The Other Side of Midnight stars Noelle Page, a young woman, who during World War II falls in love with Larry Douglas. He leaves for work one night, promising to come back in a few days so they could get married. Larry doesn’t end up returning, which leaves pregnant and distraught Noelle by herself. She moves to France and applies for jobs wherever she can and has affairs with men to boost her career. While Larry and his wife Catherine, live happily together, Noelle finds another man named Constantine. She starts her career as an actress and eventually becomes famous, all the while plotting vengeance against Larry for leaving her. Larry is having trouble finding a job, Noelle lands him a job as Constantine’s personal pilot. She does this so Larry will have to move with Catherine to Greece, making him just within her reach. She plans an appearance where Larry will see her in her lover, Constantine’s property. Noelle plans for every possible reaction he will have to seeing her, but she never expected him to have completely forgotten her. They then start seeing each other without Catherine knowing, they fall in love and Noelle forgets her plan to kill Larry.
Overall this was a fantastic book, all the components going into ending were thought out really well and it was really put together. It also took you through the life of two female characters during and post World War II. It was a fun but truthful look of what the female experience was back then. It was a riveting page-turner, and felt like I was solving a mystery the whole time I was reading it.
I would definitely recommend this book to people who like a historical romance. There are a lot of characters so it took a lot of time to remember who was who, but each person had a different character which made them easy to love. During the first two-thirds of the book it felt like there was no plot line, just reading through the life of Catherine and Noelle as they build their career. Even then it was really interesting because Sidney Sheldon incorporated events and things that were happening during those times into the book, which gave it even more of a historical feel.
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