Re read after quite a long period of time. I was a huge fan of Marian Keyes and this book back in the 90s. I picked it up in a charity shop and thought it would be worth another read now in a very different era and having some life experience under my belt. I'm afraid it hasn't dated well in some respects, but what i picked up on in this most recent read were the bits about Lucy's depression, her dads alcoholism rather than the very obvious chick lit story which was weaved inbetween. So for that my rating remains a 4. Just.

Love Marian Keyes as always and love Lucy Sullivan! Such a fun and entertaining read the whole way through.

Hilariously funny

This book was very funny and couldn't out it down.
Marian has taken a serious subject like alcoholism and made it funny, but have me signs to look out for.

Good lord! Why didn't someone around Keyes kindly tell her a book full of people who are permanently miserable, shallow, mean--and I'm talking schadenfreude-mean levels!--wandering in circles is an AWFUL idea.

Marian Keyes have an incredible ability to make us love a stupid character....
Lucy was so gullible that I wanted to throttle her sometimes. It really annoyed me her inocence with Gus and mostly her father! But despite my annoyance I found myself stuck to the book and reading it so fast that 600 pages seemed not enough. Keyes writes it so well that despite hating most of the main characters attitudes you end up really rooting for her happy ending and change of mind! What can I say? I'm a real sucker for the friends-to-lovers cliché. And Daniel... I fell in love with him from the start!!
A real bonus is that she always manages to warn us about real problems, like alcoholism or depression, but through a good laugh!

This is the fourth book of hers that I read and I think that it's my favorite!

The queen of chick-lits without a doubt!!

I was in a mood for something different after reading the phenomenal legal thriller Sycamore Row so I picked up this 600 pages long chick-lit from my shelf. I ordinarily don't buy chick-lit books because I'd rather buy mysteries and thrillers, which I absolutely love reading. This book came from a box of some 25 assorted books which my father bought for me from a whole-sale market for just Rs. 2000.

n  SPOILERS Ahead. Consider yourself warned!!n

Lucy Sullivan is the worst type of heroine you can read about and I was absolutely appalled by the behavior of most of these characters. These are the most repugnant set of characters that I have ever read. Why did I continue reading the book, you may ask. Honestly, I thought about abandoning this book a million times through its 600 pages. But there were two reasons that kept me going.

First reason is that sadly these characters are truly based on real life behavior of people around us. The bossy-friend-whom-you-can't-say-no-to, the siblings-who-don't-give-a-damn-about-your-parents and the coworkers-who-earn-the-same-as-you-but-don't-do-a-minute's-worth-work; we have all met these people at one time or another in our life. I was curious to read more about the intolerable behavior of these people.

The second reason is that I was really mortified with the spineless Lucy, who seemed to be living on cloud nine. She was completely oblivious of the things happening around her. She was angry with her mother for being angry with her out-of-job, alcoholic father. In fact she absolutely refused to accept that her father was an alcoholic. I was curious to see how Keyes turned Lucy into a heroine worthy of our time. I must say that Keyes does the part of bringing Lucy down to earth in a grand fashion...almost tempting me to give 3 stars to this book.

The best part of this book, Lucy quoting Gone with the Wind's Rhett Butler to her lousy boyfriend:

But Lucy, I've no money."
I put my face up to his and smiled.
He smiled back.
"Frankly my dear," I beamed, "I don't give a damn."
I had always wanted to say that.

Trigger warning for fat phobia from the first page. Abandoned because of relentless jokes and commentary on a fat character's body.embarassing that this wouldn't have raised an eye back when this was published

I know, I know, it's total chick lit and maybe I should go easy on it...but nah. That said, there were a few things about this book I liked. First of all, it made me laugh out loud a few times. However, now that I know Keyes is capable of hilarity, I would have liked it to happen more often, since the book is absurdly long. I also liked that Lucy was not portrayed as being a totally normal girl-- she's dealt with depression throughout her life. Although the plot is totally predictable, it's fun to see how everyone gets there. What I really didn't like was that most of the supporting characters were total stereotypes. This was such a turn-off for me that, like another reviewer, I was tempted to stop reading after the first few pages.

I loved this book. I laughed with Lucy and I felt sad for her disappointments. Most of all, I enjoyed Keyes' writing style. Her chatty style made me feel as if I was conversing with a friend. Just like some of my real life friends, I sometimes wanted to bop her on the head and tell her to get a reality check, but that's one of the great things about this book - Lucy is an honest, real life person with real life flaws (and an addiction to pop psychology and men who treat her badly).

The book is about a single in London and her quest to find Mr. Right. The book starts off with a psychic's prediction that the boyfriendless Lucy is getting married in the next 18 months. Lucy doesn't believe it at first, but the psychics predictions with regards to her friends (who got their own psychic readings) started to come true. Lucy ends up meeting Gus, a complete loser, at a party. For some inexplicable reason, she is drawn to Gus' irresponsibility and drug-induced pointless chatter and dates Gus. She convinces herself that she and Gus are meant to be because of the psychic prediction and overlooks some serious character flaws. I won't spoil the story for everyone - while the ending is predictable, how she got there is not - but ultimately Lucy faces childhood demons about her father and realizes that she has a pattern to date men who have similar flaws to her father.

The book includes an interesting cast of characters - her selfish and bossy roommate Karen and her loveable roommate Charlotte, Lucy's workmates and Lucy's childhood friend Daniel. We follow them along as they navigate the complicated London singles scene, partly as friends, partly as "frenemies" (particularly Karen). Yes, we know who Lucy will end up with in the end, but the journey to that predictable ending was very enjoyable.

This novel deserves 4 stars. It is very entertaining, but at times, Keyes' dialogue is meandering and wordy - particularly Gus' dialogue. Aside from this tendency towards wordiness, this is a great light read, predictability and all.

This book was way too lengthy for my attention span. Halfway through the book & I've already given up on it... The protagonist Lucy Sullivan has too much insecurities about herself, & that became boring after a while....

Since it's a chicklit, it was but obvious that Lucy would end up with her "too-close-to-have-a-crush-on" best friend Daniel. But i hated the fact that their relationship hasn't been explored in the first half & instead i had to bear with Lucy's constant cribbings.

I'm giving this book a miss.. Maybe some other day I might try finishing this book & see if the latter half redeems the book!

This is pretty good chick lit. Yes, it is kind of predictable but you enjoy the ride. Chocolate for the brain.

Lucy is a single girl, living in London with her flatmates and visits a psychic who tells her she's getting married. When her friends' predictions come true, well, Lucy must be getting married. Enter Gus, who must be one of the most annoying characters in English fiction in my opinion. Lucy Lavan sounds so good, so she must be marrying Gus, yes? Of course not, we're only halfway through the book and there's still alcoholism and the dreamy male best friend in the corner. It's a good holiday or 'my brain's not working' read. A higher standard of chick lit.

I adore anything written by Marian Keyes! I didn’t love this one though .....the first 2/3 of the book really dragged on and I just wanted it to be over . This one may be on me and I just I wasn’t in the right Mindset for it .