Loved this book. Great characters, easy read, uplifting, funny, romantic and charming. A really nice story that is the perfect escapist read.

I found this a bit hard to follow at the start but loved it once I got into it. Well written & amazing characters. It deserves a sequel.

This book.

As I said on Twitter

I eked it out so much that, frankly, I deserve a PhD in eking.

Marian never disappoints, but this kept me rapt from the first page to the last. A superb cast of characters and a brilliant storyline (plus the best cover illustration). Can't recommend highly enough

The 3 Casey brothers have never quite lived up to their fathers expectations, and are still trying to make him proud of them, whatever it takes. Johnny, the eldest is married to Jessie, a business woman who is driven to do better at everything. They are the ones with money, which they spend at a frightening rate, but mainly on the family and their business. Jessie had a hard childhood, so is using her money to give her extended family the best of everything. Ed is married to Cara who has self esteem problems. And Liam is newly married to the younger Nell, a free spirit. As with every family what you see on the outside is never what they are really like. Throw in lots of children too, and it’s not long before the cracks appear.

This is my first Marian Keys book. It’s well written, as I expected, and a nice family study. The characters are well developed and written, but I didn’t warm to them very much, other than Nell. I enjoyed this book, and will look out her work in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Grown Ups, Marian Keyes

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Women's fiction, General fiction (adult)

Sigh.....women's fiction – just why? Why alienate potential readers, men read and write romance too.

Well. Marion Keyes, an author whose work I usually love. I went onto this expecting to be engrossed in a family saga. Well, family saga it is but there were so many characters, that it got confusing, I had to keep flipping back well into the story to see who was who and how they fitted in.
Its a well written story once you have it clear who is who and how they relate to the others but.... a huge failing for me was that the more I read the less I liked the characters. I did like Nell til further in when I just was rolling my eyes at her behaviour, and the more I read the less I liked everyone else. I guess Jessie, the one I probably liked least to begin became the only one I really liked. I felt she was trying, even if too hard and her actions were OTT, at least she meant well, whereas the rest seemed to display some horrible self centred traits. Sadly for me that made the story a fail – I can see its a five star perfect read for others, and that's how it goes with stories, some you love and some...you just don't. I'll be back when the next MK book is out, I'm sure this is just a glitch for me with her work.

Stars: Two, I really struggled with this, well written but ultimately I just didn't care about the characters enough to enjoy the story.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

Grown Ups
Author:Marian Keyes
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Publication Date 6/2/2020

I love Marian Keyes novels and have read them all. This was a sparkling family tale, at times hilarious and at others a sad, but realistic, reflection on modern times and problems. I loved the characters and their relationships. An Interwoven plot strand on the plight of refugees and their place in Ireland was extremely interesting and powerful . I hope the Casey family appear again in future novels.
Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for providing me with this advance digital copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Absolutely, totally amazing.

A character led book which is utterly mesmerising - one I will definitely read again. Full of heart and humour and pain - Keyes has definitely gone back to her best style. Blown away.

“Grown Ups” is the latest book by Irish literary Queen, Marian Keyes. The Casey family seem to have it all; wealth, status and good looks; and self-appointed head of the family, Jessie, works hard to make sure the family spend time all together and spends a fortune so that time is spent in the nicest of places. She likes everything to be perfect but scratch beneath the surface of this “perfect” family and a very different story emerges.

Wow! Every time I start a new Marian Keyes I worry that it won’t be as good as the old faithfuls that I love but every single time she manages to write another book that ticks all the right boxes for me.

