Customer Reviews

The Love of Her Life (From the Bestselling Author of a Hopeless Romantic)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

A main character who is flighty, complains constantly and grates on the nerves; far too many irrelevant details which only clutter, rather than serve the story; and a plot which--for no apparent literary reason--jumps back and forth in time....these are all elements which made this book a chore for me to read.

I kept thinking it would get better, surely it would get better....but no, sadly, it really doesn't. 400 pages of whining and pointless retrospection. Finally though, finally I made it to the end of the book and the big scene I'd been waiting for, the climax every reader yearns to reads--what does the author do? She jumps right over that scene and ends the book with yet another bland boring scene. I felt positively cheated.

Sorrow to say, I would not recommend this book to anyone.

I tried hard to get into the main character, Kate, but kept getting annoyed at her whining ways; at times I wanted to just slap her and say "Grow up!" I also think the extreme wordiness made me need to be in a quiet, undistracted place to be able to focus on on the storytelling without losing my place and re-reading the same sentences over and over. The plot line is predictable and not realistic--I'd recommend skipping this one.

I'll be honest and say that it took a lot of effort to get through this book. While the story line is a good one, I found the writing to be a bit boring and predictable. I was expecting to be a little more entertained by it than I was. Overall it's not a bad book and it's definitely a light easy read but if you're looking for a sink your teeth in and get involved kind of read this is not it.

I had a very hard time relating to the character of Kate and the flipping back and forth between time periods made it tedious to read. While I enjoy reading great chick lit, this book just fell short for me!

While I would not write this author off, this book truly did not hold my interest in the slightest! I was hoping for a better story!

British heroine Kate Miller has grown fairly accustomed to her life in New York City, living with her mum and stepfather. But when her father's illness forces her to return to London, she meets up with all her old friends... and old flames. (And that includes the man who broke her heart a few years ago!)

I would describe this novel as light, plucky, chick lit, etc... however, I found it to be very arduous at times. It was an easy read, but it took me a LONG time to read it. I wasn't disinterested, exactly... but it felt like the author took a long time to tell a little story. It was difficult to jump into Kate's world and want to STAY in her world. For that, I had to shave off some stars. (Actually, I would have given it 3 1/2 stars if such a rating was possible)

Be warned that the novel whips back and forth through time--several times--with little warning. Personally, I think the story could have benefited from a little more proper chronology.

Having said that, the characters are pleasant and well-developed, despite some "dodgy" pacing. However, you MUST enjoy chick lit if you're going to give this a shot!

"The Love of Her Life" starts with the main character, Kate Miller, getting a phone call that her father in London is going to have surgery and that he would like to see Kate. So Kate, who came from London to New York City under mysterious circumstances, makes her first trip back to London in three years. The book follows Kate as she comes back and the story slowly reveals why she ran away from London. As the book goes on, Kate needs to decide where she needs to be in life.

I found the book very easy to get into and I liked the slow unraveling of the reason why Kate felt she needed to leave London. When it is revealed, there is a part that is a bit predictable and I could see it from a mile away but there's another part of the reason that I didn't see coming. I found the book to be very enthralling and I read it in two days. I liked the character of Kate and I was hoping everything would work out for her. There is also a great cast of secondary characters. Like Kate's upstairs neighbor in London, Mr. Allan. I would definitely recommend this book to chick lit readers and I'll definitely be reading Harriet Evan's other novels.

The book starts off in the present in NYC while the main character is in a mundane existence working at a boringly beneath her job (she sometimes arranges paper clips at it) and living with her formerly estranged mother and affectionate stepfather. She gets a call from her despised stepmother urging her to come visit her famous musician father in London after his kidney transplant operation. She left London, ran away rather, three years before and the reasons for this unfold in flashbacks and here the interest picks up in a story filled with love, love at first sight, betrayal, friendships, families, and two major cities. The real story is kept from us, the readers, and takes quite a while to unfold. It made me go from "ugh" to "hmmm, how did things get to this?" It's a good book, not a great one but it will probably get me to look up her other books. Drawbacks for me were the slow start and the heroine that I couldn't figure out was worth rooting for. Funnily enough a few of the other characters gave her very good references towards the end of the book making me feel even better about sticking with it. I think some readers might feel she is shallow and self-centered, but let's just say she has her human weaknesses but is a good person despite them. There is quirky humor through out, for example, musician father once classically elite, is working on a Barry Manilow album after other such popular successes. Other characters are well drawn and London comes across the better of the two cities with descriptions of walks through the city and stops at local hot spots and bumping into foreign tourists looking for "Diana's palace", these all make for a nice getaway.

As the story opens, Kate is living in New York with her mother and stepfather in their pricey apartment, working at an undemanding dead-end job, and having a social life that consists of sharing her parents' friends. The phone rings, and her stepmother informs Kate that her father has just had a kidney transplant and that she needs to return to London to visit him.

From here forward, we follow the story of how and why Kate fled from London to New York, and what happens when her father's illness forces her return to London.

On the plus side, the author writes well, there is more going on than just girl-finds-guy, and none of the characters think that life consists of drinking and buying shoes. Despite this, I found my attention flagging at times. I couldn't quite understand why Kate acted as she did, and I think the ex-boyfriend and potential boyfriend characters were under-developed. I couldn't understand what made Kate fall for them, especially the key male character. Kate herself is supposed to be a "geek", but did not exhibit many characteristics that I associate with geekiness. Perhaps she was edited to be more mainstream.

The story of Kate's prior life is told in flashbacks interspersed at relevant points of the "current" story. Although I'm not sure there's a better way to tell this story, I found myself skipping around in the book to read the events in a more chronological order. The back-and-forth of the flashbacks was jarring for me and pulled me out of the story.

Nevertheless, "The Love of her Life" was an enjoyable read, if not a fantastic one.

I am having a hard time figuring out the correct words to describe this book: interesting, predictable, lackluster? These are the only ones that come to mind. After reading "The Love of Her Life", I was disappointed in the obvious foreshadowing, lack of attachment to the main character, and over description of the settings. But there is something that drove me to keep reading, some unknown force that wanted to know what would happen next. Although I could generally guess what that "happen next" was going to be, there were times in the book when I was moved by the events taking place. As far as "chick lit" goes, this one is romantically unbelievable and obvious, but if you are looking for that light beach read, this very well may be your cup of tea.

I have to 100% completely agree with the review that Emereld2 wrote. I wish I would have read the review she wrote prior to reading the book.

But here is my review...
First, I very much dislike books that go back and forth between places and time; not only is it hard to follow just based on time but it's not fun trying to remember what happened while she was living in which places in the book. Also, the author jumps back and forth so much that I should have taken notes while reading this book in order to follow along. I think that I would have had a better chance at following it if I would have read it faster; but in all honesty I couldn't read it that fast because it was so frustrating. It took me a few weeks to even muster up the time to want to read it, I would have rather done housework (then I ran out of things to do around here). :(

Secondly, I found the book to be SOOO predictable. Before I read what happened, I knew what happened without thinking twice. I know that most books are predictable and I don't mind that, but the author was trying to make this horrible event that took place that much worse by not telling us about it til we were half way thru the book. Any person with common sense knew what it was and would just be bitter they wasted time reading the book to get there.

Lastly, Kate, the main character, basically sucks as a person and shouldn't have a book dedicated to such a crap character. She was a bad friend to every person she encountered on so many levels.

Sorry if this review is a little harsh ... but I feel so strongly about this book, I wasted so much time reading it and trying to follow along to end up hating the book so much.

If you want a good book by Harriet Evans read A Hopeless Romantic. I read that book so quickly and LOVED it!!!