Marian Keyes always writes enjoyable books. I have read many but didn’t realize this was the 7th in a series! Unfortunately I had trouble keeping up with all the characters- perhaps it would be better for someone who had recently read some of the previous titles. I loved Anna but I think I cared more about her personal relationships than the main storyline of someone trying to sabotage a new resort.
I especially liked the quirky people who lived in town.

Anna Walsh has a terrific job working in the cosmetics industry in New York City. Then Covid comes and she’s living in lockdown with her boyfriend Angelo. Next thing you know she’s suffering from burnout, quits her job, dumps Angelo and flies off to Ireland.
Anna and Joey are great romantic leads. She’s smart, funny, one of five sisters, attractive and adored by one and all. He’s supportive, flawed (but working on it), a devoted dad, very easy on the eyes and sexy as all get out. The supporting cast of family, friends and townspeople are a “grand” bunch too. Loved the story, the setting and all the Irish colloquialisms. If you like rom-com novels you’re sure to love this one. It’s a light, fun, entertaining read. Gotta love that charming Irish humor! 4.25 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read this book in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own.
What a delight to catch up with the Walsh Sisters and their lives. This story features Anna at age 48. She has loved and lost and loved again. She has just broken up with her boyfriend and now finds her big New York PR Cosmetic Industry career isn’t fulfilling anymore. She goes home to Ireland and to bosom of her family to figure out what she wants for this next stage of her life. Finding work is tougher than expected but a friend of her sister Rachel is opening a high-end spa resort at in a tiny Irish coastal town and it has just been sabotaged. They ask Anna to hire someone to help figure out who is behind it. The only problem is that the head of the project is Joey, the man “ho” who caused her the loss of her best friend. He and Anna have chemistry but over the decades have hurt and rejected each other several times .

What I liked about the story
* Sisters relationships. Annas relationships with her sisters has evolved. They are no longer flighty 20 year olds, but grown women who have come through fire and are still standing. No mere charactures but all the nuances of women in midlife.
* Female friendships- how you can be there for each other and sometimes still take each other for granted, but maybe still find your way back.
* 2nd chance love- once wounded twice shy. But still worth the risk.
* Men with nuance and vulnerability. Often in ‘Chic Lit’ they are shiny perfect beings or fatally flawed until they meet “the one” who changes them. Not in this story. These men are just as awkward and flawed as the women. They have emotional depth, they hurt too.
* Menopause- in all its glory
* Funny slice of life in a small Irish town where everyone knows everyone’s business.

What I didn’t like
* Book was waylong, and there was far too many pages with nothing happening . I was bored at times.
* The mystery was wasted- could have added more excitement . I was hoping for a big reveal but guessed it at the beginning.
* All of the talk about botox and injections to maintain a youthful appearance. I’m all for women doing whatever they want but would have liked to see more aging positive messaging.
* More Walsh Family. We get just a bit of Margaret, and Helen, and their Mum. Dad is only mentioned in the background. Rachel and Claire are more prominent but only appear briefly. Love them all.

First, a confession. I have loved pretty much everything written by this author. So approaching this, the seventh in the series featuring the riotous, charming and thoroughly hilarious Walsh family, my expectations were high.

And to a very large extent, they were met. All my favorite Walsh’s are here, and the authors laugh-out-loud wit is back and in fine form. This story features Anna Walsh, who the reader has encountered in “Anybody out there?”. Anna, a Manhattan based PR executive, now facing a burnout crisis that has her battling anxiety and total dissatisfaction with her life, decides to pitch it all and move back to Ireland. Reunited with her rambunctious family, questioning her future, and her past, Anna relives her memories of more than one perhaps-not-failed-forever former lover, as she journeys to a new equilibrium through experiences fraught with the author’s typical sparkle and hilarity, peppered with memories that gradually unwind the backstory that helps explain Anna’s current frame of mind.

A lively, lovely story, this is a comfortable, sexy and witty read, peopled with characters whose lives reflect those of the rest of us — bad hair days, maddening love lives, and torturous insecurities. And wrapped around it all, a warmth and a sweetness that comes with family, friendship, and the pulse of being loved.

