I adore Marian Keyes! If you are seeking a book with likeable, relatable heroines than you can always rely on Keyes, this book is no exception. If you read Rachel's Holiday than this sequel will not disappoint you.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It had me turned pages without even realizing. It was so good!

This was such a brilliant read. I devoured every single page. So good to be back with Rachel after so long

Rachel was my favorite of the Walsh sisters and I was really excited to see her come back for another heartwarming and hilarious romp. Rachel is more mature and put together this time around, but the magic of Marian Keyes' writing is still there despite the time passed and progress of the main character. It was also nice to see where the other Walsh family members have ended up, including their children. Reading, AGAIN, RACHEL, makes me want to go back and read all the Walsh books again for the umpteenth time. Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an eARC of this enjoyable novel.

I hadn't read anything by Marian Keyes before, and I was a bit nervous reading this one without having read Rachel's Holiday. But there was no need to worry. Again, Rachel stands alone, and it is a wonderful novel with a cast of wonderful characters.

At first, I was laughing non-stop as I got to know Rachel and her lovely entourage of family and friends, who are all complex characters in their own right. She also has a complicated past as a recovered addict, but now she is clean and sober and working as an addictions counsellor with a wonderful boyfriend and a full life.

But when her ex-husband returns to Ireland for his mother's funeral, Rachel has to face the possibility that she hasn't moved on from the past in the way she thought she had. In turns steamy, funny, and emotionally charged, this book was hard to put down. Now I'm glad I have a whole backlist by this author to read.

“Forgive yourself for all the many ways you hurt yourself, when all you were doing was trying to survive.”
— Anonymous


Marian Keyes’ novels are meaningful and deep and yet she is one of the few authors who makes me laugh out loud. Her characters have very human flaws and she brings them alive on the page. I adopted the Walsh family when I read Keyes’ debut novel “Watermelon” in 1995.

Who can forget Rachel Walsh from the 1998 novel, “Rachel’s Holiday”? Rachel is a young, Irish twenty-something girl living in New York. She is complicated, impulsive and larger than life. She has size eight feet and a life of parties, alcohol and drugs. While the first novel has a serious side — themes include addiction, denial and rehabilitation — I can’t remember laughing so much at Keyes’ witty Irish humour channeled through her much loved character.

20 years later, in this sequel, Marian has brought Rachel back from her holiday. She is a different person than when Keyes first wrote about her. She once lived on crunchy nut cornflakes and had a theory that anything eaten standing up had no calories.

Rachel is back in rehab at the Cloisters, “Dublin’s answer to the Betty Ford Clinic”, but as one of their top addiction counsellors. She has been sober for many years, is successful and in a loving relationship. She feels happily settled when a man she’d once loved suddenly reappears …

Although “Again, Rachel” is a witty and warm-hearted sequel, I think it’s a darker book than “Rachel’s Holiday”. In addition to addiction, there is also miscarriage, anxiety, cheating on partners, and sexual abuse.

“Again, Rachel” can be read as a stand-alone book, but learning the backstories of the characters is worthwhile. Their history dates all the way back to the nineties so if you decide to read some of the earlier books, you’ll see where all the Walsh sisters are 25 years later. Revisiting and reacquainting yourself with Rachel’s family provides comic relief.

Marian Keyes cannot write a bad book. It's impossible. This sad but eventual uplifting story of Rachel Walsh and her comeback from her addiction, living a sober life, and figuring it all out is a wonder. I always recommend Keyes to others and so far, the consensus has been good on reception!

This book was an absolute pleasure to read. Anything by Marian Keyes is actually. I highly recommend this book.

You just can’t go wrong with a Marian Keyes novel, especially one that features the ongoing antics of the Walsh clan. This is the sequel to Rachel’s Holiday where we find Rachel has found purpose and happiness in her day to day life - until her past comes roaring back to confront her. She is faced with questioning her choices and sobriety, with the requisite romantic entanglements hanging over it all. Keyes is so good at balancing all the elements - this mixes comedy, romance and heartbreak. But it really shines in the scenes with Rachel’s group therapy sessions at rehab. I could have read a whole book just about those characters.
Big thanks to Penguin Random House Canada, Double Day Canada and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I must have read all of Marian Keyes' books by now, and love some, like others and feel a bit bored by just a few. Unfortunately, this one falls in the latter category. To me, it really dragged and the plot itself was not very engaging. I loved the previous book that focused on Rachel, Rachel's Holiday, and Marian Keyes seems like a wonderful woman. This book, sadly, just wasn't for me.

The first Marian Keyes book I read was Rachel’s Holiday, so I couldn’t wait to read this follow-up book. Marian Keyes is a MASTER at what she does and it is really hard to believe the Walsh family are not real. The book is about Rachel’s life after getting through rehab. She has now been clean for years, and is head counselor in the same rehab center she went to. She is great at her job because she really understands the patients. But over the course of the novel, she struggles to understand herself. As in the first novel, her issues and addictions are gradually revealed. Marian Keyes doesn’t gloss over how brutal addiction is, and how it affects the entire family; she is brilliant at revealing this aspect through the patients Rachel works with. There are heavy topics discussed in this book; in addition to addiction, there is also miscarriage, anxiety, cheating on partners, and incest. The Walsh family discussions give the book its lighter moments. Rachel also struggles in her personal life with two different men - one she has been in a relationship with for two years, and Luke, the man she was married to and separated from in the first book. All the situations seem so real and honest, it is hard not to fall in love with this book.

