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The Couple Upstairs took a while to get going, at some point, I considered not finishing as I was unclear about the author's point. Eventually, it became clear. There was a lot of build-up and padding, as there were several PoVs, some unnecessary.

The main character is forty-year-old, Mel, a recently divorced mother of two. She embodies the cliche (which is a cliche because it is true) of the stressed, busy, working mother. Things become "interesting" when a guy who looked very much like a man Mel loved and dated moved into the apartment upstairs. He's much younger, in his early twenties, full of confidence and swagger. He's taken over the lease of someone and keeps throwing parties and having all sort of people over. Mel is fascinated and repulsed at the same time. He's bringing back memories of times past. We occasionally hear Fin's thoughts, they're not particularly interesting, which I guess match his persona.

Then an English young woman moves in with Flynn. Her name is Lori. She's pretty and not very self-assured. Mel is watching them and doesn't like what she's seeing. Lori occasionally babysits Mel's kids which allows them to become closer.

Then, Lori disappears. Where is she, what's happened to her?

While the novel was breezy, the ending and the epilogue greatly redeemed this novel, even though I generally don't care for epilogues.

samanthajemima's review against another edition

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3.0

I was looking forward to reading this after her last book I give my marriage a year, but found this lacking in many ways. It has taken me many Manny weeks to red it, the second half of the book was slightly more gripping. The characters I found hard to care about was not vested in the outcome.

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