Angels

Rating:
Summary: A four star book, but could have been better
Review: ANGELS by Marian Keyes

A young woman finds that her marriage was not all that she thought it was, in ANGELS, a novel by Irish author Marian Keyes. Maggie Walsh (Garvan) was a happily married woman, married to Paul Garvan for many years, when she suddenly realizes that they weren't really as happy as she thought. The opening line explains that she has just left her husband, and in flashbacks she tells the story of her marriage to Paul (or Garv, as she calls him). Told in a somewhat sarcastic/light hearted tone of voice, Maggie goes over the events that led to the ultimate low point of their marriage, and why she finally decided to leave him, at least for now.

Maggie, who is usually conservative by nature, at least compared to her crazy sisters, shocks everyone by announcing she is going to Los Angeles to live there for a month with one of her best friends, Emily. She leaves her husband, family and friends in Ireland, and makes that big trip to California.

Maggie's stay in Southern California is one of the craziest times of her life. She parties, she meets new men, she lies out on the beach, and she slowly forgets about Garv, sort of. In the mean time, she finds out how much fun she can have while being single, but it doesn't last.

In the mean time, Emily is working on that very important movie script, and it's her last chance at a life in Hollywood. The antics and schemes that they go through to get this script bought are almost as hysterical as an "I Love Lucy" show. And when Maggie's family decides to take advantage of the situation and come down to Southern California for an impromptu vacation, things really get funny.

ANGELS is my introduction to the writing of Marian Keyes, and I have heard a lot of positive things about her. Unfortunately, ANGELS is probably not one of her best works, as so many of these same people have told me. My main gripe with the book is that although the story was entertaining and funny, I found that it went on and on, and sometimes i felt it wasn't going anywhere. I think this book could have been cut short a bit, but overall, it was an enjoyable fluff read. I don't recommend ANGELS as an introductory book to the world of Marian Keyes, but it is a fun book nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: Reads Like A Conversation With Your Best Friend
Review: In her family of five sisters, Maggie Garvin is the safe, dependable one. The one her parents feel can do no wrong. The one her sisters have described as plain yogurt at room temperature.

When she discovers her husband might be cheating on her, and loses her job soon after, she decides to takes a month-long visit with a friend who lives in Los Angeles. Her entire family (not to mention her husband) is shocked that she would do such a thing.

Emily, the friend in Los Angeles, is a scriptwriter trying to get noticed by one of the film studios. Her friends are also "in the business" and Maggie soon becomes enthralled with this lifestyle and with a town where everyone seems to be looking for their big break. She hangs out on the beach, helps Emily pitch a script, befriends a lesbian and learns about the highs and lows of trying to make it in Hollywood.

Maggie's vacation ends a little earlier than she planned when her parents and two of her sisters decide to take a trip of their own to Los Angeles. Now she must show them the town while she decides what to do with her life and her marriage.

When she meets up with her first love, and her husband suddenly shows up, events and feelings escalate as she is forced to come to some kind of decision. Maggie forgets about doing what others think she should do and does what she feels is right for her.

Reading a novel by Marian Keyes is like catching up with an old friend. You want to send your family away for the night, stock up on junk food and get ready to laugh, cry and wish it would never end.

Keyes has the ability to make you like her characters from the first sentence and you want the best for them even as they continue to make mistakes. Maggie Walsh in "Angels" is another such character and is the sister to Claire from "Watermelon."

Rating:
Summary: Seriously Hysterical
Review: Like slicing into the rings of an onion, Marian Keyes shows how a life is never exactly what is seen on the surface. With a heavy dose of irony and equal parts of mischief, mockery and humor, the reader travels from Ireland to Los Angeles as Maggie (the white sheep of the Walsh family) copes with the loss of her job and the end of her marriage. Maggie leaves her "goody two shoes" image and the drizzle of Ireland behind, in exchange for sunshine and smog, freeways and screenplays. But, the landscape is not the only thing changing. Taking pleasure in the caricature that is Los Angeles and its gorgeous and merciless culture, Maggie has a rollicking time coping with the past and the future. This book promises lots of sublimely naughty innuendo and sexy mischief, glimpses of true friendship, as well as the support of the wacky Walsh family. The dialogue is quite simply inspired and leaves the reader laughing out loud as well as realizing a much more serious message.

Rating:
Summary: Another Walsh breaks free to sow her wild oats
Review: Yep, Marian Keyes is back with her third novel of the wonderfully semi-function Irish family - the Walshes. In Angels, the steady Walsh daughter, Maggie, breaks free of her marriage, travels to Los Angeles and proceeds to try to dredge up the Wild Girl she always thought she was.

Keyes doesn't disappoint with this story - once again their is great good humour, underlined with the truth which is slowly drawn out during the story as Maggie realises just what has been going on her life - and we realise that her steady life wasn't quite what it seemed at the beginning.

