If Only is a story about what someone's life would have been if the choices made were different. A woman in her sixties, retired, with children yet living in her house feels tired of her life, her daily dealings with her husband, children, and grandchildren. The fact that she so much wants to know how her life could have been if she had followed another path, in fact, denies her to live in full her life and make sure that her choices were valid and full of joy and pleasure. Living regretting the choices you did not make is the worst path one can take, there should be regret for choices that did not work out but even so made someone learn a lesson.
I downloaded a free copy of this book through NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

Wonderful story of a woman who wonders What If? We all wonder that sometimes and reading this is pure enjoyment! We can actually be a part of the What If. Fascinating and thought provoking.

If Only, by Judith Arnold, is the story of a 60-something year old woman and a bit of her family drama. Ruth is looking forward to an empty nest when her teenaged granddaughter announces that she plans to live with her grandparents after her mother's upcoming marriage. Ruth begins to look back and thing how her life would've been different "if only". Will Ruth come to love and appreciate the life she has? Read the book to find out!

If Only is a thoughtful and well developed book. Judith Arnold’s characters read as real people. The main character, a retired music educator, ponders what her life would have been like had she chosen another path and made different decisions. It is an interesting read even though fairly predictable.

Ruth Singer is 65. She's a retired music teacher, who really loves to play piano, her morning walks and the peace of a house for herself at least. Her family is an average one, a nice husband and three grown up kids, and some grandchildren... Overall, she's living a steady life, with it's ups and downs but mostly stable. So stable that at one moment, she begins to wonder about her life choices, the consequences, and roads not taken. WIll that wondering take her somewhere? Will that wondering bring something new into her life? Will that wondering change anything about her present?
Wow! I loved this story.
The author did a phenomenal job with the characters: they are beautifully complex.
I've read a lot of Judith Arnold's stories and I appreciate that she's finding stories to develop mature characters with the same intensity she created young bright ones back then. Like the best things in life, her books are getting better as time goes by.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I read a lot of Judith Arnold's romance novels in the 1980s and 90s, but both of us having gotten older. These days, love stories with blissful HEAs are nice but not very relevant to our lives anymore. So Arnold has moved on to write about what she knows now, and I can definitely relate.

If Only portrays a 60+ year old, retired school music teacher who just wants to be left alone in peace. Unfortunately, her daughter and teenaged granddaughter live with Ruth and her husband Barry, and her son has just announced that he and his wife are separating because he is in love with a younger woman. Her other daughter is a therapist who has expert advice for everyone, despite the fact that her kids are running wild.

As Ruth tries to figure out the appropriate amount of involvement with her grown children's problems, she also looks back at the choices she has made in her life and imagines how her life could have been different. This isn't Sliding Doors; Ruth doesn't magically exist in two different timelines. The "if only" passages are brief fantasies about where the road not taken might have led - if Ruth and Barry had bought a different house, if she had learned to ski when her friend invited her on a family trip, if she had taken piano lessons from a better teacher...and in her fantasies, she is usually rich, famous, and/or trouble-free.

Many of the "what if's" relate to Ruth's high school years in the 1970s, when she briefly played keyboards in a garage rock band, and tried to control her crush on the cute lead singer. The flashback chapters are lively and fun to read; who can resist a nice Jewish girl wearing bell-bottomed jeans, playing gigs with four guys, and singing about getting wasted?

But although Ruth eventually makes peace with the way her life turned out, the tone is resigned and not necessarily upbeat. Several plotlines about her daughter and granddaughter remain unresolved, and frankly Barry is a sexist jerk who lets Ruth do all of the housework and heavy emotional lifting. The ending suggests that everyone lands where they're supposed to be, so you might as well enjoy it. Nice for Ruth's peace of mind, but this reader wanted something better for her. I guess I'm still looking for that HEA fantasy, even if Arnold has learned that reality is not a romance novel.

ARC provided by Net Galley in exchange for objective review.

I enjoyed this book. We all wonder how our life would be different if only we’d made a different choice, even if your life is happy. Ruth wonders what would’ve happened if only she’d run away with her high school sweetheart, if only she had continued with her high school rock band, if only she and her husband had bought the old victorian house instead.

Ruth wonders these things while dealing with her 3 grown kids not acting so grown and her teenage granddaughter living with them. The chaos of normal life.

Sometimes the grass can seem greener but the reality is it probably is not. Wondering about a different path is fun to think about but might not be as shining as it is in your daydreams. It’s also refreshing to have a protagonist is her 60s!

Thanks to NetGalley and Story Plant for the opportunity to read this book.