Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #180 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-30
• Binding: Hardcover
• 688 pages

Synopsis
'Everybody remembers where they were the day they heard that Paddy de Courcy was getting married'. Lola has every reason to be interested in who Paddy's marrying - because although she's his girlfriend, she definitely isn't the bride-to-be. Heartbroken, she flees the city for a cottage by the sea. But will Lola's retreat prove as idyllic as she hopes? Not if journalist Grace has anything to do with it. She wants the inside story on the de Courcy engagement and thinks Lola holds the key. 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 family is 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? And what of the future Mrs de Courcy...Alicia is determined to be the perfect politician's wife. But does she know the real Paddy de Courcy? Four very different women. One awfully charming man. And the dark secret that binds them all...

Customer Reviews

Doesn't disappoint
My first foray into Marian Keyes and I really enjoyed it. 4 quite different women and their connection to one 'charming' man and how their lives have been influenced - sometimes quite disasterously - by the connection. Not what I was expecting from chick lit ie quite hard hitting in places, plot not comletely predicatable, created a lot of empathy for the characters. I agree with others that the voice of Lola got on my nerves a bit - not really sure what she was trying to achieve here but this didn't really detract from the enjoyment as the story was gripping enough to keep me reading for longs stretches and so I got into the swing of 'Lola speak'. Would recommend for a beach read.

Poor
I agree with everyone who has given a low review of this book.
I too expected much better from such a good author.
Lola and her text speak English is awful, very tedious. I began to skim her sections, it was hard work trying to rewrite the text in my head and put it into a decent normal sentence.
A shame, as some of her observations were very funny.

The other two main characters were not particularly likeable, simply rather stupid, so I ended up really not caring what happened to them.

And as someone else has already said, many sub plots re families were introduced then simply dropped, as though the author had to rush on to the ending with no time to develop these side stories.

As for the charming man, who of course was anything but, he was transparent from the beginning, it was clear who was doing what and the identity of the fourth character was also obvious from the start.
All in all a huge disappointment.

Really good read
I really enjoyed this book! The fact that it is so long meant that you got real depth to the characters and the story developed over time. Apart from the trannie sideline, i found the characters believeable and parts of the book made me laugh out loud. It was also dealing with a very real problem and it showed that Marian had done a lot of research. I would recommend it.