3,5 ✨✨✨

(Audiobook)

¿Cómo he leído el libro en tan poco tiempo? Haciendo un poco de trampa: Este libro lo he leído muchísimas veces.
En un principio parece un libro romántico más, pero es que Marian Keyes no se centra solo en las relaciones amorosas, sino que nos habla de los problemas que podemos tener en la vida y que desembocan en malas decisiones.
En este libro se centra en la vida de Lucy, nos presenta a su familia, a sus amigos y a sus compañeras de piso. Es Lucy quien habla y quien nos cuenta los que opina de unos y de otros. Quien le cae bien y quien mal.
Lucy tiene una nube encima. Ha tenido episodios de depresión desde que tenía 17 años, lee libros de autoayuda constantemente, incluso ha ido a un psicólogo, pero cuando alguien, o ella misma, se acerca a la raíz del problema, o bien se enfada o bien cambia de conversación.
Casi nadie sabe del problema de Lucy, ya que se encarga de disimularlo con el humor. Cualquier cosa que le hace daño termina convirtiéndola en un chiste del que todos se ríen. Así, Lucy es un poco la figura cómica de la fiesta: "Lo que no le pase a Lucy..."
No quiero hacer spoilers, solo diré que en el libro van pasando cosas y Lucy comienza a plantearse su forma de ver las relaciones, poco a poco vemos cómo va cambiando de opinión sobre algunos de los personajes secundarios hasta que llega al clímax y ve qué es lo que le ha lastrado toda su vida, impidiéndole entablar relaciones sanas.
Como siempre, los secundarios son estupendos. Aunque no sean los protagonistas sabemos mucho de ellos y terminas queriéndolos u odiándolos.

It got better along the way, pretty lightweight.

Lucy Sullivan is getting married menceritakan sejarah kehidupan Lucy Sullivan, seorang wanita london berusia 26 tahun terus menerus patah hati, pekerja kantor tidak serius, kurang beruntung dalam cinta, tidak mampu, alkohol dan ayah bercacat, pekerjaan buntu dan teman flat yang menjengkelkan, Charlotte gila dan Karen yang doyan memerintah.
Suatu hari, Meredia ingin mengajak Lucy dkk untuk meramal tentang cinta. Lucy dengan enggan ikut bersama Meredia dkk dan akhirnya Lucy mengunjungi seorang peramal dengan tiga temannya, membahas pernikahan diprediksi di masa depannya. Ketika peramal untuk teman-temannya menjadi kenyataan, Lucy mulai curiga bahwa dia akan segera menikah. Lucy menghabiskan selama 12 bulan mencari Mr Right. Berbagai bujangan yang memenuhi syarat diperkenalkan, di antaranya Gus, kekasih nyentrik dan suka mengoceh, bahkan Lucy sangat menyukai Gus meksipun hanya sebentar berhubungan karena siapa sangka Gus punya sifat buruk di baliknya; Daniel, teman sulungnya; Chuck, seorang Amerika tampan nan kaya dan Adrian, pria baik toko video. dengan mengikuti serangkaian tanggal bencana, malam mabuk keluar, pengakuan dan pemberitahuan. Well,well…aku amaaaaaaaaaatt tidak menyukai seluruh cerita awal hingga akhir buku ini dan aku berpikir Lucy Sullivan adalah tokoh utama yang paling buruk, menyebalkan, tolol, dunggu, bebal, doyan mabuk2an (NGGAK BANGET!) rasa kasih sayang minim, namun Lucy memiliki rasa humor yang membuatku geli hingga mempertahankan selesai membaca itu. Aku sungguh menyesal sekali membaca ini apalagi aku tidak menikmati buku sampai aku perlahan-lahan bosan. Aku heran kenapa ya, penulis membuat novel setebal ini ya? Apa sih bagusnya buku ini?

It might be worth mentioning that this book has been recommended to me by a few friends who LOVED it, so it just might not have been my kind of book.

That being said, I think it needs to be noted that this book is unnecessarily long and the whole story could've been told within 200 pages. It was completely drawn out.

The characters in this book were awful. The fat shaming and bullying towards the other female characters from Lucy's point of view in the first few chapters alone made me want to put the book down and never pick it up again. I've never read a book so full of characters that I disliked. The workmates, the roommates, the parents, the boyfriend and most importantly Lucy herself, thank god for Daniel the only reason I continued reading.
The way in which Lucy is so oblivious to her own surroundings no matter how many different characters tell her is excruciating.

The 90ties of "The Friends" (yes, I belong to those who don't know how many times already they saw the series ;-) ) but much much wiser. I loved it!

n  It was very nice and we were very grateful to get the beautifully wrapped (albeit reluctantly given) gift of sexual liberation, but who was the out-oftouch, aged great-aunt that gave us the hand-crocheted coordinating packages of guilt?
She wouldn’t be getting a thank-you card.n

The wit was hilarious.I laughed out loud many times.

