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A review by notorious_nat
Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey
3.0
With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for offering an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
This novel is advertised as a searing love story, which I think is not quite right. It chronicles the lives of Pip and Milly who, for the most time, are completely separate. As such, I found it difficult to connect with, or understand, their love of one another; nor did I really understand their actions throughout the decades as we follow their highs and lows. I would have liked some more background information, especially for Milly. At times, the prose flowed and found myself getting lost in hours of reading; and elsewhere in the novel I was bored, wanting to skip long sections of irrelevant descriptions or scenes. There was also something about the writing -perhaps the insistence on referring to the main characters as he/she (as opposed to their names), which, when other characters were involved, ended up being really confusing- that irked me. I can see why some people love this novel, it’s just not for me.
This novel is advertised as a searing love story, which I think is not quite right. It chronicles the lives of Pip and Milly who, for the most time, are completely separate. As such, I found it difficult to connect with, or understand, their love of one another; nor did I really understand their actions throughout the decades as we follow their highs and lows. I would have liked some more background information, especially for Milly. At times, the prose flowed and found myself getting lost in hours of reading; and elsewhere in the novel I was bored, wanting to skip long sections of irrelevant descriptions or scenes. There was also something about the writing -perhaps the insistence on referring to the main characters as he/she (as opposed to their names), which, when other characters were involved, ended up being really confusing- that irked me. I can see why some people love this novel, it’s just not for me.