I recently finished reading a book called "The Time Traveler's Wife". It was one of the few books I've bought on a whim at the store. The last one I bought on a whim was "The Kiterunner" which I'd recommend if you haven't read it. The Time Traveler's Wife took me about a year to read. I can't ever remember taking even half that long to finish a fiction book. Having said that, you might think I hated it. I definintely didn't. It had some great insights into human relationships. The writing was also very well done in places.
For the first half of the book, the premise seemed really goofy to me. Basically it is a time travel romance novel. I wasn't really used to the introduction of a classic science fiction mainstay in such an otherwise mundane love story. I was also really worried starting out that the time travel would be totally ridiculous and filled with classic logical flaws. However, I think the book effectively avoided these pitfalls. By the end of the book, I was pretty comfortable with the time travel and I thought it gave the book a real tragic edge.
One complaint about the story in general was that it projected a sense of intellectual snobbery. I got the distinct impression that the author is one of those people who carries a library tote bag and needs to tell everyone how she doesn't own a TV (insert obligatory Onion ref). I'm sure the author giggled with delight when she thought of a plausible reason for one of the main characters to have an aversion to TV.
My biggest problem with the book was that it poorly developed the conflict. That is why it took me so long to read. The "reading group" questions at the end suggest that various events in the book were subtly foreshadowed. I guess maybe that is what is supposed to keep you interested. But for me it was way too subtle. There was absolutely no conflict for the first 80% of the book. It was like a breathless kid telling you a story that ends up being a series of events with no real point. "This happened. Then this happened. Oh, and then this crazy thing happened."
I think the book could be altered in very minor ways to introduce the conflict much earlier and make the story much more compelling. An example that comes to mind is one of my favorites, "A Prayer for Owen Meany". In this book, the main character also has visions of his future. However, these visions are revealed much earlier and the story has a great sense of building towards a climax. The Time Traveler's Wife develops this same sense but not until about the last 20% of the book.