I definitely liked "Rachel's Holiday" a lot more than "Watermelon." Maybe because this one more expressly shows the flaws in the Walsh family matriarch and father. Also, I still disliked Helen in this one too. Anna seems mostly harmless and cares. We also get to see/hear more about Maggie(one of the 5 sisters). I felt sorry for Rachel who is in the midst of addiction and doesn't even want to admit what has been going on with her. And unlike with Claire in the last book, Rachel even though she goes through a series of missteps, realizes that no man is going to be able to save her, she's going to have to save herself.

"Rachel's Holiday" is Walsh Family #2. Rachel Walsh has been living in New York with her best friend. Though Rachel has a pretty terrible job (she works at a rundown hotel as a maid) she has a great guy in her life named Luke (though she doesn't want to call him her boyfriend). When Rachel has a hard time waking up one day, she finds herself at the hospital getting her stomach pumped. Her parents send her sister and husband to get her and bring her back to Ireland. Rachel only agrees to go back since her father wants to send her to a rehab center in Ireland called the Cloisters where the rich and famous go. Rachel of course blithely thinks nothing is wrong. When Luke cruelly dumps her, Rachel is determined she will find someone else, though she still has thoughts of Luke. Once Rachel is at the Cloisters she finally comes face to face with her past and what her present course was taking her.

So I watched "Rocketman" this weekend and that movie dealt very well with addiction. I thought that "Rachel's Holiday" did as well. I think Keyes telling the story via first person was smart. Because you get to see Rachel's side to everything. And until Rachel is brutally confronted with her past and why she's at the Cloisters part of you may wonder is she really an addict, or had some bad times.

I thought that the why behind Rachel's addiction was so good though too. Rachel wanting someone or anything to blame wasn't the point. The point was what was she going to do now.

Keyes develops so many of the secondary characters that Rachel meets very well too like Jackie, Luke, and others. We also have pop-ins by the Walsh family who I swear would have me changing my name and going into witness protection.

The writing was top-notch. I am guessing that Keyes did extensive research on rehabs and addiction because everything read as spot on to me. I have one brother who has finally sought alcohol treatment and several members of my family I had to unfortunately cut off once I realized their addiction wasn't going to change if I didn't stop enabling them. This book definitely had me wincing a bit along with laughing and even feeling tears. Definitely not a typical chick-lit book considering the subject matter. However, the romance that started with Luke and his real he-man group was hilarious and I thought the sex scenes were great.

The flow was the one issue that caused me to give it four stars though. The book dragged in a few places here and there. Mostly towards the middle and end I thought.

The book setting moves between New York, the Cloisters, and then Rachel at home with her family. I thought the New York and Cloister scenes were done so well. I felt for a Rachel that so wanted to impress all these women and rich people surrounding her because she just didn't feel good enough.

The ending was great. I loved that we see Rachel in a new stage of her life and she's focused on being a better person.

Me faltan estrellitas para ponerle, la verdad. Solo puedo decir eso.

Rachel is an Irish woman in her 20s living, working, and partying much too hard in New York. After she wakes up in hospital having her stomach pumped, her family and friends step in and send her to rehab back in Ireland, despite her objections that no way is she a drug addict. From there we follow her through the six week programme in dark but often funny detail.

I had no idea what this was about when I downloaded the audio. It's on a list I'm following of books for teens (suprisingly) and I assumed from the title and cover (flipflops on a pink background) that it would be a beach holiday romance.

Couldn't be happier to be wrong! It's an insightful look at addiction of all kinds, and although there is romance in there as well, it doesn't follow the usual path. Rachel is really horrible at times, and I certainly felt the frustration and anger of those around her.

While MK writes in her usual hilarious manner, this novel touched on the very serious topic of drug/alcohol addiction. It was interesting and most definitely entertaining but I felt that she pigeonholed Rachel's character to an irritating degree. The psychological analysis of Rachel's childhood was far too pat and I didn't believe that she could so readily accept her tenure as an addict. I enjoyed this book mainly for MK's typical sharp wit and rollicking anecdotes but overall I believe that this novel of hers is my least favorite.

"This book gave me hope during a dark time in my life."
I read this book while I was in rehab myself, so I could totally relate to all of it. EVERY SINGLE WORD! This books captures the recovery experience perfectly, and I found myself laughing hysterically at times, but also shedding some tears. Such a fantastic read which I have now read multiple times and loved it every single time.

I LOVED this book. I think I’m going to rate it 4.5. I haven’t read a book from the perspective of a person in active recovery from addiction before so I enjoyed that insight and the mental progress you can see throughout Rachel’s journey in the treatment centre. It was dealt with with such a great balance between the serious and scary, while simultaneously being lighthearted and funny. I was more prepared this time for the horrendous way she speaks about her body, but I’m not sure if this was A) from reading Watermelon and getting into the psyche of the 2000s woman
Or B) knowing her thought patterns were disordered and that being recognised

Ironically, I read most of this book whilst on placement in a mental health facility - I don’t know that the two were really comparable as my placement was not addiction. But still a few interesting parallels between reality and fiction. In saying that, this is quite a glossy view on rehab and inpatient settings, that is, it is very digestible.