My only challenge with this particular read was perhaps the level of the liveliness - in addition to the Walsh’s, and their inner circle, Anna’s new life in Ireland spreads to intersect with so many additional characters that for this reader, as colorful as many of them are, they were impossible to keep straight. But that perhaps, is the author’s point, as life in this crazy Irish family is riddled with social disasters, distractions, and always, a keen eye on each other’s kaleidoscope of happenings.

A great big thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

Thanks to the publisher for my advanced copy of My Favourite Mistake. I started reading Marian Keys when I lived in Ireland 16 years years ago and have always enjoyed her books.

It's been a while since i read the Walsh family series but this is book 7 and it always feels so good to read an author I love (who doesn't write as much anymore). and this felt like seeing a long lost friend and catching up.

My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes is the seventh book in the Walsh family series. These are not small books - this book is over 400 pages. I think the first book by Keyes that I picked up was before heading on vacation with the plan of one or two big books and not five relatively smaller books.

The Walsh family is a large and busy Irish family. They like to all get involved in each other's lives and drama - quite often they create drama. Each book focuses on a different family member and this one is Anna. Anna has gone through tragedy years ago when her husband tragically died in a car accident but years later life is looking good for Anna. She has an amazing PR job in New York with a feathery stroker boyfriend. But then 2020 hits, Anna starts perimenopause, and basically is homesick for Ireland and her family. In a rash decision she leaves her job and breaks up with her boyfriend and moves back home. Without a plan for money or her future the first few months feel glum. When one of her sister's friends is in crisis with a business they are trying to get running Anna finally finds a purpose. Unfortunately, it involves a guy from her past Narky Joe. Together they navigate helping this business giving the family one less worry. Everything will work out if Anna could just find a doctor to give her some HRT medicine.

This book isn't a quick read - at least not for me. It took me a bit to get into it and then read the last 200 pages in a day. It's also filled with some Irish words and phrases that I sometimes didn't understand but for me it certainly didn't take away from the story. I think I've always had a bit of a fondness for Irish authors. If I'd had a girl I would have liked to name her Maeve after Maeve Binchy. In fact I would say Marian Keyes books are for fans of Binchy's novels. I might also call Marian Keyes the Irish Sophie Kinsella.

You can definitely read this one even if you have no read any of the other books in the series. Everything you need to know is introduced and makes for a lovely story.

A very easy read. This is what reading for comfort should feel like. Familiar and heartwarming.

As a long time Marian Keyes fan, I was excited to read the newest entry in the Walsh family series. I wasn’t disappointed. My only complaint was that there were so many characters, I had a hard time keeping them straight in my head. Still a very enjoyable book!

I received a complementary ARC of this book from NetGalley on behalf of the author and the publisher.
A really cute upbeat read about a woman in the beginning of menopause who makes a huge decision to move back to Ireland after many years of living the life in NYC. I didn't realize this book was part of a series, it could definitely be read as a standalone. The Walsh family is quirky and funny and Anna's return to Ireland brings up lots of old feelings and memories of past experiences. She sees people she hasn't seen in years and also tries to reinvent her career. It was a little long for me but all in all a fun one!

I, being a Southern American, in love with all things Irish started a love affair with the writing of Maeve Binchy late in my teens. Her ability to tell a heart warming story with that wonderful Irish…something was without compare for me. Then one day I picked up a book with a cute cover about 25 years ago called Lucy Sullivan Gets Married by an author named Marian Keyes. Not only did she have the same ability to tell a heartwarming story, along with the same, I don’t know, IRISHNESS, she has also had the most clever way of turning a phrase. That book was a delight, and I was impressed with how fresh and funny Marian Keyes’s voice is, and added her to my list of Irish readers that MUST be read (there are still only two authors on that list, much to my chagrin).
The second book of hers I discovered was Watermelon, in which I was introduced to the incomparable Walsh Family. Ever since then, I’ve read everything she’s ever written, including her newsletter for many years, and now her posts on Instagram. She has always been as open (and clever) with her fans as her characters, and I have gone through the heartbreak of depression with her, and the joy of being better. I root for her with each book she puts out. Having said that, I was vaguely wary of Again, Rachel, which was her last novel that revisited a Walsh family member whose story had already been told in Rachel’s Holiday, and frankly, I couldn’t imagine how it could I’ve been improved on. I should’ve trusted Keyes, because there WAS a lot more story to tell, just like there is more to Anna Walsh’s story. Hers started with Anybody Out There?, and now continues with Marian Keyes’s new release, My Favorite Mistake. Thank you, Penguin Random House Canada, for a digital advance copy of the book.

