I picked this up from the B&N clearance table to read on an Amtrak trip. I'm on page 122 and I really have no intention of finishing it. The main characters are too inconsistent for me. They just aren't that cohesive. They don't make sense. Also, the switch between narrators every few chapters doesn't really flow. I don't think the author handles it very well.There is one sentence that stood out to me because it describes exactly how I sometimes feel lately:But some days I have to force myself t...

Cassie is slender, clever, charismatic, successful. The one flaw in her perfect life may be her marriage. Her sister Lizbet is plumper, plainer, dreamier. An aspiring journalist, she's stuck writing embarrassing articles on sex for Ladz Mag. Her one achievement is her relationship with Tim, who thinks she's amusing and smart. Despite Cassie being the favored child, she and Lizbet have always been best friends. But then Lizbet gets pregnant. Forced apart by mistakes not their own, enticed by new

Growing up with two sisters, I always enjoy books about a sisterly relationship. And the tag line on the front of the book 'they were the best of friends, they were the worst of friends' sums it up perfectly.This book is about two sisters, Cassie and Lizbet. Lizbet gets pregnant accidentally and can't wait to tell her sister. However, Cassie reacts badly and refuses to discuss Lizbet's baby. Lizbet doesn't know that Cassie has been trying for a baby for over a year. Lizbet tragically loses her b...

I agree that A Tale of Two Sisters is not the normal Maxted style. It lacks the flair and outwardly hilarious moments that her others did. However, this is not an entirely bad thing. Maxted creates characters that I love. Cassie is younger, prettier, more career-oriented, and "harder" in that she doesn't show her emotions. Lizbet is older, average looking, but really happy no matter what her situation is, care-free and very emotional. They are almost nearly completely opposites- which is normal

Two sisters, Lizbet and Cassie, alternately tell this story using the first person narrative voice. As I slowly came to know them and their backstory, I found A Tale of Two Sisters captivating enough to continue.However, at times, I would lose my way, as the story wended its way back and forth; occasionally, I had difficulty identifying who the narrator was at any given point. Sometimes chapters would identify the name of the narrator.Despite those issues, however, I did come to enjoy the ups an...

Women who haven't always gotten along with their sisters will probably relate to this. My sister and I hated each other for the first seventeen years or so, Finally my grandma's prediction came true and she became my best friend and the maid of honor at my wedding.To be honest with you, I read this about a year ago and don't remember much other then feeling one or both of them were being very insensitive to the other. I do remember enjoying it, though.

While this is chick lit, I always enjoy the way Anna Maxted weaves serious topics through her book. This book covers miscarriage, fertility issues and sibling differences. Miscarriage is so rarely mentioned in books I thought it was dealt with very well here and I was happy that it was not glossed over. However, the ending did feel a bit rushes and I'm not entirely sure if it should have had the ending it had.

I must say I was hoping for a humourous chick lit and instead all I got was the usual candy floss chick lit that I loathe. It wasn't funny, even when it was meant to be. The characters were so stereotyped and one dimensional. The one sisters emotional 'breakdown' made her even more one dimensional. The writer obviously tried to make it psychological and complex but failed miserably. I was expecting better.

I somehow read about 5 books in a row that dealt with pregnancy with out realizing. Maybe I should read what the books are about before I read them. There were moments in this book that I could truly relate to when one of the sisters was going through her pregnancy. The entire focus of the book isn't on pregnancy though, but the relationship between two sisters which I could also relate too.

Anna Maxted writes what would be classified as (Brit) chick lit, but her books always have a darker/deeper element than that genre would imply. This book, told from two perspectives (the "two sisters" of the title) deals with family dramas large and small, pregnancy, loss of children, and romantic relationship issues in a way that keeps you reading.

Anyone with a sister, or even a life-long best friend, will be absorbed by these characters. There are a couple of inconsistancies (where was the editor?), but they were minute and did not influence the overall power of this story of life, loss, and love.

Heh heh most of my friends won't like this fluffy book, but, because it deals with the relationship between two sisters, and has lots of messy family stuff in between, I enjoyed it. The older sister, Lisbet, falls pregnant unexpectedly (she didn't really want children - has a cat) but when she has a miscarriage at four months six days, she is devastated. I liked the way Maxted went on about what a wreck she was and how long and how badly she suffered, because it highlights an aspect of baby loss...

I had literally had this book on my bookshelf for a decade, unread. I was out of other books, so I decided to try this one. I thought it might be fun, but was a bit of a hard read. I didn't really like any of the characters and found it hard to get to know them. Paragraphs seemed to go off on a tangent and sometimes just skipped some of them. It wasn't terrible. It was alright enough to finish reading so I could see if everything worked out in the end, but I wanted to get it over and done with t...

You probably have to have kids, or want them, to appreciate this book fully. I don't so that part was unintetesting'ish. I didn't really like the characters either. It's an okay read but not as good as I expected from Anna Maxted.

I loved this book, some heavy topics, but insightful and ultimately uplifting. Rich, characters. I loved the way the author abbreviated prose by listing with commas. I thoroughly enjoyed reading and definitely recommend it!

Fairly boring book.

