I love Marian Keyes’s books! The characters are always so bubbly and fun to read. This book was just as wonderful as her others. I didn’t want to put it down!

Anna is a woman in her 40s going through a midlife crisis that results in a need for change. Anna makes a decision to leave her corporate job, boyfriend and big city life for her home in Ireland. Unsure of her next steps, Anna accepts a temporary position assisting friends with a small town dilemma to save their property and livelihood. This job requires Anna to work with a man whom she used to have feelings for but also comes with a reputation and baggage.

This is a fun, easy read that made me want to spend more time in the former books of the series getting to know the lively Walsh family. Their banter made me laugh out loud..

Even though I had not read the prior books, the author did a good job setting up the story and characters to allow a stand alone read.

Thank you to the author and Penguin Random House Canada via NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book.

My Favorite Mistake by Marian Keyes is another gem of a story with a beautiful balance of humor and heart. The story follows Anna, who seemingly has it all in New York - an enviable job in beauty PR and a luxurious apartment. However, her discontent with her current lifestyle leads her to pack up and return to Ireland, taking on a PR role at a high end coastal retreat fraught with local hostility. Anna's journey is filled with laugh out loud moments and poignant reflections as she navigates the challenges of her new job while confronting past mistakes. Her resilience and wit makes her relatable and endearing, while the author’s signature blend of humor and emotional depth makes this novel a must read!

Another fun addition to the Walsh family series, we follow Anna as she leaves New York after breaking up with her boyfriend, and decides to return to Ireland with her funny, dysfunctional family. Old faces and new appear, and Anna realizes that she can't escape her problems simply by coming home.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada | Doubleday Canada for the ARC!

I am so happy that there is another installment in this series, and I was fortunate enough to be able to read it to review for you all. This book revolves around the Walsh family, who, if you like Marian Keyes, you will absolutely know! This story follows Anna, and takes place far after most of the other books. Anna has returned to Ireland following the pandemic, and like many of us, her life went through all sorts of upheaval as a result of 2020. The story brings back all of our favorite characters, and some new ones as well. As always, the story was completely enthralling and held me the entire time, despite being fairly long, but that is always the way with Ms. Keyes' books, and I would have it no other way. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone who wants something that is happy, sad, sweet, beautiful, and transporting.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was a warm and folksy read, as are all of her stories. Always fun and enjoyable. with a great cast of characters. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher@!!

A light, fast read, just right for vacation. Apparently this is part of a series about the various members of the Walsh family, but I seem to have missed the others in the series.

So happy to read another excellent book about the hilarious, dysfunctional Walsh family. With characters that feel like friends, these books are some of my absolute favorites. This book involves Anna (although you get a glimpse of the other crazy sisters) who has returned to Ireland after braking up with her boyfriend in New York and surviving lockdown during the pandemic. After leaving her high stress PR job in cosmetics Anna hopes to find a less stressful job closer to her insane family. Almost immediately Anna is thrust into another PR position helping two close friends who are facing backlash from the community as they try to open a business. Fun, fast paced story that is not to be missed.

A slow burn, I couldn’t get into. Maybe it got better, but I DNF. I was interested in reading it after seeing other reviews. Maybe it helps to be invested in the series and the prior stories.

Thank you NetGalley & Penguin Random House Canada for sending this book for review consideration.

I enjoyed every paragraph of Keyes most recent book Again, Rachel. Therefore, I was thrilled to be given early access to this title by the publisher.

This is a story about Anna who is one of Rachel’s sisters. (The clan appears in a number of titles including an earlier book featuring Anna.) As the story opens, Anna has been a high achiever with her New York job and income. However with Covid, the end of a relationship and more, it has all become way too much for her. So she heads back to Ireland.

Not sure what she will do there, Anna is contacted on behalf of a friend who needs her help with a big real estate project. Anna hopes that her prior work experiences will be transferable. Will they? One complication is that an old love of Anna’s is also working on this development. Will sparks fly? Watch what happens in this long but enjoyable story that also touches on some issues including menopause.

What I liked about this book:

The characters, the setting, the ability to sink right in, the humor, the warmth-so much to recommend in these pages.

Fans of Keyes and those who like women’s fiction, give this one a look. Perfect for a summer day read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada-Doubleday Canada for this title. All opinions are my own.