Here’s the thing about Marian Keyes books. They have been growing with me for years. I am 46 now, nearly the same age as Anna Walsh herself. When I was in my 20’s, I loved reading about the Walsh sisters shenanigans, but now that I’m in my mid 40s, the anecdotes about doctors that have no ears for female health concerns, bodies that don’t look as they once did, and brains and hearts with ever growing wisdom ring truer than ever. Even amongst the confusion of starting life anew, Anna Walsh (and Marian Keyes) resounds even more with me than she did before. I’m telling you, she is just so real. She is brave and she is flawed. She is someone you desperately wish existed in real life, because you just know you would somehow be the best of friends. You rejoice when Anna starts to make friends in her new town, and we have as much belief in Anna’s ability to do her job as Anna herself does. We feel what she feels as her 40+ years of life cause her great heartache and great wonder.

I loved this book and strongly recommend it to anyone, but ESPECIALLY to those of us in our 40’s. Marian Keyes, thank you for making your characters so relatable in a world where frankly, we women of a certain age may be finding the world not as friendly to us as your books. 💗💗💗

Marian Keyes does not disappoint. Her books are always a good read and this is no different. She developed the characters well and makes you feel like you are friends with these characters.

I almost always like Marian Keyes' books, and this one is no exception. I really enjoyed the story and would have given it 5 stars if it was edited better. There was quite a bit of extraneous verbiage pertaining to nothing at all. There were also far too many characters that were unnecessary to the plot. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

My Favorite Mistake is book number seven in the Walsh family series by Marian Keyes. This book follows Anna who has recently returned to Ireland after living for several years in NYC. She has made several life changes and is now living in a small town and sorting her future out. Her family is along for the ride with plenty of laughs and snarky comments. The small-town residents come to life in this book as you get to know so many of them and their quirky ways. Read and enjoy!

I picked up my first @marian_keyes book during the pandemic and the proceeded to read every book of hers I could get my hands on. And she has been a must read author for me ever since. The latest instalment in the Walsh Family Series is out and I love it.
Anna Walsh has walked a long hard road to get her enviable life. An apartment in NYC, the best job in the world as a PR rep for a major makeup company, and the sweetest boyfriend ever. But during lockdown she comes to the terrifying realization that she doesn’t want any of it anymore. Homesick for Ireland she heads home to reevaluate and start the next chapter of her life. When offered a job helping out a family friend’s new spa/retreat who is having some issues with the local community she takes it despite having to work with the one man she hoped to never see again.
I think one of my favourite things about Keys characters is none of them are saints or villains. She has created a community of characters who are completely three dimensional. And happy ever after into the sunset is not the kind of endings we get, when we check back in on characters down the road real life has kept happening to them and they have done their best to keep going.
Thank you so much to @penguinrandomhouse and @netgalley for letting me have a copy of #myfavouritemistake for review.
#bookstagram #bookstagrammer #booklover #bookworm #book #readforfun #walshfamily #irishauthors #readersofinstagram #readersofig #readersofinsta #readerscommunity #readers #readeveryday #readmorebooks #reading #readmore

A spritely story about a woman’s quest to find herself, her calling and her peace, while navigating a mystery and her love life, or lack thereof. Spanning NY to Ireland locales, and over 20 years as well, Anna’s story pulled me in. The characters are refreshing, the dialogue bright, and although it’s not necessarily a peppy story, it does carry a vibe of hope and camaraderie. I enjoyed this one thoroughly.

Marian Keyes always writes enjoyable books. I have read many but didn’t realize this was the 7th in a series! Unfortunately I had trouble keeping up with all the characters- perhaps it would be better for someone who had recently read some of the previous titles. I loved Anna but I think I cared more about her personal relationships than the main storyline of someone trying to sabotage a new resort.
I especially liked the quirky people who lived in town. So definitely not my favorite mistake but still enjoyable.

