After 10+ years of this book being a running joke at book club, I finally read it! Not what I thought. Not great. But definitely not terrible.

Surprisingly disappointing entry by O'Farrell, whose other work I love. Starts as a cheesy supernatural-ish thriller and then morphs into the story of a past relationship, which is pretty interesting until we find out what an unambiguously amoral creep the lead male character is. His actions are just inexplicable and left me frustrated by the whole thing, especially since they never really explained the ghosty stuff from the beginning.

A book that builds up a sinister atmosphere only to become more and more banal as it goes along. I enjoyed the tone as a whole; this is a novel about people who feel oddly divorced from both their bodies and their feelings, and the disjointed quality of the writing reflects that uncertainty. There are also interesting ideas floating around about the ways past love affairs can haunt us. But the protagonist doesn't have even a single discernible personality trait, the "love" she feels for the main...

Read because I've enjoyed several of Maggie O'Farrell's other novels. However I was disappointed by this one. The prose was fine - O'Farrell could definitely write, even at this early stage of her career - but the story just didn't hang together. I feel like I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen, for something to start making sense, and I never got there. The characters are flat, insipid, except for one, who is, in the words of another character, "a feckless emotional retard". T...

When I give a book a low rating I feel like I have to explain my reasons maybe its so others aren't put off by it I don't really know. but this book just made absolutely no sense to me. I could have gone my whole life and been fine never reading this book. one of the things that really throws me with this novel is on my cover it says "a novel of suspense" I didn't find this book suspenseful in any way shape or form. the characters didn't click with me. I couldn't bring myself to care the least b...

It came today, and I had planned on waiting until I was through the other four books in my "currently-reading" list. However, I am finding that I just can't wait. I hope it's good! :) ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~My Lover's Lover...where to begin? This book is magnificent and brilliant. The story that O'Farrell creates is not only dark and brooding, but it is gripping and captivating as well. The level of character development is quite remarkable - I'm finding this to be a common practice of...

2.5 As with other O'Farrell books I have read, her prose is wonderful. The story itself didn't work as well for me, unfortunately. I understand what it was meant to relay, the lingering effects of a past relationship on the new. She used real sightings to get this point across, which I found very confusing. As the story went on it made less and less sense. In order for this to work, the new relationship should have been an intense one. It wasn't, on either part, or so I felt. Marcus was a cad, v...

Was this book really written by Maggie O'Farrell? I loved her other three books and was expecting similar high standards...but what a disappointment this turned out to be! Maybe she needed the money and whipped something off quickly...who knows?Tedious plot, banal dialogue. Really Maggie, pull yourself together please!

Maybe a 4...compulsively readable but ultimately frustrating as much of the tension in the first half is left somewhat unexplained. But great writing--as always with O'Farrell--(I may pause in my O'Farrell consumption for a little while but it's been fun!)--and in many ways, the fastest paced of the 4. But I am not happy when things take a non-literal turn and this novel has a fair amount of that.

First things first – One of the character's uses an acronym in this story “GLM”, which means “Good Looking Male”. This is also the acronym of my title at work. Now, I have been strenuously trying to persuade my colleagues to adopt this new definition of “GLM” over recent days. All I’ll say is, it’s been a struggle, I’ve had very limited success and some of the discussions have been explosive.My Lover’s Lover by Maggie O’Farrell is a book I snaffled at a recent book fair, I started it believing i...

I'm not sure if it is fair to criticize O'Farrell, as other Goodreads reviewer have, for creating "two-dimensional" characters in this novel. Having read two other of her novels, I am certain that she is able to give depth and detailed definition to her people if she so chooses. This novel left me wondering if Lily, Sinead, Aidan and Marcus were meant to be read more as archetypes in a universal story. There was a dreamlike quality to it, ghosts were allowed to take part without resolution or ex...

Ever since the stunning "Hamnet" I have been smitten with Maggie O'Farrell. This is my fourth MOF, and her first book, I believe, and although it started out shakily, halfway through it began to fly. I love the detail she brings to a story (in this one we leave the UK and travel to China briefly) and I love her observations on relationships. Here is one I picked out at random: "He walks past his car, past the end of the street, and on. And he feels as though she is holding on to the end of one o...

3.33 starsI love Maggie O’Farrell. Her writing is beautiful. Her stories are unconventional. And the feelings in her books run deep. So it was a bit of a surprise to read My Lover’s Lover, which is only recognizable as a book by O’Farrell for its beautiful writing. The first half is taken up by an odd and unpleasant relationship between Lily and Marcus. They meet at a party. Days later Lily moves in with Marcus, only to realize that his attention is still taken up by Sinead, who it seems has dis...

Really, really, really bad.

It’s hard for me to write this review because Maggie O’Farrell is one of my favorite authors and I just can’t give it more than three stars. I’ve been on a mission this month to read those of her novels and a couple of other favorite authors that I haven’t read. This is one of her earliest, so I’ll just chalk it up to that it, and continue to call her one of my favorite writers as her stories after this were just so much more substantive and meaningful. Lily meets a guy named Marcus and pretty s...

Good book gone bad. Seriously, it started out with such promise and took a horrible turn. I felt like O'Farrell had this great idea and did not know how to finish it. I hated the whole second half of the book finishing it in hopes that it would somehow redeem itself. It didn't even make sense. I'm glad this was not the first of her novels I read or I definately would not have bothered with another. The back cover even compares it to Rebecca-not even close! There is nothing ghostly, haunting, got...

Good writing and premise let down by a lacklustre ending and too many loose ends. All the tension that was built up in the first half of the novel petered out like the author ran out of steam.

This novel is very different. At first, I thought I might recommend it for Hallowe’en reading because it is spooky. And all the characters seem to be wearing disguises.By that, I mean that the principal characters hide essential parts of themselves from each other – and sadly, even from themselves. When I think about it, this makes sense on one level. These folks all range in age from their early 20’s to (roughly) 30. They are falling in and out of love without knowing the people they are involv...

The end was too vague and the story was a little disjointed. I have read better work by this author so I was a little disappointed.

Another disappointing read from Maggie O'Farrell. It wouldn't be so disappointing if she were a terrible writer. She writes pretty well but her endings are .. just.. well.. I have seen worse, but they are bad. Can't bring myself to use a really derogatory term but it is in my head and it isn't pretty. I wonder if she has a complete story in her mind when she starts writing or if she just stream of consciousness, writes wherever it takes her? I mean what was this book? It wanders all over. It is