I'm really undecided about this book. For one, the characters are not very likeable at all. I know they shouldn't have to be perfect and all, but I should be able to empathise with them, right? Sometimes I find them so annoying, I feel like asking them why they had to exist. 
 In the beginning I quite liked it. The prose was typical Chinese/Japanese (stereotyping I know :c) Asian style - very simple and direct but I thought it worked pretty well in conveying emotions. And the plot was y'know not lovers destined to be together and overcoming all odds and obstacles and finally uniting and all is well in the world and so on and so forth. It's supposed to be realistic, and there were real circumstances surrounding their "love" and all, like having to divorce Shuyu, and at first I didn't actually know how it'd go because the book was written to be realistic and not clear-cut-ish. 
 But... ugh I really can't stand the characters. I don't think the author develops them enough at all. Is it normal for me to be rooting for the 'victim' Shuyu - I like her best - and dislike Lin and (especially) Manna? I think the author was trying to get us to empathise with Lin a little what with the arranged marriage and him not loving his wife in the first place, but really? Shuyu took care of your parents and raised your daughter by herself? Really? Can't stand Manna either. Can't understand how she became so obsessed with him so early on in the book that she took initiative to seduce him, the married man. 
 I like some of the insights presented. Especially at the end, (view spoiler)[when Lin had the I-didn't-actually-love-her-because-I-don't-know-what-love-really-means-and-I-have-wasted-eighteen-years epiphany. This also confirmed my belief that marriage life sucks. (hide spoiler)] 
 Ending was the characters-are-still-continuing-on-with-their-lives-I'm-just-ending-your-glimpse-into-them kind. Unless pulled off well, I have always thought they were lazy endings. But I suppose any other ending would not have been appropriate for the book either. Still, I can't help this feeling of discontentment. Like there's something missing. I suppose it's partly due to the fact that the characters have not grown or developed at all - Lin is still as annoying and life-disrupting as ever, Shuyu's still waiting for him, and Manna has turned from a young possessive girl to an old possessive old lady. 
 Er, yeah. This sounds like a really bad review and a bad book, but it's not really. I don't think so, at least. Diplomatically, I enjoyed it to a certain extent.