Second Life by S.J. Watson

I read Watson's first book, Before I Go to Sleep, and really enjoyed it.* I was excited to see her second book, Second Life, at the library!

        

Narrated by Julia, wife to surgeon Hugh, mother to teenager Conner, Julia has a hidden past. She reveals this past slowly. After the death of her sister, Julia's past starts to get real again. Julia gets involved with a man she meets online. She rationalizes this affair as a way to understand her sister and explain her death.

I found myself not liking Julia, and not believing that she would actually do the things she did with the reasons she gave for doing them. I almost gave up on this book. But it came around for me, and I'm glad I stuck it out. A good read!

*See my write up of Before I Go to Sleep here: http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2011/08/good-reads.html

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Her by Harriet Lane

Who doesn't love a delicious psychological thriller?

The copy I have of this book has a different cover than the one pictured here. I like the tagline on my cover..."You don't remember her, but she remembers you..."

    

Nina starts out narrating. Nina is a successful painter, living with her second husband and teenage daughter, Sophie. Emma had a brilliant career, but is staying home with her small children and her husband, Ben, and is struggling with the overwhelmingness of being a parent.

Nina sees Emma in her neighborhood and realizes that she knows Emma from her past. Nina inserts herself into Emma's life, wondering if Emma will remember her. Emma and Nina alternate narration as they each describe their interactions from their own point of view. How do they know each other? What is going on in this relationship?

Compared in a blurb to What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel (which I loved), this is similar in that both women tell the story from their perspective, and we don't know the magnitude of their impact on each other until the end.

Her kept me guessing, the suspense and tension vivid until the last page. So fun!

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