We all make mistakes. But when do we stop making the same one over and over again?

I just love a chic-lit easy fun read to mix in with the thrillers and serious reads, especially in the summer! I did not know this was #7 in a series until after I started reading it, but you definitely don’t need to have read the previous ones. But the characters are so wonderful that I think it would be worth reading the previous books just so you can enjoy more of the awesome characters! This book focuses on a middle aged woman going through a mid life crisis, while going through menopause, moving from New York back home to Ireland, who gets a new job and a new relationship. The author has a knack for capturing the perfect mix of dialect, jargon, and raw honest truth to make a fun and delightful read! Definitely one to pick up to add to your pile for when you’re craving something light and fun!

#myfavouritemistake #netgalley #bookreview

My first Marian Keyes book was "This Charming Man", which revolved around the bonds formed by several unique women coming to terms with their abuse at the hands of a famous politician. I was thrilled at the chance to read her newest book, but ultimately disappointed by the story.

This started out as a cozy Irish mystery. Anna Walsh is a Mary Sue who leaves her high pressure job in Manhattan to return home after her relationship falls apart. She's hired to investigate some vandalism and soothe any ruffled feathers related to a resort being built by a hometown friend. The kicker? The primary financial backer is a man with whom she has a Mysterious Past.

I enjoyed the first half of the book but was very surprised to find that once the mystery was solved, there was still a lot more of the book left. I HATE stupid romance novels and when Anna started mooning over this guy, I found my interest flagging. I got my hopes up again when it seemed like Joey (yes, a fully grown adult man who goes by Joey) helped reconnect Anna and her long-lost best friend... maybe this wasn't going to be some stupid romance book in disguise after all!

WRONG. At about the 80% point, Anna is leaning into this idea of herself and Joey as Star-Crossed Lovers but they are, in fact, neither star-crossed NOR lovers. They are two people who are mega-horny for each other, and have been for so long that they've convinced themselves that it must mean they're in love. Because they're jerks who secretly want to bone, Anna considers them to have a Complicated History of Hurting Each Other. I mean, I guess? Nothing she described was really hurtful. Or complicated.

THEN, someone literally describes them as "love for the ages", I guess because they finally hooked up? These people don't seem to understand that sex isn't the same as love, like can we please just stop? You got to nail this guy you've fantasized about for a while, good job! Stop acting like it's the fulfillment of a prophesy or a fairy tale brought to life. It hasn't EARNED that kind of reverence. There's no THERE there.

I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for access to a digital ARC. My honest review is my own opinion.

When I first agreed to read this for review, I did not know that this was the 7th book in an entire series. It took a good while to figure out who was who and what was even going on. The author certainly jumped into the story in the middle of things and kept going while I almost didn't. However, I did stick it out and I'm glad I did. The "you can't go home again" trope was blown to bits, and it turns out that our main character did go home and did make things work out for the better.

If you want to avoid the confusion I had in the beginning of the book, do yourself a favor and either read the six preceding books or at least their synopses.

I did enjoy this book by the middle, and the end was satisfying.

(side note: It was also fun to see this book on sale in London when I was there, before it was available in the US.)

Perimenopausal Anna Walsh leaves her life in NYC and returns to Ireland with no job, no man and only a big Irish family to surround herself with. She ends up helping friends starting up a yoga retreat. They need her PR expertise to quell the anger of the townspeople who think this gentrification thing is a bad idea. Oh and enter and old flame. She's still hot for him but he is just bad news. They end up having to work together and it's a will they or won't they, is there too much history to make it work this time around?

I was a HUGE fan of Marian Keyes in the early 2000s. "Watermelon?" Loved it. "Rachel's Holiday?" Banger. "My Favourite Mistake?" Not so much. Maybe I don't want to read about people my age. Or maybe this book was just too long with too many characters and side stories that I couldn't focus or even care about anyone. You don't need to know any of her previous books to read this. Even though the Walsh family makes appearances, it's irrelevant to the whole story.

This was a miss for me,