Rating: 
Summary: Great drama that highlights modern extended family
Review: Josie Carver marries Matthew Mitchell. However, his three children (fifteen-year old Becky, twelve-year old Rory, and ten-year old Clare) from a former marriage and his mentally imbalanced ex-wife cause problems for their relationship. In contrast, Matthew gets on well with her child (eight-year old Rufus) from her former marriage. Can this couple survive the storms of an extended family? Josie's ex-husband architect Tom Carver becomes engaged to client Elizabeth Brown. His oldest son Lucas (from his first marriage to the deceased Pauline) hopes his dad finds happiness. His other adult child from Tom's marriage to Pauline, Dale, causes major friction between them. Can this couple survive the storm of one individual? Renowned for her novels set in England, Joanna Trollope writes an excellent and timely contemporary drama on the impact of various related step-families. The story is extremely complex, enjoyable, and poignant. The motivations of the numerous characters are comprehensible and allow readers to deeply look into the varying dilemmas confronting adults and children with the modern ultra-extended family. OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN demonstrates that Ms. Trollope knows how to dig into the psychological heart of the modern world. <P<Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not best
Review: Any new book by Joanna Trollope is welcome, and like her others, "Other People's Children" goes by far too fast. Here, however, she spreads herself very thin, tackling roughly 15 characters from several generations, and thereby loses the intensity and focus of "A Spanish Lover," for example, which is surely one of her best works. If we ask ourselves at the end of the book whether we will miss the characters whose lives we are now leaving, there might be a few whose loss we feel: Elizabeth, certainly, and perhaps Rufus. But that's a small percentage of those we have been asked to care about. Still, Trollope creates some nicely complicated characters, particularly in Tom and Nadine, who present themselves so very differently from how (and who) they turn out to be. This novel is definitely worth a read and disappoints only in comparison with even better works by the same author.
Rating:
Summary: Page-turner, start to finish.
Review: Each one of Trollope's novels gets stronger. A great story teller, her characters are completely fleshed out and you find yourself anxiously waiting to see what will happen next. Let's hope she keeps crankin' 'em out at her current rate. A great, satisfying read to make the end of the winter fly by!
Rating:
Summary: the world of stepchildren
Review: It can be amazing, the effects of one decision. Josie, amarried woman with a child, falls in love with Matthew, a married manwith 3 children... and the snowball begins the avalanche. This is a wonderful book, this look at the balancing around stepchildren (not for them, but not ignoring them either.) There is a lot of love, a lot of pain, oh sure, but more intriguingly, there is a lot of truth in this examination of the lives of people so caught in the juggernaut of modern life.
Rating:
Summary: the world of stepchildren
Review: It can be amazing, the effects of one decision. Josie, amarried woman with a child, falls in love with Matthew, a married manwith 3 children... and the snowball begins the avalanche. This is a wonderful book, this look at the balancing around stepchildren (not for them, but not ignoring them either.) There is a lot of love, a lot of pain, oh sure, but more intriguingly, there is a lot of truth in this examination of the lives of people so caught in the juggernaut of modern life.
Rating:
Summary: The effects of second marriages on parents and children
Review: Joanna Trollope beautifully examines the ever-increasing unit known as stepfamilies. The effects this union has not only on the new spouse but on the children as well is written with sensetivity and insight. Ms. Trollope continues - as in her last novel, "The Best of Friends" - illustrating today's complex relationships and, in this novel, she focuses on 3 women: Nadine, the ex-wife; Josie, the new wife; and, Elizabeth, the soon-to-be wife. All 3 women try to cope with issues brought upon second marriages in addition to accepting their own personal issues which they bring to the new relationship. More importantly, are the children - or as the title explains "other people's children" - brought in from one family to another. Rufus, the son of Josie now living with her new husband, Matthew. Matthew's children living with their natural mother, Nadine but whom Rufus must acknowledge as his step-brother and sisters. All of their adjustments are immense, sometimes painful. Idealizing their former life at the expense of accepting and, often times, sabotaging their present situation is one of the many complex issues Ms. Trollope shows; and, she does so clearly and, most of all, in a readable fashion. Moving forward and accepting the past is a difficult endeavor for adults let alone children. Reading this equisite novel, however, Ms. Trollope shows us the process and success we may obtain when our lives take on an unexpected turn of events. Once again, Ms. Trollope comes out a winner.
