The Walsh family is back and readers you are going to need your tissues for this one!

Anna Walsh's life has had it's ups and downs, but this might be the most turbulent so far. She has left her life in New York, broken up with Angelo and she's back living with her family and wondering what to do next. Midlife crisis? No, it's perimenopause and Anna feels a little lost. More than normal. So when a family friend needs help with a PR fiasco Anna packs her HRT and her clothes and heads out to help. Not knowing that she is on a path to self-discovery.

I adore the Walsh family. They are my favourite fictional family. I grew up in a Irish-Australian household and their banter and picking at each other is what I knew and loved. While they say sarcastic things to each other, they really do love each other and would do anything for family. Especially Mammy Walsh, who has the best one liners ever!

My Favourite Mistake centres on Anna's life as she goes through "the change", and Marian Keyes could have been writing about my own life. Okay not the part with Snarky Joey, but if you do see him send him my way okay? However, the feeling of completely losing control of your life, mood swings, all the things that used to bring you joy that no longer? Yes Marian Keyes captures the daunting and challenging time of perimenopause perfectly. As only Marian Keyes can manage, she does it with laughter and tears!

I loved My Favourite Mistake as much as all the other Walsh sisters books. This is a series, that while they can be read by themselves and definitely out of order, once you get a dose of the Walsh sisters you are going to want to read all of them. This is the second "revisit" novel for the sisters, and I'm really enjoying them. Yes, there is a happy ending with the first books, but maybe life doesn't follow a perfect happy ending and multiple happy endings are needed!

My Favourite Mistake will stay with my heart for a very long time. Even though Watermelon is my favourite Marian Keyes, mostly because it was the first one I discovered and I love the Nora Ephron connection, but My Favourite Mistake is coming a close second. If you enjoy books about self-discoveries you need to read this book.

I LOVED this book! It's been a while since I read a Walsh family story from Marian Keyes but I had no trouble getting back in with the fam! I LOEV the family dynamics all throughout this book and now I want my family to be close like this!

Anna has a life that seems picture perfect, but it doesn't seem to fit her like it used to. Dramatically, she changes everything about her life and location. While helping friends with a very challenging situation, she encounters her past and must decide what she needs now.

Anna Walsh always felt unnoticed especially due to the strength of the personalities of her sisters and Mum (of whom her comments were hilarious). She therefore became a people pleaser which translated into her sacrificing her needs and wants to help Jacqui and Trea and surpress her feelings for Joey. It is only when when she quit her job in New York and moved to Ireland that she really became Anna as a person. What made her happy and complete became well defined especially as she acclimated into the town and her role within Brigit and Colm's company. Her love for Joey had prevailed for a long period of time which further expanded as they let each other in first emotionally and then physically. It was finally time and the correct space to recognize their love and how it could grow into a real relationship. Love like that never stops existing.

Somehow I didn't know this was a continuation of an established series. This made it a bit difficult to start as I didn't know the characters already. It is also a long book. This is a second chance trope, which is okay. I enjoyed that the FMC was middle-aged and dealing with a mis-life crisis. It's nice to have someone like that represented. I also enjoyed the setting. Overall just an okay book for me and a bit too long.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a advanced copy, and I give my review freely

Who hasn't wanted to run away from their current life? I have, so the premise of someone (Anna) leaving her "perfect: life and relationships and starting over was intriguing.

Anna has a good job and good relationship in New York Coty but isn't feeling fulfilled. As for many of us, Covid made Anna reevaluate her life and what whe found left her wanting. She realizes that both the job and the relationship are lacking something, so she leaves them both to go home to Ireland.

At "home", we meet Anna's eccentric family and throughout the story, we learn of Anna's early years and loves. As Anna steps in to help her family and her sister's business, she's confronted with getting to know herself and to examine relationships from the past, including Joey, a past friend/love/adversary.

My Favourite Mistake wasn't quite the madcap adventure that I expected but made me think. While quirky, it delves into relationship issues well... from family dynamics, perceptions of ourselves and others, understanding and building new relationships, and learning about ourselves. I didn't find Anna likeable at all times, but the author did a great job with character narrative to convey emotion and perspective. I enjoyed the read and looked forward to each next chapter.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

This is apparently the 7th book in this series and I've not read any of the books leading up to this one. I think I probably should have, because I was really lost at the beginning.

Anna, dealing with perimenopause (gosh we all deal with it...why this book give so much time to it I'll never know), job dissatisfaction, the pandemic, and a now mediocre boyfriend, decides to chuck it all and go back to Ireland. After page after page of details, Anna, who was a PR person in NYC, is helping Brigit make the spa her family wants to open, more palatable for the locals. As she begins this task, she comes into contact with a fellow from her earlier years, Narky Joey Armstrong. Not being familiar with the term 'narky' I had to look it up. Apparently Joey Armstrong wasn't the nicest person, sarcastic, snarky...well you get the picture. Much more descriptive dialogue and Joey and Anna are together.

The book was OK, but I felt it dragged along. I'll go back to my first paragraph and again say I really didn't know the backstory of any of the characters and this series should probably be read in order. Three stars since the ending was good.

