The Other Half

February 1, 2014
Chloe Appleton is a 29-year-old, commitment-phobic, ambitious magazine writer. When she pitches a new kind of magazine for British women to her publisher, she finds that James Slater is interested in more than just her layouts. And that he's married. His wife, Maggie, is a well-respected food writer but feels stifled as a suburban housewife. It doesn't help that James is staying at work late and is not interested in trying to have a second baby. The narrative switches back and forth between the womenChloe as she begins an affair with James and quickly falls in love, Maggie as she struggles with her family life and seeks the support of her best friend, Jean, who is also Chloe's boss. Despite the high drama of the plot, the emotional stakes are not very high. Chloe doesn't feel bad for enabling a cheater, nor does she really consider that he might not want to divorce his wife. Maggie, at least, shakes off her inner doormat. Things wrap up quite neatly in this breezy, very British novel that straddles the line between chick lit and women's fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)