I tried -- I REALLY TRIED -- to finish this book, but I just couldn't do it. I picked up the audio book, and after eight hours (with 12 still to go), I just didn't care about the characters and didn't want to invest anymore time in it.

I made it through chapter 38, and so little had happened -- lots of backstory to find out how the characters lives connect, but also lots of repeated information. I would have been okay seeing one day with Gemma and her mom after her dad left then moving on to see what else would happen; instead, I got to see weeks of what it was like (even though nothing changed). The same happened for Jojo and Lily -- Jojo's week-long manuscript auction and Lily's photo shoot.

If the book had been at least 1/3 shorter, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it. I honestly don't know how this book ends, so I'm not sure who to recommend it to. If you enjoy reading every detail of a person's life -- however mundane -- this could be the right book for you.

Well now! This was a delightful surprise!

My usual complaints about Marian Keyes are multiple. She writes more pages than the plot of her novels really requires. Her protagonists are largely interchangeable and have one voice only. The men feel too much like the nameless, generic and stereotypical "He" in ladies magazine articles.

And every single issue was fixed in this novel!

There are three POV protagonists, Jojo, Lily and Gemma, and they feel satisfyingly different. Sure, two of them are quite similar, but not identical.

Then there's the plot. Instead of giving one plot 600+ pages, she gives three (gradually intersecting) plots 200+ pages each. That way, everything that happens forwards the plot somehow. Oh, there's still room for jokes, of course. This isn't a bare-bones book. All the same, there are no scenes here that feel pointless and like they could be cut away without issue.

So yeah, I'd say this is a fine read for when you want something light. If it looks like your thing, go for it!

"Marian Keyes does not know what it feels like to write a less than great book."

I really, really wanted to like this book more than I did.

I loved the idea, and some of the writing was brilliant, but it was the characters that let it down for me.

Gemma was kind of forgettable and a bit arrogant, although I'll admit that I took her side over the whole Lily thing. But it's a sad state of affairs when a reader is hoping that more bad stuff happens to a character, and this is what I found myself doing with Lily. I enjoyed every single bit of her suffering. There was just something so unpleasant about her, even though she is supposed to be nice.

And as for Jojo....I found it hard to swallow that anyone with any notions of a serious career would call themselves 'Jojo'. In addition, I just found her to be so over the top and exciting that she seemed a bit cartoonish.

In all I enjoyed this book, but just not as much as I've enjoyed other Keyes novels.

I was not expecting this book to be that good. I found instead that i was addicted to the three main characters' stories. This book is a typical girly novel, where the main characters are obsessed with their relationships. Gemma is pining over her ex and is oblivious to the fact that she would be better off with her friend Johnny. Lily is worried about the fact that she stole Gemma's boyfriend and that Gemma will seek revenge and Jojo is the object of a man's affair, and is desperately waiting for him to leave his wife.

The novel is, as i said before, highly addicting and very enjoyable. I would recommend it to anyone who is stuck inside on a rainy day and looking for something fun to do.

I liked this book better than I had expected. I very rarely read 'chick lit', but it can be nice to relax with, something cozy and mindless (meant in the best way!). I really liked Jojo, I loved how she lived in a very grey area - she was having an affair with a married man, but she felt so guilty and couldn't bear to be the cause of a broken home. Gemma seemed really immature for her age, and her whole writing thing really bugged me. The story she wrote sounded crap and it didn't seem fair to reward that sort of non-effort with money. Lily I sort of liked, but sort of didn't. It annoyed me how paranoid she was about Gemma getting revenge. I really really disliked Anton, I never figured out what Lily, or Gemma, saw in him. He hurt Gemma, and even though they were broken up at the time he didn't even care. Even though Lily was so upset over it, he still didn't care! And he was happy to sit back and be depressed over his crap job and let Lily stress over writing without even bothering to try and do anything to save them. I liked the way the story was told from every viewpoint, so that you got to fully understand what happened.

I really enjoyed this book, over 500 pages but I sped through it with laugh out loud moments along the way.
The story is told through 3 characters. Gemma who is like an Irish Bridget Jones ( 30 something singleton, gay best friend etc). Her father just left her mother for a younger woman after 35 years of marriage. Then there’s Jojo, a literary agent having an affair with her married boss and lastly Lily. A writer, she has a baby daughter with her partner who is Gemmas ex, and Jojo becomes her agent. There’s loads of other characters and while it sounds complicated it’s easy to keep track of the story.
It totally hit the spot at the moment. Great read.

I love Marian Keyes books soooo much and this was all sorts of happy, enjoyable, cringe worthy and heart warming. I do love a book that tugs at my heart strings.