I love these Walsh stories - well just about anything by Keyes anyway. There are always depths to her stories and her characters which when revealed explain a lot more about the characters and motivations and slowly draw us deeper into the emotional world they inhabit.

Maggie has been married for nine years when her husband Paul (who everyone calls Garv) starts having an affair. So Maggie slinks home to Dublin, and then off to Los Angeles to be with her best friend, Emily - who is struggling to write a script and sell it in LA. The nuttiness of the LA movie-making scene is interspersed with some really down to earth characters - and lessons in life which don't whack you in the face.

Lovely and readable story - Keyes has to be one of my favourite authors and a must read.

Rating:
Summary: this was watermelon/rachel's holliday/last chance saloon
Review: all combined into one. You have the "broke up w/ the husband/boyfriend" plot from WM & RH, living a totally different lifestyle after a life-changing event from RH, and the "man from the past" who's a jerk, but the heroine ALMOST leaves the best thing that happens to her for jerk-guy, like in LCS. Yeah, I liked these plots when I read them the first time!!! Plus, in WM, Claire was hilarious, as was Rachel in RH, but I really cheered them on while they overcame their tragedies. But I didn't really care what happened to Maggie as much--she bored me--I would have rather read a sequel starring one of her sisters, Claire or Rachel. I REALLY want to know if Claire is still with Adam, or if Rachel is still with Luke, and how Rachel's job is, but the 2 are barely touched on.

I love Marian Keyes's books but this one disappointed me. It takes forever to finally figure out what went wrong between Maggie and her husband, because bits and pieces are told through flashback, and then you realize that the 2 had given up too easily.

Rating:
Summary: Another Walsh sister faces multiple crisis
Review: I'd almost given up on Keyes after the last one I read Last Chance Saloon, but I'm glad I picked up Angels. It was refreshing and fun. The main character, Maggie, was likeable and imperfect as she ran away from her problems to live with a friend in LA and experiment with different parts of her personality. In the end she realizes who she is and comes to peace with many things in her life - carreer and love. It was fun to hear about Maggie's life thru a different perspective since she is sisters with Claire, the main character in Keyes's Watermelon.

Rating:
Summary: A Laugh Out Loud Funny Read
Review: Marian Keyes is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I loved Last Chance Saloon and I loved Angels just as much.

Maggie is the Good Girl of the Walsh Family, her sisters describe her as "plain yogurt at room temperature." She seemed to have the perfect life with the perfect husband and perfect job, but that was until she found out that her husband was cheating on her and she left him. She stayed with her parents and two sisters until one day she decided that she needed a change of scenery to help her sort out her feelings and she went to stay with her friend Emily in Los Angeles. Once she arrives there she runs into all sorts of characters from the movie business and proceeds to have a wild time while trying to figure out her life.

Angels is a laugh out loud funny book and I was sad to see it end. I look forward to reading more books by Marian Keyes and I highly reccommend reading Angels.

Rating:
Summary: Not Her Best Work
Review: Without a doubt --- I love Marian Keyes. She is one of the reasons I have spent so much money on www.Amazon.com/www.Amazon.comUK. I buy whatever she writes (in hardcover which I rarely do) and I am usually a very satisfied customer. Well - "Angels" let me down. I think that I have come to expect such wonderful and creative work from Ms. Keyes that anything less than spectacular puts me off. Maybe I wouldn't have been disappointed with it if another author had written it - but I have much higher standards for Ms. Keyes. I found "Angels" lacking direction, her usual sense of humor missing and compassionate characters absent. I couldn't have cared less about Maggie. I found her very uninteresting, where her sisters (Rachel "Rachel's Holiday") and (Claire "Watermelon") completely had me from page one.

I believe that Ms. Keyes can do better and has. She is one of the brightest stars in the "chick lit" genre and I will always give her the benefit of the doubt and continue to buy her books - this one just gets resold to my used book seller.

Rating:
Summary: Marian's Best One Yet!
Review: I have read of of Marian Keye's novels to date, and this one was so great! the way it made fun of Los Angeles (where i live) was dead on perfect! The Walsh family is so colorful, i just hope novels focusing on Helen and Anna are on their way!!
Read this book you will love it!!

Rating:
Summary: A Fun Read
Review: Marion Keyes always gives us a good, solid romantic comedy--one with empathetic heroines, humorous stories and satisfying endings and Angels certainly continues in that vein. Maggie Walsh moves from Ireland to LA after her marriage falls apart. While in LA, she contemplates plastic surgery, lesbianism, young men with goatees and other amusing topics (or they are when she contemplates them). The novel is filled with plenty of amusing characters and entertaing jokes. Reading Maggie's first-person narrative is like catching up with an old friend. The novel is not, however, as strong as Rachel's Holiday and Watermelon. Those two were much more funny. Still--Angels is a fine romantic comedy.