This book is book 7 in a series based around the Walsh family who live in Ireland — I didn’t know this when I received the book — but the promise sounded interesting and funny — this author has gotten a lot of praise from many and I was excited to try one of her novels . As this is part of a series — I really think those who have read more of the books would appreciate and connect with main character Anna Walsh and her family dynamics better knowing more of their backstories. This book was based around Anna Walsh who leaves her life in New York City and moves back to Ireland during the pandemic to start fresh . I must admit I couldn’t get invested in the characters and Anna’s current / future outcome — the parts I enjoyed the most were about her past who she got to be at this point which made me realize maybe I would get more from this book if I went back and read “Anybody Out There “ based on Anna past to have a better understanding of how she ended up the way she is 15 years later . Due to all aforementioned I have to admit, and my apologies that I gave up (DNF) at 50% through the story cause I felt like I was missing a bigger connections, but the writing seems good to me , and it’s full of dark humor. I recommend this book to people who know this series and enjoy dark humor . I will have to try another book by this author as she comes so highly recommended that I feel it’s such a shame I couldn’t invest or connect — 3/5 as I enjoyed Anna’s back story sections and the dark humor that hit the right hot spot for me.


Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada | Doubleday Canada for this ARC. This is my honest review !

Once again, another wonderful book by Marian Keyes! I couldn’t put it down! I was so excited to get an advanced read of one of my favorite authors! Thanks to NetGalley!

Dual time lime - present day Anna Walsh has decided to leave her successful pr job in NY to return to Ireland.
To help family, she becomes involved in the pr campaign for a coastal retreat. Past relationships and family
will be major influences.
I had not read any of the other books about the Walsh family and there were many characters to keep track of.
#MyFavouriteMistake #Doubleday #NetGalley

My Favorite Mistake was a unique spin on a classic missed opportunity narrative. Woman do become more interesting as they travel through life. Anna was preserved through tragedies, moving to another continent, living during a pandemic and the roller coaster ride of relationships. How refreshing to have a 40ish year old woman as the heroine! Lovely cast of characters helped shape her story.

“I’m not the person I was but I’ve no clue who I’m going to be.”

My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes is the ultimate comfort novel. Anna Walsh seems to have her life perfectly on track in NY – a great PR job for a beauty company, a fabulous life partner, her own apartment. But when Covid strikes and she is stuck indoors with him nonstop, Anna experiences a midlife crisis of sorts. Without any plans, she breaks up with him, rents out her apartment, and moves to Ireland to be with her family. After months of being overqualified for new PR positions, she is finally given a chance with a friend’s company that is opening a new resort in Maumtully, but some of the locals are causing a scene about the new property. This is easy for Anna – she will go in, figure out the problem, smooth things over, and move on. Unfortunately, the finance and project decisions are going through Narky Joey – a man from her past. Is Anna able to work alongside him, get the resort back on track, and figure out who she is meant to be?

I absolutely LOVE Keyes. I read Sushi for Beginners when I was in high school (when it was released!) and have been a fan ever since. While her books are always a tad too long with a lot of characters, once you get settled in you know it will be a great read.

Even though this is technically book seven in the Walsh Family Series, they are all stand-alone novels, and you don’t have to read the priors to get enough background information and fall in love with this over-the-top fam!

Honestly, I was confused over the title – Anna made numerous mistakes as we all do, but she learned and grew from her past. I was unsure which mistake was Anna’s favourite, or if it was not from her past but something she was currently in the process of making.

Keyes is brilliant at tying in relevant storylines, with crazy family dynamics, laugh-out-loud (and eyeroll) scenes, real life issues, small-town drama, love, and sabotage. Anna is an easy to like character that you will understand (though I wasn’t a huge fan of Jacqui), and I will continue to recommend Keyes to all of my girlfriends. However, this wasn’t “my favourite” by Keyes and was probably 200 pages longer than it needed to be, and therefore I am giving it 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for this arc; all opinions are my own!

“And there it was: life gives, life removes, life shifts things sideways. Life reshapes, repurposes, files things away. Life heals, reveals, uncovers, all in its own sweet time. If I could just lean into the journey, I’d be okay.”

Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC! I enjoyed the latest Walsh sisters’ adventure. There were times I wanted to throttle Anna Walsh but that’s true of all of us… we’re all imperfect. It was so nice to read a book about a woman my own age. By this time we’ve lived many lives and been many different versions of ourselves and Anna is no different. Keyes writing immediately transported me to a quaint Irish seaside town and a lovable cast of returning and new characters. This was everything I wanted from a small-town romance.

I *love* that Marian Keyes is returning to the Walsh family and continuing the stories of our favorite family!

This novel is catching up with Anna and takes place in time after Again, Rachel.

Anna's original book, Anybody Out There, is my favorite of the 5 so I was elated to see she got a new book.

While some of My Favourite Mistake revisits beats from AOT, I welcomed it since it's been so long since I read the book that I forgot most of what happened beyond the highlights (which is a failing of my own, not Ms. Keyes).

