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the one you're with

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.

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Paperback Available April 5, 2022

High-school sweethearts Mac and Edie Swan lead a seemingly picture-perfect life in the sleepy-sweet community of Spring Hill, near Mobile, Alabama. Edie is a respected interior designer, Mac is a beloved pediatrician, and they have a historic home on tree-lined Linden Avenue, two great kids, and an orange cat named Ramona. 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.

Industry & Author Praise

"Denton's fifth novel is a compelling beach read...a good recommendation for a family-friendly relationship drama."

—Booklist

"Reading a Lauren K. Denton book is like spending time with treasured friend. With her warmhearted Southern voice, she expertly guides readers along the achingly emotional path of a marriage in trouble in The One You're With. This poignant story touches on how the choices we make can shape a lifetime, for better or for worse, and serves as a reminder to never take love for granted. Fix yourself a tall glass of iced tea and settle in, because you'll have a hard time putting down this lovely, heartfelt novel."

—Heather Webber, author of Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe

Publishers Weekly calls The One You're With a "powerful, contemplative family saga."

"In The One You're With, author Lauren K. Denton dives headfirst into a complicated, tangled situation that shakes the foundation of one family's life as they're forced to reckon with both the past and the future. Denton asks the tough questions, and with great sensitivity and intuitiveness, she unfurls an insightful, emotional story of the impact of the decisions a husband and wife in the present day made two decades earlier. A complex, compelling, powerful story about the roads not taken, the seismic shifts that can happen in an instant, and the way that sometimes, the decisions of the past shape the future in ways we couldn't have imagined."

—Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Names and The Forest of Vanishing Stars

"Denton leaves no stone unturned as she explores how past decisions can change the course of one's future forever."

—Women.com

"Lauren Denton is a master not only of Southern fiction, but at capturing the nuance of complicated, messy relationships. This is one of those rare books that I devoured in less than 24 hours, yet didn't want to end."

—Colleen Oakley, USA Today bestselling author of You Were There Too

Buy Now From Your Favorite Bookseller

Available in Paperback April 5, 2022

Meet the Author

Lauren K Denton Min

Lauren K. Denton

Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren now lives with her husband and two young daughters in Homewood, just outside Birmingham. In addition to her fiction, she writes a monthly newspaper column about life, faith, and how funny (and hard) it is to be a parent. On any given day, she’d rather be at the beach with her family and a stack of books. Her debut novel, The Hideaway, is USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts bestseller. Her second novel, Hurricane Season, released in April, 2018, and was listed on BookPage's 2018 list of Most Anticipated Fiction.