For the first, say, five percent of this book I was a little unsure. It's a lot of characters thrown at the reader very quickly and it's a little tricky initially to connect and keep everyone straight (marketing, if you are reading this, I would genuinely discuss the possibility of including a family tree in the prelims with the editor). BUT! You have to push past this initial sense of feeling overwhelmed, because this book will drawn you in and claim your heart. All of the brilliance of Marian Keyes is completely on display here - her warmth and emotional intelligence, her ability to draw both sympathetic and unsympathetic characters in a believable and sensitive way, her humour, her wisdom and empathy. I read this book in a day because there was nothing I wanted to do more than sink into it. Yes, it's long, but I wouldn't cut any of it. Yes, there are lots of characters, but I wouldn't take any of them out. This book let me enjoy the pure pleasure that the best reading experiences give you; when you want nothing so much as to be in the book's world and the company of the characters and you're genuinely sad to reach the end because you don't want to say goodbye. Also, as all Marian's writing does, it made me wish I was Irish. Or at least that I had extended family in Ireland.

Grown Ups by Marian Keyes is a novel about the lives of three brothers, their wives and children and how things unravel for them.