Second Life

The book is good, just started reading it so can't update on the storyline but you can follow on booksarefirstlove on insta to get an insight on the book. The main problem is the book is not in a good condition. It looks used with pages torn & poor binding, but I didn't return it because I couldn't wait for more days for the new book to come.

Not as rivetting as I had hoped.The plot seemed clunky & contrived on occasion;started with promise but the ending left me stabbing wildly for a closure.

Boring book. Waste of money.

Good read. Fast paced. Page turner. With all the right plot twists. Not brilliant though -- unlike Before I Go To Sleep.

Quite difficult to understand and found quite boring

This book isn't as good as her first book. You can't sympathize with the main character. On the whole, disappointing.

Go for it. Nail biting finish.

Good to read

One thing I found absolutely confusing about this story is the main character's ignorance about technology and modern life. Even my 60+ yo mother would know that there are some websites or apps or whatever other systems that people use to meet each other, and even meet up and have sex. When the main plot line focuses so much on this, the main character's lack of knowledge and extreme surprise, and her complete ignorance about internet (she says he posted a cartoon face, meaning an emoji. But then she is capable enough to go on Google Maps and find a location?) all of these things just made me say "come on!" several times.I also didn't like her judgemental attitude towards her sister's sex life (the extreme surprise at finding out her sister would have one night stands etc), considering how she used to live when she was younger herself.Overall, I didn't like any of the characters and I didn't find the story realistic at all.

Well all I can say after reading S J Watson's first book before I go to sleep which I thoroughly enjoyed I was expecting the same kind of calibre from second life. This book was lazy,predictable,boring and not one likeable believable character. I found the ending rushed and poor in the sense a cop out. I wish I never downloaded this on to my kindle. I will not be picking up any of this author's books up in a hurry.

In the film, Changing Lanes (2002), Samuel L Jackson plays an alcoholic whose ex-wife tells him that he's addicted to chaos as much as to booze. Julia, the protagonist of S J Watson's second novel, is a dry alcoholic and former heroin user whose primary addiction seems to be to danger. She is married to a surgeon and they have adopted the now-teenage son of her younger sister, about whom Julia feels guilty and responsible.When the sister, Kate, is battered to death in a Paris alleyway, Julia is drawn to try to find out more about her life and death. This leads her to Lukas, a member of the same online hookup site that Kate had used, Encounterz. Julia persuades herself that Lukas may have met Kate and may know something about her death, though it quickly becomes clear that he could not have been directly responsible as he was verifiably away on holiday at the time of the murder.Lukas and Julia meet and soon discover that they have been deceiving each other about their identities and where they live. This doesn't deter them from starting an affair, nor is Julia put off by Lukas's evident taste for violence and domination. That's not to say that Julia is submissive, but her attraction to risk is heightened by her powerful sense of guilt, which may mean that she feels she ought to be punished.The search for information about Kate's murder fades into the background, as it becomes clear that Lukas is playing some unfathomable game of manipulation. Another factor which has some bearing on Julia's state of mind is the time she spent in Berlin as a 19-year-old with Marcus, the subject of a highly-regarded photograph she took at the time (she now takes family portraits).For perhaps too long, these narrative strands seem to exist in isolation from each other, without much connection. I found the book less than compelling until I was past the half-way point, I had doubts about the direction in which Watson seemed to be taking his plot and I wasn't at all sure I was going to finish the book. I was wondering if I could give it fewer stars than the three I gave to Before I Go to Sleep. It's worth persevering with. In the end, Watson brings his disparate plot strands together with considerable narrative skill. With a vengeance, you might say.

I read this second novel by SJ Watson in two days flat; I couldn't put the book down. Just as in Watson's best-selling debut novel, Before I Go to Sleep, the reader begins to fear for the safety of the protagonist, the wife of a surgeon, Julia.Julia lives in London with the successful and steady Hugh, and their 15-year-old son Connor, but there’s something in her past that haunts her. This something has left her with an addiction, which she fights every day.When her younger sister, Kate, is found dead in Paris, Julia's world falls apart. Guilt drives Julia to search for her sister's killer, and she soon gets involved in the murky online dating world, which her sister inhabited. Julia begins a double life, but her second life spins rapidly out of control and she knows she has to end it all. This isn’t as easy as she thought, and soon Julia realises that she has a lot more at stake than she initially thought.The pace of this thriller is fast, and the tension builds to a shocking conclusion. The narrative is intensified by the first person point of view. I enjoyed the way the author weaved Julia’s past, and the guilt she carries from it, into the tragedy of her sister’s murder, giving credence for the, sometimes questionable, choices she makes. The descriptions of Julia’s constant fight with her inner demon, her addiction, are cleverly interwoven into the story too.I highly recommend this novel and cannot wait to see what Watson comes up with next.

This is dreadful. Don't bother! I really enjoyed his first book but this is boring, badly written predictable and self-indulgent. Dull male fantasy.