This was a long one but there is always something comforting about a Marian Keyes book. A good laugh and lots of fun!

So I got this book and many others as a gift from my supervisor at work, for performing greatly, 'call me lucky!' lol. Of all the seven novels she gave me, this was my first read and I was blown away by it intense humor, yet very deep and emotional. I love all the characters and I remember thinking about the book while driving to work and burst out laughing. I enjoyed every bit of it, my very first Marian Keyes book, and now I can't wait to read her other novels. Such a fun read! :)

I didn’t like this book solely because of Tara and Katherine the two protagonists. Tara was the main source of my ire throughout 80% of the book. Katherine certainly had her problems, but my disgust at her behavior during the last 10% of the book was so strong that I would have to put them on equal footing as the source of my reluctant disappointment. It’s funny. The last two novels I read left me unimpressed because the writing was such that I didn’t feel invested in the story or the characters. In this one, I felt too invested! I wanted to choke both of these women.

In this saga (and at around 600 pages, it qualifies as such-even though I listened to it on Audible) We follow the London lives of Irish Tara, Katharine, and their friends Fintan, Sandro, and Liv. Everything is from Tara and Katherine’s point of view, so theirs are the thoughts and feelings we are privy to throughout. They have both struggled with their relationships with men their whole lives and everything comes to a head when Fintan is diagnosed with what appears to be terminal cancer. Floating around in the background is scum of the earth Lorcan Larcan, seemingly unrelated to our band of friends until we get to over halfway through. Tara is in an abusive relationship with the heinous Thomas. Whom she refuses to leave because she feels she is in “The Last Chance Saloon”. That is, she is convinced that if she leaves him, she will be without a boyfriend for the rest of her life, and that is absolutely the worst fate that can happen to a woman. She is 31 (thirty-one). 31! Abuse (mental only) piles on abuse, cruelty upon cruelty, hatefulness upon hatefulness, and she keeps making excuses for him and ignoring how miserable she is in sheer desperation not to be alone. This continues throughout 80% of the book until Fintan makes her promise to leave him before he dies. Even then it takes her too long to actually do so. And even when she does, she is only prevented from going back by the vigilance of her best friend Katherine. It was just too much. I couldn’t stand it.

Katherine was actually an interesting and likable character despite her quirks. Her story was the salvation of this book until it wasn’t. She is a closed-up control freak in her office and with men. She has a history of sabotaging her relationships with men and leaving them, so they don’t hurt her. At the time of this story, she has shut down completely and will not let any man in. Not that they’d want to. Although beautiful, she is an “ice queen.” To her friends, she is a wonderful girl. To their friends, both Katherine and Tara are sweet, fun, and generous. One day, Joe comes into her life. For Joe, it is love at first sight. He sees past the unbending cold facade she wears at work to the lovable person she is underneath. He is handsome, sexy, and most of all, a wonderful great decent guy. After an encounter with the previously mentioned Lorcan, he becomes, at least to me, a superhero. After many struggles with herself and at the behest of dying Fintan, Katherine lets Joe into her life, and they embark upon a serious and seriously happy relationship.

When the book is almost finished, Katherine does something so awful, that I actually couldn’t believe it. It brought the book down from 3 or 3 and 1/2 stars to 2 1/2 stars. In this last section, We finally see where Lorcan figures into the life of one of our protagonists, and he finally gets his long-time-coming final goose-cooking.

Marian Keyes is a wonderful writer. I love her. There are many both touching and funny parts in this book. All of the many characters are beautifully drawn in that you really love them or really loathe them. Even with Tara and Katherine, I couldn’t really hate them as people, but as women, I was really horrified at some of their actions and thoughts. Milly Johnson once wrote a character who was as weak, oblivious, and self-destructive, In fact, she's written several.A Summer Fling for just one example. In those books, though, they were only a third or a fourth of the story. In LCS, Tara and Katherine are 75% of the story. Thankfully, the conclusion abounds with happy hopeful endings, despite their many efforts to be miserable for the rest of their lives.

https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....

It’s the first book that I’ve read of Marian Keyes... and it was not as good as I thought it’d be. I had trouble going through half of the book cause it was boring and nothing exciting happened. It got better after the 60th chapter. Tbh, it was interesting after chapter 69 or so and that’s after three fourth of the book was over. The author could have made the story shorter... it was dragging in many places... aargh!
I don’t think I’ll read another book by her in a long while... or ever!

My first book by Marian Keyes and yeah, I can see myself reading her entire body of work!

A gentle story and yet…

plenty of drama.

Three main characters.

Four supporting characters.

One asshat.

London.

