Second Chance

I'm not a Jane Green fan but I have read a couple of her other books and found them a pleasant enough way to pass the time. However this was rather boring with no characters you could sympathise with.

A group of friends get together after the death of a friend and in spite of hardly seeing each other for years find themselves immersed in each others' lives. The main character, Holly, is in an unhappy marriage and a lot of time is spent on her agonising about what she should do. The other characters seem to be ciphers for modern day problems - so we have the alcoholic, the couple trying to conceive, the single woman who has never had children, finding herself with an unwanted pregnancy after a one night stand. None of these characters are properly developed. What I disliked most though is that there was no real narrative drive. There were long expositions of back story explaining how a character had got to that stage in their life and this put me off. I feel that this was trying to be a serious novel but it didn't quite work.

Book Review (2/4 people found this helpful)

Still not received book - no response to emails sent, and no refund.

Absolutely appalling service. Would never buy off this supplier again.

About as fun as a pine up your bum (1/2 people found this helpful)

This is probably the most boring book I have read since Daniel Yergin's "The Prize". Except that book was an intelligent, well researched piece of work. This was as shallow as reading an Op Ed in the New York Times.

1)The writing style is hard to follow. The author jumps back and forth through time and space. She uses all sorts of fonts to imply thoughts, memos, dialogue, yet provides no key
2)You don't feel sorry for the protagonist
3)To deal with 2), the author made the husband out to be a devil.
4)The author has no grasp of reality, at one point, the mom kidnaps the children, and has sex with a man right next to the room the children are sleeping in!
5)There is some loser character named Tom who apparently makes angels orgasm every time he speaks

Comparing this to Orwell's work, or Hemmingway's, is like comparing a PB&J sandwich to Caviar presented in a crystal dish with a pearl spoon and expensive champagne.

ok (1/1 people found this helpful)

It's OK. not the best Jane Green book and not a patch on Jemima J or bookends etc.....
worth a read but its just a book to pass the time rather then a book to thoroughly enjoy

cliched and boring (3/3 people found this helpful)

I have not read any other Jane Green books and after this one I am unlikely to. The characters bored me, they were wooden and cliched and the central character of Holly was spoilt and tiresome. The dead hero, Tom, was too good to be true and if he was so good why did nobody bother to keep in regular touch with him when he was alive? As for Holly rekindling her relationship with Tom's mother, just too unbelievable. If they were really like mother and daughter then why did they never keep in touch for 20 years. The story dragged on and I only finished it in the hope of it getting better - it didn't. Given it 2 stars because some might like this sort of unreal boring chick lit.

Jane Green

Reader Reviews:

struggled to get to the end (0/0 people found this helpful)

Book Review (2/4 people found this helpful)

About as fun as a pine up your bum (1/2 people found this helpful)

ok (1/1 people found this helpful)

cliched and boring (3/3 people found this helpful)

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