The characters so full of flaws, so human. Read: so real.

n  I seemed to spend my whole life oscillating between feeling horribly conspicuous and then feeling totally invisible.n

n  I was in so much pain that I couldn’t imagine not feeling itn

The main Lucy's issue was brilliantly built. No fairy-tales, to the end.

It wasn't about how Lucy was getting married, it was about how Lucy was becoming Lucy. And it was a wonderful (although sometimes painful) road.

Me gustó ene, aunque se nota que es de los '90 porque qué maneras de hacer bromas trilladas sobre los gays y los gorditos.

Quitando eso, muy original dentro de su ámbito. Tiene su parte superficial y divertida, pero también otras que son MUY PROFUNDAS. No solo me hizo reír, sino que también llorar. Solo el tramo final es un poco fome porque pucha que se da vueltas, pero aún así el total lo disfruté bastante. Me gustó mucho que hubiera evolución en los personajes y que uno pudiera, además, aprender algo.

La protagonista solamente es un tanto odiosa a veces, pero... es dulce cuando uno la entiende.

I liked this book…I really did. 740-pages strong, it had a right blend of eccentricities, romance, predictability and enough icky-moments to keep me hooked.

Lucy Sullivan is a typical Londoner. Twenty-six years old, she is burdened with a dysfunctional family, a dead-end job, an anal-retentive boss, a medley of demented colleagues, flat mates who totter on the thin line between heaven and hell AND a love-life that’s riddled with enough potholes to make you dizzy.

And then a tarot-reader proclaims that Lucy will be getting married within a year. When she sees the fortunes of her colleagues coming true in varying degrees, the cynical Lucy is intrigued (and a tad hopeful). Suddenly, men are popping out of the woodwork. Who will be the one who will walk down the aisle with Lucy? Gus, the penniless freeloader? Daniel, the incorrigible flirt ? Chuck, the beefy blind-date? …or perhaps Jed, the new office colleague?

So it’s a typical book with the typical drama and hi-jinx that litter your usual estrogen-infused chick-lit. What ups-the-ante is Marian Keyes’ flair for story-telling. Her words flow along with Lucy’s misadventures. A good splash of sarcasm, ooodles of witty repartee and the ability to transform whiny stop-gaps into pages of quirky dialogue make this book a real winner.

Lucy is a character you can associate with. She is confidently sassy but prone to bouts of depression too. The supporting line-up is brilliant , especially the flat mates: Charlotte (the dumb blonde who is just smart enough to know that people think she is a dumb blonde) and Karen (the seriously, scary frenemy with an ability to kill all the house-plants with a single deathly stare).

A fun read that helps you escape and yet.....keeps you tethered with it’s take on realistic situations.

26-year-old Lucy and three of her friends visited a fortune teller and, when her friends' prophecies came true, it appeared Lucy just might get married as predicted. What lucky bloke will get to be Mr. Lucy Sullivan?

Yes, this is chick-lit. If you can't figure out, 30 pages in, who Lucy Sullivan will end up with, you've never read a romance novel or watched a Hallmark channel movie. But this book is about more than falling in love. Lucy endures depression and low self-esteem. I can't well say she "suffers" because, for the first 2/3 of the book, she seems unaware of how she gets in her own way. She undervalues herself so much that she takes little in her life seriously. She doesn't understand that she deserves more than shallow (borderline abusive) friends, a dead-end job, and men who take advantage of her sexually and financially.

This is not to say this is a sad book. Lucy is quick, clever, and creative. 640 pages is a lot of time to spend with a character, and Lucy is good company. I cheered for her and understood her journey. (She reminds me of me, half a lifetime ago.) The ending is happy but not too pat. Some loose ends don't get tied up, and that's fine. Life can be messy.

I was uncomfortable with the character of Meredia. Lucy's coworker is a mere punchline, an excuse for fat jokes. This book was originally published in the 1990s. I'd like to think Marian Keyes would not write Meredia the same way today.

While I did laugh out loud quite a few times it was far too long and was so glad to get to the end of the book

was really funny, I kind of guessed who she might end up with so wasnt much as a surprise, but still enjoyed all the characters.

I know I've read them out of order, but if you've read Sushi for Beginners you can pretty well give this book a miss (or vice versa)
, as they're nearly identical:

-aging failure with men has office job she hates and suffers from depression.
-Less attractive than her friends and has a strained relationship with her family.
-Finds herself linked romantically with "the man of her dreams", a performer (comedian, musician).
-gets treated like garbage by lout boyfriend and more attractive friends.
-comes to her senses and falls for the guy she hated at the beginning of the book.

The end.

How does a writer not notice that they've written the same book twice?