Rating:
Summary: so real you forget you're not actually living the story
Review: Joanna trollope has a real gift of making characters come alive. As they go through their adventures in living, you want to cry out...don't do that....but...like real people...they forge on..sometimes for better..sometimes for worse. This is a heart-rending book....portraying the plight of children and adults adjusting to new families, new settings, new everything..and always expected to do it with a smile. Joanna Trollope is a GREAT writer.
Rating:
Summary: Other People's Children by Joanna Trollope
Review: Josie has just married Mathew , whose 3 teenage children currently live with their mother, Nadine. Josie's son, Rufus will live with Josie and Mathew but he secretly prefers his father Tom's house, especially since Tom met Elizabeth.....what happens when Nadine relinquishes the children to Mathew and Josie? And when Elizabeth wants to mother Rufus but cannot see a future with his father? This is a story about circumstances that many families, both adults and children, will face at every level of society. Trollope has a great gift for succint and emotive language that turns so called ordinary events into meaningful and poignant moments and where the reader as onlooker, is totally absorbed into the minutae of family interaction. Without choosing sides or casting blame , Trollope takes us through the changes and adjustments that two divorces and a remarriage make for all involved. For eg Josie as stepmother must defy the stereotype of the "other woman" made harder by natural mother Nadine's destructive and irrational behaviour, pushing the loyalties of her children constantly to the test. Elizabeth comes up against the extreme reactions of Toms' adult children who will not allow Tom a second chance. Triumphs and tragedies are experienced by each participant as they pick up the pieces of a new family structure, and the reader is left with a strong awareness that there are no clear cut answers . Only that the immense efforts made by step- families can result in unexpected successes. Sentimental it may be, but this novel is a positive and generous slant on the extended step family.
Rating:
Summary: Other People's Children by Joanna Trollope
Review: Josie has just married Mathew , whose 3 teenage children currently live with their mother, Nadine. Josie's son, Rufus will live with Josie and Mathew but he secretly prefers his father Tom's house, especially since Tom met Elizabeth.....what happens when Nadine relinquishes the children to Mathew and Josie? And when Elizabeth wants to mother Rufus but cannot see a future with his father? This is a story about circumstances that many families, both adults and children, will face at every level of society. Trollope has a great gift for succint and emotive language that turns so called ordinary events into meaningful and poignant moments and where the reader as onlooker, is totally absorbed into the minutae of family interaction. Without choosing sides or casting blame , Trollope takes us through the changes and adjustments that two divorces and a remarriage make for all involved. For eg Josie as stepmother must defy the stereotype of the "other woman" made harder by natural mother Nadine's destructive and irrational behaviour, pushing the loyalties of her children constantly to the test. Elizabeth comes up against the extreme reactions of Toms' adult children who will not allow Tom a second chance. Triumphs and tragedies are experienced by each participant as they pick up the pieces of a new family structure, and the reader is left with a strong awareness that there are no clear cut answers . Only that the immense efforts made by step- families can result in unexpected successes. Sentimental it may be, but this novel is a positive and generous slant on the extended step family.
Rating:
Summary: Other People's Children by Joanna Trollope
Review: Josie has just married Mathew, whose 3 teenage children live with their mother Nadine. Josie's son Rufus will live with Josie and Mathew but secretly Rufus prefers his father Tom's house, especially since Tom met Elizabeth......what will happen when Nadine relinquishes the 3 teenagers to Josie and Mathew>? Will Elizabeth be able to give up Rufus even if she cannot see a future with his father? This is a sentimental but highly readable book on the effects faced by adults and children, when family dynamics change. Trollope has a gift for succint and emotive language whereby the reader as onlooker can be totally absorbedinto the minutae of family life, and ordinary domestic events are invested with a poignancy that lingers as surely as similar real life scenarios . Th story takes us through the adjustments needed by two divorces and a remarriage, the consequences managing to rebound on every adult and child involved. The traumas of key figures such as Josie the new stepmother, fighting the negative stereotypes , despite Nadine's irrational and abusive behaviour toward her children, are compulsive, as are Elizabeth's struggles with the destructive pattern of possessiveness set by Tom's adult children. The reader is made increasingly aware that no clear cut answers are in view, but the unexpected joys of people overcoming emotional baggage, make for a positive and generous novel on the extended family model.
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