3.5. Good vacation read. I’m often drawn to stories about sisters, their similarities and differences. The adoption twist thrown in there was an interesting angle. Easy beach read.

For some reason, I have been picking up a lot of books on families lately. And all have been okay.This is about two sisters who are very close (I liked this aspect a lot). Older, more carefree is married and finds out she is pregnant. She originally didn't want kids, but changes her mind. She ends up having a miscarriage and it really effects her. Younger is the more serious sister, married as well. When she was 13 her parents tell her she was adopted and let her chose if she wants to tell Older...

Anna Maxted writes chick lit with a little more weight than is standard--her previous books have dealt with the death of a parent, date rape, and eating disorders. This one is no different, although it is a little harder to sum up the major "issue" of the book--or rather, maybe, there are more than one.Instead of one heroine we get two: Lizbet, fairly standard chick-lit heroine in the Bridget Jones mold, who is dealing with a miscarriage, and the fact that her parents always favored her perfect

I read this book after reading a Washington Post review. Since I agree with the Post review, I'm pasting a link for it here: http://www.powells.com/biblio/0525949739I would add that Maxted has a tendency to use adjectives instead of adverbs, but I got over that annoyance, since compelling and interesting characters are generally what make a book for me. However, Cassie, the adopted sister, was less believable to me than Lizbet, the sister who had a miscarriage. In fact, I found Lizbet's reaction...

How easy it would have been for Anna Maxted to have created two sisters that were stereotypical opposites. While one sister in this novel is a high-achieving career girl and the other is a more free-spirited journalist, I found the characters to be nicely three-dimensional, even the men (who are normally pretty flat in chick lit). The relationship between the sisters is complicated and becomes increasingly so during the progression of the novel, but is very believable. Anna Maxted tends to deal

I really enjoyed this book! It's told from the perspective of the two sisters in title - Lizbet and Cassie. Maxted did a nice job of giving each sister a unique voice when it was her turn to "tell the tale." This is a book that is full of life - the joy, sadness, disappointment, anger, fear, happiness, love, heartbreak, and devotion that comes with it. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially someone who as a sister, as I do. While I didn't seem my sister and my relationship within

This book surprised me. While just as punchy as Maxted's other efforts in chick lit, this is as much a warm, heartfelt book about responsibility and growing up as it is a dry comedy. The story takes turns between the narratives of two sisters, Lizbet and Cassie, as they struggle through their relationships (Lizbet is single but committed, whereas Cassie is married but questioning her vows), their jobs (editor and lawyer, respectively), and their feelings for each other just as a surprise, follow...

Ehhh. An alright read, nothing great but not horrible. It wasn't the Brit in the book that made it less than desirable, it was the vast amount of drama. I felt as though every chapter ended with some kind of dramatic event that was more intense than it should have been. I got whiplash from everything that happened.I don't think I will be passing this along to anyone I know. By the end of the book, I don't think anything else could have occurred to these sisters. You name it, they had it happen t...

This is not the usual chick-lit book, where the heroine is in search of her Mr. Right. Both protagonists - Cassie and Lizbet - are tied down, although not always happy about this fact.But the main issue in this book is rather a "baby". Wanting to get pregnant, getting pregnant by mistake, miscarriage, being adopted when a baby,... All this is the main theme of this novel, that is told from the points of view of both sisters alternately.It's an 'ok' book. The topic is a nice change from the usual...

First of all, I RARELY put a book down. I am putting this one down today. I had a hard time switching back and forth between Lizbet and Cassie's stories. The characters were too one-dimenstional to have two narrators in the first place. Also, I could not relate to the "loss" situation, etc., etc.If you are looking for a good read with dual narration, I suggest "The Post Birthday World" by Lionel Shriver. Now THAT is a chick-lit story that is well-narrated and keeps the pages turning.

Dreadful. I had read Rich Again and really liked it. This was not a good read. The characters did not stand out. I found the first main character Lizbet to be scattered brained and annoying. When she discovers that she is pregnant I had to stop about 5 pages after. All it became for those 5 pages were bantering about all the baby stuff you would need. I am in a situation where for the last 2 years everyone around me has been having babies and talking about babies nonstop so I had to put it down

I have been waiting for Anna Maxted to write another book for ages. Though not as brilliant as Getting Over It, I did really like this one. I have a sister myself, so I could relate to their relationship. I could see parts of my sister and myself in both of the main characters in this book.Like her other stuff, she tackles some pretty serious issues, but makes her stories entertaining and even funny. A great fun read - take it to the beach this summer!

Another Anna Maxted book to love! This novel seemed a little bit more serious than all of her previous ones. Maxted always writes about difficult subjects, and this book remains true to that, but, although her latest has its humorous points, I didn’t feel the same sarcastic undertone that I’ve noticed in her other novels. Still, it was a joy to read – so much so that, for two days straight, I couldn’t put it down. And now I’m out of Anna Maxted novels to read. Bummer.

Anna Maxted is a really funny British writer- but I don't think this is one of her better books. I think the best one is "Getting Over It." She's good at really comedic moments but she also writes in a serious issue as well. Usually the comedic outweighs the serious and it was in reverse on this book. It's not a bad thing in general if there are more serious issues than funny in books- but it wasn't what I was expecting from an Anna Maxted book.