Book review: My Favourite Mistake

My Favourite Mistake

Marian Keyes

Penguin Random House

Review: Lauren O’Connor-May

I’m wary of hyped authors because I once spent a fortune on a heavily hyped book and was deeply disappointed. For this reason, I’ve given Marian Keyes a wide berth — until now, and I deeply regret it. Lesson learned: some authors definitely deserve the hype.

My Favourite Mistake is an Anna Walsh story. In the acknowledgements, Keyes writes that many fans have told her that Anna is their favourite Walsh. This was delightful to discover because it means there are other Walsh books —seven to be exact.

In this book, Anna is in her late forties and has weathered many tragedies. She has an amazing job, an amazing boyfriend and is living an amazing life until lockdown puts all of these in a pressure cooker.

So Anna leaves all the amazingness behind and goes back to Ireland to squat with her family until friends who own a country estate ask her to help them with a public relations problem that requires Anna’s unique set of skills. The complication? The estate’s investments are managed by Joey Armstrong, a very sexy old friend with whom Anna has a deeply complicated history.

At its roots, this is a romance with lots of family drama thrown in. What I loved though is that this is no formulaic romantic fantasy. Anna’s romance is messy, complicated and full of hurt, betrayal, sacrifice and loss. It’s a solid taste of real-life flavour while still managing to be complete escapism.

This book is hilarious, spicy and warm and has made me just another of Keyes’ many super fans. Reading it felt like reconnecting for a fun afternoon of girl talk with a good friend that you haven’t seen in a long time.