I listened to the audio of this, read by Marian Keyes herself, and it was such a treat to be back with the Walsh family - I want to be all of them and be part of their big exuberant family. In 'My Favourite Mistake', Anna Walsh is leaving New York, suddenly exhausted by everything. She goes back to her family, having given up her relationship, her job and her apartment.
She's offered a job helping old family friends with their luxury development. They're midway through developments and the local tide has turned against them. Anna's employed as a trouble-shooter for a week. She moves to a tiny town near Galway where she sets about finding out why people are unhappy with the building. She makes friends, flirtations and more, ignoring the fact that Joey Armstrong, long-term lothario and ladies' man, is one of the people heading up the development.
As the days pass, Anna becomes more enmeshed in M-town's goings on, and when Joey comes to town, she's professional and courteous.

There are so many delicious scenes in the book, its pure Marian Keyes pleasure and I cant wait for the next installment.

Fans of the Walsh sisters will adore this book, as the chaotic family return in almost full force here (Daddy Walsh, you are sorely missed.)

There are, however, an insane amount of characters to keep track of in this book. At more than one instance, it's hard to keep track of who's who.

I really appreciated the depiction of women undergoing HRT as they approach menopause, as it's something I've not read a lot about. Seeing that representation is likely of huge importance to those also going through the same situation.

It was also good to see a representation of a friendship turning sour and breaking down. This is hugely common for so many people, and it was so relatable to read.

Thanks to Netgalley for my early copy of this book. It was a good read, picking up Anna’s storyline years later. Fans of Marion will enjoy it.

It's been quite a while since I last read a Marian Keyes novel, and possibly even longer since I last caught up with my favourite Irish family the Walshes.

So I was utterly delighted to be able to delve back into the Walsh Family, and seeing just what Anna is up to now.

Of course we get to see the latest in the lives of all of the sisters, which is a pleasure for all fans of the series.

And once Anna is back in Ireland, well it all started to feel rather like coming home for this reader too.

I loved Anna's new work situation, and getting to see flashbacks to all of her encounters with a certain Joe over the years, as well as her best friend Jacki was really great to see.

This was a highly enjoyable instalment in the lives of the Walsh family, with them all being much older and wiser than before. It's a joy to see these characters mature but still keep all of their traditional character traits.

Put simply I love this book.

Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

"My Favourite Mistake" by Marian Keyes is a heartwarming and witty novel that captures the essence of love, regret, and the unpredictable journey of life. Keyes’ trademark humor and sharp insight into human relationships shine through in this engaging story. The characters are vividly drawn, with their flaws and quirks making them all the more relatable. As the protagonist navigates the consequences of past decisions, the novel beautifully explores the idea that sometimes our biggest mistakes can lead to the most unexpected and wonderful outcomes. With a perfect balance of laughter, tears, and genuine emotion, "My Favourite Mistake" is a delightful read that reminds us all that life’s imperfections often lead to its greatest joys. Marian Keyes delivers yet another compelling and uplifting story that will resonate with readers long after the final page is turned.

Lovely to be back in this world with familiar characters and catching up with them and finding out what they have been up to. Even though this is part of a series it can be read as a stand alone.

A welcome return to the world of the Walsh family - Anna has been in New York for many years and has returned to the fold of the family 'back home' in Ireland.

There is absolutely no doubt that this author writes well. The story - although a follow in book in a series stands well alone. I did enjoy it but wished I had read the others first.

Even though I've read one other Marian Keyes book in the past, I wasn't aware that this was part of a series. But I don't think you necessarily have to have read the previous book to enjoy this one.
I really liked the main character and seeing her go from what would be a dream job and life to many, to being back at home with her family.
I did enjoy the overall story, however, it did feel overly long.
It can always be quite difficult to tell when it comes to a Kindle edition but this was unexpectedly long and easily one of the longest books that I've read in a while.
And because of this, it did feel like it was dragging on quite a bit at times, as I was keen to wrap it up and move onto something else.
But I really enjoyed the way this was written and the warmth and relatability of Marian's stories.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Now you can't go wrong with a Marian keyes can you? And this one was just absolutely fantastic, I just didn't want to put it down!

