This book felt disjointed and like it didn't quite come together. The tension felt like it came in strange places. It was a book that couldn't decide if it wanted to be a comedy, a romance, commentary on addiction and grief or a family drama. And this meant some of the characters felt like they lacked depth and it was difficult to understand their motivations. 

As always with Marian Keyes, the vignettes and some of the scenes are absolutely brilliant and both poignant and hilarious.  For me, the overall structure and lack of character depth left this as an  average read for me.

I loved this book SO MUCH. Rachel’s Holiday was the first Marian Keyes book I ever read (so many years ago now!) and I loved it so much that I then read everything else she had out at the time, and I’ve read every book of hers since then. I have to admit, I’m always a little skeptical about sequels that come so long after the first book, but this one was amazing!

At the start of this book, Rachel is seeing a man named Quin, whom she met at a meditation retreat a couple years ago. But when her ex-husband’s mother dies and he comes to town for her funeral, she realizes this is the opportunity to get some much-needed closure with him so she can fully move on with her life. With each encounter between them, the reasons their marriage dissolved six years ago becomes clearer and clearer, and things turn out not to be as she thought. The emotional journey that Rachel goes through is so poignant—heartbreaking and healing and wonderful all at once and I loved it so, SO much. (For anyone who absolutely needs to know who she ends up with at the end,

it’s Luke!

❤️)

This is a slow-paced read that I really enjoyed sinking into. Rachel is an addiction counselor at the Cloisters, where she rehabbed twenty years ago. Her own battle with addiction helps her identify with her patients. We learn a lot about their struggles and their paths to recovery. I really loved all the side characters and I was rooting for their success along with Rachel. Writing amazingly lovable side characters is something Keyes really excels at and I really enjoyed that aspect of this book.

This was such an emotional read and it deals with a lot of really heavy topics, but it never felt like too much. Though I feel like Keyes’s more recent books don’t have quite as much humor as her earlier ones, this one still has her brilliant, witty voice, and I laughed out loud several times. The writing style of this one felt very in line with her previous book, Grown Ups, than with Rachel’s Holiday (though I could be wrong about that; it’s been a very long time since I’ve read Rachel’s Holiday!), and I really enjoyed it.

I loved revisiting the world of the Walsh family, but I think anyone can enjoy this book without having read that series. I loved the family dynamics and Rachel’s different relationships with all her family members was amusing and felt so true to life. 

Overall, this was an amazing book—definitely one of the best I’ve read in a long, long while, and one that will stick with me for a long time. For anyone who enjoys Marian Keyes, this is an absolute must-read, and for anyone who loves an emotional, character-driven story that slowly unfolds, this is definitely one to pick up!

CW: addiction,

grief, divorce, loss of a child, miscarriage, sexual abuse, infidelity

Big thanks to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!