My Lover's Lover. Maggie O'Farrell

Maggie O'Farrell has been voted one of the 20 English authors destined to shake the literary world in the next 10 years. In this book she explores what it is like to fall in love with someone incapable of loving anyone except himself. Lily (no accident of a name for she is fragile and easily swayed) falls in love and discovers the real meaning of love between two independent people. Easier to read than some of O'Farrel's other work, a page turner.

My Lover's Lover is one engrossing erotic thriller! It enthralled me from beginning to end as it told the story of Lily and Marcus's bizarre love affair. Things start out promising between the couple. When Lily occupies the bedroom that was once Sinead's, Marcus's ex-girlfriend, strange things begin to happen. Lily is led to believe that Sinead is gone. However, her presence is palpable. There are some disarming twists as Sinead resurfaces...This novel's writing is deceptively simple. The suspense and darkness are subtle, albeit tangible. The building of tension is finely crafted. I disagree with most of the reviewers here. This is a fine piece of psychological thriller. Maggie O'Farrell is a talented British author and I look forward to reading her other books. Highly recommended...

This is another fine effort from O'Farrell but unfortunately comes nowhere near her debut work. After You'd Gone is a spectacular read, full of passion, intensity, and inspiration. My Lover's Lover tries to do the same, but it tries too hard. In many places the story feels forced rather than flows as it does in After You'd Gone. Characers lack the depth of her earlier work and there is little to distingish the characters of Sinead and Lily so it is difficult to feel a real degree of empathy with either of them. Strangely, it is the men in this book who have all the depth of character. Having said all this, My Lover's lover is certainly worth a read simply because O'Farrell is such a talented writer. A worthy four stars.

O'Farrell's first novel, AFTER YOU'D GONE, is one of my favorite suspense novels of all time. With that in mind, I looked forward to reading her second, MY LOVER'S LOVER, with great anticipation. The story that she has crafted here is psychologically complicated and intricate, and thus held my attention throughout. In addition, the dialogue is intense and realistic, given her thoughtful characterization. But in the end, this novel is ultimately unsatisfying, especially in comparison to the superb AFTER YOU'D GONE. Maggie O'Farrell is, however, an important new voice in contemporary fiction, one whose work deserves to be read.

Let me state upfront that Maggie O'Farrell's first novel, "After You'd Gone", is one of my favorite books. I approached her second novel with both excitement and trepidation. Could her sophomore effort live up to the near perfection of her first book? This is the story of Lily, a twentysomething Londoner who beleives she may have just met the man of her dreams; a handsome, successful architect named Marcus. Lily learns that Marcus' relationship with an ex-girlfriend named Sinead has recently ended under tragic circumstances. Marcus' veiled comments about Sinead lead Lily to believe she has died, but has she? Lily begins to obsess about what happened to Sinead; when she starts to see her image on the street and in her dreams the lines between reality and fantasy become blurred. The truth of what happened between Marcus and Sinead makes for some gut-wrenching reading. Maggie O'Farrell once again shows her prowess with the pen, creating characters we feel we know intimately. This fascinating look at relationships past and present, and how the two are often intermingled is well worth your time to read. Did I love this novel as much as her first?....no, but that would be asking for a near impossibility. 4.5 stars.