This was my first foray into a Walsh Family book by Marian Keyes. Although I was unfamiliar with the background, I found the story quite easy to get into.

Anna is middle aged and facing disappointment and regrets about her life (Easily understood by any of us older folks). She has been been unlucky in love, and although successful in her career, she recognizes that it hasn't brought her the kind of happiness she expected as a tradeoff for all her hard work. Her current live-in situation curdles during the isolation of COVID, and she misses her family in Ireland. An amicable split with her partner and a move home might be the answer to her problems, but it could also be another in her list of many mistakes.

I enjoyed this story and found myself rooting for Anna and her happy ending. Her family is hilarious. Although I was often confused trying to keep them straight, it didn't lessen the pleasure of getting to know them. I think this would be one thing that would have been easier if one had read the previous Walsh stories.

Anna finally begins to find her footing after agreeing to help old friends in the little village of Maumtully, Ireland. Her long time crush but also biggest mistake is also a part of this operation. The challenge of seeing him, much less working with him, brings plenty of tension. Will they ever be on the same page in terms of their relationship? Hint: The answer is revealed by the end of the book.

This was both a serious and amusing story in which I found myself drawn in and caring about the outcome. I so wanted happiness for Anna in spite of all the roadblocks. The characters were real and relatable. It's not a fast paced read, more of a slow burn, which sometimes seemed to drag a little. All in all, I really enjoyed reading "My Favorite Mistake" and plan to go back through some of the earlier Walsh Family books, especially "Anybody Out There?" which is young Anna's story.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

I'm new to the Walsh Family, so my rating is probably higher than people who have read the other books. I found the story slow, but actually in a good way. I took my time and enjoyed all the hilarious characters (there were a lot, a little hard to keep track of). I love how this book was written to make you feel like you were part of this bug crazy family. I may look for more in the series.
Thanks to netgalley, the publisher and author for the chance to read this advanced copy.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am new to this series and had no trouble jumping right into the story! I will say this is a VERY LONG BOOK at 600 pages so buckle up!

This is the story of Anna, present day, living her best life in NYC in the beauty PR field. Covid hits and Anna decides to turn her life upside down starting with the breaking up with her partner, leaving the city, and returning home to Ireland. The story alternates with Ann's past when she was struggling with grief and life in NY. The "past Anna" really helped build the character for me.

I really loved Anna and this story. Obviously this is a character driven story but I found it very relatable and funny. I plan to find book one and start the series from the beginning.

Loved it and highly recommend!!!

Thank you to @netgalley and Doubleday Canada for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first experience with Marian Keyes’ work. The writing is fun and upbeat while also very clearly capturing real people, real emotions, and the real complexity of human nature. The characters are lovable and felt fully fleshed out. With that said though, I had a tough time getting through this one. As much as I wanted to love a book that focuses on later-life romances and relationships and is set in a beautiful Irish village, it was just a bit too much. Way too many pages, way too much detail in places where it didn’t help anything about the book except the page count. And I know this is part of a series about the Walsh family but there were just way too many characters who had little to no impact on the book, and I really couldn’t keep straight. So overall it was an enjoyable book but not my personal favorite.

Wow! This is the first book I have read by Marian Keyes, but I have already loaded up my Kindle with her other offerings based on this book alone! Thanks to NetGalley, Doubleday Canada, and Marian Keyes for this advance reader copy.

Although this book is the seventh in the series, it can be read as a stand alone book and I didn’t feel like not having read the background on others necessary to completely enjoy “My Favourite Mistake”. The author’s hilarious use of dialogue between the sisters and Mom had me howling out loud and gave me enough information that I understood their characters in relation to the main character of this book, Anna.

Anna is a mid to late 40s perimenopausal Irish woman who has spent the last 20 years in New York City. She rose to become a top PR exec, but isn’t exactly sure how except she is good at putting out fires. But she is stressed out and tired of the rat race. Due to the pandemic, she hasn’t seen her close-knit family in almost a year and decides to move back to Ireland.

Through the rest of the story, she crosses paths with old friends, makes new friends, finally find a doctor in Ireland to prescribe her HRT, and runs into the man who once shredded her heart and comes to realize she also hurt him.

Much of the story takes place in a small Irish town nicknamed M’Town and it is richly described, the inhabitants portrayed with enough fullness to make them real and loveable.

I was especially grateful for the author to discuss the much outdated views some doctors hold about HRT based on misanalysed data. Ms. Keyes shows the struggle a woman goes through to get on much needed medication to quell the various life-impacting side effects of menopause. It really is a life saver. So thank you so much. So many doctors do not take it seriously and just want to throw an antidepressant at women instead of taking the time to listen.

This book is on sale in a few days, July 30th. It is such a wonderful read, lifts the spirits and will make you laugh (and sometimes cry). It’s perfect!

It is always a joy to spend time with the sprawling, gregarious, witty Walsh family, and this book is no exception. Following Anna's triumphs and travails in the US and back in Ireland, this is a lovely balm of a story, with a large, well-rounded cast of characters. It's a lovely book, and a delightful escape.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced readers copy!

