This was the first book I had read by Kate Field but I will certainly be looking for more of her books. I thought it was a well written enjoyable read

Mary Black lives with her husband and two teenage children in the village she has lived in all her life. Her mother lives in the converted garage and her mother in law lives next door. They are a close family until Mary's husband leaves her to live with, and later marry, his male friend Clarke. Mary has devoted her married life to her husband and children always putting herself last and even when she finds herself divorced she still puts everyone else's feelings before her own. Her ex husband is a successful man who uses Mary as an unpaid research assistant for his books and never acknowledges publicly the work she does for him. The characters are very real, a stroppy teenage daughter and the members of the school PTA Spring to mind.

Her ex husbands brother Ethan has always loved Mary and knows of his brothers selfishness and past lies. He tries to make life easier not only for Mary but for her son and daughter and the family life portrayed is very accurate. The author's style of writing is very descriptive and although the ending is predictable It is a book well worth reading.

Mary Black’s life is turned upside down when her husband of 20 years is caught at a Christmas party holding another man’s hand. The next day he tells her he’s leaving her for this man and Mary must navigate life without the man she considered her best friend.

Mary puts everyone else before herself, and wants an amicable break up. There were times during the book where I wanted to grab Mary and tell her to stand up for herself and put her own happiness first. Her ex husband Leo, was an incredibly selfish character who publicly humiliated Mary on more than one occasion. I am inherently a people pleaser, but even I would struggle with accommodating a husband who left me for another person (man or woman) as easily as Mary does. I digress, although Mary was at times infuriatingly overly nice to everyone but herself, I loved her character and I really enjoyed the book. It was obvious very early on who Mary would end up with at the end, but I enjoyed the ride.

This is my first novel by Kate Field and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I’ll definitely be checking out her other books!

One of the things I’ve always believed about books is that there are different books for different needs and different occasions. That’s one of the reasons I’m always in the middle of a couple books at a time; I don’t want to have to read something that I like, but that I’m really not feeling. The Man I Fell in Love With by Kate Field is light and sweet, a bit sentimental, but overall, the perfect book for a weekend read or a rainy day.

It starts with a moment that changes
the protagonist’s life forever: at a Christmas party, Mary Black sees her husband holding hands with a man she’s never met. After he leaves her to begin his life with his new beau, Mary has to decide whether to continue her life playing it safe or to take risks for love.






Because of the type of book this is, I knew she was going to end up happy with a new love. I don’t even consider this a spoiler because you should know the conventions of a genre and this is the kind of book that pushes a “love conquers all” agenda. The only thing you didn’t really know as a reader was whether she was actually going to end up in love with a safe choice—basically a carbon copy of the ex—or the more dangerous choice.

This book was pretty charming. The romantic scenes were very sweet and everything gave you that kind of warm feeling in the pit of your stomach. There wasn’t much in the way of real drama or anxiety. The protagonist has a pretty good life and even after her husband leaves she is able to maintain the same lifestyle, not having to give up travel or the like. Still, as a character, Mary is very frustrating. She never seems to understand other people‘s intentions and she trusts the wrong people all the time. In all honesty, she’s just a bad judge of character and sometimes it’s a little hard to read. It’s the characters that are the only thing I would change about this book: it’s not that they’re poorly developed characters or even that they are unlikable. All in all they’re actually pretty well developed and for the most part felt like they were authentic. There were two exceptions: Mary‘s mother, I completely overbearing shrew, and her daughter Who is basically just a caricature of a teenage girl. Any time one of those two were in a scene, I was annoyed and just couldn’t really connect to what was happening.

The best part about this book was how real Mary’s insecurities felt. After having kids, after your body changes, there are things that make A woman feel terribly self-conscious and I think Kate Field did a really nice job of depicting those feelings. I would recommend this book. There’s a lot of nice family interactions and romance and even a slight literary Mystery for those that don’t love the romance angle. It’s a quick read, very entertaining, and a good way to pass a lazy weekend day or maybe a beach trip.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book I was given in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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4/5

Love this story and this family - The Blacks. What a lovely mum! Would love to read this as a saga too, maybe one before or after this book. A marriage broken apart by just a glimpse of someone holding hands with someone they shouldn't. Then like dominoes everything starts to fall apart. While things change, old feelings come to light and decisions. Did the main character make the right decision in the past? Will she have chance to make the right decision?
Lovely book. Brilliant.

A Joan Hessayon award winner, this is my first book by Kate Field that I have read - sorry Kate - and won't be the last.

I'm going to shamelessly half-inch a quote from Amazon about my feelings for this book that perfectly sum up what I felt upon completing the story - a love story with a difference!

My thanks to Netgalley for the free copy. You made my day when you did.

