The Darker Side of Love: A gripping novel of secrets, lies and betrayal

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While at the beginning, I had some trouble getting into the story of the family feud between two Christian families in Syria which began at the end of the 19th century and keeps influencing generation after generation, the book and its characters started to grow on me after having ploughed through the first third of the novel. While I found the repetitiveness of violence and forbidden love a little bit tiring at first, it became one topic of many in the course of the book. I truly enjoy the Oriental way of telling a story - the narrator kind of meanders through urban Damascus and rural Mala, stopping here and there without obvious reason, thus creating a vivid image of the city, the country and its history. I've found this novel in a series dedicated to world's cities, and Damascus is definitely the hidden protagonist of the book. The prose is beautiful and evocative, and makes one smell the odours of the city, hear the chatter of the women and the noise of the children playing in the streets and the sheer vastness of the novel with its dozens of characters and sidelines reminds me of the labyrinth of Oriental medinas - definitely a book which makes one long for a journey to its settings. Moreover, financial abuse can harm the controller's relationship with their partner, as it erodes trust and can lead to resentment and bitterness. It can also impact their relationship with their children and extended family, as financial abuse can cause significant stress and tension within the family unit. As love is as intense an emotion as one gets, it occasionally leads us to make poor choices – choices that are hurtful to the ones we love.

Like some other reviewers I was expecting to read descriptions of Damascus and other parts of Syria that would give a true feeling of the area and that was one of the reasons that I got the book. There didn't appear to be much of this, there was hardly anything to describe or give character to the areas it was set in. As the book starts all the couples; Izzy and James, Harriet and Wills and Stella and Jonny are all settled in life. Caroline, James' sister is single and feels on the edge of the group due to her status. The story unfolds and we see that none of the couples are quite as secure as first impressions suggested and secrets and lies test their relationships. Told in chapters covering the key times when the group are bought together such as New Year's Eve the reader is left with gaps, this device moves the story along nicely without becoming bogged down with the minutiae of daily life. Somewhere towards the end I remember the author mentioning the story as a mosaic, and I think that's the perfect way to describe this novel. I also think it's the ideal way to show readers an image of life in an Arab country: each piece is a little fragment of the whole, on its own may not make much sense, but its still beautiful, and will be laid down, and little by little the image will build up in your head, until you see the whole picture.

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Y otras que o no me han gustado o me han aburrido. Se me ha hecho larguísimo el dificultoso amor de Rana y Farid, su estancia en la prisión, sus reuniones de partido... Y algunos personajes se me han atravesado, y no me refiero a los malos oficiales (como la familia de Rana), sino a los que se suponen "positivos" como Claire, que al principio me pareció interesante y luego se fue desdibujando hasta convertirse en una madre sufridora sin más... This story introduces us to four women who are firm friends. Caroline, Stella, Izzy and Harriet and their partners/husbands are the focus of this story starting in the nineties. Initially, it can seem a little overwhelming with the amount of characters that appear very early on. However, when you begin to understand each of their lives it becomes easier to distinguish between these very different characters. Many find Jorge Ameer's films very polarizing. I find them refreshing and original. In "The Dark Side of Love" two brothers who hate each other must come to terms with their differences amids the death of their mother. Both are living very different lives, yet both are suffering. One has a love he can't have whilte the other brother is spiraling out of control due to his addicition. His girlfriend fuels his addiction in a negatively supportive way.

As you can see, there are a few characters here, and consequently there are a lot of plot threads to keep up with too, but I found it fascinating as there was always something interested happening, and I was always wanting to find out what was happening next with these characters. I really enjoyed reading about James and Izzy's story, I felt it was the most realistic out of them all (although they are believable and could easily happen) but for me, this one just worked. Izzy tries to open a new café in these tough financial times, and this has an effect on the other things going on in their lives which I found fascinating to read about. Ruston does a really job in building up the tension throughout the book with these stories, not allowing too much to be revealed but enough to get your attention and get you hooked into the book, and consequently you find yourself whizzing through because you want to know what is going to happen next!Because it seems like a lot of hassle, liking someone. Your brain runs hot, the cogs inside your mind jarring together until all the oil of your thoughts is burned away. The fire spreads to your chest, where it chars your lungs and turns your heart to embers. And right when you think the flames have burned away everything but your skeleton, the spark skips from your bones to immolate not only your flesh, but your entire life.” ― Krystal Sutherland, Our Chemical Hearts

As the brothers prepare to say goodbye to their mother, old wounds are reopened and they are forced to deal with the fact that what was once a family is no more. The death of the mother is the pivot around which the film revolves. As we enter the world of Julian, Michael, Steven and Chanel, we find that each is searching for identity and we are part of that quest. The two may love each other fully because remember, love isn’t rational, yet not be able to live and deal with each other forever.The characters are believable and sympathetic. I ached for Harriet and Stella in particular. More than one scene had me crying. This is not a blub fest though, there are light and funny moments, it covers the full gamut really. The Darker Side of Love spans the years from late 2007 to 2010 telling the tale of a group of middle-classed friends dealing with life. As the title suggests this isn't a cosy story of how love can conquer all but rather how love can be dangerous when offered to the wrong person. A number of serious issues are covered in the book including, domestic abuse, grief, substance abuse and adultery to name a few.

Financial abuse occurs when one partner in a relationship controls the other's finances or uses money to control their behaviour. This can take many forms, including withholding money, stealing money, coercing their partner into signing financial documents, and even sabotaging their partner's career. During counselling sessions, both parties can discuss their financial concerns and come up with a plan for managing their finances in a way that is fair and equitable. This may involve setting up a joint bank account, agreeing on a budget, and dividing household expenses fairly. The abuser may also benefit from learning about healthy financial boundaries and strategies for managing their own spending habits. They may be poor calls of judgment; lies we told, or things we said. When it comes to love, our past haunts us. We move from relationship to relationship, hauling all that baggage we managed to accumulate in our previous relationship. A masterpiece! A marvel of prose that mixes myths, stories, tales, legends, and a wonderful love story… You will experience a Scheherazade in sparkling colours – a big love story, which does not spare us the sharp knives of grief.’ A woman once loved a man with a large wart on his nose. She thought him the most handsome man in the world. Years later, however, she noticed the wart one morning. 'How long have you had that wart on your nose?' she asked. 'Ever since you stopped loving me,' said the man sadly."

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This is the perfect book to get lost in, well written with a good mixture of characters and with a bit of a twist in the tail. Jessica Rushton's next book The Lies You Told Me is even better, clearly an author to watch.