What do You think about The Other Side Of The Story (2008)?
Gemma is hilarious and Jojo is fabulous, but Lily is just self-centred and boring. I don't know how but Keyes makes me desperately sorry for Jojo stuck as a mistress and of course you feel for Gemma as life seemingly crumbles. But Lily just annoyed me with her continually dithering about how horrible life is. Of course you won't have many friends when you steal one if their boyfriends (every one knows you never dip your toes in that water!). And really your life isn't do bad - beautiful child, loving partner & book published! It's a veritable check list! But then she grew a pair (sorry for the expression - so unlike me but I was rather inspired by Jojo's hard talking American ways) and I liked her again. As did the other two just in time for me not to throw the book down in frustration. Happy endings all round! But you expect nothing less in this genre.My only question to the author would be this: did you realise as you were panning Lily and Gemma's books that you were also writing a bunch of unrealistic nonsense in the same genes as their's?
—Hannah
This was an easy and thoroughly enjoyable read. In true Marian style she never fails to disappoint. It made me laugh out loud and want to cry as well as give both Gemma and Lily a hug at times. It was a quite down to earth story that I think many people will be able to relate to. I could see in my head the story playing out and it was like the characters were actually my friends and I knew them. I liked how we got the characters individual stories and when intertwined they were also easy to follow. The links and characters were so believable and really easy to connect with. I found myself changing sides more than once and feeling sorry for characters that I thought I wouldn’t have actually liked. At times I forgot I was reading a book and could easily have been sat having a coffee with my friend as part of the story and it would have just flowed and fit in. It was just an easy relaxed read that I could be a part of. I loved the fact that although it seemed like I could guess what was going to happen there was a few curveballs that meant it wasn’t quite as predictable as I initially thought.I highly recommend this to anyone it was a fab read, thoroughly enjoyable and quite uplifting.
—Sarah
I do so enjoy Marian Keyes' books; they're thick and full of real people and a combination of everyday and extraordinary circumstances, and I am always at least curious about how things will come out, if not actively caring. This one involved three protagonists, and the bookjacket blurb drew a few links between them, and I expected there to be a big encounter between the three of them, but they seemed never to be in the same room at the same time. It read like three books loosely knitted together into a single novel, with publishing being the unifying thread. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but the "only sort of" linking didn't quite work for me. It didn't feel as polished as some of her other stuff, and the varying POV's (two first-person, and one third-person) felt awkward in some ways.
—Wendy