Marian y su sensibilidad innata para narrar los hechos de la vida cotidiana hacen que leerla siempre sea un placer. Gran historia.

NOPE.. just, no ..



Fist of all, I need to mention that my rating might have due to the fact that this kind of book is not my favorite genre. Moreover, the rating might have been affected by the thickness of the book. It also might have been because this book was not a high priority and had lots of books which I ached for reading them. Therefor, my review might not be credible.


Lets start with what the story is about, the story involves three main characters: Gemma, she receives a phone call from her mother that her father is leaving them for his secretary. She makes a book based on it and gets and agent, Jojo, whose Lily's agent. The second character is Lily, Gemma's used-to-be friend, because ,as Gemma thinks, Lily stole Gemma's boyfriend, Anton. The next one is Jojo, their agent, she is having an affair with her Manger, Mark and these three ladies lives intertwine.

What I feel about the characters is that they were annoying, well, Gemma is the most annoying and easily-to-hate of the three of them. First because, she spends so much time hating on her friend, and keeps dreaming that Anton might get back to her. She hooks up with a young man, Owen, and tells him that they are not in a "real relationship", but when he leaves her, she cries and act as if he dumped her. In addition, she has nothing to do with her life she, somehow, stalks and wants to know everything about Lily and Anton, and keeps hoping that they will brake up , I mean, come on get a life you brat!!!

Lily is also a need-to-slap women. She abandons Anton after all what he have done to her. He gets her the agent, buys a house for them and does almost do everything for her. The guy is madly in love with her and she blames him, not them for losing the house. I just cant accept her attitude and how she doesn't see that she is as wrong as him.

While Jojo is my least "hateable" character in this book. I mean she is strong and everything. But her fault is that she is too proud, there is this incident where she blames Mark for not letting her persuade her plan, she is an independent woman, why she listens to his opinion and then blame him?? But I feel sorry for her, although she was at some point stubborn and annoying, but I like her. I shipped Jim Sweetmen with her, or the flower boy"

Not to mention, Gemma's mam was ridiculous. She does talk to her neighbor just because she made a cake for her other neighbor's daughter birthday, which the later asked the former. I mean it is not her fault, what should she do?? I mean she too need to get a life , oh yea, her husband left her for a young women. My bad..

The plot was meh.. It was slow but , I admit, then it went decently. Again, I should mention that it might have to do with the fact that it was 600+ pages, which I only accept if it was a fantasy or destopian book. I guess it was because it is somehow three small stories in one book, I don't know.
At some point I felt like I preferred reading about Cody or Johnny or Jim's stories rather than these women. Moreover, at some parts it got a bit confusing who was who, lots of characters were going on and whether it was a fantasy or reality maybe I was not reading the book very well. Also, while writing this review, I remembered the reviews in the book, how people were being mean to Lily's book. I hope I am not mean to Marian Keyes. "If you are reading this Marian, I respect you"

To sum up, the book was at some point funny and cringe-y at others. The Russian lady, Cody, Manooj, Owen and jJm were cool. And as I said, it was simply not my type and I wanted to read other books which might have affected and blinded my judgment. And I must admit that I came out knowing more about publishing and writing books from The Other Side of the Story.

I like Marian Keyes, that's why I bought this book.

I always think that every writer sort of take something from the writer's life into the book. Especially the first book. And, I sometimes think Marian Keyes does the same. Especially if you read Under The Duvet. But, so what, if Marian Keyes decided to write from something happened in her true life? This time, in The Other Side of The Story, it's her life as a writer. I guess.

It's a book of writer, and publisher. With it's glamorous and not so glamorous life. When ideas flowing like a river through the hands of the writer, when writer's block arrived. You can get a glimpse of what's writer life look like?

It's a book of love and betrayal. When a lover run way, when a lover lie, when a lover meet the mistress, when two lover finally end up happily after going up and down.

Although I had stuck two time (the first third part of the book, and the last three-quarter of the book), I like the book. In fact, due to my intense moment with this book, I had a row with the bf of me *wink*.

and, this book gave me idea on how I should write my little project.. yipeee

I abandoned this book. I made it to page 166 and just couldn’t continue. I couldn’t get into the characters and the little that I did read just dragged on. The author writes with a lot of unnecessary details, ‘stuff’ that doesn’t push the plot forward. It felt unorganized and it was hard to follow. There were times when I would think I was halfway through the book only to discover I was only 9% finished (I read this on my kindle). Most of the time I will hang on in the hopes that the ending will make the crap in the middle worth reading and with this book, I just couldn’t hang on.