What do readers think of Her by Harriet Lane? Write your own review.

What an ending!
Now, back to the beginning. "Her" is written in alternating chapters between Nina and Emma. Nina is an artist and appears to have a good and comfortable life with her husband, who is quite a bit older, and her teenage daughter, Sophie, from a previous marriage. We find out that Emma had some connection to Nina in the past. Emma is a housewife with a loving husband and two great children, Christopher and Cicely. Though not wealthy, their lives are good.
The author has an unusual way of telling their story. She repeats several chapters, first from one of the women and then the other. And of course, the stories change.
At first, this is a very ordinary story of two families interacting, especially the women but then, slowly, Nina manages to cause problems for Emma and then help solve them and thereby ingratiating herself with the family. We don't know what is driving Nina but we want to find out. There is an old cheap bracelet that comes into play. What is the meaning of it? Where did it come from? Does it's appearance cause any consequences? Will someone remember something? Who is "Her"?
I'm not going to give anything away. But it really is cleverly written. I especially like the way she fleshes out her characters. A good read for everyone. And, as I said in the beginning, what an ending!!!!!!

Nina and Emma are becoming friends. Emma can't understand why the sophisticated and elegant Nina is interested in her boring domestic life as a stay-at-home mum of two. Is it just a simple friendship or is there something sinister at play?

The book starts out slowly as Nina and Emma narrate alternating chapters. The creepy factor ratchets up nicely in this book as we try to figure out what, if anything, Nina is up to, but a cliffhanger ending keeps it from being 5 stars. The author is supposed to write the book; I shouldn't have to figure out the ending.

As someone who at times will go to the back of the book and read the ending because I can't wait (really), I usually don't care for books that leave me hanging in the end, and this one does it big time....but I did enjoy reading it except for that and I think it would be a good book for book clubs to discuss...Nina was creepy and I kept hoping Emma would wise up before something bad happened...did it or didn't it?

In HER, Lane delves into the enormity of how one time, one summer, one event in a person's life can continue to affect them for years to come. It was a fascinating look into family dynamics, mundane daily life, and misplaced blame. I was captivated by the characters.

Two women, Emma and Nina with nothing in common, or is there? Initially I had difficulty getting into the book, but once started I was anxious to see where it was going. Tension built as the characters and story were developed. The story was rather creepy but quite enjoyable.

The characters were interesting and well developed and I liked the tension of Her. I thought that the friendship was unlikely -the main women really have very little in common - and the reason for the stalking did not seem to be something that Nina need to obsess about for 20 yrs. However, my main dislike was the retelling of the story and I don't think it added to the plot; this made it take too long to get to the heart of the story. The climax thus became weak - actually I'm not sure where it came from.

This interesting book, told in tandem points of view, is a tale of manipulation and revenge. The author immediately brings the reader in on the manipulation and what the manipulator is trying to accomplish. The frustrating part was that you don't find out the why until the last 10 pages of the book - and the why was a big, anticlimactic let down. That said, the story was intriguing enough that I kept reading to get to the why, though I think I would have given up had it been any longer. This book is targeted for women 25.

I enjoyed the book, but thought it took quite a while for the author to tell us why Nina had it in for Emma and why she was trying to get back at her for something that had happened years ago. The ending was terrible as I felt it should have gone on to tell us what happened to the little boy and how it affected Emma and her family.