years old and has been through many crises, but when her husband has a stroke and she learns he’s been cheating on her, she doesn’t do the expected and dump him on his sorry ass. Instead, she overcomes her anger and hurt feelings to give him the care he needs.
Juliet is a complicated character with incredible strength, yet she’s also vulnerable and weighs her worth by her successes.
Sadie is a free spirit, and while I liked her character, I don’t think she deserves Noah. He never got over her and she can’t decide if being an artist in New York is more important than their relationship.
Kristan Higgins is a master manipulator when it comes to emotions. She gets the most out of her characters, thereby leaving the reader laughing or in search of tissues!
I give Always The Last to Know 5+ lovely kisses- Family drama done right!
I’m so conflicted about this story. I hated it as much as I loved it. I have to admit the beginning didn’t pull me in . I was almost sorry I bought it. I’m not sure where it drew me in either and that’s baffling to me. But…..it drew me in and took everything out of me. I hated these characters too as much as I liked them. Somewhere along the storyline I knew them, or someone like them. I couldn’t put this book down. Kristan Higgins does this to me with every book she writes. So emotional. I can’t wait to read what she writes next.
This one is a little different so if you love her romances, you might find this one challenging. But I loved the authenticity of the characters. They fell down and got their pants dirty and that was good with me. Sometimes they were tough to like, but they were human and their stories to forgiveness and enlightenment was fulfilling.
Kristan Higgins does it again. I just loved the family dynamics of this book, it is like Kristan found this family and sat quietly in the corner and wrote while observing them all. I loved each character for who they were, and how they handled themselves, they were real and honest. I just enjoyed this book so much I wanted it to last forever.
Love every book by this author. This book was another great one.
I can always count on Kristan Higgins to make mee laugh, make me cry, and make me sigh when I finish the book. This book is no exception. A wonderful peek into the dynamic of family and the power of second chances.
Loved this book. Loved the characters. Loved their relationship even though they were complicated. Was sorry when the book was over! Love that a family can happen in many different ways.
Author Kristin Higgins has a knack – no, really it’s a finely-honed skill – for making you identify with something about each and every character in her stories, even though these characters are all very different from each other and on the surface seem to be very different from you. I always sit up with surprise and think, “Exactly. I get it. I know just how that feels.” And Always the Last to Know is no exception.
There’s a saying that everything is about location-location-location. Well, the tagline for Always the Last to Know should be communication-communication-communication. And just what can happen when it gets totally messed up all the way around. When the miscommunication starts early and seems to be reinforced and last forever. Preconceived ideas grow until they have a life of their own and you can’t even remember anymore who started it or who is to blame, but it feels like they are set in concrete and can never be changed. When you spend your whole childhood, or your whole married life, or your whole work life, or really just your whole life believing things are a certain way, you are a certain way, a certain type of person and that others have a picture of you that you are positive is accurate – after all, they’ve told you over and over and over that’s how you are, right? – change is hard and maybe never happens at all.
And this is life in the Frost family. They all have their assigned roles and they are sure they’re right because that’s how they’ve always been. But life – messy, messy, life – happens. And happens quickly. What seemed right and destined to be and never-changing is suddenly shaken up.
As is always the case with one of Kristin Higgins’ books, I started out thinking I would read a few chapters and pick it up again later, but soon it was just one more chapter, and then I ended up staying up half the night to finish it. The characters are so complex and likeable/not likeable and I was so drawn into their story. I wanted things to smooth out for them, hoped it wasn’t too late for a fairy tale ending, but there was so much trauma and turmoil and heartache. Could it end?
Always the Last to Know is a marvelous story about mistakes and second chances and opening your eyes to what is really around you. Of course I loved it and highly recommend it. Thanks to Goodreads and Penguin Random House for providing an advance copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
I eagerly wait for Kristan to release a new book. Will I laugh? Will I choke up and pretend I have dust in my eyes? Will my heart hurt only to feel mushy five minutes later? You betcha.
This is told from four POV’s. Barb and John, and their daughters, Juliet and Sadie. After 50 years of marriage, Barb is ready for a divorce. She’s going to break the news but John goes out for a bike ride and is rushed to the hospital instead. Juliet and Sadie rush to their sides and the family quickly tries to figure out what to do in the aftermath.
Barb is hands down my favorite. She’s the “mature” woman I aspire to be. Hard-working, loving, snarky, and supportive. Is she perfect? No. But she’s classy and ambitious. And! Her best friend is a hoot!
I adore Kristan’s deft hand at story telling. Now I have to console myself with re-reads (which I’m not mad about) until the next one releases. In. A. Year.