"My Favourite Mistake" is an interesting entry in the Walsh Family series. Marian Keyes delves deep into human relationships and choices with this one. The book is a bit long, but there was much to unpack. I did enjoy this and will look for other books by Keyes..

I've been a long time Marian Keyes fan and have spent time with many of the Walsh family through her books. In this one, Anna Walsh is experiencing a bit of a life crisis: she moves back home to Ireland from New York, after leaving her job and relationship. She begins to find herself in a (very) small town and is reunited with a could-have-been-lover from her past. I liked the setting and the varied characters of Maumtully but I did find the pacing a bit slow for me in this one. I'll still look forward to more from Marian Keyes.

In My Favourite Mistake, Marian Keyes returns with another captivating story, this time revisiting Anna Walsh from Anybody Out There?. Now older, Anna is at a crossroads, leaving her glamorous New York life behind and heading back to Ireland in search of something more fulfilling. However, with a complicated past involving a best friend and a former love interest, she finds that starting over is easier said than done.

Marian Keyes has a unique ability to balance humor and heart, and My Favourite Mistake delivers both in abundance. Anna's journey is relatable and filled with Keyes' trademark wit, making readers root for her as she navigates a new job, small-town life, and the challenges of midlife. The supporting characters add richness to the story, especially the quirky locals of Maumtully, who bring humor and charm to Anna’s world.

Though the pacing feels slow at times, particularly in the middle, the novel offers a thoughtful exploration of personal growth, love, and second chances. Fans of Keyes and the Walsh family saga will enjoy this next installment, even if it doesn't quite hit the highs of earlier books in the series.

Overall: 4 stars. A heartwarming, funny read that showcases Keyes’ talent for storytelling, even if it could have been a bit shorter.

Such a great read! Highly recommend this one.

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

Marian Keyes returning to the Walsh Family? SIgn me up! I loved this book and catching up with all of the members of this boisterous, loud, and lovable Irish family. I began the series back in the 90s and have loved each installment since then. You can definitely read this book as a first introduction to the Walsh series and not feel lost. I enjoyed the new characters as well. It was a great read!! Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC!!

4,5 rounded up to five. I love Marian Keyes’ books. They’re charming, emotional, sometimes heartbreaking, and ultimately so enjoyable. The relationship between Joey and Anna in this book is hot. There is a tension throughout the whole book of will they or won’t they? But also, is this ever going to happen? Is this meant to happen? I love Anna’s large, insane, and completely loving family. I adored the village of Maumtully. This is a great read that will leave you with a fond smile on your face. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this as an ARC.

This book was so long and draggy and unfun. I used to love reading Marian Keyes books, but this one was just a huge miss for me. Too many characters to keep track of and just too much non-stop dialogue (half of which didn't make sense). I almost DNF because it was that bad.

A couple of random quotes:

He took a big breath. "Anna, you might not get this because people tend to like you. Me, I just make them uncomfortable. First I was Narky Joey, now I'm that flash fuck from Dublin, the go-boy." He looked pained.


This was a dirty little secret which was rarely spoken about: intense friendships end.
For as long as I could remember, I'd been told that men will come and men will go but your girlfriends will be there forever. It took me several more years before I understood that the bond with your best friend is like every other relationship - sometimes it goes weird and you can't stop it.


I liked this, but not loved it as much as I did part 1 about Anna, Anybody Out There? Hard to say why, the book and I just didn't click. Still, it was a pleasure reading about a Walsh sister. They've long become sort of family for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The majority of this book felt confusing and phrenetic. If you ask me, there are a few too many characters involved - it gets extremely difficult to keep everyone straight. I liked the charm of the small town, the relationship between Joey and Anna and how it developed, and the base of the story itself. There was just way too much going on around it. In the end, I was happy with how the book wrapped up, but I don’t think I will be reading more books in the Walsh Family series (per GoodReads this is #7).

Anna Walsh is done with her life in New York and decides to return to her origins in Ireland. Leaving a successful PR job in cosmetics for the unknown has its challenges. But Anna’s family and friends make life interesting (to say the least).

When Anna takes a temporary job in the small town of Maumtully to help out a friend in crisis, she is forced to deal with angry townspeople who are against the development, and her old crush Narky Joey. Threats and drama ensue, which compel Anna to stay on to see the project through and to make peace with her past with Joey Armstrong.

Marian Keyes delivers another adventurous Walsh family story with heartbreak, laughter, and quirky characters to see it through.

How refreshing it is to read a story where the main character is a perimenopausal woman navigating her love life, career, and family. Thank you to NetGalley, Doubleday, and Marian Keyes for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I give this book 3.5 stars. I received a free ebook from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. I was excited to read this book. I have heard of the author ( I haven't read any of her books). I usually really like good fiction.

The book started out really good. However, by a quarter into the book, I began to lose interest. I liked the main character. I didn't get to know her that well.

The book was too long, for me, for standard fiction. Not enough happened in the middle of the book. I got bored. I don't like to DNF, books, so I read slowly. It just wasn't for me.

Luckily, the chapters are really short. It makes the book a little better. This book didn't have me hooked. The ending was pretty predictable ( yes, I did like the ending).

I appreciate Netgalley and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I would be interested in reading another book from the author. I have heard a lot of good things about the authors books..

