this was ok. I thought it dragged on a bit.

Ha sido una relectura. De hecho, ha sido la primera vez en toda mi vida que vuelvo a leer un libro. Eso ya indica lo mucho que me gusta.
Lucy es un desastre y creo que precisamente por ser tan caótica y desastrosa me gusta tanto. Es facilísimo sentirte identificada con ella. Con Lucy me he reído, me he enfadado, me he angustiado y me he vuelto a reír, enfadar y angustiar. Es tremenda. Daniel, por su parte, es EL HOMBRE. Me sorprende lo maravilloso que es este chico teniendo en cuenta que este libro se publicó en 1996. Ni siquiera hoy en día he visto un personaje masculino tan genial como él. Tan solo podría superarlo Luke Costello (Rachel se va de viaje y Otra vez, Rachel) que me parece una evolución del propio Daniel. Diría que Daniel Watson anduvo para que Luke Costello pudiera correr.
Y, por supuesto, una vez más Marian Keyes consigue con maestría tratar un tema muy peliagudo con delicadeza y sin amargar al lector. Sin duda, este es su punto fuerte y no me imaginó una novela suya sin algo así.
Como siempre que leo uno de sus libros, me siento tremendamente optimista. No sé cómo lo consigue, pero al terminar sus libros me siento muchísimo mejor que cuando los empecé. En este caso, también envidió a Lucy Sullivan. Yo también quiero un Daniel Watson.

Es la primera vez que me pasa. Detesté a la protagonista , pero Daniel si me gustó. Es que ella era tan depresiva, no tenia nada de autoestima, le iba la autocompasion, se la pasaba bebiendo, la miraba grosera, cada vez que hablaba con su pobre madre yo la consideraba una imbécil por tratarla así. ¡Agh! No se que le vio Daniel, el dice que es "Graciosa" pero yo nunca se lo vi. Solo seguí leyéndolo porque quería ver como le iba de mal cuando se enterara de la verdad, pero por gusto, ni siquiera abordaron cuando le pidió perdón a su madre. (Si es que lo hizo) -_- Hubiera preferido que Daniel acabara con Charlotte, ella era encantadora, y no con Lucy.

I had previously read Rachel's holiday and from what I could remember, I enjoyed it, so I thought i may like this too... how wrong I was. Lucy is a terrible person who treats nice people badly and is drawn to people who walk all over her. She's also completely oblivious to everything around her. I found her whiney, annoying and dumb to read about. Her friends weren't much better. I was listening to the audiobook and didn't like the narrator much. She just lowered her voice and sounded dopey as Daniel so I could never take him seriously.
I know this was written in the 90s so there were some dated and un-PC terms, but I found some of the stereotypes and descriptions hard to read such as her colleagues weight. It's also soooo long and I wouldn't have finished if it weren't for my bad habit of having to finish books.

As I believe I've mentioned, I have an ARC of Marian Keyes' new book, The Woman Who Stole My Life, but because it's not out until Novemeber, other ARCs are getting read first. In preparation, I decided to reaquaint myself with whatever the Library had of Keyes' older novels: Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married is Keyes' second book, first published in 1995.

Lucy Sullivan is what would later become the typical Chick Lit heroine - 20 something, office job, boyfriend woes; likes drinking, fashion and shoes; her friends (and frenemies) play a large part in the book. It's worth remembering this was published the year before Bridget Jones' Diary and three years before Sex And The City first broadcast.

When Lucy and her colleagues visit a fortune teller, Mrs Nolan, Lucy is told she'll be married within the year. After the others' fortunes appear to come true - Meredia coming into the princely sum of £7.50, and Meghan suffering a massive split ... to her lip - Lucy is ready to believe it, especially when she meets charming, handsome, unreliable Gus.