A easy and entertaining read, the story line was nicely intertwined to get glimpses of the past whilst in the present. I suppose it was quite rosy - there was no real consequences for Rachel’s very dangerous actions and the protagonists growth felt a a bit rushed. But still, a fun read that already has me heading to Kmart to get the next one asap.

I think this is my favorite Walsh sister novel. It’s dark, depressive, sad but thanks to Ms. Keyes’ extraordinary sense of humor and witty but also realistic approach to the addiction, eating disorder, self-destruction and emotional insecurities hooks us from the beginning.
Rachel’s rehab journey and facing the truths about her life, family, sisterhood, her shame, faults, self-harming is remarkable story steals a special place of your heart.

And Ms. Keyes is still my favorite emotional rom-com author who is brave enough to bring out heavy issues with characters and make us accept and love them with their flaws and faults.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Rachel’s Holiday which I personally find hard to believe as a) I remember reading it so vividly when it was first published and b) I’m still convinced I am 28 and I know I couldn’t read at the age of 3.

If you follow my blog you may notice that I really don’t re-read books and off the top of my head can only think of 2 other books I’ve reread in all my 50+ years, but when I saw that Marian had written a sequel to Rachel’s Holiday called Again, Rachel which is being published on 17th February 2022, I knew that I HAD to re-read this book NOW.

Picking up Rachel’s Holiday again I naturally had a few reservations; would it be as good 25 years later? will it seem out-dated? has my taste in literature changed now that I’m older? was it really THAT good last time? – You’d be delighted to know that the answers are YES, NO, NO and YES!

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of reading any of Marian’s books – this is probably the best one to start with and the good news is that you then have a back catalogue of approximately 18 books to read after.

Meet Rachel Walsh – a 27 year old Irish woman living in New York. She’s the middle sister of 5 girls and has been away from Ireland for the past 8 years. Rachel lives with her best friend Brigit, has a boyfriend called Luke, has a job at a hotel when she can be bothered to turn up and spends every waking minute partying, off her head on drink and drugs. After an accidental overdose she wakes up in hospital to see one of her sisters there ready to take her back to Ireland for a stint in a rehab centre.

Obviously Rachel doesn’t understand why she needs to go to rehab – she’s not an addict after all. Everyone takes cocaine before work, 8 valium at night and a bottle of JD to wash it down, but humouring her family and looking forward to 2 months of relaxing with famous celebrities and getting a daily seaweed massage at The Cloisters Rehab Centre Rachel reluctantly agrees to go.

There is NOTHING funny about addiction, but Rachel’s Holiday is bloody hilarious. This is a book that, unlike me, hasn’t aged at all – in fact I think it’s actually more relevant today. Rachel’s denial to accept her addiction and her often warped view of life was so believable that at times I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry with her.

The chapters based at The Cloisters when Rachel is in group therapy are both raw and brutal when dealing with Rachel’s addictions but she is such a phenomenal character that you just want her to face her demons and have a happy ending.

Rachel’s Holiday is a wonderful tale of family and love, trying to fit in, trying to find your own way in life and learning to love yourself as others do.

I hate to dismiss an author completely but this may be the book that makes me put Marian Keyes on my "do not read" list. I read Sushi For Beginners years ago and didn't like it but gave the first book in the "Walsh family" series a try (this was years after reading that other book). I liked it well enough to try the second, Rachel's Holiday, and regret it. I honestly do not understand why this book has such glowing reviews. I wish I had gone with my instinct and decided that I'd had an OK time with the Walsh family and I was ready to let them go on without me because it really was just OK that first time.

It's not that I'm offended by the subject matter. I'm a grown-up and can take the serious stuff. It's not that I expected it to be a fluffy chick lit book. It's what happened to me on page 284 (how bad is it when you remember the exact page?). I was reading this long, long book...I normally LOVE long books...and all I could think was "my god, when does this get better?" The answer? When it ended. Not because it was such a fantastic ending but because it was over. The story dragged on and on and on. Feel free to skip whole chapters because it's pretty much the same thing you've already read. And it's not just one or two chapters that drag on. It's just about every chapter.

So goodbye for now, possibly forever, Marian Keyes. I would be willing to try another book from you but honestly, after reading so many great reviews of this book and disliking it SO MUCH I think we must say goodbye because I can't take my chances when the books are way too expensive for e-books that were originally published years ago. Maybe if I find you in a used bookstore I might, just might, decide I want to know what happens to the Walsh family. But I doubt it.

Rachel Walsh is living too close to the edge in New York.Lots of drugs, alcohol, broke and on the verge of loosing her job something's bound to give
So it does.
She overdoses..but refuses to acknowledge that it was an overdose..just an accident.
She's back home to Dublin and into the Cloisters a rehab where seemingly the rich/handsome recover.
It's funny ,a love story and thought provoking about the roots/causes of addiction.
Lots of Irish cursing to discover

Acabo de leer una crítica parecida a mi experiencia con esta autora con otro de sus libros y me queda claro que no es para mí

Sí bien hay momentos puntuales buenísimos. .. algunos diálogos que te hacen soltar la carcajada y algunas ocurrencias ,no compensan el resto de la historia creo que esta autora no es para mi

Lo he intentado, por si la conexión llegaba mas adelante...pero si empiezas al saltarte párrafos ya no es leer....Así que sefini