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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I loved The Love of Her Life, 7 July 2008
I had this on pre-order from Amazon as I'd loved GOING HOME and HOPELESS ROMANTIC, but this is definitely Harriet Evans's best novel yet. It's as witty and warm as her debut, as romantic as her second, but somehow this is more accomplished and grown-up. I even cried.
Kate is living in New York & running from her past. Something made her flee her former life in London three years ago, and The Love of Her Life takes you back to find out why. The flashbacks to 'This Life' era London are brilliantly done - they start as light nostalgia for those post-university entry level job days & before long you're utterly gripped as you race to the end to find out what went so horribly wrong.
Despite Evans's trademark humour, it's a heartwrenching read at times, so thank goodness for the happy (but not implausible) ending. I'm putting her next novel on pre-order right now.
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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Missed my tube stop!, 11 July 2008
I have read all Harriet Evans's books so far and I thought it would be difficult for her to improve on A Hopeless Romantic. But she has.
I raced through the first half of The Love of Her Life, desperate to understand Kate, and to get to the bottom of the mystery around the tragedy that had made her run away to a new life in Manhattan. Harriet Evans does this part of the novel masterfully, keeping the reader on tenterhooks, switching cleverly between the past and the present, so you keep wondering all the time how, why, when??? It is edge of the bed stuff - I actually exclaimed out loud when I found out the big crisis event that changed all the characters lives.
The book has all the ingredients you want from classy commercial fiction - the lightness of touch, the evocation of place (you can smell the seasons in The Love of Her Life), the emotional core of deep friendships that stand up to everything life throws at them, and of course a man you are desperate for your heroine to love and be with. But the best thing in this novel is Kate, the heroine herself. This is where you discover more wisdom, experience and deftness of touch in the writing. Kate is such an adorable and believable mixture of insecurity and vulnerabilities whilst clearly being one of the most loveable, clever people around. You want to be her friend and once you meet her you are on her side and that is where you stay for the rest of the story. You laugh, you cry, and you believe in it all, because it is never predictable.
Harriet Evans is the true heiress to Marian Keyes's throne.
More please!
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More please, 22 Aug 2008
This is the first book I've read by Harriet Evans, and I loved it. I want to read her other novels now. This book cleverly switches between past and present, London and New York, and tells Kate's story. I was gripped early on, wanting to know what happened to Kate in the past, to make her as she is when we first meet her (sad and distant). You can tell she has been hurt, and little hints here and there keep you compelled. I guessed something of what happened to her, but one incident really surprised me. As the plot unravels you come to understand Kate more and more. The sense of place, along with Evans' description and insights, play a major part in making this a wonderful book. It's poignant, and hard hitting in parts, but there is also joy to lighten the mood.
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