Everything which came later in the genre would have you believe this is your typical cheesy romance, that Lucy muddles her way through trying to find Mr Right until she finally finds him in an unexpected place, but this is Marian Keyes, and Marian Keyes - like myself - always has one eye on the realm of mental illness and its associated issues. When Lucy sees Mrs Nolan, Mrs Nolan sees somebody with a great darkness in them, and this is a large part of why Lucy - sufferer of Depression since her teens - is convinced Mrs Nolan is the real deal.

Initially, the book is slow. Lucy spends an inordinate amount of time cringing, feeling embarrassed, apologising, feeling worthless, and generally being fairly annoying. She is, in many respects, a doormat. She's also immature: her relationship with her Mammy (which I initially disliked, I will freely admit, because it reminded me so much of Strider's relationship with our Mammy) left me wanting to tell her to grow up and stop being so petulant.

But, at 2/3rds in things take a change and every annoying, petulant utterance Lucy has made in the preceding pages slots neatly into place. She's no longer somebody you wish would grow a backbone and stop putting up with so much crap from so many different quarters - well, she *is* - but somebody who has behaved the way that particular person would behave. Marian Keyes knows her stuff. There may be jokes, and ridiculous characters, but there are still punches and more fidelity than the fluffy pink cover would have you expect.

Although the bones of the story stand up pretty well for its age, the are some major aspects which don't. Lucy's situation, for instance - her flat on her job is a pipe dream these days, as is the ability to sit doing nothing all day without being fired. It suffers what I shall christen 70's Sitcom Syndrome: there are some lines which make for uncomfortable reading in this modern and enlightened age - a male character calls a woman a dyke because she hasn't succumbed to his charms, for instance. Some of the banter between the characters, male and female, is viscous rather than amusing - Lucy's relationship with her flatmates is a great example. Lucy and Gus's interactions - again, Lucy is a doormat and the reason for it is there, but I think the current generation of 20-somethings will have less in common with this character than her contemporaries did, and perhaps have a more difficult time grasping the (unmentioned) fact that Mental Health was talked about even less in those days.

The most damning matter for me was Gus. He is a knobhead. From the second Lucy meets him, he is a knobhead, and because Lucy is such a doormat I would forgive anybody who flung this across the room in irritation and went and found a book about somebody with an ounce of self-respect.

In the end, I did like it, but for a fairly large portion of the book I didn't. The payoff was worth it to me, but if you're under 30 and you don't have an interest in books which deal with Depression and its associated Jazz, there's not a great deal here. Even if you do fulfil those requirements, it remains something of a curio best left for Keyes' fans. Three star books do what I expected them too which this didn't, but in the end did.

Like it seems all of Marian Keyes books, I loved it! Lucy is given the prediction by a fortune teller that she was gonna get married in the next year or so. Though in the beginning I was sure I knew who the mystery groom was gonna be, Lucy’s relationship with Gus threw me for a loop (I ended up being correct!). Reading about her depression, dysfunctional family, and struggles with her job and roommates she hates kept me reading and completely hooked. She battles problems in her relationships, both romantic and platonic, problems with her mom and dad and more so throughout the 640 pages I couldn’t stop reading and really wish that this was a series because the epilogue just wasn’t enough. It has to be one of my favorite books by Keyes now, second only to Anybody Out There? I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone.

DNF

I really liked reading about Lucy's journey, even if some parts of the book have aged. Overall very enjoyable!

Lucy Sullivan and Co are a group of people I NEVER EVER EVER want to have in my life! Lucy is a fucking door mat half the time and allows people to treat her like total shit, then the other half of the time she treats people like absolute shit. This was not an enjoyable world to enter. At least 300 pages can be cut from this book giving you the exact same reading experience, in fact if it was 300 pages less I probably would have enjoyed it more.

The poor h needed a few years of therapy before she gets into a relationship. It is more painful than charming or romantic.

review to follow

Typical, predictable, irksome. Not like what everyone told me to expect from Marian Keyes.
Read this ages ago. So don't ask for more details. I remember nothing more.