My Favourite Mistake: The No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller (Walsh Family)

I loved being back in Anna’s world where she leaves NYC and comes back to Ireland.It was great to read about familiar characters and also new. I loved the storyline, the ending and I would highly recommend.

This book not my favourite but I still enjoyed it

This is My first ever book review but I have loved every minute of both of Anna’s books and I felt the need to share. When I started the first book (is anybody out there) I didn’t think it was my type of book but I was soon emotionally involved and loved Anna and every minute of her story.Straight away I had to get the second ( my favourite mistake) as I was desperate to know how she was doing and I’m so pleased I did I loved it ! I loved Anna and all the other characters and the best end I could have asked for . Both books made me laugh and cry , I didn’t think I could enjoy it as much as rachel’s story but I did. I’m now completely gutted I’ve finished it but I know I’ll definitely read them again sometime 😊

Anna is by far my favourite Walsh sister and i loved ''Is There Any One Out There'' having read it countless times. I'd often wondered about Anna, who she ended up with and hoped she had her happy ending as hinted at in the first book. Anna is now home in Ireland, burnt out from her high profile job and has split up with Angelo, she has no children and is knocking on the door of 50 - the novel ends with her 50th birthday. She doesnt really see anything of Aiden's family any more ( theres no mention of Janie and Little jack, i wonder what happened to them?) and her friendship with Jacqui has fallen by the wayside. She ends up in a small village helping her sisters friends with the opening of a holiday retreat. This is also where we get reintroduced with Narky Joey. Im not sure i like the new Anna as much as the old one. I know i got fed up with her moaning about her menopausal symptoms and her need for HRT every few pages. The villagers were one dimensional and i wasnt really interested in then, i wanted to know about Anna and how she felt. The Walsh family, well what was amusing in the first book just fell flat in this book. There was no hint of any spark in the previous book between Joey and Anna and i found it difficult to get my head round. The coincidences are also too much - every one is in New York, but then every one all lives in Ireland. I have really enjoyed Marian Keyes' earlier novels but i do think she has lost her way with her last few. The blurb says its hilarious, but i didnt raise a smile once. I just thought parts of it were cliched and not very believable. I liked the novel but i didnt love it. I think 3 stars is a fair number to give.

I’m so stupidly happy that Anna got her happy ever after. Beautifully written as always and had me laughing and crying in equal measure. What more can you ask of a book.

The title says it all really. Toasted sandwiches and gin are not a spoiler per se, rather the essence of what this book made me feel. I'll explain: toasted sandwiches are comforting, yummy, easy, everything that reminds me of home; and The Walshes are all of that and more to me. And gin... well, gin is gin!! It's sharp, zesty, tickles you behind the eyeballs, and it's definitely very, very cool!!

I have been a die-hard Marian fan for about 30yrs now and always eagerly await a new release. This is the first novel of hers that I haven't finished, which is a big deal. Most of them I devoured within 48hrs of publication, genuinely unable to put them down once I'd started reading. That long standing tradition stumbled with Grown Ups which I found to be very bleak and not at all her usual energy, and was the first book I just didn't enjoy. However I persevered and did ultimately finish it. This one, I don't know... I didn't dislike it, it was certainly much more in the warmth and tone of her usual books, it had familiar characters which I've loved and been invested in for decades, I didn't not enjoy it once I picked it up it's just I didn't hugely get the urge to pick it up. And no, it's not just that I'm now a busy 40-something working mum with too little time, I took it on a beach holiday fully anticipating I'd finish half on the plane on the way over. It's just it didn't lure me in. The storytelling is still great, the plot is fine, it just all felt a bit arduously long and in the end I faltered about 2/3 of the way through and have never felt compelled to pick it back up to see how it ends. It's a strange feeling as I have worshipped Marian's every word for many years and the sadly the last two books have missed the mark for me.

