Thank you to Netgalley, Marian Keyes, and Penguin Random House Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect with this one, but it was good! It has a larger cast of characters, and I love the Irish setting (along with some trips to different places here and there)!! There are a lot of really great topics that are discussed including eating disorders, marriage troubles, age gaps in relationships, women as bread winner, etc.

I found the first half to be a bit slow and I had a hard time getting into it. Once I felt I had sorted everyone out and was a little ways through it picked up and piqued my interest more.

Getting to know a variety of characters that are not cookie cutter characters is my favourite and this book certainly has that.

If you enjoy Brit lit, Irish characters, and a cast of very different characters give it a shot!!!

DNF. I could not, for the life of me, keep these characters straight. They all seemed mostly the same, and I had no clue who was related to who. Seems like that's a theme in the other reviews, so I guess it really comes down to whether you're A) already a fan of Keyes, and B) okay with not really connecting to or keeping straight characters. I'm neither of those things. I'd much prefer a book that focusses on a few characters who are thoroughly developed.

This is the first book I’ve ready by Marian Keyes. And although I really enjoyed her writing style I found that this book dragged on and on. It was hard. To get into at first because there were so many characters it was hard to keep track of them all... and they kind of get thrown at you so you have no idea what’s going on at first.

Reading the first chapter hooked me but then by the third chapter nothing was really happening... there were small things here and there but not mu che that kept me fervently turning the pages. There were so many characters that you weren’t sure who you wanted to focus your attention on as they were all pretty much “main characters”. There was a few I found most intriguing like Nell, Cara and Ferdia but the rest of the clan I didn’t care too much for.
The last 25% of the book is where things change... it gripped me and I finished the end in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down. I just wished the book was shorter.

So if you’re looking for a book that has awesome writing style but doesn’t really pick up till the last 25% then this book is for you!

ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 Stars for Grown Ups
If you are looking for a hilarious read featuring a quirky, crazy, complex family look no further than Grown Ups, it’s an entertaining, funny read right from the first page.
This lighthearted read features the Casey family and Ms Keyes takes is into all the drama and fun you might expect from an Irish family of three brothers and there assorted marriages and kids.
Johnny, Ed and Liam Casey grew up in a large family and they are all now on a mission to create their large families, throughout this book the banter flows and this family will have you laughing out loud as they deal with breakups, makeups and lots of adorable kids.
Please be warned this is a long read with a million characters, it’s a book you won’t want to put down so maybe set a weekend aside to read it. It’s a fun, entertaining read with the perfect mix of humour, love and drama, it will captivate you from the first page to the last line and I highly recommend it to all romantic comedy lovers.

I’m a big Marian Keyes fan so when I saw this one I jumped at the chance to read it. I didn’t find the same lovable but flawed characters. I found the opening dinner scene a bit hard to follow and connect with. Overall, I found this book hard to continue through.

I love, love, love Marian Keyes! I have loved her since the days of Watermelon and Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married. There is always something deeper going on in her books. In this one, she is exploring grown up (duh) relationships. Honestly, it wasn't my favourite of hers, but I did also gift it to a friend who is also a Marian Keyes lover and we spent a good chunk of time talking about it.

DNF at 30%

This book is not for me. Well, to be honest, I think Marian Keyes might not be for me. A while back I tried to read Sushi for Beginners and couldn't finish it. When I saw this book at netgalley, I decided to request it: I thought at the time that it was only fair to give the author a second chance because a lot of people were enjoying Grown Ups and generally saying good things about the novel. Well, I'm sad to say that I've given up on this reading as well and that will be my last Keyes book.

This book is about an Irish family and even though I read only 30% of the book, I disliked every one of the million characters that were in this book. There wasn't a single character that I could relate to or even sympathize with. Well, maybe Nell...but even so, there wasn't one that interested me enough to get invested in their future. The writing style wasn't really my cup of tea as well - even though there was always something happening, I found the writing confusing and boring. So much so that I had difficulty keeping my eyes open in order to continue reading. Finally, Cara's ordeal with her eating disorder was...alarming, worrying, triggering. I hope the author has dealt with this theme as correctly as I hope but I won't endure the rest of the book to find out.

I'm sad that this didn't work out for me but it's better to not have liked it and know for sure than being tempted to keep reading authors and books that impact me in the wrong way.

Many thanks to netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

i have read all of Marian Keyes books and with each one they just get better..
Such a great story - just upset i have finished it.

Marian Keyes' latest book is about a big, messy, complicated Irish family - three brothers, each of their wives, and their kids. But unlike some other authors, she manages to keep the "fun' in dysfunctional, bringing to it her trademark light touch even when dealing with heavy topics since each of the family members have their own issues. It took a little while to get into this book, because let's face, 7 POVs is A LOT (though some get more time than others). Early on, this book felt too long, yet at the end I was sad to let the characters go and wouldn't mind a sequel. I've read all of Marian Keyes' novels and while this wasn't her best, it was definitely a good one and better than her last few. 3.75 stars, rounding up to 4.

Marian Keyes is an amazing writer. I love how she crafts intriguing and funny family dramas and Grown Ups is one of her best. A terrific read!! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I have loved Marian Keyes for a long time, with particular favorites being Rachel’s Holiday and Lucy Sullivan is getting married. Unfortunately, this one fell a little bit flat for me and didn’t seem to have as much of the “spark” as her earlier works.

I know this is only an ARC but there were so many missing words and grammatical errors that I just could not stomach finishing this book. The storyline and a lot of the characters Sitka have been absolutely wonderful if the sentences made sense. Really let down by this one. Especially knowing that I have a lot of friends that read this author. Hopefully the final copy made it out better than the ARC.

