A review by hevreadsherbooks
Wives and Lovers by Jane Elizabeth Varley
3.0
I went into this book expecting a Bridget Jones style story, complete with the warm fuzzies and silly smiles that you get from a chic-lit. Which is what I got for the most part.
I found the story to be a bit of a slog, it was hard to get through and there were parts of the story that were not needed, such as lengthy descriptions of the house and its décor. I found David to be particularly annoying, and I suspect that this was deliberate, so the story arc with Victoria was definitely a highlight for me, even though I would have preferred to have been shown the final plan rather than seeing the end result. I also hated the description of her enduring sex as an illustration of how bad the relationship was between them, as I felt that it was overused and altogether too descriptive.
Annie was another character that I enjoyed reading about, with her development through grief and coming out of the other side. Her story was something to be enjoyed, and was definitely the chic lit element of the story, although again there were elements of her story that I felt were unnecessary and added very little to the overall plotline other than as a character introduction.
Finally, Clara and Tom (and this may get a bit spoliery). I canrnot believe how this storyline ended. It was completely out of place in the narrative and, although it mostly ends well, I am so annoyed at Tom and the fact that there is the hint that he has got away with it. His punishment is to live forever as a hypocrite, and it is different for men, isn't it? So we can assume that the relationship will fall apart sometime in the future as it has a huge lie going right down the centre of it. Considering everyone else got a hopeful resolution, this was such a downer and I think a huge waste of a potential storyline.
There were times that I was not sure if I would complete this book, but I am glad that I did (Tom aside). An overall ok read.
I found the story to be a bit of a slog, it was hard to get through and there were parts of the story that were not needed, such as lengthy descriptions of the house and its décor. I found David to be particularly annoying, and I suspect that this was deliberate, so the story arc with Victoria was definitely a highlight for me, even though I would have preferred to have been shown the final plan rather than seeing the end result. I also hated the description of her enduring sex as an illustration of how bad the relationship was between them, as I felt that it was overused and altogether too descriptive.
Annie was another character that I enjoyed reading about, with her development through grief and coming out of the other side. Her story was something to be enjoyed, and was definitely the chic lit element of the story, although again there were elements of her story that I felt were unnecessary and added very little to the overall plotline other than as a character introduction.
Finally, Clara and Tom (and this may get a bit spoliery). I canrnot believe how this storyline ended. It was completely out of place in the narrative and, although it mostly ends well, I am so annoyed at Tom and the fact that there is the hint that he has got away with it. His punishment is to live forever as a hypocrite, and it is different for men, isn't it? So we can assume that the relationship will fall apart sometime in the future as it has a huge lie going right down the centre of it. Considering everyone else got a hopeful resolution, this was such a downer and I think a huge waste of a potential storyline.
There were times that I was not sure if I would complete this book, but I am glad that I did (Tom aside). An overall ok read.