This novel is a long one but a good one. While I didn't love it as much as Again, Rachel or the first of Anna's books, it was a solid 4 for me. I loved the whole story, especially the small Irish village coziness of it all. It really made me want to visit this town and feel like I could sit down at the pub with them.

Read this if you've enjoyed the Walsh Family, the newest addition will delight you as well!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

My Favorite Mistake is a novel of the Walsh family, this time focusing on Anna. At the start, she is in NYC and feeling trapped in her relationship and job and quite literally in her boyfriend’s apartment during the pandemic (though this is not a pandemic novel). We follow her as she makes decisions to move forward a bit differently while gradually collecting her backstory. The whole novel is terrific but shines particularly brightly when the whole Walsh clan is together, as they radiate warmth, zaniness, and gentle teasing. And you don’t have to read the Walsh family books in order—you can really dive in anywhere. This one is a fantastic addition to the series and I loved every minute of it.

I liked this, I didn't love it. Pretty wordy, no huge surprises, but I certainly can see the appeal for many. I'd probably read more from the author, as I LOL'ed several times :)

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an ARC of this novel.

Irish novelist Marion Keyes is inimitable in the ‘warmth and wit’ category of rom-coms, especially those set in madcap Irish families. Her latest, the 7th in the Walsh family series, is great fun, even though a large part of the main character’s story follows her never really complete recovery from the accident that killed her young husband, leaving her physically and emotionally torn.

Anna Walsh first ‘escaped’ Ireland, though not without misgivings, in her late teens. With four outspoken sisters, a mother even more so, and a quiet but very anxious father, she lived a peripatetic life for a few years, travelling with her boyfriend and doing odd jobs here and there. In her early 20s, she returned home alone and set herself to finding real work and making an adult life. With her childhood friend Jacqui, whose ambition was to work in the best hotel in New York, they set out to conquer. She landed a PR job with a major international cosmetics company. She met Aiden, a gently supportive soul mate. They lived a wonderful life as young professionals in creative fields. And then, barely a year into their marriage, Aiden was killed in a car accident. Anna was left with painful injuries, a scarred face, and the profound depression of grief. Pushing on, she kept working, now also taking care of Jacqui and her new baby Trea, born of her chaotic relationship with another Irish ex-pat, Joey. Joey was intensely charismatic and cast his spell over every woman he met. Anna was the only one who had held out, making her a legend in their circle.

This back story, crucial to what unfolds here, is woven in and out of the present-day plot. It starts with Anna, having come to terms with losing Aiden, now living with Angelo, another soulful ‘feather-stroker’ like Aiden. Covid has paralyzed New York and the two are, like everyone who lived it, at first delighted with isolation and work-from-home, then increasingly frustrated by it and with each other. They part amicably. Anna is also sick of the dog-eat-dog stakes of her job and wants to go back to Ireland and her crazy but sustaining family. Those who have read the previous books will once again be alternately charmed, touched and appalled by the Walsh’s, a comedy show in and of themselves.

Here’s where the real story happens. At loose ends, unemployed, suffering perimenopause torments, alternatively worried over and nagged by her family for her current ‘loser’ status (no man, no job, no ambition, getting old), she takes up an offer to do a ‘mending fences’ PR job for some friends whose resort project has the locals up in arms.

And who should be in charge of this massive project but Joey, who had preceded her back to Ireland? After his relationship with Jacqui definitively blew up, he set up an investment brokerage, married an Irish woman, and had three boys with her. But, as he told it, he was unable to be the ‘bad boy but not bad boy’ she wanted. Because Anna only knew him as a fully turned-out bad boy, she has a hard time reconciling her memories of a heavy-drinking, woman-using, rock-star type with what he now seems to be: a middle-aged, respectable, hard-working, fabulously successful businessman and devoted father.

There are two mysteries driving the story after Anna and Joey reunite for their joint mission. The obvious one is that they need to find out why the locals are seemingly against the project and who defaced property with paint and damaged construction vehicles. With Anna in the lead gently coaxing, reassuring, and making amends, they fulfil their mandate, though not without some hilarious twists. The second mystery involves the two of them and Jacqui, former best friend of Anna and former girlfriend of Joey. What happened between the two women? How is Joey involved?

The author made me laugh, hard, with every other paragraph, and sometimes more often. She has a very skilful way with dialogue and characterization. All the personalities who play a part, large or small, are uproariously funny, or gently funny, or can at least offer up a few witty lines. The sad stories intermingling with the comedy just remind us that life’s mistakes and misfortunes come and go, and eventually we can laugh again.