Both main characters in this novel are reinventing themselves either personally or professionally. I enjoyed a 48-year-old as a main character. Anna is dealing with perimenopausal brain fog and struggling to have a doctor prescribe HRT but also has the strength to say what she’s thinking. Joey’s love for his kids is also a high point, but my favorite part of this novel is the community of Maumtully (pop 1271). It was fun to see them through Anna’s eyes as they responded to the creation of a new high-end retreat. The mystery of who was trying to stop the build was also intriguing. While there are character cameos from previous books, this easily stands alone. Recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Marian Keyes! How do I describe how excited I was to read this title! Have been reading her from the beginning, love all her characters, how real she is and how humour plays into the story line. Thank you for this

Marian Keyes is one of my favorite authors and I always look forward to a new release by her. Especially when it’s a Walsh Family book. Getting to peek in on how my favorite family is doing is always a treat. And it’s wild that we have gotten to see 25ish years of this family’s life! While this supposedly can be read as a standalone, I think it’s a huge disservice. You’ll be really confused and lacking the backstory to truly appreciate these characters. So I recommend reading this mainly to those who have read the other books, but at the very least you should read the companion novel Anybody Out There (Anna’s story, set about 15 years prior).

While Rachel is still my #1 Walsh, followed by Helen, I’ve always enjoyed Anna. She’s a gentle soul and you can’t help but root for her. She had it bad in Anybody Out There so I was very curious where her life went, and it didn’t disappoint. I loved this small town read about not being afraid to start your life over when it’s just not working and Anna proves what a strong, resilient character she is. Again, I don’t think people who haven’t read the previous books would be too invested in this so definitely read the others and come back to this one!

What's this book about? Rachel's life from the ages of 47 to 50. She breaks up with her long-time boyfriend, leaves New York, moves to a small town in Ireland, tries to get her life back together. If this description sounds boring, you'll probably be disappointed with this book.

I read Watermelon in the summer of 2000 and became a devoted fan of Keyes's writing. The subject matter of Watermelon (and all her subsequent books) was heavy, a woman being left by her husband at the literal moment she gives birth to her first child. But despite the seriousness of the subject, the book was very funny and it was refreshing to see Claire get her feet under her and become this powerful, independent woman. The series follows each of the five Walsh sisters as they go through similarly difficult situations and while none of them quite recaptured the vibe of Watermelon, they were all good reads.

All this to say that while I hate to give a less than shining review, and in general I'm a big fan of Keyes's work, this book was a slog. The story goes back and forth between the current time and Anna's history, reflecting on past relationships that were dynamited into oblivion. I had a hard time following that and I struggled to get immersed in the story when so much of it was being told like a story over a cup of coffee, a story being recounted by an acquaintance all about people you've never met and frankly aren't all that interested in.

Part of the issue for me was that it's been many years since I read the first five books in the series and I've forgotten the stories of the five sisters. In this book every chapter we get a list of all the people who showed up at the bar, went to the parade, came to visit for the weekend, sent her flowers for her birthday, crashed in her hotel room, attended the art show, etc. It's not just a handful of people each time, it's a dozen or more and I don't know if they're Feathery Strokers, Beardy Glarers, members of the Walsh family, one of Anna's million friends, or a resident of the town. Before I can get my bearings they're off for ice cream, here's who all is going.

There are a lot of good things in this book, the town of M'tully is wonderful, there are loads of amazing people, Anna is finding herself as she approaches 50 and trying to set the right course but approaching it not as a dire mid-life crisis but in an uplifting, you're-never-too-old kind of way. I just didn't feel that this was Keyes's best work. In Watermelon I felt so immersed in Claire's story, my heart broke right alongside hers, in My Favorite Mistake I felt like I was watching it unfold from the window of an airplane flying overhead.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Funny how the things you need are often found at home. When Anna needs to help her family avert a disaster, she finds the life she actually wants is in the place she never imagined. Joey’s character shows growth through out the story but he forgives Anna a little quickly. Not bad for my first time reading the author.

This book is a lovely story with both heart and humor. It’s hard to describe since there is a backdrop of sadness in a couple of the major plot points, but the sweetness, humor, and “Brit lit” (Irish lit ◡̈) of it all pushes forward and it doesn’t end up a sorrowful read.

I loved the characters, as obnoxious as some could be, and wanted to hang out with them and visit them - saying I want to live in Mtown might be pushing it a bit, but it sounds like such a fantastic community.

Overall a delightful novel with some deeper thinking/feeling aspects, but will leave you missing everyone once you finish the last page.

Yay another Walsh family book! While Rachel's Holiday will forever remain my favorite Walsh family book, I always enjoy stepping into their vibrant and busy lives. Yes again, I enjoyed spending time with Anna and her new crew of friends living in her new quirky small Irish town Maumtally which is likely not a real place but is sure one I hope was. As she navigates her late 40s, Anna comes to terms with herself, her choices and finally truly reconciles her past and moves forward into her future. Did I enjoy all her choices and somewhat frequent moaning about how people don't change and things just don't always work out? No....but I like the notion of still growing up into your middle age and not always knowing how to truly give something a chance until it's staring you in a face and asking to anyway.