Serious issues.

Job difficulties.

Family problems.

Poignant.

Light but heartfelt.

Romance and wit for added zest.

Unexpected mystery revealed towards the end.

Oh yeah, tissues needed!

A fab read and one I can definitely recommend.

This book was TOO LONG! It's not bad but it went down so many rabbit holes of insignificant characters that it just felt like it dragged and added unnecessary confusion at times. At its heart, this is a great and engaging story about 3 friends and their struggles and triumphs and growth, but there was so much extra that it just wasn't as enjoyable to read. i felt so bad for Liv, the 4th friend who suffers with mental health issues and is clearly just an add on to this clique but is not ever really included. I loved Tara- her storyline was my favorite and I felt fury for her at the way her boyfriend treated her. I found Katherine hard to relate to and overall just felt a distance with the characters. I don't know if its the Irish writing style or what, but I normally love Marian Keyes. For some reason I just didn't feel a connection with any of the characters really. Fans of Marian Keyes might like this book, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
Katherine is a very reserved woman. She's not the most beautiful in the world, but she's attractive, however she's so cold and stand offish that she's single and most people think she is stuck up. However, we find out in the end its because she dated a guy who took advantage of her and pushed her farther than she wanted to go and she felt ashamed and bad about their relationship. She swore off men and clubbed with her friends, etc. but never dated until she meets a guy at work who pursues her. She turns him in for sexual harassment but in the end realizes he has potential to be the one and in the end they are happily ever after. The story of her first boyfriend is only revealed when a coworker of Tara's tries to set her up with him again, not knowing they have a history.
Tara is a plump girl who is dating an ASSHOLE. He is constantly riding her about her weight and appearance and in response she binges in private and feels terrible about herself. She FINALLY leaves him and is happy in the end! Woo hoo! This is the character I found most engaging.
Fintan is a gay man who is very attractive and stylish. He has a long term boyfriend and gets sick one day. He thinks its going to be AIDS but its not, its cancer. He goes through a long struggle but in the end is okay. His "dying" wishes were for Katherine to put herself out there and for Tara to get rid of her boyfriend so they do.
All of these characters have flaws and quirks, but they experience a lot of growth. I just had a hard time feeling truly connected to any of them or their friendship group. After reading this book, I think much more fondly than I did during the process, but I think thats simply because this book was so long it took me out of the main storyline with all the filler.

Book review from BookCrossing: I'm a disaster at remembering to write journal entries while I can still remember the book! Sheesh! And the only reason I'm going to write a journal entry on this one is because it's getting in a box with some magazines to go to an American in Japan.

Back to the journal entry on this book -- I have several spots marked, so let's see if I can remember what I marked!

I don't know why I marked page 70, but I hated Thomas from the beginning. The conversation on this page did make me chuckle, though:
I don't know. Maybe it's his brown jeans.
Brown is the new black.
But they're horrible. And look! His shirt is brown, too.
"Don't be brownist," Fintan advised. "And he's probably a dead nice person."

I found this part profound (perhaps it has to be experiential):
So Tara went shopping and tried to pretend that she wasn't starving. She had high hopes that looking at clothes would take her mind off things, but found she couldn't wrap her head around the idea of being size sixteen.. . .The only consolation lay in looking at sexy, funky shoes. Shoes were the fat woman's friend. Shoes still looked beautiful when all else had gone to hell in a handbasket.

I did like this book, and found the dialog very entertaining. The relationships between the friends were enjoyable to read, too.

I'm so glad I don't like men. The characters were quite annoying at times but I finished anyway cause I liked some of Keyes' other works

It was frustrating at times - wanted to shake Lucy and say "he's no good for you - he's just like your father!" But then obviously the book would have ended 200 pages earlier - and I suppose we all have to make our own mistakes. Funny as only Marian Keyes can be though - not the obvious funny - but the sarcastic-to-the-hilt funny.

I do like this author but this just went on for too long before anything happened. It could have been half the length and been more gripping. If I wasn't the type to finish what I've started, I would have given up. It gets there in the end but the long way round.

This is my favourite Marian Keyes book. The characters are funny and flawed but in an all too familiar way. I can see myself and people I know in each of the main characters.

I've read this book many times over the years and I can happily pick this book up and start from a page chosen at random. The storyline is really engaging and I've laughed and cried reading this book.

I think this was one of the first chick-lit books I read but I feel it's more than that. It's about the sometimes complicated relationships between friends and family, love, the past and figuring out what you really want in life.

Another great book from Marian Keyes, gifted story teller, slow start but riveting once you know the characters. Great character development- really enjoyed these five friends.