Probably more like 3.5. The big reveal was made for LMN (could see it coming from opening chapter). I have it a 4 because I really enjoyed seeing the outcome through the different characters. Fun read

Interesting yet totally unbelievable. Entirely too much coincidence driving the storyline for me. I would have appreciated it more if she had delved deeper into the motivations of all of the various characters.

I listened to the audiobook during my commute. I admit I would skip certain chapters during the start of the book. It was too much story building for me. I didn't need it all to be into the story. But the women's tale was a good one to listen to. Just didn't need at least six chapters in the beginning.

This was my first read of Jane Green's titles. I'll be picking up other ones I think. I really like her style and her ability to tell a story.
This is an intriguing story. Green weaves the tale of two families that share one husband and father and the only one who knows it is him. Maggie, wife number 1, and Sylvie, wife number 2, couldn't be more different from how they raise children to how they decorate a home. And Mark relates to each family very differently, throughout the years he becomes a masterful con man and liar. You get the sense that he justified it and thought he would be able to get away with it forever. But as we all know, nothing like that kind of deception can stay a secret forever and a series of "random" events lead to exposure of Mark's double life. As you can imagine the feelings of anger, betrayal, sadness, shock, and devastation run deep and everyone responds differently. This is the story of Mark's two wives, children, and lives both before the exposure and after and how they all found their way to healing.
Gosh this story was SO interesting. You know this is happening somewhere in America - with more than one family. Some of them are not secret (TLC's Sister Wives is one example of a not so secret bigamist) and others are steeped in deception like this particular story was. Green did a masterful job of almost making even the reader believe it might not be true! It was well-written and the character development was pretty good. I wish that Green had written some chapters from Mark's POV, it would have been interesting to have his voice in the midst of the wives and children. That would have helped, in my opinion, the reader get a sense of what Mark may have been thinking. Because the entire way through the book I was thinking, "Dude, what in the hell are you thinking?!" Just sayin'. :)

Pretty predictable, but I shunned my other books to finish it, so that says something!

This is the story of two women, living about as far away from each other as the United States would allow, whose lives collide when they learn they are very much connected. The story around how they survive a common trauma in their own ways unfolds in five beautifully written parts covering about 5 years time.

I love the way Jane Green tells a story. She moves from character to character seamlessly. There are always characters you will love, characters you will hate, characters you learn to love as the story passes.

Great job Ms. Green!

I May have liked this book at the age of 19, but after reading some pretty breathtaking authors / this book was just so awful.

I will start by saying there is nothing technically wrong with this book and people who enjoy this type of story will LOVE this one. I can understand its appeal...to others.

To me, this book...it's like rose-hip and chamomile tea with light cream served up in an antique bone china teacup atop a matching saucer. There's a dash of bourbon tossed in to give it a bit of bite but not enough to make you dizzy.

That is not my cup of tea.

My cup of tea is stoneware, large and sturdy, and filled with a strong, black tea, Celestial Seasonings Morning Thunder, in today's case.

I think the gossipy nature of this story will appeal to many readers; I can think of several whom I know in real life. The women/mothers will probably speak to other women/mothers. I'm not a woman like either of the two main women and I'm not a mother so I had nothing to connect to.

I think the only thing that may give readers pause is the changing point of view narration. We start with Sylvie whose story is told in 3rd person and everything skips back and forth between her and her daughter, Eve. Then when you're not expecting anyone else to talk because you think this is Eve and Sylvie's story, Maggie enters with her daughter, Grace. Their stories are in first person which makes NO sense at all; it was jarring to me because I wanted the whole thing to stay 3rd person. I didn't understand why I had to be pulled into the mind of Maggie when I wasn't in the mind of Sylvie whom I'd already been with longer. And then, just to trip a listener up even more, Buck takes a few chapters toward the end. I don't know why.

Unrelated but bothersome to me: I thought Eve and Grace should have been swapped. I felt it would have made more sense for Grace to be the anorexic bulimic. I also felt it would have made more sense to keep her in the story instead of replacing her with Buck.

So, once again, the story is not written poorly, there are characters who develop and there's forward motion; all the hallmarks of a good book are there. I just didn't like it.

Implausible but still the characters were developed and roped you in to life situations. I enjoyed it

I was briefly tempted to put this down about 150 pages in. I knew I'd figured out 'the family secret' and did not want to wade through the rest of the story to have my hunch confirmed. Then by the end of the next few pages, the cat was out of the bag, and I realized the story isn't just about the secret being revealed. It's about what happens to the families involved when the truth comes out. I'm glad I kept reading - a great story by a great writer.