A really enjoyable read, full of Marian Keyes' familiar humour, mixed in with heartache and serious soul searching, plus the input of the family from hell, all serve to make this a very absorbing book, highly recommended.

I really loved that half of this book was written in flashback, and also that there were hints of the past woven into the present story. For example when Anna is going to reunite with Jaqui, she says, "I would have to tell her what I did to Joey." And then the next chapter is a flashback of something that happened between Anna and Joey that Anna feels ashamed about and it haunts her for years. Through the flashbacks, the author is truly showing not telling us what happened. I also liked that there's a lot of dialogue because it makes the book more exciting and fast-paced. The one thing that I think took away from my enjoyment of this book is that there are way too many secondary characters that I felt were unnecessary and hard to keep track of who's who. I had to kind of just ignore them in order to enjoy the story.

***Mild spoilers*** I pre-ordered My Favourite Mistake as soon as I found out it would be published – that's how I go about Marian Keyes' novels. Months later, I found out it was a sequel to Anybody Out There, my second favorite Walsh novel. I reread it and counted down the minutes until I could get started with My Favourite Mistake. I absolutely love how Marian is able to show characters who have been through so much and who have changed and grown and succeeded and lost, all the while maintaining their personalities. It's amazing that there are 7 books in the series, and all the characters feel real and true to their initial depictions. I was torn between reading this in one sitting or making a slow read – I wanted to enjoy it and to really take in every scene, so I ended up taking my time with it, enjoying it over a couple of weeks instead of diving into in a few days. It wasn't always an easy read, Anna has been through a lot, but I really appreciate how many aspects were dealt with. Covid and the pandemic are a big part of what triggers a massive change in her, yet I wasn't annoyed or disgruntled when the topic came up because it's more of a passing circumstance than *the thing*. Jumping right back with all the Walshes was great fun and interesting, as the characters continue going through plenty, and even if I'm not quite there age-wise, I did appreciate Anna's struggles with menopause, how her childfree lifestyle came to be, and, well, what brought her to leave The Best Job in the World to move to Ireland. I will say, I'm rounding up the rating here – I'd say it's 4.5. My issues had to do with some of the obstacles regarding the venture and how at times it all seemed a bit too much, too big, for the type of novel when I think about the problems faced in other Walsh stories, and I felt iffy about Jacqui. Yes, we get to hear her side of the story (briefly), and it's great that they reconnect, but while she had good intentions, I had the sensation that her apologies fell a bit short. She barely recognizes any of what she's done and the conversation with Anna felt a bit too one-sided in the sense of only Anna was truly apologetic and open to hearing everything Jacqui had to say, and truly acknowledging it, while Jacqui kept justifying her own actions rather than being open to the idea that she may have also been out of line and pretty selfish. So that part was a bit insufficient for me and left me with a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. But other than that, I loved coming back to the Walshes, greatly enjoyed seeing the family and getting caught up with them, and the way the story ends. I don't know if this is the final Walsh story or not, but if it is, I can only say that the final words are a great sendoff.

I don't know what I did expect the plot to be about, but Narky Joey was not it. Never once before reading all of the Walsh books did I ever think that there was anything between Anna and Joey. When I reached the point in the book where I realised that Joey was the plot, I was pretty concerned. I couldn't reconcile Narky Joey from all the other stories with the man that Anna was describing, just too much didn't make sense (why wasn't she constantly comparing him to Bon Jovi?). However as I continued reading and all the dots started to be connected, I began to understand. And of course, I wanted them to succeed. This is not the tear jerker that Anybody Out There is, which had me blubbering like a baby throughout the novel, but it is still quite a heartwarming story about two people who could never quite get their paths aligned. If you're a fan of the Walsh's, this book is not to be missed.

This book got a bit damaged in transit as the plastic wrapping was a bit torn and it caught some dust and black smudge marks and dent on the corner but other than that excited to read the book and it came with the cover as advertised.

After the first page you feel completely absorbed by this page turner with the usual suspects of the Walsh family.