Customer Reviews

Lust for Life

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The back cover makes this book sound like an entirely different book than it actually is. Whoever wrote the synopsis for the back cover should be fired because it sounds nothing like the book that I read, except for maybe one or two things that did happen in the book. It makes it sound like it's mainly about two sisters but it's actually about one sister and her sexual exploits with a hot guy and another sister thrown in every 10 pages or so.

Martha is the main character in here. We get to read how perfect she and her life is for a little while. Then her husband leaves her and the whining about that goes on for quite a long time. Nothing interesting happens in that time except for Martha falling apart. Then Martha goes to a salsa club and meets Jack. Then the mind-blowing sex they have is written in every detail several times. In some ways, I have a hard time believing that Martha is the best mother, like Adele Parks wants us to believe. I mean, it seems Martha is out every night with Jack and when they're not out at different places, then they're having sex all over Martha's house with Martha's two children and Martha's sister in the house. Of course we have a couple scenes thrown in so we think Martha is just the best.

We also have what seems to be the same phone conversations between Martha and her ex husband, Michael. Those conversations consist of Martha whining and asking why he left and Michael is always distant and snobby. It got to be old really fast. Yet another thing that kept on repeating was the conversation between Eliza and Martha, in which Eliza would say how Jack was just going to break Martha's heart and Martha going on and on about how he makes her feel young and she won't fall in love with him and just how he's the perfect guy. I wish whoever edited this book would have cut some of those conversations out because it was just the same thing over and over and the reader only needs to read it once to get how Eliza stands about Jack.

I really didn't care for the character of Martha, if you couldn't tell already. At first, she just seems too rigid and then after Jack, she acts like a teenager even though she still has responsibities. There was just nothing for me to connect with and therefore I didn't root for her at all. The book also goes on and on about how she feels and after awhile, I just started to scan the pages until I found anything semi-interesting to read.

Eliza, the other sister, gets very little space in this book. It's almost like her story is an afterthought. In the beginning she is shown as the wild child of the two sisters. But then Eliza decides it's time to grow up and so she dumps the guy who she feels is to immature for her. The rest of the book, Eliza is pretty much the baby-sitter to Martha's children and the person Adele Parks' puts in when she needs someone to argue with Martha. Before and when there's a lull in Martha's sexploits, Eliza goes on a few dates but the men she goes out with are all wrong. There's really no middle to Eliza's story-just a beginning and an end.

I would not recommend this book to anyone. "In her shoes" is a much better book about the relations between sisters. "Lust for life" or "The other woman's shoes" as it was published in the UK, is just a wannabe compared to Jennifer Weiner's "In her shoes". I also have "Larger than Life" by Adele Parks, which I haven't read yet but I'm hoping it's quite a bit better than "Lust for Life".

This book had me scratching my head, wondering how it got published. There was nothing to sustain it for the first two hundred pages apart from two events, Eliza leaves her lover and her sister Martha gets dumped by her husband. So I waded through that bit hoping for something a bit more interesting than descriptions of Martha cleaning up after the kids and drinking her woes away and Eliza going on dull dates with dull men.

But the only thing that happened after that was that Martha met a two dimensional prat called Jack who had a big penis and that apparently was the cure all for being heartbroken. After that I stopped reading, because frankly I was bored. Sorry Adele, your characters are about as believable as those in a day time soap.

Ok, I realize novels aren't necessarily realistic. And perfect-looking marriages do break up unexpectedly and for no apparent reason. But how often does a perfect, gorgeous man willing to take on a divorcee and her two small children show up immediately? Even if it happens, it's not interesting. Even worse is the other sister's dilemma... she wants a mature responsible husband instead of her flighty Peter Pan boyfriend. In the end she gives up and settles for the boyfriend, who has not changed at all. She apparently needs more self-esteem or she would not accept the unacceptable. Does anyone learn or grow in this book? It seems Martha doesn't have to, and Eliza just regresses. A depressing book, which doesn't ring true to real life.

Eliza is envious of her sister's life - Martha has it all - the loving husband, the adorable children, the mortgage, the pension plan... When she dumps her musician boyfriend Greg to find a more appropriate grown up man and comes to cry on Martha's shoulder, she discovers that Martha's husband Michael has left her. The house in shambles, and Martha in shock, Eliza moves in the help her sister make the transition to singledom. But Martha assumes this is just a phase and Michael will be back. When the sisters venture out on the dating scene, Eliza has a hard time finding a new relationship, while Martha jumps right into one with charismatic Jack Hope.

Parks has penned an interesting story about a woman who finds herself suddenly single, but it fails to fulfill the reader. Rather than empowerment, Martha wallows in self-pity waiting for her husband to return, even while engaged in a relationship with Jack. While it is billed as a story about both sisters finding love, this is primarily Martha's story. Eliza and the male characters were basically one dimensional and their characters never fully developed. Eliza's many blind dates should've been a focal point. As it was, each was relegated to a couple paragraphs - definitely a missed opportunity. Parks has penned much better.

Very slow moving in the beginning. The main character, Martha explains her feelings and thought processes . . . redundantly. I thought that the 2 sisters would actually be switching places . . . like twins. But they only switched lives metaphorically. Generally predictable with a completely unrealistic Hollywood ending. The only thing it had going for it . . . the English slang. But the word "whilst" seems to be overused.

I enjoyed reading this book, but it was just so predictable. I kept thinking that the author was going to stick in some sort of plot twist, but it never happened. I liked reading about the two sisters and I liked the descriptions of their neighborhoods in London. But, jeez, to get dumped by your husband and then fall immediately into a absolutely perfect relationship with the very first guy you meet. It was just too perfect.

Raising two infants (two and a half year old Mathew and ten month old Maisie) is hard work, but Martha loves being a mother and wife to Michael though at times she covets the freedom that her sister Eliza enjoys. Thirty years old Eliza lives with Greg the musician in his flat, but envies her sibling as she wants marriage and children with a man whose vocabulary was a shade wider than that of her nephew.

Eliza dumps Greg fleeing to her sister only to find Martha heartbroken because Michael has left her. After a weeping fit, both siblings agree they must enter the dating game though their goals vary; Martha wants the F fling with no commitments while Eliza desires the marital thing with total commitments. Martha meets Jack who wants more from her while Eliza goes through a horde of men seeking her Mr. Perfect husband. Neither has found love not even comfort with the hunks they have bagged.

LUST FOR LIFE uses humor and sex to somewhat mute the overall serious tone of the story line that focuses on what one desires in life and relationships that enhance or impede obtaining these aspirations. Martha and Eliza are fabulous sisters both yearning to a degree to have what the other possesses yet clearly love and care for one another. While the supporting male cast augments insight into the sisters, the complex relationship between Martha and Eliza keeps the tale from spinning into an inane chick lit throwaway as each sibling walks in the other's moccasins.

Harriet Klausner

Although the plot is dead-on predictable, I still found it to be an enjoyable, heartwarming and funny story. I liked both sisters, Martha and Eliza, and what they went through was fairly realistic and relatable. I would definitely read other titles by this author in the future.