I adore Keyes’ characterisation. The Casey family are all quite complex characters and very relatable despite their wealth. I love the dynamics within each couple and also between the different family members. The core focus of the book is on the three Casey brothers and their wives, which does mean some characters aren’t explored as much as I would have liked but the book was fairly lengthy and would have had to be much longer to explore the other characters further. I would have liked a bit more about Canice and Rose Casey in particular; the frightening parents of the Casey brothers. The emotional abuse is mainly hinted at and only briefly shown but I would have liked to see more about this. Also maybe more about Jessie’s younger days, again there are hints around this and why she is the way she is but would have liked to have seen more. I do feel that is the beauty of Keyes’ books though, she always leaves me wanting more. I’m always left wondering what happens next for her characters, maybe there will be another book about the Casey family at some point. Who knows.

Most of the characters have something going on in their life that they are hiding from the others. As always, Keyes deals with some serious and very topical issues with sensitivity and realism. In this book alone she deals with bulimia and body dysmorphia, the problems faced by refugees in Ireland, gaslighting, depression and emotionally abusive parents.

Keyes’ writing is as exquisite as ever with moments of laugh out loud hilarity and absolute sadness all jumbled together. The style of this one may not suit everyone but I thought it worked really well. We start almost at the end of the story and then we jump back several months and work our way forward until we get back to where we started and then continue on with the fallout from the events at Johnny’s birthday. It means you have a hint all the way through that things aren’t quite what they seem and you then watch as everything starts to unravel.

I was absolutely gripped by this from start to finish, I’m holding Keyes fully responsible for my lack of sleep the last few days as I just couldn’t stop reading! I’d love to know where her ideas come from and this book is an absolute gem, yet again, I can’t praise it enough.

Marian Keyes is the purest of cinnamon rolls and just generally a delight and I never want to say anything even remotely critical about her work. But. But. I do think her latest offering, Grown Ups, could have benefitted from some pruning and editing. It’s classic Marian, which many will love- a rich, sprawling story of an extended Irish family and their various vices and failings. Eating disorders, money problems, infidelities, minor scandals, marital woes, secrets and lies.

And herein lies the difficulty- it is perhaps too sprawling. There are gazillions of characters. The Casey family at the heart of the story encompasses three brothers and their wives, ex-wives, multiple children some from previous relationships, cousins, colleagues and so on. I found it cluttered to the point of distraction- really I wanted more focus on the three main women and their struggles, which are when Marian is at her best. She’s a genius at creating interesting, relatable characters but this one felt like too much dilution. Too much of everything, in fact. I ended up not caring very much about any of them (except possibly Nell-I liked Nell) and found myself skimming through the pages looking for something to hold my interest in fully in the midst of the crowd. It didn’t ring as true for me as The Break or tug at my heart like Rachel’s Holiday or Is Anyone Out There and I found myself longing for Helen Walsh to arrive and help cut through the waffle.

That said, it’s still a fun and sometimes funny read. I’d definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys long family sagas and it’s the sort of thing that is perfect for a non-taxing holiday read.

I adore Marian Keyes - she's been a firm favourite since I read her fist book more then twenty years ago - so I was particularly thrilled to be approved to read an early copy of Grown Ups.

Given my high expectations, I'm delighted to confirm the book didn't disappoint. Written with Marian's characteristic charm, warmth, and humour I couldn't put it down. A hard copy has been pre-ordered for my keepers' shelf.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

A funny heart warming story. I found it a bit hard to follow the switch between the time periods and there were a little too many characters for my liking but I still enjoyed the book!

I loved this. Once again Marian Keyes has delivered characters that you completely fall in love with. 100% recommended!

This is the story of the Casey brothers, Johnny, Ed and Liam and their wives and families. Their parents as we learn later in the book, are cold and verbally cruel so it’s the biggest wonder they are able to function at all. It shines a spotlight on family secrets and grudges that are hidden for the sake of family and appearances. The secrets come spilling out at a family dinner party at the beginning of the book then it backtracks to where it all blurted out. There are some serious moments and some funny moments as you would expect from Marion Keyes.