I loved RACHEL'S HOLIDAY, so I was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with it. The pace was slow. There were a lot of characters and subplots, and I couldn't keep track of what was going on. DNF.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Again, Rachel is entertaining, humorous, emotional and at times heartwrenching. I had not read Rachel's Holiday before reading this book (though now, I will be!), so I didn't go into it knowing Rachel and Luke's history. I love Marian Keyes' writing style and how her characters are realistic and interesting. A great read!

Really touching addition to the Walsh family series.

I have been invested in the Walsh family ever since reading Watermelon oh so many years ago. This is a family of five sisters, all of whom have their issues and problems in life and relationships. This novel revisits the sister first featured in Rachel's Holiday, when Rachel went to rehab at the Cloisters due to her drug addiction. Now, it's 20 years later and Rachel is a counselor at the Cloisters. She gets news that her ex-husband Luke's mom has passed away and even though her life is settled and she has a great boyfriend, she feels the need to go and pay her respects to her former mother-in-law. Yet seeing Luke again brings up some feelings she has tried hard to put behind her, and she starts to put together that maybe she needs to get some closure on the past in order to move forward to the future.

The books in this series are heartwarming, humorous, but also meaningful and deep. I learned a huge amount about addiction recovery and how addiction can take on many forms and go through many pathways.

Although the author does a great job of tempering the more serious moments with humor, there are some heavier, sadder themes that might be a trigger for people. In this book, many forms of addiction are obviously discussed, but also there's a big section on pregnancy loss/stillbirth. I realize that this might be too difficult for some people to read about, it definitely made me tear up at times because the author conveys the depth of grief so perfectly. Everything in this book is just so real and believable.

You don't necessarily need to read these books in order to enjoy each one, but some things will be spoiled for you if you do decide to go back and read them later (and you'll want to!) So I recommend starting at the beginning and reading them in the order written.

Lovely book, highly recommended.

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Penguin Random House Canada and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

A great follow up to the previous titles with the characters.

I really loved her books about this family years ago but I could not get into this one. Rachel spent to much time talking about how she was in her 40s. It was bizarre. No one else brought it up but nearly every page she talked about her age and how she expected people to treat her because if it. It really distracted from what could have been a fun book. Unless things are very very different in Ireland, I don’t think anyone thinks that much about someone’s age or thinks people on their 40s wouldn’t be upset by a break up? It was so strange and out of touch it kept dragging me out of the book.

I didn't love Marian Keyes' last book, Grown Ups, but with Again, Rachel she returns to the familiar territory of the Walsh family and I couldn't be happier. I adored following up with Rachel and her family and seeing how far Rachel had come, or hadn't since we last saw her. Hopefully we'll get to revisit the Walsh clan again soon.

Marian Keyes has always been a favourite author of mine, I Loved Rachels holiday when I read it years ago and was so looking forward to this second instalment. I was blown away by the pure emotion this book invoked in me. It was so Raw, reading that Rachel and Luke had broken up. But the journey to the truth and the heart wrenching grief that they endured was page turning. Wow this book was everything.

This is my first book in this series but I feel there was enough back story given by the author that I could easily follow along and enjoy! I loved reading this book and seeing how far the MC has come in her life! Being in the same age category, I enjoyed the MCs experiences and appreciated the we don’t necessarily have it all together (LOL). I fully enjoyed the author’s writing style and enjoyed this book. I plan on going back to other books in this series, especially the one specific for Rachel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book! Happy publishing day!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the opportunity to read this book ahead of the publishing date. I've long been a fan of Marian Keyes' novels. In fact, I read Rachel's Holiday back when it was published in the nineties. Imagine my delight when I discovered there was to be a follow up twenty-something years later. I had to drop everything and start the ARC the second I downloaded it to my eReader.

Rachel Walsh is now in her forties and she's come a very long way from the first book when she was battling addiction and her young life was completely out of control. In Again, Rachel our leading lady is now a counsellor at the same rehab facility that saved her life all those years ago. Her clients at the facility each have their own tragic stories which add thought-provoking moments to this story.

Rachel's life is in a good spot right now. She has a job she loves, a dog she adores, a nice house, and she's managed her sobriety quite well, with gardening and new sneakers being her only addictions. Her sisters and parents continue to keep her on her toes--the Walsh Family are a delightful cast of characters who appear in a number of Keyes' books--and she's in a pretty solid relationship with a nice, successful man who treats her well. So why then can't she tell him she's in love with him? What's holding her back?

On the surface her life seems close to perfect, if a little predictable. Then one day Luke, her first love and ex-husband, returns to their hometown in Ireland for his mother's funeral. Seeing him again after many years opens old wounds, past traumas, and unresolved trust issues with each other. Rachel's steady life begins slowly unravelling the moment Luke walks back into it. Yet they've both grown immensely by being apart, and each brings fresh perspectives to the difficulties that so tragically ended their marriage.

While this all seems quite dramatic, the best thing about Marian Keyes' novels is that she knows how to perfectly mix it up with key moments of heart and hilarity. Even the most unlikable characters are given the room to grow and succeed. I could barely put this book down and was sad when it ended. I adored Rachel and Luke, and rooted hard for them throughout the story. Also, I was happy to spend time with the entire Walsh Family again. So entertaining! There's laugh out loud moments and a few tearful ones too.

I barely remembered the first book, having read it so long ago, so I don't think it matters if you haven't read it. The story catches you up completely and works well as a stand alone novel. Publishing date is April 5/22.