My Favourite Mistake

I have read most of Marian Keyes’ novels over the years, and I always find her writing funny, familiar and comforting (perhaps it’s time to stop reading ‘comforting’ and try something a bit more challenging soon). I know what to expect with her books, which is soothing during times of anxiety and overwhelm.

If you have read any of her books, you will be familiar with the five Walsh sisters and their lives (personal, professional, and romantic). ‘My Favourite Mistake’ follows Anna Walsh (‘Anybody Out There?’ is the first book that follows Anna. It is not necessary to read it before you read this one, but I suggest that you do) who works in beauty PR. She seemingly ‘has it all’  – a demanding but prestigious job, an apartment and a wonderful partner in New York City. Post-pandemic, Anna doesn’t really ‘want it all’ anymore. She decides to move back to Ireland and takes up a temporary job when her friends Brigit and Colm need her PR skills. They are setting up a luxury coastal retreat in a tiny coastal town in Ireland and the locals aren’t happy.

A small coastal Irish town is the perfect setting for Anna to establish her new life in the midst of negotiating middle-age, and to have a run-in with her old flame, Joey Armstrong, who she will have to work with on this project.

Keyes knows her characters well, and she writes Anna as a flawed, kind and funny person in desperate need of her HRT patches as she negotiates the perils of menopause. In having to negotiate ‘Narky Joey’, the readers are treated to his and Anna’s history, as well as Anna’s history with her former best friend Jacqui and the timeline hops between the present and Anna’s past in New York.

The story is character-driven, rather than plot-driven and I found the ‘present-day’ plot regarding Anna’s project a wee bit slow moving at times, but I did enjoy the varied cast of eclectic characters in the small town of Maumtully. There is even a little twist, that most readers will work out before it eventually ambles along. Overall I found ‘My Favourite Mistake’ enjoyable – it is my favourite kind of predictable and heart-warming.