Review: Angels by Marian Keyes

Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 488
Received: Given to by friend

Release Date: June 1, 2002

Goodreads Synopsis:

Maggie has always been the white sheep of the Walsh family. Unlike her comically dysfunctional sisters, Rachel (heroine of Rachel's Holiday)and Claire (heroine of Watermelon), she married a decent man who adored her and found herself a solid career. Where Rachel was reckless and Claire dramatic, Maggie settled early for safety. Or so she believed until she discovers that her husband is having an affair and her boss is going to fire her. Suddenly, her perfectly organized life has become a perfect mess.

Devastated, she decides the only thing to do is to run for the shelter of her best friend, Emily, who lives in Los Angeles. There, with the help of sunshine and long days at the beach, she will lick her wounds and decide where life will take her next.But from the moment she lands in the City of Angels, things are not quite what she expected. Overnight, she's mixing with movie stars, even pitching film scripts to studios. Most unexpectedly of all, she finds that just because her marriage is over, it doesn't mean her life is. In the end neither the City of Angels nor Maggie Walsh will ever be the same again.

My Review:

I have to say this book was beautiful! I love Marian Keyes’ writing style. She makes me feel like I’ve met up with my best friend after 5 years and we spend all weekend catching up on each other’s lives. I go to Marian’s books when things are difficult in my life. This book is one in a series of books about the Walsh family, each of the books being about a different child in the family and her problems. So far this one is my favourite of the series.

All her characters are very quirky and interesting. But the one thing I really love about her books are that they are great books to go to when you think your family is embarrassing and you can’t stand to be around them, you realize there are worse families out there. Keyes always has the same way of writing her novels, there is always more to the story then what it seems in the beginning. I enjoy how as a reader we work with the character through her problems but we don’t know the entire truth to her. I find it’s like reacquainting yourself with a friend, slowly the entire truth of her life comes out and that’s when you finally understand why she feels the way she does.  

In this story, Maggie needs to get away from everything so she goes to Los Angeles. I love that everyone in LA are the stereotypical LA people. Everyone is so engrossed in becoming famous, either by being an actor or being a writer (for the movies) that it takes over their lives. I find myself laughing at the ridiculousness of most of the people that you meet along with Maggie. Of course like in real life, you can’t run away from your problems and everything follows Maggie on her vacation to a point that this is a laugh-out-loud (wherever you are) kind of story.


Also by Marian Keyes:
Sushi for Beginners
Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married
This Charming Man