As always, I am compelled to read all things Marian Keyes, particularly if it's about the Walshes. This one was about the "lickarse" Maggie. These books always engage me but I find that the characters are always drawn a bit vaguely, I never feel like I got to know them enough. I do like reading her books because the dialogue can be so funny, especially in Irish idiom.

Description: After catching her husband having an affair and being fired from her job, Maggie Walsh suddenly finds her perfectly organized existence has become a perfect mess. She decides, for the first time in her life, to do something daring -- and flees to her best friend, Emily, in the faraway wonderland of Los Angeles. In this mecca of tanned, beautiful bodies, unsvelte, uncool Maggie is decidedly a fish out of water. Yet, overnight, she's mixing with film folk, pitching scripts, even experimenting with sex -- and discovering that the end of a marriage is not the end of the world.

My thoughts: I don't know why this book has so many pages, the story could have been written much shorter. I must say that I often found myself bored while reading, that is not my definition of chic lit. ( )

Although I enjoyed the book, it is not my favourite one by Marian Keyes, and it’s definitely my least favourite of the “Walsh Sister’s Series.” The book had Keyes’ humour and spectacular story telling ability, but I just couldn’t relate to the character, Maggie, as well as I have been able to relate to those in her other, and I also didn’t I enjoy the novel as much I have in previous books by Keyes. The supporting characters, like Emily’s neighbours were far more interesting, with their stories the Maggie’s, for me, her story just fell a little short to what I normally expect from Keyes. Don’t be fooled, it’s still a good book, and I know a lot of people could relate to how Maggie feels, and what she went through. Keyes’ does an excellent job; at bring the emotion, though the pages. Also, the story does pick up quite a lot near the end, and things fall into place and grabbed my attention for a while, but I still felt, it didn’t have that same appeal as her other books.

Review can also be found at my book review blog
http://juliebooks.blogspot.com/2009/0... ( )

This is a great book on a gloomy day to read, will have you laughing she is such a great writer ( )

Good Girl Goes Bad…just a Little!

This was the third novel in the Walsh sister’s series – it’s time to get to know Maggie a little better.

The story starts out when Maggie discovers that her husband has been unfaithful and decides to leave their home in Ireland and go for an extended visit to her good friend in California. She gets reacquainted with the US, as her and her husband once lived in Chicago when they were first married – and now she gets to see what it’s like in Los Angeles, aka movie-land.

This was a good book and I enjoyed the story, but not as much as Watermelon and Rachel’s Holiday. There was a lot of time spent chronicling the happenings of secondary characters and I didn’t have that much interest in them. Marian Keyes is a talented story teller and she’s not stingy with the details – she gives it ALL to you and readers can decide for themselves what they come away with. It was because of that detail, it took me longer to finish this book than the others; part of my lackluster response comes from the fact that Maggie is basically a good-girl, and has pretty much followed the straight and narrow – marrying her high school boyfriend, - she’s not as wild and crazy as the sisters detailed in other novels and so there were no huge bells and whistles going off…at first!

Then the story gets going and Maggie is exposed to the world of Hollywood. It was fun to see how L.A. affects Maggie. What did make this book noteworthy was the way that Keyes showed the slow progression as Maggie comes to realize what real love is, but first she has to figure out what it IS NOT! At one point during her visit, her parents & two sisters (Helen & Anne) come to visit and it was this part of the story that I enjoyed most, reading about the antics they inevitably get into & this time in America! Maggie gets to see the world of movie production from the inside and meets many wild people with their own stories to tell and her involvement with them is when she goes a little bit wild! You will definitely want to read Angels if you are a fan of the series and even though I didn’t love this installment, Keyes is still one of my favorite authors and I will certainly keep reading! ( )