Book Review: Watermelon by Marian Keyes

Synopsis:
On the day she gives birth to her first child, Claire Walsh's husband James tells her he's been having an affair and now's the right time to leave her.

Right for who exactly? Exhausted, tearful and a tiny bit furious, Claire can't think of what to do. So she follows the instincts of all self-respecting adults in tricky situations.

. . . And runs home to Mum and Dad.

But while her parents are sympathetic, Claire's younger sisters are less so. Helen wants to share the new toy (she means baby Kate). While Anna is too busy having out-of her-head experiences.

So when James slips back into her life, desperate to put things right, Claire doesn't know whether to take a chance on a past she feared she'd lost forever or face an uncertain future of her own.

But is she as on her own as she really believes?

My Review:

I admit I have only read a couple of books by Marian Keyes, one of which is the fourth book from the Walsh family series (Anybody out there) After seeing Marian at a book signing, the Walsh family were spoken of a lot and I felt like I had missed out on some fantastic stories. So I got straight down to my local library (libraries by the way are the best places!) decided it was about time I started back at the beginning and read Marian’s debut novel, which is the first book in the Walsh family.

I love that the first chapter takes you straight into the story, Claire minutes after giving birth is content and full of happiness, a loving relationship with a great husband, perfect home, good job and her first baby a beautiful daughter. Can it get any better than this… Of course not, it’s all downhill from now on. As her husband James suddenly announces in the hospital that he no longer loves her and that his been having an affair! I can now confirm James is the worst!

Poor Claire… with her marriage in tatters, a newborn baby and a body that she doesn’t recognize as her own she catches the next flight back home to Dublin to her dysfunctional family. Here we are first introduced to the Walsh family! What a family they are!

I read some reviews before starting where people have remarked on Marian’s ramblings throughout the book but I really liked this, I liked reading Claire’s inner thoughts and musings and getting an insight into each character of the family and stories from their childhood. It always helps me to set the scene and picture it! But I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea!

Back in Dublin, Claire takes refuge to her bed to recoup only to fend for her baby daughter, here we witness Claire at her lowest, going through what you can only describe as mourning, and the stages from sadness to anger.

Thankfully Claire pulls through and takes back control of her life, no longer feeling worthless and knowing she and her daughter deserve better than James.

Here she meets Adam, a friend of her sister Helen; Adam is younger, shy and very very cute! Adam takes an interest in Claire and they hit it off from their first meet. After bumping into each other away from her family you could clearly see an interest for them both. I felt that the attention from Adam was exactly what Claire needed to give her the confidence and the boost to feel like her again.

I guess I should speak about James at some point…! We hate him by the way, what a horrible man… I won’t spoil for you with what happens between Claire and James, as you know from the synopsis James does return to Claire most probably realizing that the grass isn’t always greener. Few scenes when he returned made me angry which shows how well Marian writes her characters, James was written very cleverly the way he could change Claire’s confidence in herself. Anyway enough about James!

I liked the ending of this story, it wasn’t exactly how I imagined it planning out, the story is a little predictable so the end part did throw me but that’s what’s great about Marian Keyes, she always does like to keep you on your toes.

Despite the sad storyline and the situation Claire was in, the story was full of humour and comical moments which I really enjoyed. I cannot wait to get started on reading the rest of the books from the Walsh family.

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Book Review: This Charming Man by Marian Keyes

Synopsis:

Lola has just found out that her boyfriend - charismatic politician Paddy de Courcy - is getting married. To someone else. Heartbroken, Lola flees the city for a cottage by the sea. But will Lola's retreat prove as idyllic as she hopes?

Journalist Grace wants the inside story on Paddy de Courcy's engagement and thinks Lola holds the key to it. Grace knew Paddy a long time ago. But why can't she forget him?

Grace's sister, Marnie, might have the answer but she also has issues with the past. Her loving loving husband and beautiful daughters are wonderful, but they can't take away memories of her first love: a certain Paddy de Courcy. What will it take for Marnie to be able to move on?

Alicia Thornton is Paddy's wife-to-be. Determined to be the perfect wife, Alicia would do anything for her fiancée. But does she know the real Paddy?

Four very different women. One awfully charming man. And the dark secret that binds them all...

My Review!

Urgh... I really don't know where to start with this review...! I love Marian Keyes books but I felt really disappointed by this one. I really struggled with this book, taking me just over 2 weeks to finish it but determined I was! 

I have been looking forward to reading this book for a while and when reading the synopsis I thought it was going to be pure chick lit but I was totally wrong, I was not prepared for what this book had in store for me. Paddy de Courcy.. Charming man.. I think not!!

One of my pet peeves is the size of the chapters, the first chapter consisted of over 70 pages (wow I know!) When life intervenes and I have to stop reading for a little while I always always like to finish a chapter off, it just never feels right to stop mid chapter (it's like stopping someone speaking mid sentence) but I had to do this constantly due to the size of them!

The first chapter was the hardest to get through, we got to know Lola who is a stylist and the girlfriend of Paddy. Lola had just found out that he was now engaged to someone else 'Alicia Thornton'. Lola's chapters were written like a diary and the grammar was very poor and the writing style was not to my taste which made it difficult for me to get into the story.

Poor Lola really had been kicked to the kerb by her boyfriend so she gets away to Knockavoy where she meets lots of new friends and gets herself into some interesting situations! My jaw dropped on a few occasions while reading Lola's story.

Grace is a journalist who lives with her boyfriend Damien, thankfully the writing style was much more Marian's usual flow. Grace is very close to her parents and her aunt who is currently battling cancer. Poor Grace wasn't having a good time due to her car being stolen and she somehow had been hurt with bruising on her face although we don't find out what happened to her until the very end!

Grace is requested personally by Alicia to interview her for the engagement shoot which she does. You soon realise they know each other from when they were younger and you can clearly see there is no love lost between the two. 

Marnie is the twin sister to Grace and she lives away in London with her husband Nick and her two daughters. Her first love was Paddy and throughout the book you get to know more about their toxic relationship when they were young. Marnie you could tell was a very downhearted person who seemed to be trying to keep her head above water and not sink further into depression. 

Alicia who is newly engaged to Paddy is the one woman we don't get to know all that well, we only get to hear from her on only a few occasions.

We know she has connections with both Grace and Marnie, and that she has been married before to an older man who passed away. I got the feeling that there was no love between Alicia and Paddy and that the engagement was more of a business deal.

All four women have one thing in common, they all seemed to have either a past or present with the charming, controlling, abusive politician that is known as Paddy de Courcy. 

I'm glad I stuck with it, it has a good plot and the characters were believable, but I did struggle with the long chapters and some of the switches from past to present.

It's one of those books where you finish the last page however the characters stay with you for a little while longer, especially Alicia... I felt her story wasn't finished off unlike the others.

I would recommend this book but I would stick a giant warning post to it so people are aware it's no light hearted chick lit book about 4 women all falling in hopeless love with a charming lovely man! 

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