I really liked this story about a woman who is recovering from an accident. It has stayed with me over a long period of time. Really touching.

I read the Marian Keyes novels completely out of order, having started with a copy of  Watermelon my mum leant me when I was home on break. As a result, I perhaps saw the Sullivan girls mature in a slightly different order than other people who read the books in "order."

Nevertheless, I was confused by this book, and one other,  Rachel's Holiday. From the initial character development I got on Anna and Rachel, I always felt that it would have made far more sense to send Anna to rehab.

This book was even further for me. This isn't a bad book. The writing isn't bad, although the plot is a bit strange. My main complaint about this novel is that, for my money, except for a few small flashbacks that fill in the missing years between books, this novel has NOTHING to do with the Anna we meet in the other books. Pretty much all of the Anna, the pretty, somewhat diaphanous hippie we meet in the other books-- is explained away in a few pages, which sum up a whirlwind of her life and dismiss every other instance of her in the series. I felt discomfited by this fact, especially since I felt that the actions of the character in this novel were not in tune with those which would have been taken by the character I knew.

All in all, I felt if Keyes felt she needed to write this book, it should have been written as a stand-alone; I didn't feel the plot was well-served by being compressed into a standing character structure that really did not allow for the interplay between the characters here. If nothing else, again, I feel this book would have been better "delegated" to Rachel.

This one was too melancholy for me, and the h didn't appeal to me.

Another brilliant story about the Walsh family, this time Anna. So easy to read, funny, moving and relatable.

Anybody Out There is the fourth book in the Walsh family series. I thought I had read all of these but I couldn’t remember this one at all when I was reading it recently, so I obviously hadn’t!

The Walsh family consists of Mammy & Daddy Walsh and five sisters; Rachel, Anna, Helen, Claire, and Margaret. This book focuses on Anna; living in New York after stumbling into a grueling but lucrative job in beauty pr.

When we meet her at the start of the book however, she’s sleeping on her parents couch back in Dublin, a physical and emotional wreck. Anna is desperate to get back to her life in NY; her amazing job and of course, her beloved husband, Aidan, who seems to have vanished with no explanation.

This is really a book of two parts for me; anything focusing on Anna’s story was an engaging read; that balance of emotion and humour that Keyes does so well. I loved all of her beauty pr chat, and her friend Jacqui was a delight.

But. There’s a lot of tangents going on here. There’s an entire email exchange between Anna and her sister Helen that continues for the majority of the book, about Helen’s private detective business, that was so dull I almost threw my phone against the wall. There’s also email exchanges with Mammy Walsh, but they added some levity, thankfully.

It’s not the books fault, but I also struggled a bit with the audio, which contained some of the worst accents I’ve ever heard; some of which veered strongly into being racially offensive. It was recorded back in the 2000’s and some of the more dodgy parts of the book have since been updated in print, but not on audio. Something to note, especially as fat shaming was rife back then, and that’s evident in this book.

Is this my favourite from Marian? No, but I still enjoyed large swathes of it. I find her writing nostalgic and comforting for the most part and it was great to read this before the new book (also about Anna Walsh) comes out. With many thanks to Breige @rareopalreads for organising the buddy read on this one, the chats were wonderful and highly entertaining!

Roll on My Favourite Mistake; out next month!

Made me laugh and cry a story of love loss.

marian you will always be famous!! anna walsh is probs my fav walsh sister after rachel, this was gorgeous and also a GUT PUNCH—but just as funny as always

4.5 stars is my score.
This has been my favourite of the Walsh family books so far. The usual mix of strong, emotive themes interwoven with humour and the layering of the characters you expect from MK.
Anna, the second youngest of the Walsh sisters, now in her early thirties grows considerably in this book but keeps her true “younger self” still visible, the special relationship she has with her youngest sister Helen is constantly kept strong throughout, with some hilarious accounts of Helen’s antics to boot, setting things up nicely for the next Walsh family book.
Definitely worth a read.

Marian Keyes is one of my favourite writers, especially the books following Rachel were impressive. So after finishing 'Again, Rachel' a couple of months ago, it was time to pick up another one of the Walsh family-series. Especially with 'My Favourite Mistake' coming out this year! That one is already on my TBR-list for my summer holiday.

In this one we follow Anna. Normally living in NY and working in the beauty industry, but now lying in bandages in the good front room of her parents home in Dublin. We follow her return to the Big Apple, recovering from a car crash. Mum Walsh is delightful and funny (although toxic af, the way she handles Rachels wedding....). Keyes is a master in keeping the reader in the dark and then coming with a big reveal. Although I did guess this reveal right, it didn't bother me. The anticipation keeps you interested in the development of the story, even though some parts are more superficial. Helens storyline was the least appealing to me, it felt a bit farfetched.

Calling her books 'chicklit' does not do them justice in my opinion. Labelling literature as especially for chicks is quite misogynistic actually. We'd never say a book is for 'men' (Real Men) if the book was set in any other corporate environment, it would just be called a novel. There is quite some beautystuff involved, with Anna being a beauty PR, but this book contains so much more. Grief is big theme, but also friendship comes along. Anna and Jaqui have a great bond, which was so comforting to read about.

Keyes is also a master in developing lots of great, distinguishable characters (I especially liked Jaqui, Mitch, Leon, Brooke). In the epilogue the story came together like in a good romcom, offering a very satisfying ending. By then you see how many lovely characters are actually involved in the book, all offering their own meaning to the story.

I love Marian Keyes books and I especially love the books about the Walsh sisters. Although interlinked each story makes a good novel in its own right.

This was a reread for me, I was using it as something to read between book club books so that it didn’t matter if I didn’t finish it. It’s still a sad but also funny story that starts off with Anna the 4th out of the 5 sisters being back home.

As a reread the book didn’t have quite the same hook as the first time as it is such a memorable book it is hard to forget what happens in it but rereading gave me a chance to explore the characters in it again and there is an assortment of background characters.

A beautiful, sad and at the same time funny story which follows around a year in Anna’s life. Definitely recommend to anyone who hasn’t read this before and I am looking forward to reading the latest “sequel” by Marian Keyes.

So good ❤️

This must be the 4th or 5th time I’ve read this book and I loved it just as much as always. As usual for Marian Keyes, this is complex and deals with sensitive and upsetting issues very well as well as being hilarious at times.