Maggie Walsh is the one perfect daughter her parents have. (She is part of the Irish family of five daughters that Keyes often writes about.) Then, one day, seemingly out of the blue, Maggie loses her job, leaves her husband of nine years, gets on a plane, and visits her friend Emily in Los Angeles. It is hard to say who is more surprised by this, her family, her husband, or Maggie herself.
Once in the land of sunshine, Maggie starts to explore. She spends lot of time on the beach. She shops expensive and famous stores. She helps her friend Emily deal with the drama involved with being a scriptwriter. She goes to parties with famous people. Its a completely new world for Maggie.
Maggie spends some time being sad and mopey about her recently ended marriage, but then, starts to rebound. She dates some people she never would have considered dating before all this happened, and for the first time, starts to consider what it is that she, herself, wants in life, instead of just what everyone expects her to want.
Just when everything is going well, things change. Maggie runs into an old boyfriend, that she might still be carrying a torch for, and this makes her think about events in her life (events that happened with this ex boyfriend and also later on, in her marriage), that were far from perfect. Her crazy Irish family takes a plane to visit her in California, and this makes Maggie remember who she really is, and where she is from. And, finally, Maggie must decide. Should she stay in LA with the stars and the sun, or, return to Dublin, and try to get her marriage, (which wasn’t that bad after all, was it?) back together again?
This book is really funny, and a quick and easy read. Its the perfect beach read, especially since the setting is in sunny California, and the characters spend lots of time on a beach. I always enjoy books by Marian Keyes. This book was written before Anybody Out There? and after Rachel’s Holiday. I think the reader can still enjoy each of the books about the Walsh sisters without reading them in any specific order. They each can stand alone.
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