It’s always fun to return to the lives of the Walsh sisters. In My Favourite Mistake, Anna has a dream job doing PR for a beauty company in New York City. All the serums and free lipsticks a girls could want! When the pandemic hits, she and her boyfriend Angelo have to decide whether to quarantine together or apart. They choose together. The stress of living together and not being able to fly home to see her family does a number on Anna’s mental health. When the restrictions ease up, she makes the decision to leave her high-paying, high-stress job behind and return to Ireland.

In Ireland, however, is where the woman who was once her best friend and a man she’s had a complicated relationship for the last twenty years live. She’d like to avoid Joey, but when she finds a part-time gig doing PR for what will become a luxury retreat, it turns out she’ll be working with him. Now she just has new problems to face, without a good salary or means of transportation. Together, Anna and Joey face a little bit of mystery about who is trying to make the resort crash and burn (literally).

Keyes imbues this novel with her funny/sad trademark wit, and she makes Ireland sound so wonderful you’ll be wanting to buy tickets to visit before you finish reading. What I really enjoyed about this, however, is that Anna is about my age and talks a great deal about being peri-menopausal. I don’t have her symptoms (yet?), but I appreciated someone talking about being a woman who is getting older and all that goes along with that.

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel, which RELEASES JULY 30, 2024.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I love Marion Keyes writing (especially some of her older books and the Walsh Family series). Lately I’ve her books have explored the mystery genre and reflecting on her depression, and just weren’t for me. With My Favourite Mistake Marion finds a balance between those two topics and with the magic that is the Walsh family she put together an entertaining mystery that is full of humor and just the right balance of melancholy.

I had read Anna Walsh’s story years ago but hadn’t remembered it vividly (in fact had mixed it up with Margaret Walsh’s) until I got going. Anna had lost her husband and was finding a way to break through her grief in her first story. In this one she is about 18 years in the future and has moved on with life. But moving on sometimes means realizing your roots are where you come to roost, which happens to Anna post pandemic. The feelings that many experienced in the pandemic, the reassessment of life, are well done with Anna. What comes as brand new content is Anna’s further realization she’s not dumb or lacks drive, she just needs her passion to be at play. With flashbacks to fill in the past 18 years we see Anna settle into an Irish town as she works to change public opinion about her friends’ retreat while trying to avoid narky Joey, who was a key player in breaking her and her best friend up.

This felt a bit like a hug if you’re a fan of the Walsh family. We get back to that world in a way I haven’t experienced in recent books. At the same time it was great to revisit Anna, who had a great ending the first time around. Like others I hope this and Rachel’s story (which I hadn’t read due to how painful her first time around was - though so well done) starts a trend for revisiting each of the sisters. While this can be read as a standalone you would be missing out not to have experienced the poignancy of Anna’s first book.

I was thrilled to read My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes. I haven't read a book of hers in years and after just a few chapters, it felt like coming home.

Ms. Keyes writing style is like being part of the family and it is just so natural to fall into the books with her characters.

Anna has what everyone wants, a NY lifestyle, nice partner, and a terrific job. Except she doesn't want that life anymore. She uses her mid-life crisis as the catalyst to moving back to Ireland. She gets a job at a fancy resort/retreat and with her PR job tries to get the locals to not hate the place so much.

She also has to face the best friend and the man she left behind when she came to America? Can she do it and come out on top? I'm not spoiling that for you, but I will tell you that this is a terrific book with characters you like and want to succeed and have it all.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in lieu of an honest review. I've missed Marian Keyes writing and am going to go back and read the ones in her back list that I haven't had a chance to read yet.

Marian Keyes has been a favorite author of mine for years, and this one is GREAT!!! She has it all: humor, heart, and plot. What's not to love? Pick this one up, y'all!

A well-known author and an intriguing title had me desiring to read this story. Keyes did an excellent job with the setting and overall theme of the book, but it moved a bit slow for me, leaving me bored and skipping around a bit. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I have read all of Marian Keyes’ books, but it had been a while. I’ve always enjoyed the ones featuring the Walsh sisters, but I honestly forgot most of the prior plots. I am happy to report that there is no need to have read any of the earlier books to thoroughly enjoy this one. From the first few pages, I remembered why I love her books….the humor! I found myself giggling at the main character, Anna, and her observations of life and people in New York. Then, the conversations among the Walsh sisters and their parents had me in stitches.

After several years in New York City as PR exec for a beauty company, Anna chucks her job and boyfriend to return home to Ireland. The big changes partly come about because of the added stresses of Covid lockdown. Back home, Anna will repair old relationships and find a new lease on life. Although my summary might make this seem cliched, it is anything but. This is because of Keyes deft hand with dialogue, women’s friendships, and family relationships. The real life challenges never make me cringe because the strong female characters are not ditzy but capable and smart. We may make mistakes, but we work at correcting them, as Anna does. And, we have a slow burn romance that had me rapidly turning the pages.

This book was an absolute delight.

I like this author. Realistic characters keep the story moving quickly. Mistakes…life…family and friends…a quick read. Enjoy. Thanks Netgalley.

Anna's decision to leave her seemingly perfect life in New York for a PR job at a luxurious coastal retreat in Ireland brings unexpected challenges. The locals' hostility and the resurfacing of past relationships force her to confront her mistakes. While Anna's resilience and humor shine through, making the story engaging, it sometimes feels predictable and lacks depth in certain areas. Overall, it's an enjoyable read with Marian Keyes' signature wit, but it falls short of her best work.

I usually enjoy Marian Keys and her Walsh sister series but I found this one dragged on a lot. I enjoyed that while reading it you got a bit of an Irish accent it felt to me. But it just kept going around and around. It was very drawn out and could have been reduced quite a bit.
If you enjoy the Walsh series you should give this one a try and see. But for me unfortunately it fell flat.
But I will definitely read more of hers in the future

Hooray for Marian Keyes! She is one of my favourite authors and her newest novel, My Favourite Mistake does not disappoint.

It is so wonderful to return to the Walsh sisters, this time, seeing where Anna’s life has taken her. I really appreciated Keyes’s portrayal of the pandemic, not avoiding it, but showing the impact it had on Anna and really using it as a driver for change, like it was for so many people. Anna takes on a new type of job in a small town, trying to help get a boutique hotel off the ground, but facing the backlash of the local community that doesn’t want it there.

Many returning and favourite characters make appearances, it’s just so lovely to be back with them all, to see how they’ve changed and how they’ve stayed the same. Like all of us really, which is why these down-to-earth characters are so loveable.

Classic Marian Keyes and can’t wait to see which sister we get to revisit next!