The mistress. The Wife. Each has her own story.
Chloë, bright hip and single, is a features editor with ambitions to launch a magazine of her own. When she meets her potential new boss, she knows she shouldn’t mix business with pleasure, but finds it impossible to resist…
Maggie appears to have it all. She’s beautiful, a talented writer, and has a gorgeous husband. But something’s not quite right: his job as a magazine publisher is keeping him in the city until late most evenings, and some nights he doesn’t come home at all…
Told in alternating voices of the mistress and the wife, this story of an affair is a sharp, seductive take on modern love. Who, if anyone, comes out unscathed?
*EXCERPT*
Chloë, the mistress, (so to speak) works with her lover, James, and has gone away with him secretly, to New York.
Chloë still had half an hour before she was due to meet James in Bloomingdales, but found a thickly powdered beautician to give her a makeover. She stripped Chloë’s face of its usual make-up and clipped her hair back in order to transform her attractive yet far from supermodel features.
And that is exactly where Chloë was – one eye half made-up, the other bare – when there was a screech from across the counter, a screech that made her blood run cold.
‘Chloë! It can’t be! Chloë! Is that you?’ Out of one eye, Chloë verified that the voice belonged to the person she feared it did.
Jean. Her boss, James’s colleague, and James’s wife’s best friend.
Oh. My. God.
Now Jean was at her shoulder.
‘Hi,’ said Chloë weakly, the powdered beautician still determinedly dabbing at her eyelid.
‘Have you come to the conference?’ asked Jean.
‘Er, no . . .’ Chloë thought supersonic speed. ‘I’m on holiday.’
‘Gosh. What a coincidence!’
‘Got a last-minute booking.’ When lying stick close to the truth, then deflect: ‘How about you?’
‘I’m here for the conference. You should know that!’
If she thought about it, Chloë did.
‘So,’ continued Jean, ‘where are you staying?’
‘With friends in the Village.’ Chloë spoke as best she could with her jaw wide open as the beautician liplined her mouth. ‘How about you?’ Oh please, please, not the Paramount.
‘The Algonquin. I know it’s not trendy but I love it. I can kid myself I’m literary.’
Phew, thought Chloë. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. But – oh, heavens, James! James was meeting her here! If she squinted she could just see her watch: 2.55. She had five minutes to get rid of Jean, at most.
Yet Jean seemed to have no desire to go. ‘So, if you’re here anyway, you should come to the conference, Chloë. I’ll arrange for you to attend. We can go together.’
Aargh! Worse and worse! ‘That would be great.’ Chloë opened her eyes extra wide in horror. The powdered beauty misread the signal, and leapt to attack her with another layer of mascara.
‘Afterwards, if you like, we could go out for supper.’
No, no, no! thought Chloë. ‘I’m afraid I’ve arranged to meet my friends.’ Then, fearing Jean might invite herself, added, ‘They’ve booked Nobu for a birthday bash.’
‘Really?’ Jean was evidently impressed. ‘I gather you have to reserve a table weeks in advance.’
Exactly, thought Chloë.
‘What a hip crowd you must know here.’
‘Oh, I do,’ said Chloë. In for a penny. ‘My friend Matt is a playwright. Lives in the East Village.’
‘Is that where you’re staying?’
‘Um, yes, on Spring Street.’
‘Gosh, how trendy,’ said Jean. ‘Though I’d call that SoHo.’
‘SoHo, East Village, NoHo . . . it’s all the same,’ laughed Chloë, desperately. ‘Eh?’
‘If you say so.’
At that moment, just as she thought she was winning, Chloë saw James weaving his way through Lancôme, Chanel, Bobbi Brown . . .
Drastic action was called for.
Perched on the counter was a huge bottle of eye make-up remover. Hideously oily, but . . . ‘Oh, my God, Jean!’ Chloë shrieked theatrically, and sent it flying. The liquid spilt all over Jean’s designer suit. Then, to make doubly sure, ‘Jean! I am so sorry!’
James was almost upon them. Jean was bent over frantically sponging her jacket with some tissues. The powdered beauty was mopping the counter – it needed one more shriek.
‘Oh, JEAN, how can I make it up to you?’
And – thank God – all at once James seemed to realize what the commotion was about. Chloë saw him dart behind a pillar, just before Jean stood upright, and flee as fast as he could through Christian Dior and Trish McEvoy, past women’s belts and gloves, and out of the nearest door onto Lexington Avenue.
About the Author:
Sarah Rayner is best known as the author of the international bestseller, One Moment, One Morning and its follow-up, The Two Week Wait. But the British author had a life before that; she spent her childhood in the suburbs of the London, then became a punk rocker, spiked her hair and went to university in Yorkshire to study English and get chilblains.
She returned to London in the late ’80s, flattened her hair and worked in fashion PR for a bit, before her boss told her she was better at writing than schmoozing clients, and suggested she become an advertising copywriter. She took the hint, and after ten years in various London agencies, turned freelance, got some short stories published by women’s magazines, and for many years combined life as an author and copywriter. Sarah now writes fiction full time, and lives in Brighton with her husband and stepson.
Jennifer’s Review of The Other Half
Review (4 Stars): One of the things that I liked about The Other Half was that it told the story of an affair from both the perspectives of the wife, Maggie and the mistress, Chloë. Maggie loves James and after having a child and being married several years together, they have lost the spark in their relationship. She would love to have another child but James doesn’t seem to feel the same way and she has been trying everything to bring them closer together. Chloë is a young woman who meets James at work and quickly becomes involved in a sexual relationship with him which slowly becomes something more.
I liked Maggie from the very beginning and I thought that she was a strong character that was trying to strengthen her relationship with her husband. I liked reading her story throughout this book and how she dealt with James’ infidelity. Chloë was a different character for me and I had a hard time sympathizing with her. She knew James was married from the beginning and was even a child of a broken home due to adultery, yet she still got involved with him. The Other Half was a very interesting look at the effects of infidelity and how each character changes over the course of the book because of it. I thought that this book was well-written and I will definitely be reading more from Ms. Rayner.
