I enjoyed every minute of this.
Everything has been going wrong in life lately (I feel I could write a book 😜) and now I’m laid up with a torn ligament.
So I wanted to delve into a lighter book, one that might make me smile at least.

This surely y did that…..and much more.

I enjoyed this story immensely.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. I am sorry I did not get to read it before the archive date.

I love Marian Keyes books as they are light hearted and funny.
This is definitely one of my favourites.

This is by far the oldest book on my NetGalley “give feedback” shelf – it’s been sitting there since 2014, which is the year I joined NetGalley. I read it, but never got round to doing a review (I think it was actually one of the first books I was approved for, and I wasn’t quite in the swing of things yet). Of course, since it’s so long ago I don’t remember it very well, so in the interests of tidying up my shelf (sorely needed, clearly) decided to give it a reread. Marian Keyes’ books are always an enjoyable easy read, so it wasn’t exactly a hardship.

The Woman Who Stole My Life (I almost typed Wife by mistake, which would have been a different story altogether) centres around Stella Sweeney, a kind of accidental author who’s struggling to write a second book. The story takes place in a few different time frames, which was a bit confusing at times – there’s Stella in the present – now single, having split with annoying husband Ryan - and also in the past when, out of the blue, she is hospitalised for many months with Guillain-Barré syndrome, causing a locked-in syndrome where Stella is conscious but only able to communicate by blinking (and the only person who seems able to understand her is her neurologist, Mannix Taylor). Then there’s a third timeframe, around two years before the present, during which Stella’s book, One Blink at a Time, is published and she has to deal with sudden fame (as an inspirational self-help author) and its aftermath.

Marian Keyes is great with dialogue and funny one-liners, and I did laugh out loud quite a few times (the line “I was extremely startled at my new incarnation as the wise, paralysed woman of Ferrytown” made me snort). There are some spot-on observations too, like Stella’s husband Ryan being widely revered for the amazing feat of going to buy tampons for his teenage daughter.

That said, though the Guillain- Barré storyline was interesting, I don’t think this is Marian Keyes’ best book. The timeframes are a bit confusing and most of the characters not that endearing (I did like Mannix’s brother Roland, who was a star). The title is opaque for a long time – Ryan, an aspiring artist, refers to Stella a few times as “the woman who stole my life”, as she’s achieved the fame he thought should be his, but it’s obviously not about him. When we learn the real “woman who stole my life”, it seems to be polished off a bit too quickly.

I did like Stella’s parents (Keyes is great at writing characters like them) and to a lesser extent her ambitious sister Karen, for whom Stella works in her beauty salon, where - judging by the amount of words devoted to the matter - they don’t seem to do much other than intimate waxing. Oh, and dodgy injectibles.

A fun read, but there are definitely better Marian Keyes books out there.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Stella Sweeney is an ordinary woman living an ordinary life with her husband Ryan and their two teenage kids in Dublin. She works with - or really for - her terrifyingly ambitious sister Karen in their beauty salon. Nothing to get excited about here. Nothing to make her particularly unhappy. Or happy...
No-one would be interested in stealing her life. But then things started to happen... One day, Stella, attempting a good deed, causes a little car accident and faces down a bad tempered, handsome stranger. She hardly gives it much of a thought. But karma is hovering, and is about to take over, swoop in and change Stella's life for ever. For better or worse.
Suddenly Stella has a life. A thrilling glamorous one. A life that other people might start to covet...

*2.5 stars*


I have read a number of Marian Keyes novels over the years so I thought I had a decent handle on what sort of thing I was getting into. Then I started reading...

I have to say, the time that Stella spent in hospital with a life-threatening illness was by far the best part of this book. It was kind of what I had been expecting from her and wasn't disappointed. Funny, yet moving. Kinda sums her up. The rest of the story, well, that's a different matter...

Here is a quick point-by-point summary:

The him/her/me chapter titles...and then none at all...
The timeline that was all over the place
The lack of interesting secondary characters
The humor seemed forced and tacky

Any of those things alone wouldn't have been an issue. Together, they make this a real hard book to recommend. Maybe if you are already a fan of hers, or chick-lit in general...


Paul
ARH

As a huge Marian Keyes fan, I was excited to read this book. I'm pleased to say I was not disappointed. I can't praise this novel enough!

I am not going to be reviewing this book, but thank you for the approval.