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The Other Side of the Story
The Other Side of the Story
Author: Marian Keyes
Jojo Harvey is a dead ringer for Jessica Rabbit and the most ferocious literary agent in town. A former NYPD cop, she now lives in London making million-dollar book deals while trying to make partner at her firm . . . all the while sleeping with the boss man. — Lily Wright is an author who believes in karma, and is waiting for the sky to fall aft...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780060731489
ISBN-10: 0060731486
Publication Date: 5/1/2006
Pages: 544
Edition: Reprint
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 94

3.9 stars, based on 94 ratings
Publisher: Avon Trade
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 34 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I hit up the best place to score books, Goodwill, on the way home the other day and came across this book. I figured since I was in the midst of a Marian Keyes-a-thon I may as well pick this up (for $1!) and read it while I was in the Marian Mind. It's funny but it's like this book is the compolation of every single cliche' that romance or chick lit authors write about. First we start off with Gemma, her father leaves her mother (for - whom else - his younger secretary) and Gemma has to temporarily move home to help pick up her Mom's pieces. She harbors a taste for revenge for her former friend Lily whom, instead of "keeping an eye on" her newly exboyfriend for her in London, she ends up with him. Lily and Anton (Gemma's ex) have the perfect life with the perfect daughter. Lily's book is taking off to places Lily never even dreamed about and life seems perfect... too perfect. Lily is convinced revenge will come her way someday for stealing her friends man and looks for it around every corner. Jojo, Lily's agent is also look around corners... for her boss's wife. Her and her boss have been having an affair for months and she's just waiting for the bomb to go off - but first, she needs to make partner. See what I mean about cliche's? It's every one in the book. Life awakening experiences? Check. Near Death? Check. Heartache? Check. Happily Ever After? Check - and enough princes, princesses (one literal one) and wands to go around. I liked this book, it was fun and a perfect fluff read.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 187 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
My first Marian Keyes book and I enjoyed it very much. She has a quirky kind of humor that makes for enjoyable reading. The story line involves three women whose lives become entwined through events, both past and present. Jojo Harvey is a literary agent who discovers Lily Wright, who in turn becomes a best selling author with her first novel. Gemma Hogan is an event planner who knew Lily because she stole Gemma's boyfriend. Gemma has never forgiven Lily, wants Anton back, so sets out to become a best-selling author too, for revenge. The basis for Gemma's novel is the fact that her father has left her mother after 36 years of marriage and moved in with a woman just 2 years older than Gemma. It sounds complicated, but Keyes pulls it all together and weaves a fun and, at times, poignant story about love lost, found and hiding in odd places.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Great Marian Keyes fun!
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 11 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
It's a long read but worth it once you get into it. It's almost like three novels in one! The story was cute and it was interesting how the three characters lives were interwoven.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Please note that this book is a mass market paperback. I purchased it in Ireland, so it was not printed in the US. Must have used the same ISBN on paperback in Ireland as Hardback in US.

Book was fantastic. Marian Keyes is one my my favorite authors!
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atlgoddess avatar reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 13 more book reviews
Marion Keyes has become one of my favorite authors in the past year. She writes such real women with such rich lives and still puts me in an escapist world. She makes me want to travel to Ireland and London. Of course I would need money to buy fabulous shoes, handbags, and make up that feature in her novels.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 5 more book reviews
This book dragged along a little bit for me. I couldn't find myself getting interested in it and forced myself to finish it. I'm a fan of Marian Keyes so far but this is one of my least favorite books of hers.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 132 more book reviews
This story has three sides, and Gemma the events planner, JoJo the literary agent, and Lily the author take turns moving the story forward to its predictable but enjoyable conflicts and resolutions. Eminent chick-lit, a bit longer and more complexly (that doesn't look like a word!) constructed but well written and well cast.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 44 more book reviews
If you're looking for a good easy read -- this is for you!! Typical chick-lit, not the best, definitely not the worst. Great beach read, or a lazy sunday afternoon type of book. Story is told from 3 different points of view.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 49 more book reviews
Good Read,recommend it highly
fightingillinifan avatar reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 42 more book reviews
Slow start, but after I got into it a bit I really enjoyed the characters and the paths their lives took. A good read!
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 59 more book reviews
This is the first book I have really enjoyed by Marian Keyes, although I have read them all looking for what everyone sees. Funny, honest, and takes you all over the place.
mrsteacher23 avatar reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 11 more book reviews
Another delightful, airy read by Marian Keyes. I read through this one in a flash, despite its length. Marian Keyes is a very clever writer and I even found myself literally laughing out loud through several passages in the book. I enjoy her characters who are hopeful, flawed, and easy to identify with and root for. I look forward to the next Keyes book that I will undoubtedly be reading fairly soon.
jessjoy avatar reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 34 more book reviews
I rarely write bad reviews. I feel like I rate everything a five! This could have been a great book! BUT... it really was slow starting and then once I got into the book and things were kinda making sense and picking up the end comes and it takes FOREVER! It was the most drawn out ending and then it just doesn't end at all in the way you would like. It was an utter disappointment. This was my first Keyes book, I suppose that I will have to give her another chance. I seriously hope that her other books are better than this one!
kdurham2813 avatar reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 753 more book reviews
Well at the beginning of this book, I was nervous I wasn't going to finish the over 600 page book that sat on my nightstand. Then it switched to another character's point of view.

The first one - Gemma - was way too whiny to start the book off. I know the order of the characters mattered due to the unveiling of the story, but I was really not liking this book in the beginning. By the time Keyes introduces the second two characters I am engulfed in their semi-connected stories and wondering how this will all end.

Upon completing - I would have to say in general I liked the book. I know that I am biased when it comes to books based on Britishness (sorry rooms) - never been a fan. But when I got beyond the language barrier I enjoyed how each character was entangled and affected by one another.

I would definitely recommend this but with hesitation to those who are not into the British things AND to those who are not into larger volume books!
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 26 more book reviews
A high-powered literary agent with a Jessica Rabbit body, Jojo Harvey's brilliant mind should be focused on her million-dollar book deals and her climb up the corporate ladder--and not on her love affair with her married boss. Jojo's client, bestselling author Lily Wright, can't seem to deliver her long-awaited second novel--bad karma, perhaps, for stealing the beloved of her ex-best friend, event planner extraordinaire, Gemma Hogan. While Gemma has her own problems, specfically a flatlining social life and a newly separated (and desperately needy) mom--a situation she's lately been chronicling in a series of hilarious emails that has come to the attention of Jojo Harvey...who thinks there just might be a protential bestseller in all this.

There are three sides to every story, and when what goes around starts to come around in the lives of these three suddenly intertwined women, they'll see that revenge sometimes has plans of its own...
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 42 more book reviews
Yes, this is "chick lit," but I think it's a step above most of the guilty-pleasure-type girly books I've read. It was funny, touching, and long enough that you really feel satisfied by the detail in which the story is told. I really recommend this one.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on
I really got into this book. I felt like I knew the characters very well. I couldn't put it down and read it in three days.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 22 more book reviews
This might be my favorite novel by Marian Keyes. She tells the tale of two feuding friends and the intermediary between them from three perspectives- each woman seems so decent when you see the (decidedly abominable) things she does (steal her best friend's man, steal a married man, pursue success for the sake of spite) through her own eyes. An interesting foray into judgment and apologism in our society.
reviewed The Other Side of the Story on + 10 more book reviews
One of the best stories I have read in a long time.


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