Skip to content

Release Day Review! IF YOU MUST KNOW by Jamie Beck (Potomac Point #1)

If You Must Know banner

Title: If You Must Know
Author: Jamie Beck
Release Date: June 1, 2020
Publisher: Montlake

Sisters Amanda Foster and Erin Turner have little in common except the childhood bedroom they once shared and the certainty each feels that her way of life is best. Amanda follows the rules—at the school where she works; in her community; and as a picture-perfect daughter, wife, and mother-to-be. Erin follows her heart—in love and otherwise—living a bohemian lifestyle on a shoestring budget and honoring her late father’s memory with a passion for music and her fledgling bath-products business.

The sisters are content leading separate but happy lives in their hometown of Potomac Point until everything is upended by lies that force them to confront unsettling truths about their family, themselves, and each other. For sisters as different as these two, building trust doesn’t come easily—especially with one secret still between them—but it may be the only way to save their family.

If You Must Know cover
add to Goodreads button

Review:

I read this in a day–couldn’t put it down!

If You Must Know is a story about sisters and families and about starting over when things don’t go/aren’t going in the way you expected. There’s a touch of romance (a very light touch, but it’s sweet) and a slight mystery that puts one of the sisters in a bit of danger (also pretty low key) but really it’s the story of how sisters Erin and Amanda had a pretty crappy weekend separately that ended up in the end bringing them closer together than they had ever been before.

Both sisters were sympathetic characters–with the alternating chapters, you got to see things first from Amanda’s point of view and then from Erin’s; each time even if you’d been a little exasperated with one of the sisters, once you saw things from her perspective things made more sense (even if you personally still wouldn’t have made the same choices they did). The secondary characters are fleshed out nicely as well–Erin and Amanda’s mom, their brother Kevin, Eli, Hannah and her bakery, and Mo (OMG, Mo!) all had something to add to the story.

I put the book down with a smile on my face–even not knowing who the next book(s) will be about (this one is billed as the first book in a new series) I am *more* than ready to go back to Potomac Point–especially if it includes a trip to Sugar Momma 😉

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Jamie Beck author photo

About the author:

Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Jamie Beck’s realistic and heartwarming stories have sold more than two million copies. She is a two-time Booksellers’ Best Award finalist and a National Readers’ Choice Award winner, and critics at Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist have respectively called her work “smart,” “uplifting,” and “entertaining.” In addition to writing novels, she enjoys hitting the slopes in Vermont and Utah and dancing around the kitchen while cooking. Above all, she is a grateful wife and mother to a very patient, supportive family. Fans can get exclusive excerpts, inside scoops, and be eligible for birthday gift drawings by subscribing to her newsletter at http://eepurl.com/b7k7G5. She also loves interacting with everyone on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JamieBeckBooks.

Social Media:
Website – https://jamiebeck.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/JamieBeckBooks/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/writerjamiebeck
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8020971.Jamie_Beck

Published in4.5 starsABook reviewsBOOKS!new releaserelease dayspotlight