This is the story of Mary and Leo, Clark and Ethan and their immediate families. Perversely, I enjoyed it but all the while I was reading I was also mentally throwing things at Kate Field, the author. At the same time as I was reading The Man I Fell in Love With, I was also reading a book detailing the history of career novels for girls, a fascinating look at the social history of the middle part of the twentieth century. And I am sad to say that Mary Black would have fitted right in to one of those career books with their outmoded (I thought) ideas about the place of women. But The Man I Fell in Love With is well written and the characters are interesting even if I was suspending my disbelief for much of the plot.

(It would get three and a half stars if that were possible but, as it is, I am being generous and rounding up rather than down.)

Mary Black is married to her childhood next door neighbor - the only man she has ever been with. Mary’s husband comes out - publicly - as gay, and drops the bombshell that he will be moving in with his new partner.

The positives: this was very well written, and kept me reading.

The negatives: very easy to predict everything that was going to happen. No twists or turns that weren’t heavily signposted earlier on. Not a new story in a well-worn genre.

I’m pleased I read it, but it won’t be reread.

Found this book hard to get into, couldn't really get on with the characters and it was a hard toil to finish the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This book gives a gorgeous modern twist on a sliding door relationship. It’s written with warmth and feeling that leaves you feeling like part of the extended family.
An absolute pleasure to read

Great read, loved the characters with all their flaws but still they drew me in. Would definitely recommend this book to others.

This is a nice romance but also a book that raises a lot of questions and gives a lot of food for thought.
It's well written, engaging and entertaining, with a great cast of characters.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Avon Books and Netgalley for this ARC

This was such a sweet romantic contemporary. Mary has been left by her husband for another man and now has to figure out how to navigate life without him, to get used to the idea that she might date again, continue working with him, and deal with judgement from her family when she doesn't make choices that they agree with. It was interesting to see if she would follow her heart, or do what she felt was best for her family.

I absolutely loved this book and couldn't put it down. It raised a lot of thoughts as I was reading. Was it easier to be more accepting that your husband went off with a man rather than a woman?

In the most I thought the characters were great and believable. I got really annoyed about how Mary found out about the marriage and still stood by him as a friend.

Really great story, refreshing that it wasn't just another infidelity story.

Well written and extremely readable.

The Man I fell in Love With is a book that left me quite torn. I was absolutely intrigued with the synopsis and although I quite enjoyed the story I just expected a little more from it. I expected it to be a little less predictable. Only 30 pages in the story and I knew exactly where Mary was going to end up. I wished it would have been a little less obvious or taken a completely different course. Something a little more refreshing, not the solution that 95% of the feel good books would offer.
But let’s start off with all the thing I did like about this book. I absolutely loved how realistic most of the story felt. I think lots of woman might recognize themselves in Mary. She is a woman who has always forgot her own needs. Her whole life is centred around her husband and her family. Mary is always taking care of everybody around her. Husband, kids, even her mother and her mother in law. She doesn’t seem to know the word no and is always giving, giving, giving. And suddenly all that security and her well designed future is ripped away. Not by another woman, but by a man. The conflicting emotions Mary has about this and what she is willing to do to keep her family together in some way was really heartfelt and real. Although Mary and I have nothing in common I could relate to her in the lioness feels she shows when people try to hurt her family.
But that is where my connection with Mary ends. Readers of my blog might know how much I love a strong female lead. Women who are not afraid to stand up for themselves. But even after the separation with her husband Mary just keeps on putting herself and her own needs last. Even when she goes on the rebound she does it with an exact copy of her husband! I just wanted to scream at her to open her eyes and see what she was doing. But honestly, that was just a minor complaint I had about the story. I could at some level understand why Mary just wanted her save, comfortable life to continue.
What I didn’t understand was the incredible unbelievable twist the plot took in the end. In the end the author tries to explain all the awful things that have happened to Mary in the past. Why she was abandoned by her father. Why she married Leo. But here she just lost me. Instead of giving an reasonable explication the story took twists and turns that made your head spin. The way Mary was eventually treated really gave me an overall bad feeling about this story and all the characters involved.
So what could have been a really enjoyable 3,5 even 4 star read, was actually a little bit ruined by the end explanation. Such a shame….

A really enjoyable read. It was refreshing to read about a character who finds themselves at a crossroads in their late 30s, proving that life doesn't stop in 20s. Mary was a really enjoyable character to follow, an all-round good person who makes thoughtful and very believable decisions. The dynamics between her and Leo were well exploded. Where's my Ethan please...? :)

I enjoyed this book and, although I found Mary infuriating, she was a well-drawn character and there are many women like her. Mary makes life easy for everyone else and doesn't consider herself. Even when her selfish husband goes off with his lover, she smoothes life over for him and her children. Her daughter is a spoilt, selfish brat who is in need of a good talking to but Mary is too soft. Enter Ethan who gradually persuades Mary to think differently and gives her a glimpse of the happiness she could have. It's a warm uplifting read.

Probably more of a 3.5 star.!!

What do I say about a book that I read in one single sitting without ever putting it down because it’s so well written and enticing to read, but I don’t really know what I feel about the characters. It’s a very realistic emotional read while being equally frustrating and I don’t think I’ve ever struggled so much to rate a book.

