Angels

Rating:
Summary: Life in the fast lane
Review: After Maggie realizes her nine year marriage to Garv is over, she packs her bags and heads to glitzy-glammy Los Angeles to stay with her best friend, Emily. Whiling away the days soaking up the California sun, Maggie lets her hair down and steps out of her "plain yogurt" personality. She lives it up in LA's fast lane, taking chances on the wild guy, faking as Emily's assistant, and even contemplating a lesbian relationship.

However, even in LA, the sun can't stay out forever, and Maggie's parade is rained on when her kooky Irish family decides to show up in California for an unexpected visit, she runs into a long ago boyfriend and Garv shows up wanting answers.

Buckle up as you head down the California expressway with Maggie and her crazy LA friends in Marian Keyes' novel, Angels.

Rating:
Summary: Not Keyes' Best
Review: I have read all of Marian Keyes' books and enjoyed each one more than the other. I was especially looking forward to reading Angels as it featured the Walsh sisters from her previous novels. What a bitter disappointment. I literally had to force myself to finish it- boring, slow, not a drop of her usual humor, stale characters...I just started Sushi For Beginners, and already I can tell this is the great writing you expect from Marian Keyes.

Rating:
Summary: fun, loving, poignant and full of humor
Review: Just when I think that I have read enough Marian Keyes, I realize that there is no such thing as enough! She is a sure fire hit author for a fun, loving, poignant story full of humour!! Angels is the tale of the "good girl" unleashed, in this case, unleashed in Hollywood! A failing marriage, a failing job and a life that just seems to take a turn for the absolute hysterical worst case scenario result in the search for Mr. Right (and also a foray with Ms. Right!). The backdrop of the "mildly dysfunctional" Irish family adds the icing on the cake. The result is another fabulous story of love, life and family, with warts, bad hair days and all. Marian Keyes is always a sure bet, and never predictable.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!!
Review: This book is as funny as her previous titles. I laughed out loud many times and thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Rating:
Summary: A Lesser Book (Sigh....)
Review: I've really enjoyed other Marian Keyes' novels: "Lucy Sullivan" and "Last Chance Saloon" come to mind. I enjoyed them for the wonderful characters: flawed, but funny and decent people.

Unfortunately, the characters in "Angels" were not sympathetic characters. Sleep-around Troy, the new age neighbors, Lesbian Lara, it was just one stereotype after another. And I just wanted to slap Emily, who can't seem to pull herself together enough to realize how worthless the path she's chosen is.

The premise of the novel was great: can you, should you, still love/care for/live with someone who has let you down? How do you steer your marriage through the rough spots? This thread of the novel was well-written and I could have done with more of it and less of Emily's screen writing adventures.

I'm hoping Ms. Keyes' next novel "Sushi for Beginners" will bring us back to the wonderful type of characters she wrote in earlier books!

Rating:
Summary: fun page turner
Review: Read this in one sitting....stayed up late last night and enjoyed every bit of it. Good book about friendship and figuring out what's important. Also liked that it showed all sides of the Hollywood lifestyle, and realistically portrayed its ups and downs. Only flaw was the flashback scenes to her marriage.....totally slowed down the story, after one or two, I just skipped the rest of them.

Rating:
Summary: Fly Away Angels
Review: I was shopping for a light summer read with and found Angels, by Marian Keyes with the phrase "Best Bet" boldly emblazened on it. I read it, but it is pretty lackluster. The outcome seems predetermined at the start. I was hoping for funny characters with an edge. If you enjoy a quirky "sit by the pool" summer novel, find one by Olivia Goldsmith, Carl Hiassen, or Randy White. These are the masters of odd but endearing characters.

Rating:
Summary: Angels
Review: I was so excited to discover the Walsh sisters were back. You grow to love Marian's characters so it was like catching up with old friends (maybe i need to get out more!!!). I liked how Marian dealt so realistically with the highs and lows of seperation and enjoyed the journey we all took together to the US and the ensuing fun that occured before the light was seen and all returned to the way it should be. A wonderfully recommended read.

Rating:
Summary: Duller than most of Marian keyes books!
Review: I am an avid Marian Keyes reader but, Angels just did not have the same appeal. It seemed as though Marian keyes was running out of story lines when it came to the Walsh girls. Because Claire (the sister in Watermelon her first book) also left her husband for having an affair. There was truly potential in this book but overall it was a disappointment! I would Strongly recommend: Rachel's Holiday, Watermelon, and Last Chance Saloon. But, I would say to pass on Angels and Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married.

Rating:
Summary: Marian Keyes never fails!
Review: I've now officially read every book written by Marian Keyes that has been published in the U.S., and she has yet to disappoint me. Granted, Angels isn't my favorite book by her (Rachel's Holiday holds that honor), but I was still very entertained and will continue to buy anything she has in print.

Angels tells the story of another of the Walsh sisters -- this time around it's Maggie, the well-behaved one, the one with the perfect life...until she loses her job and her husband in one fail swoop. Slinking back home to her family, Maggie quickly realizes she needs to turn her life around. So when her friend, Emily, invites her to stay with her in Los Angeles, Maggie jumps at the opportunity. L.A. has a sort of backwards effect on Maggie, however -- instead of turning her life around, Maggie somehow turns it upside-down, doing things she never thought she'd do. And the journey ends up being more than just a flight over the Atlantic...

I really enjoyed reading about another Walsh sister. I love the dysfunctional, eccentric qualities about each of them, and I think I could relate to Maggie the most. Marian Keyes has continued to write engaging, wonderful stories that are both funny and heartwarming, but also serious in subject matter. Undoubtedly she will remain on my favorite authors list for a long, long time.