Rachel's Holiday

Rating:
Summary: funny, good catchy story
Review: I read this story a couple of days after I read Watermelon (also by Marian Keyes) and I liked it even better. Rachel's Holiday is a perfect choice if you are looking for some quality light reading. Keyes still uses the same technique as in Watermelon, where Rachel talks directly to us and therefor is our only source of information about herself in the first half of the book. Later we get some more information about her trough the metings with others. It is written in the same chatty, humorous tone that makes all of Keyes' novels such a pleasure to read, but this story is a little different and a little more daring.

When we first meet her, she is about to be admitted to the Cloisters, a Irish sort of Betty Ford Clinic. She is in denial. Anyone who has had personal experience with addicts (of one kind or another) will recognize how they may fool you (and sometimes themselves). In the first part of the book, she seems pretty shallow and definitely a bit dense, but she grows as a person through her therapy and her friendships with other recovering addicts. Rachel has not really got a clue about who she is in the beginning and why she is becoming an addict. She develops as a person in and trough the story and grows to become something more than a cartoon figure or a heroine of a cheap weekly magazine story. Keyes has written this story with much fine humor and I laughed out loud many times to the great fun of those who were around me.

Two warnings: Highbrows who do not enjoy light reading should stay away from this book and secondly if you do not like happy endings of any kind, please also stay away from this book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I too could not put this book down. I have read all of Marian Keyes' books and this by far is may favorite. I found it interesting to go from Rachel's absolute denial of her substance problem to her later acceptance and recovery. I work with at risk families and I have recommended it to some of my clients who are going through similiar experiences as Rachel was. I think that this should be a must read for anyone involved in a recovery program.

Rating:
Summary: Take Rachel's Holiday on Vacation With You
Review: Rachel's Holiday is a delightful book. Marion Keyes has done it again. It's the perfect choice if you are looking for some quality light reading. I see on these pages, everyone mentions which of her books is their favorite. Well, Rachel's Holiday is mine. While Watermelon and Lucy Sullivan were definitely great and funny, in my opinion, Rachel's Holiday is a cut above. We still get the same chatty, humorous tone that makes all of Keyes' novels such a pleasure to read, but this story is a little different a little more daring. Keyes has added the complication of addiction on the girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets that boy or another boy story. Rachel narrates this story with much humor and we see her grow as a person. When we first meet her, she is about to be admitted to the Cloisters, a sort of Betty Ford Clinic in Ireland. She is in denial. She had me fooled. For the first part of the book, she is pretty shallow and definitely mired in her denial, but she grows as a person through her therapy and her friendships with other recovering addicts and finally admits to her addiction and ultimately beats it. In the background is her life in New York that got her in The Cloisters in the first place, and Luke, the hunky Irishman who finally could take no more of her antics. (It wouldn't be a Marion Keyes novel without a perfect hunky guy). Be prepared. This novel has a standard story book happy ending that I felt was just a tad too much. But it's a funny book with charming characters (you can't even dislike Rachel). You'll find yourself sneaking away for a quick fix of this wonderful, funny, breezy novel. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Addictive Reading
Review: Rachel's Holiday is a Walsh sister novel by Marian Keyes, so I expected it to be funny with fast-paced dialogue and a contemporary feel, and it was. I finished this story in record time because I couldn't put it down.

What caught and held my attention, though, wasn't the humor. It was the realism with which Keyes portrayed Rachel's journey from denial to acceptance of her drug addiction. The novel is set partly in The Cloisters, a treatment center reputed to harbor and rehabilitate some of the world's most glamourous celebrities. Rachel arrives with valium in her suitcase expecting massages and seaweed wraps, and her bumpy trip towards clean living makes for entertaining as well as informative reading. I don't think I've ever read such a realistic treatment story, detailing the often-humourous ins and outs of an in-patient facility.

The story speeds along a little too quickly after Rachel gets out of treatment, racing through the next year in the last twenty percent of the book. But in general, I was impressed by Marian Keyes's grasp of the recovery process--and I'm already impressed with her story-telling. Reading Rachel's Holiday was a nice mini-vacation in itself.