Mary is such a realistic portrayal of the lives of so many women that it just pained me to read her story. Due to her childhood abandonment issues, she chose a life of safety and contentment over that of love and passion and has spent the next two decades dedicating herself to the welfare of her family. Her work revolves around making sure her husband is successful without ever getting credit for her massive contribution and her home life is all about making sure her kids, her mother and mother-in-law are happy, irrespective of her feelings on any matter. Even after the disastrous way she learns about her husband’s affair and the subsequent divorce, it falls to her to keep the peace, make sure the kids don’t lose their father and co-exist happily with her husband’s new partner.

I can understand the responsibility that Mary feels towards her family and wanting to make sure that her kids are able to get through the divorce and the new reality without a lot of hostility. But she suppresses every part of her personality and her heart for this to happen; she is essentially a doormat for most part of the book and I hated it. I hated it more because it’s also very accurate and hit quite close to home and I guess I just wanted her to finally reach for her happiness instead of settling for what others expected of her. It takes a long time for her to realize her own worth, decide that she deserves her own life outside of her family and even though she does change her mind later, I thought it was too late in the book and I was already on the verge of exasperation.

The major problem I had with the book is that I disliked most of the other characters. Her ex-husband Leo is a selfish, lying, cheating, manipulative jerk and I didn’t like that he got everything that he wanted in life, but never really had to answer for any of his wrongs. He is never called out, Mary never confronts him and she doesn’t even really think that he has wronged her, and is happy to remain his friend. I was very disappointed with this take that a man can get away with anything and a woman will forgive him. Mary’s mother felt very condescending and kept reminding her to choose her family and keeping everyone happy over her own life. Her mother-in-law seemed like she wanted more for Mary but she never tells it outright and when she does, I again thought it was too late. Mary’s 14-year old daughter Ava is supposed to be a typical parent-hating teenager, but I especially disliked that she showed so much disrespect towards her mother who did so much for her, while seeming to accept her father’s decisions so easily. Her son Jonas is the only one in the household who seems to care how his mother feels and though he speaks very less, he definitely succeeds in conveying his support for her. And her brother-in-law Ethan is the one person who tries very hard to poke and prod and provoke her to realize that there is more to life than feeling contented and encourages her to come out of her shell and let herself fly.

The writing is seamless to get through and it felt very hard to put down. Every single character and emotion is portrayed very close to reality and that’s what made it such a difficult read. The feel of a small town and it’s dynamics are captured very well and I could really feel being in the setting. There is also a whole subplot about a Victorian author Alice Hornby and Mary’s adoration of her writing which I thought was done really done well. I could totally feel the love that Mary had for books and the bookstores she visits are described beautifully, especially Archer’s and I felt totally transported to those places.

If you like realistic fiction with very accurate true to life portrayals of characters, then I think you will enjoy this one more than I did. I just didn’t feel satisfied with the end and also with the way everyone got away with their lies and manipulations. I also think I just wanted Mary to be more assertive and decisive earlier in the book and I definitely would have loved an epilogue to finally see that she is truly happy.

The Man I Fell in Love With made me feel so sad for the main character Mary.

Her husband Leo comes out as gay in public humiliating Mary. I wanted Mary to cry, be angry, be anything other than as accepting as she was. I felt she accepted it as just another decision made by Leo regarding their lives.

Mary is frequently referred to as “beige” and it was clear to me that Leo had some influence over this. She was in a marriage with her friend who she loved but they were plodding. Her life revolved around Leo who took her for granted and their children, there seemed to be nothing for Mary. Even when Leo moved on with his life he expected Mary to be there as always.

I found this a thought provoking read. How many couples are plodding like Mary and Leo were? How many people are held back by a partner? And how many make the break and leave the “beige” partner to go on to bloom?

A read full of emotion for me that I highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

The story opens with Mary, the main female character in this story, witnessesing (along with everyone else) seeing her husband holding hands with another man.

The story goes on to follow Mary as she copes with life following a speedy divorce and remarriage of her ex Leo to his partner, and setting foot on the dating scene.

This was an ok read. However I am very frustrated with the trend that seems to be arising from a lot of fiction these days of the female character letting their partners (and exes) get away with so much. Mary is pretty much a doormat in this story, giving excuses for her ex for his appalling behaviour and the respective mother and mother in law don’t behave any better either. The only really stable characters in this are Mary’s son and her brother in law, Ethan. Also Mary’s behaviour around Ethan is equivalent to that of an awkward teenager, not a fully grown woman with children.

I would have enjoyed this story far more if Mary has developed a thicker skin and gave herself the chance to be happy much sooner. I agreee with another reviewer that it would have been nice to see further along into the future and seen Mary be properly happy with Ethan at the end

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book took me a while to get into. However, after about a third of the book, I was completely engaged. What an impossible situation for Mary Black to be in. I am not sure I would have done the same as her, but that's where the story was interesting. Even though it took me a while to get into, I did enjoy this story and will be seeking out more by Kate Field.