Kristan Higgins (Life and Other Inconveniences; Anything for You) does a wonderful job encapsulating the messy, mostly loving, complicatedness of family life in Always the Last to Know. Sadie Frost has a pretty good life. She's an art teacher in New York City, she has a boyfriend she thinks she wants to marry and she's fairly happy. Obviously, her life isn't as good as that of her elder sister, Juliet, who is a successful architect with a handsome British husband and two perfect daughters. Juliet has always been the favorite of Barb, their get-things-done mother, while Sadie is much happier being the beloved child of her low-key father, John.
John and Barb have muddled along for 50 years, both bored in their marriage, and each blatantly favoring one of their two daughters, but it's all working well enough--until John has a stroke. Then Barb discovers John was having an affair. Sadie is furious that she has to move home to Connecticut to help care for John when Barb and Juliet won't. Meanwhile, the apparently perfect Juliet is having panic attacks in her closet.
The three Frost women are dynamic characters, and as they each face challenges in their personal and work lives, Higgins explores the knotty nature of modern womanhood. Lighthearted but nuanced, Always the Last to Know is an enjoyable read that is sure to appeal to fans of Susan Mallery or Elin Hilderbrand. --Jessica Howard, bookseller at Bookmans, Tucson, Ariz.