I very much like that the children in the story are actually more grown up than the grown ups especially Liam who is beyond selfish. The standout child for me is Bridey who I think is hilarious and I love that she puts the adults in their place from time to time. A lot of the characters are very likeable, especially Nell who is Liam’s wife who the whole family love. The author is very good at creating good characters with witty repartee. The book does have some funny moments but it also features some very serious issues. Cara, Eds wife binges and is bulimic which she tries to hide with limited success. I think this part of the story is very well done. There are two characters that Nell introduces to the family who are asylum seekers from Syria. This is very thought provoking as Perla is Christian and a doctor so she challenges stereotypes. It also gives you a lot to think about in terms of what asylum seekers are and aren’t allowed to do in Ireland and it may very well be the same in the UK.

Whilst there is a lot I like about this book there are an awful lot of characters to get your head around and it took me a good while to sort everyone out. I also think it takes the story a while to really get going but once it does you see the point that Marion Keyes is making. The adults are not very grown up, they need to face reality and face their varying truths. The children are actually more grown up than they are. The end is good as Cara unwittingly forces them all to stop messing up their lives and embrace their problems and move on.

Overall, a bit of an uneven read at times but it has a good message and I did enjoy it.

A good book, but not my favourite book by Marian Keyes. As other reviewers have said, there are a lot of characters to keep up with, that and the fact you start with a family gathering, then go back in time, going to key events leading up to the family gathering. Some tough issues were dealt with, and sensitively so. What was missing for me was the usual humour you get in Marian's novels. Perhaps she's trying something new. I really liked Jessie, Johnny, Ed, Cara, Nell, and all the kids. I did not like the third brother, Liam. He wasn't given any redeeming features either. The ending was realistic and I found it to be satisfying. I did enjoy it, it kept my attention, but I would have liked more humour.

I’m going to be honest and state I didn’t actually read this, my wife wouldn’t let me, we had the pleasure of attending a talk the author gave at a literary festival a couple of years ago and she is a delight, my wife read this book and I quote “ it’s one of her best”
I’m not going to argue with my wife!

I usually love Marian Keyes books but this one had so many characters that I got confused and couldn't keep up with them all

I am a big fan of Marian Keyes books and was delighted to receive a copy of her new book Grown Ups.
This is a story of three brothers and their families. There are a lot of characters to remember and it took me a while to sort out where they fit within the family. Unfortunately I did not engage with any of the characters and sadly missed the humour that I usually find in Marian's books.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin UK - Michael Joseph for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Marian Keyes is my favourite author, I adore her books so I was delighted to receive an arc for review.
I love her characterisation, the Caseys could well be the new Walsh family! There were a lot of characters introduced but you soon get the hang of who is who and I loved finding out about their lives. This is a story of ordinary people and how they deal with whatever life has to throw at them. I would love a sequel, in fact a series, featuring the Caseys so we could get to know them all even better.
Reading a Marian Keyes book is just the best thing ever, there is always a lot of humour and I just love the Irish setting and characters. This is quite a long book so cancel all your plans and settle down to enjoy.

I always love Marian Keyes, she makes me laugh but think so deeply about how people act and think.
Three brothers Johnny, Ed and Liam are close despite their parents. It is Johny's wife Jessie who glues the three families together, she has the money, she wants this to happen.

Over a year we see the unravelling of this situation, not the bonds but the reasons why people act and do what they do as the adults of the story begin to grow up.

I have read a couple of Marian Keyes’s previous books- I particularly enjoyed The Break- so I was excited to receive this new one via NetGalley.
I started reading and although I was expecting to really enjoy it I just could not get into it. There were many characters and even after I’d managed to work out who they all were and the story of the weekend away in a posh hotel had started, I just did not warm to any of them. I got about a quarter of the way through and I realised I was not going to finish it. I really had to force myself to pick up the book which was quite telling. There was none of the humour which I was expecting after reading the earlier novels and I sorely missed it!
I think that some judicious editing is required as in my opinion the book did not seem to be heading anywhere.
However this is just my own view and I am sure many readers will thoroughly enjoy the novel when it is published.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my arc in exchange for an honest review.