Fun little read, definitely obvious that it was written in the 90s though…

2 stars - it was ok. Not the best chick-lit story I've read, and I do enjoy a good chick-lit book every now and again.

The very day Claire gives birth to her firstborn baby, her husband leaves her - this happens in the first couple of page. For the next however long, we read how miserable she is until she meets someone else.

A very long book (500 odd pages!!) for not a very riveting story. Anyway, another one ticked off my TBR shelf!

Sometimes I enjoyed this book and the main character, but other times I didn’t at all. For example I didn’t like when she joked about suicide, and her insecurity, although understandable, was tiresome.

i have never read a book by this author. chicklit is not really my thing, but i thought, why not? i have heard so much about her books, so i thought i would check it out.

it's a great way for a palette cleanser in between 'heavy' books. i really enjoyed it - it was light and endearing. i will definitely read more of her books.

Probably a 3.5 but I’m a sucker for a Marian Keyes.

I love a good asshole husband story, don’t get me wrong the books where it’s more complicated and no one’s entirely in the wrong are good too, but ooh, sometimes you just prefer to read a good old fashioned villain.

Her husband walks out on her the day she gives birth....crazy romance.

Liked main characters and storyline… but writer’s style doesn’t match mine. Find she rambles and gets off track.

My second by Marian Keyes and I adore her world. It's so 90-ties, that to me it is a sentimental journey. Yes, some views outdated, but such was the western world at the end of the XX century. Many, many other views and observations are still valid.

n  Everyone had their own worries. Nobody was perfectly happyn

n  there was no Relationship Fairyn

Claire and her struggels were so human it hurt. She was far from being perfect. I would have never behaved like her, but I am sure there are many women who were/are like her. And this story could be wise and funny guide for them.

n  But life was an irrepressible kind of a chap, and no matter how much I tried to pretend that he wasn’t there he kept poking his head through any gaps in my defenses and trying to get me to play with him.n

n  Sad for me for being so misunderstood. Or was it sad for me for being so misunderstandingn

n  n    I’m going to be me, whether it’s good or badn  n

And I loved the humour.

n  Who’s in charge around here? I’d like to complain about my life. I distinctly ordered a happy life with a loving husband to go with my newborn baby and what was this shoddy travesty that I’d been served up instead?n

I don't know if it is a common thing in Keyes' novels (I will know after a few more books), but her endings are wonderful and original - there is a happy ending, but you don't get HEA - like in the real life. You just see that the couple got a chance for trying. Whether they would survive, whether they would be happy for the long run, you don't know. A splendid ending.

PS A note for those who haven't read it (I think, especially after reading a few reviews, it is valid for all Keyes' novels):

--> Don't search for a romance in it - pick another author (there is a love story, but there is a chance you will not be satisfied with it).
--> It is almost too "heavy" for a typical chick-lit.
--> Keep in mind it was written in the 90-ties.
--> In the foreground are the heroine's thoughts and emotions, the plot is less important.

[Not 5 stars, because it was "rough at the edges", some dots just didn't connect.]

Funny and conforting

Count me underwhelmed--nay, irked. I tried this because it was recommended on The Ultimate Reading List under the chicklit section. Well, I'm beginning to suspect that with the rare exception (so far, Bridget Jones' Diary) this isn't the kind of book for me. So many of them strike the same tone--overly chirpy obsessed with dress size and the mating game but without the satiric edge of Bridget Jones' Diary or it's ability to make me laugh-out-loud.

The book is centered on Claire Walsh--her husband left her on the same day as their child was born, and she returns to her family in Dublin with the babe in arms. This is all told in first person--and a good first person depends on voice--either one that is strong and colorful or at least one that disappears well so what you get is story. Claire's voice unfortunately grated on me--repetitive, one-note, whiny. And the title "Watermelon." It's because it's how she sees herself--as "fat" at only size 14 (adjusted to American sizes I'm sure). Let me tell you, size 14 is not fat. It's average. But Claire goes on and on about how fat she is and without the irony of a Bridget Jones. When she isn't going on and on and on about her weight, or talking about her constant drinking, it's all how she can't understand how her husband could leave her like that. Repetitively. Annoyingly. Predictably. We have to go through the Stages of Grief by the numbers with denial, sadness, anger and acceptance. By the time James shows back up, were it not for the poor abandoned newborn, I think my sympathies would have been completely with him, so much had I grown to dislike Claire.

Only made it a third of the way through. Seems to be very targeted to a late 90's audience and doesn't really translate to the current 2020 female persona