Read: Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife

My memory was correct - this book was better than her second, "Her Fearful Symmetry". "Her Fearful Symmetry" seemed like an exercise in plot twists - intricately wrought, with characters somewhat secondary, and rather bloodless. Whereas in "The Time Traveler's Wife" the plot is almost negligible - the future is pre-determined and to a great degree already known, making it tragic and affecting. The power comes from the characters, which are tremendously passionate and real. So real that I cried at the end - it's not often a book makes me do that.