SOURCE: Scofield, Sandra. “Twins Coping with the Changes in Their Lives.” Chicago Tribune Books, no. 54 (23 February 1997): section 14, p. 3.

In the following review, Scofield notes that A Spanish Lover is obviously targeted towards a more commercial audience than Trollope's previous works, but argues that the author succeeds in creating “an entertaining, cosmopolitan story that gives ‘women's fiction’ a fresh standard of intelligence.”

A best-selling author at home in England, Joanna Trollope (The Choir, The Rector's Wife) has charmed Americans with her gentle, wry novels of the provincial English middle class. In her new book, she takes a sharp left into more commercial territory and demonstrates that the English have yuppies too. The result is an entertaining, cosmopolitan story that gives “women's fiction” a fresh standard of intelligence.

Lizzie and Frances are middle-age twins whose lives change dramatically over the course of an eventful year. Their relationship is the core...