Too easy guessed,too long - Rated 
This book disappointed me.I guessed right in the beginning what the secret would be,and ended up looking forward to the book to end.The idea is good,the characters interesting, but this book would have needed a lot of editing.Too much details, an interesting story told in far too many words.
Promising but fizzles out - Rated 
Writers should seek to make the ordinary seem extraordinary and unique. Unfortunately Nicci Gerrard seems to have the British writer's tendency of making the extremes of life rather ordinary, like we all find out life-changing, startling revelations and secrets while chopping peppers for dinner and just carry on chopping and regarding the wallpaper. Gerrard seems to have an obsession with what her characters are eating for meals, including telling us how it was prepared and how characters eat it. She also is fond of making lists (listing the full contents of shelves, the inside of cupboards, medicine cabinets, belongings in the car etc) and I also picked up on a strange need to describe the shape and state of women's breasts in many descriptions of women characters, even down to a character pondering how a woman's breasts had changed over the course of the years since seeing her - an strangely crude tendency and rather bizarre!
While the first half of `The Moment You Were Gone' was rather intriguing and promising, the last half was full of endless ponderings, half-confrontations and a daft finale. The characters fizzled out into Happy Days territory by the end and I found myself disappointed. The writer had not done enough research to fully do three dimensional justice to her subject matter and some of the ponderings of the characters as they chopped peppers and watched the scenery came across very much as cliché and assumption.
good - Rated 
This was a nice book. If Gabby hadn't annoyed me so much I would have given it 5 stars but I'm afraid she rather drove me bonkers. AS good book though with clearly drawn (if sometimes irritating) characters. Worth a read!
Not her best - Rated 
Having read Nicci Gerrard's previous books I was looking forward to this. Unfortunately, I found it a real disappointment. The main problem for me was the character of Gaby. There are many, many descriptions of Gaby's jangly bracelets and wild hair and colourful clothes, and we are clearly meant to find her delightfully bohemian. I just found her extremely annoying, which was a definite problem as she dominates the book. She is gushing and impulsive and does all sorts of incredibly stupid things, from wrecking the car by driving in the wrong gear, to interfering in everyone's life. The scenes involving teenagers (including one character's diary)were completely unconvincing. Nicci Gerrard is an elegant writer and I really wanted to like this book, but by the end of it I just couldn't bring myself to care much about any of the people in it.
Overwhelmingly excellent - Rated 
On the surface, this looks like a 'woman's' book. As a man, however, I read it was rapt fascination, utterly moved, enthralled, inspired by the writing, sometimes in tears and engrossed to the last word on the last page. Unlike a previous reviewer I found nothing rushed or false about the end - it felt perfect. I am pressing my copy on others and will be looking out for this writer's work with a very keen interest indeed. It is my favourite novel for many a long year.
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