Fuelled by tension, passion, love, sadness and happiness, this book marries some quite heavy themes such as depression, loss, heartbreak and infidelity with fantastic humour and a joyous voice. The last chapter broke my heart and I know I’m going to miss these characters so much. Ruth Jones has written such a wonderful, wonderful book. Saying that though, Ruth Jones really can write people and she writes them incredibly well. Kate is brittle, fake, toxic and a huge contrast to her kind, loving, compassionate husband Matt (who I really liked). Callum and his wife Belinda are both brilliantly written and the insights into relationships of both couples are drawn with an expert eye and deft touch. It is also laugh out loud funny in places with clever observations of emotions and the complications of life. This isn’t a book that romanticizes infidelity by any means – it really is warts and all, and examines the effect of an affair not only on those involved but on those on the periphery. It is difficult and upsetting for all concerned and wasn’t an easy read/listen at times especially as Ruth Jones highlights the selfish nature of affairs and the almost disdainful way in which those having the affair treat the people they have hurt. My heart broke for both Matt and Belinda – their sadness is palpable. For starters –it’s not just Callum and Kate we’re following in this tale. No, there’s Kate’s husband Matt and his best friend Hetty and Callum’s wife Belinda too … And we get *everyone’s* perspective with the omniscient third-person narration. We can even start a chapter following one person’s interiority, but when they make a phone-call to someone else, we’ll then get that person’s side of things too. It’s baffling that these basic fiction foibles weren’t edited and corrected, because they are confusing and quite clearly a TV-writing holdover (especially from Jones’ ensemble-cast writing) that she needed to be rid of.

Seventeen years later, life has moved on – Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kids grow up. The past, it would seem, is well and truly behind them all. Kate è diventata un'attrice famosa, ha un marito e una figlia, ma il suo animo è tormentato, non riesce a godersi le gioie della vita. Quando rivede Callum dopo diciassette anni, la stessa passione tra i due scoppia ancora. Fino a quando non vengono ancora una volta scoperti. Le loro vite cambiano e questo non per forza positivamente. I love books about gnarly, messy relationships and this one kept me gripped from the beginning. A great read.' Jane Fallon I have to admit that Kate's husband Matt and his old friend Hetty were by far my favourite characters and I hurt when Matt hurt and I wanted to cry when he cried. I loved Hetty for her absolute loyalty to him and was desperately sad when even their relationship when awry for a while. Callum ha una relazione extraconiugale con Kate, interrotta solo quando viene scoperto da sua moglie Belinda. Ma, dopo 17 anni, imperterriti, i due si ritrovano e ridiventano amanti. Il tempo intercorso tra le due relazioni, viene svelato capitolo dopo capitolo, in modo da meglio capire le dinamiche, gli avvenimenti, le scelte fatte dai protagonisti che, nonostante tutto, non si sono mai dimenticati. Kate è la rovina famiglia, l' amante, talmente egoista da mettere in secondo piano il benessere di sua figlia pur di riavere il suo vecchio amore. Matt è il marito, un uomo buono, padre affettuoso e amorevole. Belinda è la moglie tradita, che ha molto sofferto per il rifiuto del marito, ma l'ho apprezzata per le sue ferme decisioni e la forza mostrata. Callum l'ho odiato. Ha distrutto la sua famiglia, suo moglie e i suoi figli, portandoli alla condizione di non volerlo più rivedere. Particolarmente struggente sono stati l incontro, dopo che è andato via di casa, con suo figlio, e il dolore della piccola Tallulah quando Matt ha scoperto il tradimento e, distrutto, è ripartito da soloHeart-rending, provocative and astutely written, Never Greener is a love story about getting what you want and losing everything you need. Ruth's characters will stay with me for a long time.' Cathy Bramley

Fast forward seventeen years and life is about to get very complicated. Kate is now doing very well for herself, a successful actress in her own right. Well known wherever she goes. Callum is still married and has a family and happy in Edinburgh. Secrets buried in the past never to be spoken of. And the really frustrating thing is that while we follow everyone in narration, that doesn’t actually lead to us learning more about any them. Kate and Callum between them make some pretty radically awful decisions in the spur-of-the-moment, but we only read the action, not the internal reasoning. So one moment Callum is refusing an attempted kiss from Kate, then while she’s on the phone to someone, Callum suddenly has a hand on her leg that’s creeping up her skirt… it’s completely baffling that these moments are communicated in such sparse sentences (actually very similar to the directions of a script?) but never interrogated by the characters themselves, in the moment. It reads very much ‘Slot A into Slot B’.

This one blew so hot and cold for me. One minute you love the flawed messed up characters the next you hate them. What they are doing to each other what they are doing to themselves. They are all in the end of believable and unbelievable at the same time. London and Edinburgh the two main settings one way to win you over. There was too much cheating which nearly made me round down. However something stopped me how human they all are. You do not have to like all details about a person and vice vesra it is written well.

The characters are so real that you just do not want to let them leave your life. We meet Kate and Callum who had a passionate affair, Kate was young in her early twenties and Callum old and married, he should have known better, was he looking for some excitement in his ‘mid-life’ what was Kate really hoping for? Sadly, for Kate it ended and left her bereft and heartbroken. Callum carried on with his life his secret hidden. The Judd Apatow Netflix series, Love, recently wrapped up with its third and final season, does the same at the outset. You are forced to question why you should be rooting for any of these less than shiny happy people, and yet you are. Or at the very least in both cases, you're chomping at the bit to see what happens to them. L'autrice è stata brava a far vivere le emozioni dei protagonisti e a creare un epilogo non scontato..This is a story of second chances in life. Ruth Jones expertly details just how unexpected a second chance can be as Kate and Callum meet again; seventeen years after the end of a relationship that almost tore both of them apart. My struggles with the book were mainly with the way Kate is written as a contemptible person whilst Callum is quite likeable. Kate is in her early 20s when their affair begins and Callum is in his late 30s yet she is seen as a seductive temptress and Callum is just a hapless man who cannot resist her charms. I got annoyed with myself for liking Callum when he was as much to blame for their affair (it takes two to Tango after all). I am unsure whether this was intentional by Ruth Jones and whether she is holding up a mirror on the portrayal of women in this sort of situation but if she was it wasn’t immediately obvious to me.