Anna has a life to envy. An apartment in New York. A well-meaning (too well-meaning?) partner. And a high-flying job in beauty PR. Who wouldn't want all that? Anna—it turns out.

And just like that in the turn of a page we are back with the Walsh family. Reading Marian Keyes is like catching up with a close cousin. The characters are so familiar but also mad, so loving but so critical.
Makes you laugh, cry and think.

I feckin loved ‘My Favourite Mistake’! Loved it! It takes a phenomenally talented writer to capture the hearts, and minds, of readers consistently for almost 30 years. And it takes a special kind of person to have readers rooting for everything that she does to be a huge success. Marian Keyes is a superstar. I've been happily worshipping at the altar of her stories since my 20s. I grew up with her characters and find it extremely heartening, and satisfying, that Marian is still producing work which feels fresh, relevant and (perhaps most importantly) relatable to me and my peers. It's a pleasure of immeasurable proportion to be able to revisit the Walsh family and find out that they've grown up alongside me. It's a comfort, and a joy, to delve into their family dynamic again. I found the book especially exceptional on midlife and menopause. Marian has her finger firmly on the pulse and is nothing if not honest and real. I cannot recommend her work highly enough and I hope to see more from the Walshes in the near future.

#MyFavouriteMistake #NetGalley I like this author but did not realise when I requested this book that it was part of a series about the Walsh family. I don't think it mattered because there was enough background information to tell me about things that had happened in the past. It was a good read involving family relationships. It was a long book and although a little slow to get going , I still enjoyed the story telling. The ending was predictable but did not detract from my enjoyment of the book. I will certainly look out for more from this author.

I can't lie, this was unexpected...
I'm a fan of Marian Keyes, although I've not read them all.
I found this to be a little slow, so I put it down to not being as familiar with the Walsh family characters. It felt very long at times, and quite a lot of filler.
Anna's story focuses on the menopause, which I think is fantastic of Keyes to tackle. There are so many symptoms people don't know about and she portrays them superbly.
I am going to try this on audio as I want to love it.

An absolute corker of a read. To be back in the bosom of the Walsh family is a feeling to behold. Full to the brim of laughter and Irish charm. I loved this book and struggled to put it down, it made me want to go back and read all of the Walsh family books again (not that you need to have read of them to enjoy this).
Grand read!

Thank you Netgalley

Marian Keyes is an instant-buy author for me! Warm, witty and brilliantly observed, I found this impossible to put down. The perfect summer read!

It is always a treat to start a new Marian Keyes and this one did not disappoint. It was a pleasure to catch up with the Walsh family again, with the focus this time on Anna, who was also the protagonist of Keyes' 2006 novel "Anybody Out There", which dealt with the aftermath of her husband's death in a believable, touching and yet still humorous way. Here we explore the differences between life in New York, the base of Anna's successful career in beauty, and small-town Ireland, whither she flees while undergoing a minor midlife crisis. Keyes has a cracking ear for dialogue and creates a fully rounded cast of characters in a believable setting, meaning you feel compelled to keep reading and then are disappointed when the book ends.

I absolutely devoured this newest novel by Marian Keyes! The main character is going through a midlife crisis and ends up moving from New York where she seemingly has everything going for her over to a small town in Ireland, to help her friends. She ends up reconnecting with an old flame, and who knows what that might lead to…