A brilliant family saga! This book tells the story of an extended family who goes on big, elaborate vacations together and all the complications they go through together over a period of 6 months. The narrator's perspective alternates between several family members, and they also reminisce on old history and end up telling the complete story of how they became part of the family! It's a long book but thoroughly engaging and entertaining throughout so I didn't mind the length, but it did take awhile to finish. Very rewarding story!

Well, I might not have ever read this book if the stars hadn't perfectly aligned. Micky told me to stay far away from it, and I generally trust her opinion (very highly!). But then down the road, I saw Tara loved this book and we seem to have same tastes when it comes to Mhairi and Marian... and shortly after that, it popped up as a "read now" on Netgalley. When I first started the book, I struggled because... so many characters and who belonged to who and what was going on? Plus, the kindle version of the book was a hot formatting mess. Missing words and letters, ugh. But I finally got it to work on the new NG app that I can only read on my phone. Yes, I read all 650 pages on my little phone, turned landscape. That's how much I enjoyed it. I wouldn't recommend reading any book this way, but I had so quickly been drawn into the Casey/Kinsella family drama and could not stop. It's been such a long time since a book kept me up late at night. This gave me all the squee feelings I've been missing so often in my books. I also thinking that reading this right now, in these times, is what made it so perfect for me. The existential crisis of some of the characters, the what the heck are you doing with you life, how do we become honest and start acting like grown ups... it all just resonated with me amidst the pandemic. I also forgot just how much I love books from multi-POVs full of different kinds of character interaction and emotional growth (or not). Marian (and Mhairi but I'm all caught up there, *sob*) have such a way of bringing out both the humor and the sad. The real and the ridiculous. And moments or words that hit me so hard I have to stop and re-read whole parts or sentences again.

It was long, and yet I wanted more, more, more... (just like, a little more in the future for some... please...)

This book was DELICIOUS! I had seen in advance some of the reviews of folks speaking of its length (aren’t a lot of her books long?) and the complicated family tree (I didn’t struggle), but pay no mind to any of that. I found life truths in her writing, completely relating to many of the internal thoughts shared by the “grown ups” — but absolutely none by Liam, naturally. Thoroughly enjoyed, with the exception of of how things ended with 2 of the characters, simply because I wanted much more of an HEA for them.

I feel like I’ve grown up with Marion Keyes. I read “Watermelon” and “Rachel’s Holiday” in my 20s and have followed her career through to today. I felt like she lost her way a little bit a few years ago, but she’s back to her best with “Grown Ups”. It has a cast of characters (which I sometimes lost track of - particularly which children belonged to which parents) who interact and bounce off each other the way normal families do. They’re all dealing with their own issues and handle them in different ways.

This is a novel about how your actions and decisions affect the people around you. It’s very real and thoroughly enjoyable, full of 3-dimensional and thoroughly fleshed-out characters in realistic situations. The Irish-English is a joy to read and it’s liberally peppered with the humour you’d expected from Keyes.

Highly recommended!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I've read everything Marian Keyes has ever written, so I was really excited to see that she had a new book.
The last one I read (The Break) caused me to laugh out loud while eating breakfast in the Salt Lake City airport, probably to the dismay of my fellow diners.

I really enjoyed this book. It didn't seem like 600+ pages, as the time flew by while I was reading it. I liked how after the first chapter the story progressed chronologically from past to present.
So many funny things, but I really did laugh out loud during the Murder Mystery Party chapters, but since I'm at home during a pandemic, really, nobody cared.
I love how the author's characters are real people with real problems. Not every storyline got a Hollywood ending, which I appreciated. Such is life.

I was appalled to learn that the Direct Provision system depicted in the book (basically, the cruel way Ireland treats asylum seekers) is real. As the author noted at the end of the book, Ireland is going to look back on this treatment with shame.
For more information on Direct Provision, please read this wonderful article from The New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/irelands-strange-cruel-system-for-asylum-seekers

Marian Keyes never lets me down. She is such a wonderful writer!. Grown Ups features her signature wit and keen eye for human behaviour during life's ups, downs and everything else it throws at you.

One of my favourite things about Marian Keyes is that she can write her characters with such complexity and yet not lose the magic that keeps you as a reader interested. Marian is able to perfectly balance complexity, fun and humour to weave fantastic stories.

Grown Ups is no exception and delivers everything we know and love from Marian. A fun, thought-provoking and intriguing novel that will keep you gripped.

Marian Keyes was one of the first women's fiction authors I discovered. I read the first few books in her Walsh sisters series in college and adored the wit and wisdom in her writing. She writes about realistic, dysfunctional families in a funny and endearing way.

This novel, however, felt long-winded, with too many family members and extraneous characters to keep track of. I was disappointed to see that the story lacked the humor and charm of her previous works.

From the publisher: "They're a glamorous family, the Caseys. Johnny Casey, his two brothers Ed and Liam, their beautiful, talented wives and all their kids spend a lot of time together--birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, weekends away. And they're a happy family. Johnny's wife, Jessie--who has the most money--insists on it.

Under the surface, though, conditions are murkier. While some people clash, other people like each other far too much . . .

Still, everything manages to stay under control--that is, until Ed's wife, Cara, gets a concussion and can't keep her thoughts or opinions to herself. One careless remark at Johnny's birthday party, with the entire family present, and Cara starts spilling all their secrets.

As everything unravels, each of the adults finds themselves wondering if it's--finally--the time to grow up."

I would recommend checking out Watermelon or Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married if you'd like to try a Marian Keyes book. ❤️

Thank you to @netgalley and @doubledaybooks for a copy of this title in exchange for my review!