Friday, October 31, 2008

The Charming Man by Marian Keyes



This story revolves around 4 main characters: Grace Gildee, Lola Daly, Marnie Hunter, and Paddy de Courcy. The three girls all have some kind of history with Paddy.


Marnie is currently married with two children. She used to date Paddy when she was in highschool and college. Has she ever really gotten over him? There's more to say about Marnie, but since everything isn't clear at the beginning, I don't want to say anything and ruin it.


Lola was dating Paddy when she got word that he was engaged to Alicia Thornton. This is all news to Lola because, well, she is (or should I say was?) dating Paddy when the story broke. Lola doesn't take it very well. She ends up stalking Paddy and is a mess. Things are so bad that she has to put her stylist career in the hands of her helper and take time off. She goes to a small town about 3.5 hours away. There she begins to make friends with those in the town and also holds "girl" night for some cross-dressers on Fridays.


Grace is Marnie's twin sister. Grace is currently a journalist and has seen what happened to her sister when Paddy dumped her. Things are going well for Grace, when she is thrown back into Paddy's life. Then things start to unravel.


I wish I could say more…but am really afraid to give away parts of the story. I don't want to say too much.


Overall how did I like it? I loved it! I was captivated by this story. It took me about 80 pages or so to really get into it, but once I did, there was no turning back. I'll tell you why I didn't get into it right away too. The story is told from the view point of these three girls (and sometimes 1 other). The writing for the first girl, Lola, bothered me at first. It was more like a diary entry than a book. I was put off at first because I couldn't believe editors didn't pick up on things. The sentences seemed broken, etc. Things like that. It wasn't until the book changed to be from Grace's point of view that I realized the writing was done like that on purpose. Once I realized that, it read much better. I can totally see how the writing fit with Lola's character too. I loved how everything came together in this book. I loved the ending too, it was great. This is definitely a book I would recommend to others. In fact, I wanted to know how it would end so bad…I did lots of sneak-reading at work today. Shh….




Have you reviewed this book on your blog? If so let me know and I'll link it below

Also reviewed by:

Ladytink




(new author.fiction.563pg)

8 comments:

Lisa said...

I have this one on my wishlist. Thanks for the heads up about the writing style for the beginning.

Unknown said...

Lisa - you're welcome! You'll have to let me know once you have read it and what your thoughts are!

Anonymous said...

Your review of "The Charming Man by Marian Keyes"
is interesting. I "ll read the book after I finished reading "The other side of the story" by Marian keyes.

Unknown said...

sarahjp - Look forward to your review! Hope you enjoy it!

Ladytink_534 said...

I read this recently. It was my first Marian Keyes.

Unknown said...

Ladytink - did you review it on your blog? I didn't find it if you did. If so, could you send me the URL so I can link it in my review.

Ladytink_534 said...

Lol, told you I was behind on my reviews! I just got my post of This Charming Man up today.

Unknown said...

LadyTink - haha! That's ok, at least you got the review up and remembered to send me the link!
Thanks!