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Book Review By Liza Rosette
The Men and the Girls by Joanna Trollope

Julia Hunter and Kate Bain are in their late twenties, and are both having a relationship with two men in their sixties, who are also best friends. Julia is married to Hugh Hunter, a television presenter whose career is starting to crumble just as Julia's career as a TV journalist is rising. Kate is living with James Mallow, a retired professor and his eccentric uncle but is not married to him.
Almost out of the blue arrives Beatrice Batchelor, a cynical but highly intelligent spinster, when James knocks her off her bicycle by accident. She befriends James and Hugh and astonishes them with her controversial ideas on euthanasia, but Kate and Julia are relunctant to make friends with her and think that she is almost taking away their husbands.
Kate meets Mark, a teacher who is the same age as her and she decides to move out of her family home with her daughter. They have a very unpredictable relationship as Mark wants Kate all to himself. When Hugh decides that his career is over, he moves in with James and leaves Julia to cope with her rebellious infant twins and their absent-minded nanny. The problems of being married to much older spouse comes to a climax.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 1980's-1999
Romance/Romance Problems Yes
Kind of romance:
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Lover is

Main Character
Gender - Female
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 60's-90's
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 3 ()
City? Yes

Writing Style
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references only
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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