I thank NetGalley and Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House UK) for providing me with an ARC copy of this book, which I freely chose to review.
I’m not a big follower of Marian Keyes. I’ve only ever read one of her novels previously, not long ago, and was curious to check another, but when I started reading this one, I didn’t realise it was book number 8 in The Walsh Family series. Not that it matters, though. I can reassure readers that one doesn’t need to have read the rest of the books to be able to follow and enjoy the adventures of Anna Walsh, the main character in this one. (I wondered if the opposite might be true, because there is a lot of information readers gather about the character’s life while reading this lengthy novel, and I wasn’t sure if people who had read the rest reasonably recently might not be a bit put off by being reminded of a lot of what they already know. But, of course, I might be wrong and it might be that some of it is new to all readers, and I imagine that people who’ve read the previous stories some time ago will be grateful for the reminder).
In brief, the Walshs are an Irish family with five daughters and their widowed mother, and each one of the first five books covered the life and circumstances of one of the sisters when they were in their late 20s. Book 6 seems to be a guide to the family penned by the mother, firmly tongue-in-cheek, book 7 revisits one of the sisters 25 years later, and this novel does something similar with another one. Anna, who has been living in New York and works as a successful PR for the beauty industry, shortly after COVID suffers something akin to a mid-life crisis. She decides she cannot cope with the stress of her job anymore, her age and her pre-menopausal symptoms are taking a toll, and following what she feels is a sign from the long-ago dead husband, she leaves her job (in theory for a year with the possibility of going back) and New York (renting out, not selling, her apartment) and goes back to Ireland. There, she discovers that life can be complicated when you are trying to reinvent yourself in your very late forties in a new(old) country, and fitting back into her large family and renewing her old friendships can prove challenging as well. Then, she gets offered a temporary job in a small coastal town, helping some friends of the family who are going through a health crisis, and she is put to the test in more ways than one.
The book is narrated in the first person, which might be an issue for some readers. It also relies on people liking (or at least enjoying) the character’s way of expressing herself. I found her amusing, to begin with. I do enjoy books with older female protagonists, and Anna has a funny turn of phrase and is quite witty. She has no children, is self-deprecating, and although she tries to remain positive, she has a penchant for paranoia and for being suspicious (often rightly so) about other people’s motives and intentions. There is a fair amount of baggage she carries with her, and we soon discover there was something that happened with one of the people she is forced to work with now (although we don’t find out what that thing was until very late) which puts a spanner in the works. And some bridges need to be rebuilt with her best friend.
The book deals with quite a variety of topics: bereavement, regret, love, guilt, friendship, family relationships, growing up, biological clocks, getting old (there is much talk about menopause), old families, new families, and new models of families, traditional life versus modern life, art, fame, the price to pay for developing tourism in small places, moving back home later in life and adapting to life at a different pace (from New York to rural Ireland), and what does it take to forgive, be forgiven, and give somebody a second chance, to name only some.
I’ve already said that this is a long book, and not all the topics are given equal weight. Anna’s whole family descends on the town where she’s working (Maumtully) a few times and they’re a force of nature, but although amusing, there isn’t enough time given to each one of them for those who haven’t read the other books to know them well. (I guess the answer might be reading the rest of the books). There is a bit of a mystery surrounding the development being built, as there has been damage done to it, but I found this part of the story disappointing and there were no big surprises or reveals to keep the story moving. There was much more emphasis placed on the will-they/won’t-they part of the story between Anna and Joey, an almost old flame, but I personally found it dragged on a fair bit, and I was more interested in some of the other characters from the town who played a smaller part, and in the relationship with her best friend, Jacqui. I didn’t find it too confusing, but people who enjoy a story being told in strict chronological order will be disappointed here, because, although the present is told in the right order, Anna keeps remembering things that happened before, and those memories can go back and forth sometimes, from the time she first met somebody, to her school days, to living in New York, back to Ireland... Eventually, we get a pretty full picture, but it is not straightforward.
Oh, and for those who mind (and I do as well), there was some erotic content in the book. Most of it is not too explicit (or rather, mostly deals with the erotic powers of imagination), and some readers will think it was more than due, but I wouldn’t have missed it if it wasn’t there. Quite the opposite. (But I know that is me).
The ending is as it would be expected in a book that could be defined as an adult coming of older age story or a second chance romance or both. So, I imagine fans of the series will be happy with it. I wasn’t surprised.
For me, the book could have been shorter without losing much of what I enjoyed about it, but people who’ve been following the series might feel different.
If you are a fan of Marian Keyes, you should give it a go, especially if you have read and enjoyed other books in the series. If not... Well, you can check a sample and see if it suits you.

I love all of Marian Keyes' books and this is the 3rd I've read in the Walsh series. This one follows Anna Walsh as she comes home to Ireland after many years, newly single and unemployed, she sets out to rebuild her life while also rekindling relationships and resolving past conflicts. All of the other Walsh family members make their appearance, irreverent and hilarious. The story contains humor, drama and romance as wel as a few unexpected plot twists. Another great read and I can't wait to see what's next for the Walshes.