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elenajohansen's review against another edition
1.0
DNF @page 40. I wanted to stop sooner, but I try to read at least 10% of a book before I ditch it.
I didn't like the writing style. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. And two things revealed in the story early on bothered the *#$@ out of me.
First: the "happy couple" origin story is a major red flag. Archie meets Liza at her own engagement party, and over the next ten days he woos her away from her fiance. Then they go on a two-week vacation together, presumably to bang like bunnies, then they get married. I'm guessing this whirlwind romance is supposed to impress upon me how "passionate" Archie is? But really, stealing someone's betrothed is terrible, and Liza's pretty terrible for going along with it, and I'm thoroughly impressed alright--WITH HOW WRONG THIS IS.
If there were some sort of mitigating circumstances around her original fiance, like he's abusive and she's trapped in that relationship, or it's a sham marriage for money or ANYTHING like that, that would be one thing, but for all we the readers know at that point, he and Liza were perfectly happy together before Archie showed up.
Second: if that near-miss adultery wasn't enough, one of Liza's (much younger but still adult) coworkers is depicted as fawning over her constantly. She acknowledges in POV narrative that he's got a crush on her, and tries to tell herself it's harmless flirting, and she even flirts back--but whatever we're supposed to believe she thinks, the whole scene just screams incipient adultery to me.
ADULTERY IS NOT INHERENTLY INTERESTING. I WILL KEEP SHOUTING THIS IN REVIEWS WHENEVER I SEE IT UNTIL THE WORLD PAYS ATTENTION. I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT IT.
So I'm not.
Maybe I'm wrong and Liza doesn't cheat, but even so, I don't feel like I'm missing out on a good book if I stop now, because I already didn't like it.
I didn't like the writing style. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. And two things revealed in the story early on bothered the *#$@ out of me.
First: the "happy couple" origin story is a major red flag. Archie meets Liza at her own engagement party, and over the next ten days he woos her away from her fiance. Then they go on a two-week vacation together, presumably to bang like bunnies, then they get married. I'm guessing this whirlwind romance is supposed to impress upon me how "passionate" Archie is? But really, stealing someone's betrothed is terrible, and Liza's pretty terrible for going along with it, and I'm thoroughly impressed alright--WITH HOW WRONG THIS IS.
If there were some sort of mitigating circumstances around her original fiance, like he's abusive and she's trapped in that relationship, or it's a sham marriage for money or ANYTHING like that, that would be one thing, but for all we the readers know at that point, he and Liza were perfectly happy together before Archie showed up.
Second: if that near-miss adultery wasn't enough, one of Liza's (much younger but still adult) coworkers is depicted as fawning over her constantly. She acknowledges in POV narrative that he's got a crush on her, and tries to tell herself it's harmless flirting, and she even flirts back--but whatever we're supposed to believe she thinks, the whole scene just screams incipient adultery to me.
ADULTERY IS NOT INHERENTLY INTERESTING. I WILL KEEP SHOUTING THIS IN REVIEWS WHENEVER I SEE IT UNTIL THE WORLD PAYS ATTENTION. I DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT IT.
So I'm not.
Maybe I'm wrong and Liza doesn't cheat, but even so, I don't feel like I'm missing out on a good book if I stop now, because I already didn't like it.
nocto's review against another edition
3.0
I've read Joanna Trollope's novels for years and generally think I liked the earlier ones more than the later books. When I was adding all my reading & book records to Goodreads & LibraryThing recently I was surprised to find this book popping up as unread as I thought I had read all of the earlier books at least. I expected to suddenly remember the story part of the way through and realise that I had read it before but I'm pretty certain this one was new to me. Or completely forgotten which is just as good!
Despite reading all of them I always start off these books thinking they are going to be rubbish... they are full of characters who appear at first glance to be rather stereotyped examples of the upper middle classes, people with big houses, good jobs, stable relationships, long family histories verging on the aristocratic, perfect children effortlessly kept in private schools etc. But what I enjoy is that things are never quite as they seem and that Trollope plays with the stereotypes and rather makes fun of her characters along the way. She nearly always writes about women and despite the title this book is mostly about the women surrounding the men. I never did figure out which man was supposed to be the passionate one, there are two obvious possibilities as far as I can see; and Liza Logan, wife of one of them, and daughter-in-law of the other was a far more interesting character than either.
Published in 1990 this feels rather like a period piece now.
Despite reading all of them I always start off these books thinking they are going to be rubbish... they are full of characters who appear at first glance to be rather stereotyped examples of the upper middle classes, people with big houses, good jobs, stable relationships, long family histories verging on the aristocratic, perfect children effortlessly kept in private schools etc. But what I enjoy is that things are never quite as they seem and that Trollope plays with the stereotypes and rather makes fun of her characters along the way. She nearly always writes about women and despite the title this book is mostly about the women surrounding the men. I never did figure out which man was supposed to be the passionate one, there are two obvious possibilities as far as I can see; and Liza Logan, wife of one of them, and daughter-in-law of the other was a far more interesting character than either.
Published in 1990 this feels rather like a period piece now.
alisiakae's review against another edition
3.0
Nice, entertaining read, albeit a little desperate at the end.
tendercreatures's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
slow-paced
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