Customer Reviews

Rachel's Holiday

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has been purchased and given away to 12 different friends. I recommend it to anyone that has seen the addictive personality up close and have had addiction professionals use it as a fun guide to recovery. I love all of Marion Keyes books, but this one and Last Chance Saloon are my favorite rereads. I haunt the bookstores waiting for every new book to hit the shelves and share my joy with my reading girlfriends. Thanks for the joy!

My sister gave me this book and I'm thrilled that she did. I'd never read any of her books before and was so impressed .I'm a fan!!

This is my second Marian Keyes book and it is excellent. Rachel is a member of the Walsh family and she is an alcoholic. It is a funny, sad, brave and reflective story. Marian deals with the subject sensitively. This is definitely not a girlie book about shopping and fancy cocktails. It is a book to make you think, but there are also some serious laugh out loud moments too.

This is the first Marian Keyes book that i have read. It is funny, easy to read but has depth. I will be definitely seeking out more books by this author.

At first I didn't think I'd finish this book. Rachel comes across right off the get-go as spoiled, annoying, silly, and leading a pointless lifestyle (hence the 4 stars, rather than 5.) I'm glad I hung in there long enough to figure out that this is a story of a serious, and seriously un-aware, drug addict and her journey to recovery.

Altthough this book has the de rigeur "happy ending," it is really about so much more than that. The author's description of some of the factors that contribute to the heroine's drug use and dependency are chillingly realistic; and much more common, I suspect, than is comfortably acknowleged. As a parent, and now a grand-parent, I'll be thinking about this book for quite some time, I think.

This book is better than the initial product description and review would have you think. On re-reading those, I'm not quite sure why I made the decision to buy this book in the first place. Now, I'm glad I did; and I'd highly recommend this book to others.

I am a big Marian Keyes fan and have to say that I really enjoyed this book - the 2nd time round. I did try to read it a number of years ago but just couldn't get into it. Maybe this says more about me than it does about the book.

Rachel's Holiday is primarily set in The Cloisters, a rehab facility in Ireland and follows Rachel's journey as she faces up to her addiction to drugs. It cleverly goes backwards and forwards between the present time and the events leading up to Rachel being admitted to The Cloisters. As always there is a love interest or two lurking in the form of Luke, the ex boyfriend who remained in New York after Rachel was shipped back to Ireland and Chris, who is also a resident in The Cloisters.

For anyone who has read other Marian Keyes books, Rachel is the middle of the Walsh children who have featured in other of her novels and there are plenty of laughs provided by characters who you'll have met before.

Although Marian Keyes says this book is not autobiographical, she has obviously drawn on her experience in rehab facilities and managed to write about a serious subject in a humorous and entertaining manner.

If I'd enjoyed it as much the first time I read it as I did the 2nd then I would have given this 5 stars.

Marian Keyes does a great job with all of her Walsh family books, each one is so individual and stands up as its own book without relying on the others. They are not formulaic and do not rely on repetitive plot lines like some other authors that write series books. (Side-eye to Janet Evanovich and Diane Mott Davidson!) I enjoyed the journey that Rachel took in this book and the story of her self-discovery, and I can't wait until Helen has a book!

My first Marian Keyes read so was not sure what to expect. Have heard all the hype and this author definitely lives up to her name. She has a way of making you feel as if you are really living in that world. I was longing for the story to continue and continue and was dreading that last page. A great read that will have you dying to find out what happens in the end but then wishing it never ended.

Clever, witty and so "laugh out loud" it isn't funny. Her best book yet. There's particular humour in Rachel's self-deprecation and also in her relationships with the members of her quirky family.

I am a great fan of Ms.Keyes, shamefully admitting to paying extraordinary amounts of money to get my hands on some of her more obscure books, published in UK and Ireland (now available to us in Canada as well - such as life...). Rachel's Holiday is my absolute favorite book of hers, so fabulosly and skillfully writen that you live through every one of the agony of the character as if is your own, while laughing at it and thinking how much better life is when not taken so seriously. I read that book at least 4 times, and it's always by my bed - if I feel particularly depressed in the morning, that's my choice of read to get me out of the bed. I hope for many more like that from Ms. Keyes.
A MUST READ !!!!!!!!!!!