Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38 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

Flashes of the old Keyes, otherwise boring (sorry Marian)
This book was not to my liking at all. I have read all Marian Keyes' books and enjoyed them immensely, as the serious parts were always peppered with good laugh-out-loud humour. I hated the staccato style in which Lola's story is written and lost interest when it went on and on. I skipped through a lot of it. The separation of the characters doesn't work for me at all, as it is difficult to knit them together eventually.

However, I decided to persevere (as I said before I am a faithful follower) so I read the book half way through and decided at that point that I wasn't bothered continuing with it any more. I can't remember putting a book down at that stage before. Had I not been looking forward to another tried and trusted Keyes book I probably would have taken a different approach, but it just didn't appeal.

Miss the old style Keyes :(

boring!
After having enjoyed previous books by this author, I was quite confident that I had bought another "enjoyable, light reading" book. I really tried to get into the book, but found it slow, boring, depressing, dull. I gave up at page 220..., frustrated, and irritated by the dismal and negative tone of the book, by the fact that after 220 pages of the book, nothing has happened, the reader is still "discovering" the rather boring characters of the book (haven't even got to Alicia yet); it's terribly static. Too bad...

Where was the editor?
This is so disappointing. The bar is always high for Marian Keyes and this isn't a bad book, but...... It could have been so much better. Good central plot and some interesting characters but sloppily edited. Is the problem that Marian is so famous and such a good seller that her publishers don't dare tell her the truth?

The book needs cutting and some careful editing. It also needs to lose the diary style which is inconsistent, irritating and unneccessary. If you want to know how to do diary, then read Alison Pearson.

Please don't do this again Marian. You are one of the best around and this was rambling and undisciplined.