I loved so much of this book. It was hilarious and witty and had the most delightful banter. It took me a bit to get to all the good parts though. I was lost and distracted for a lot of the beginning of the book and felt like the story didn’t grab me. There were sections of the book I couldn’t put down and others where I had to trudge through to keep going.

This story is heartbreaking and lovely but just felt disjointed at times so it was hard to keep up with what was happening. There are a ton of characters in this book so be mindful to pay close attention & try to remember. I honestly lost a lot of the plot because so much was happening all at once. But the love story is tender and full of history and very rewarding.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

The first quarter of this book started out with so many characters, I almost got lost and gave up. I persevered and the character situation settled down and got better and there finally was a thread of a story. Anna, a PR person leaves her job in New York and goes back to Ireland to help her friends. Really what this story is about is all the people Anna interacts with in Ireland and how everything is colored by events of the past. Although the dialog was well written, I felt that this book presented in a somewhat frantically written manner. It was quite a long read. Thank you NetGalley for providing the ARC.

This was my first book by this author and the moment I finished it I downloaded the entire Walsh family series into my Kindle.
The humor in this book is frequent and made me laugh out loud, while other moments were so touching that I was moved. The cast of characters made this book so enjoyable and I wanted to learn more about them. I wanted to live in this town and go on these adventures. I love her style of writing and I can’t wait to read more.

When I heard that Marian Keyes had another book coming out, I kept my fingers crossed that it would be about the Walsh sisters again. And I was so excited to learn that it was, in fact, going to be about Anna. Anna was in New York during Again, Rachel and I missed her in that book. I loved Anyone Out There when I read it back in 2006< and I was so glad to revisit with Anna.

My Favorite Mistake is delightful and Anna is so relatable. I think it's mainly because we're close in age, but I also connect with her awkwardness. The town reminded me of Schitt's Creek in some ways. I love how everyone just knew each other and the characters were all so quirky. There was even a mystery to solve. I also love that the rest of the Walsh clan was featured a lot. They're such a hilarious group together.

You don't need to read Anyone Out There to know what is happening, but there are spoilers for that novel and it is worth reading to get to know Anna in the past. And if you haven't read anything by Marian Keyes yet, what are you waiting for?!? She's legendary in the rom com genre!

Movie casting suggestions (some are from Again, Rachel):
Anna: Anna Friel
Joey: Sam Worthington
Courtney: Karen Gillan
Ike: Dougray Scott
Helen: Zoe Tapper
Rachel: Melanie Lynskey
Claire: Saffron Burrows
Margaret: Emily Mortimer
Mrs. Walsh: Annette Badland
Jacqui (past): Jessica Brown Findlay

It’s been so long since I have read anything by Marian Keyes. I was so excited to receive this galley. Her stories are so nostalgic and very feel good

This novel is about Anna, an Irish woman in her late 40s who has lived in NYC for many years but decides to quit her high powered PR job there and move back to Ireland to be closer to her parents and four sisters. I don’t think a plot description of this one can really capture what this book is about though, because it really has everything - family and friendship drama, romance, humor, emotions, small town quirkiness, mystery, and something I’m going to call “coming of middle age” (basically self-discovery and reinvention during perimenopause instead of youth) - and I loved every minute of it.

I have read all 15 of Marian Keyes’ previous novels, including all 6 previous books in the Walsh Sisters series of which this is the 7th, though you actually could read this as a standalone. But having read the previous books in the series, I think this really just even more made a book like this feel like the ultimate comfort read. The first 5 books in the series were written from the early 2000s through 2012, with each following one of the sisters when they’re in their 20s or early 30s. Then after a long break, two years ago Marian Keyes returned to the series with Again, Rachel, and now the characters are older. So it’s both a chance to enjoy being back with these wonderful and funny characters, but also to see them having gotten older just like I have since I first read them. And call me crazy, but decades into her writing career, I think this one and her last book are her best yet! I could not put this book down, and I literally read the last few chapters with tears in my eyes the whole time.

4.25 stars

Marian Keyes used to be my go-to author for chick lit and the Walsh family going ons was one of my favorite story arcs. I'm happy to say, decades later, that still holds true. So funny and heartwarming, I love Anna Walsh's family of assholes, I love Joey Armstrong and his many, many children, Courtney and Ben, and the endless cast of odd characters. This is a winner.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book had an interesting story and characters, but it was slow at times. I didn’t realize this was part of a series and probably would have enjoyed it more if I had read the previous books.

It was a pleasure to return to the Walsh family with Keyes' My Favourite Mistake.

Between her beauty company PR job, good boyfriend and nice house, Anna appears to have it all... that is, until, she realizes how unhappy she is. Seeking a fresh start, Anna returns home to Ireland and, after experiencing a culture shock, finds herself settling back into the eccentric and cozy town of her youth. With this settling comes Joey, a coworker with whom Anna shares a complicated past: will this be an opportunity for a second chance romance, friendship, or neither? Anna's story will surely resonate with women everywhere.

Keyes has a unique dark humor that she entwines with a lot of heart, creating an original style I've loved since Watermelon. Anna's story, as most of Keyes', is a slow burn that allows you to truly appreciate the characters and the journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.