Rachel's Holiday: The heartwarming, laugh-out-loud bestseller of love and sisterhood - Now a major BBC TV series THE WALSH SISTERS (Walsh Family, 2)

I have read and re-read this amazing book so many times and never tire of it. Twenty seven year old Rachel is an addict living in denial. It is only after an accidental overdose that sbe is sent off to The Cloisters, a rehabilitation clinic where after her "holiday", she finally realises the extent of her problem and turns her life around.I love this book. Marian is such a wonderful writer and has the ability to evoke so many emotions in her writing. Rachel as the main character, confronts her demons and hard as they are, she overcomes to reclaim her life. I especially love the love story between Luke and Rachel. She treats him terribly at the beginning of the relationship; her ego is both at its most fragile and she is such a flaky character initially. However, true love prevails and the ending of the book is just beautiful.This book details life in the treatment centre with a host of lovely, wonderful, lively characters. The writing is just breathtaking. Marian is so talented in blending humour with sometimes dark themes; in this case drug abuse, alcoholism, and recovery. I adore this book . It was my first Keyes novel but will not be my last. Outstanding. If you have never read any Marian Keyes, this would be an excellent place to start. She is just fantastic.

When I started this book I really believed Rachel wasn't an addict and it was all a big mistake because of her scribbled "suicide" note, how wrong I was.A hysterically funny book which also gave insight into how addicts minds work. For example Rachel feels she has absolutely nothing wrong with her and shouldn't be in rehab, and blames everyone else for her predicament.It was so interesting when the characters were in 'group', listening to what had went wrong in their lives and the counsellor Josephine's ability to make them face up to their problems.It was very touching and you realy felt for the characters and their families. When Rachel's boyfriend Luke and her best friend Brigit appear to give their version of Rachel's behaviour she flips and you realise that as an addict she believes they are there out of spite and are sleeping together.As the story progresses and u read more about Rachel's addiction (stealing money, cocaine and alcohol) you finally realise she has a problem and needs help....tho it seems impossible as she is in such denial.I was quite amazed at the amount of research that went into this book and it showed in every page, I must have read this book about 5 times now!!Also the end is very realistic, Racel doesn't come out of rehab and instantly her life is better....there are still a few problems she needs to address. A thrilling book, so insightful.

I cannot tell how much I enjoyed this book, I have forced many people to read it as a self - help book as it makes a lot of sense and says all the right things, the main character "Rachel" is the best of all Keyes books, perhapes that is because there is a lot of Marian's own experience written into the story, it made me laugh and it made me think about how completely unaware we can all be about what we are doing and the consequences of our own actions, I read this book in 2 days, it would have been quicker if I had been able to take the day off work to read it which I did think about doing as I loved this book soooooooooooo much right from the first couple of pages . I never, ever read traditional "chick lit" and to be honest, I don't think that it would be fair to class this as real chick lit, without sounding snobby, the writing is so much more clever than the term chick lit implies, it is so realistic, sympathetic, observational, funny, honest, such a great book, I have bought 4 copies of this book, 1 for me and the rest for friends and collegues, all of whom thought is was a fantastic as I did, I have read rumours of a film ?? if it materialises, I do hope the producers stay true to the book and not change a single thing.

I absolutely loved this book. I laughed so much in some parts, and it was a blast from start to finish.Probably up there with one of the best books I've ever read, and the characters will stay with me for some time I think.

I got a copy of this book as I was seeing it everywhere due to it celebrating the 25th anniversary edition. I haven't read any of this author's books before and hadn't realised it was the second novel to feature the Walsh family. Not that, that really mattered as it reads well as a standalone.Hands up, I take full blame as I didn't read what the book was about when I bought it. Due to the title and the flip flops on the cover, I had expected to be taken off to sunnier climates with beaches, the sea or at least a pool. What I got was a rehab centre!This is quite a lengthy book at over 600 pages. This wouldn't usually bother me as if I love a story, even a 1000 pages can be too short. I found myself drifting off though and as the story flicked between Rachel's life in New York and rehab, I kept getting lost as there was nothing to mark that the story was swapping from one to the other so one minute I would be reading about Rachel's antics in New York, the next we would be back in rehab. This did affect my enjoyment overall.The author does get it spot on with how people dealing with addiction lie to themselves. I think it opened my eyes somewhat and made me understand addicts more. Sadly I didn't really find any of the characters overly likeable which in a story like this, I would have expected to. Overall it was an okay read but sadly didn't love it but as I have said previously, I am at fault in some part due to my expectations and not reading the book description.

In typical Marian Keyes style this book is heartbreaking and laugh out loud funny in equal measure. Rachel is my favourite sister and I learned so much about myself and my own childish ways while reading this, made me face a few home truths! I think this will definitely be a repeat read in the coming years.

I was inconsistent in my appreciation of this novel. Yes it had poignant moments, yes it had funny moments. Even laugh out loud at times, but in areas it dragged and did not engage me in the way it should. Probably felt repetitive and forced me to move on quicker than it should. I felt empathy for Rachel, although much of her issues were self induced. The characters of Luke and Bridget were also complex and likeable, as was Josephine as her interrogation nemisis. The scene between the addicts in The Cloisters was well penned and felt closely observed. I looked forward to reading their exploits. Overall it left me wanting more and would not encourage me to read more Marianne Keyes

A deeply human story of addiction.

I totally recommend this book to the fans

von Marian Keyes kenne ich eher unterhaltsame und witzige Geschichten. Mit dieser Geschichte hat die Autorin das Leben und Leiden einer Drogensüchtigen sehr gut beschrieben. Entweder kennt sie Freunde oder Bekannte, die so ein Leidensweg beschritten haben oder sie hat sehr gut recherchiert. Man fühlt mit der Hauptperson Rachel und ärgert sich oft über ihr Fehlverhalten. Der Anfang ist etwas langatmig und verwirrend zu lesen, ich gebe zu, ich musste 3 x anfangen, da ich nicht verstanden habe was genau die Geschichte ist. Danach wird es aber gut und steigert sich bis zum Schluss. Als Kindleedition super günstig und lohnt sich auf jeden Fall.

One of the best of Marian Keyes' books. I would recommend it to everyone, it is funny, smart and deep at the same time. :)

Rachel's Holiday is a delightful book. Marion Keyes has done it again. It's the perfect choice if you are looking for some quality light reading. I see on these pages, everyone mentions which of her books is their favorite. Well, Rachel's Holiday is mine. While Watermelon and Lucy Sullivan were definitely great and funny, in my opinion, Rachel's Holiday is a cut above. We still get the same chatty, humorous tone that makes all of Keyes' novels such a pleasure to read, but this story is a little different a little more daring. Keyes has added the complication of addiction on the girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets that boy or another boy story. Rachel narrates this story with much humor and we see her grow as a person. When we first meet her, she is about to be admitted to the Cloisters, a sort of Betty Ford Clinic in Ireland. She is in denial. She had me fooled. For the first part of the book, she is pretty shallow and definitely mired in her denial, but she grows as a person through her therapy and her friendships with other recovering addicts and finally admits to her addiction and ultimately beats it. In the background is her life in New York that got her in The Cloisters in the first place, and Luke, the hunky Irishman who finally could take no more of her antics. (It wouldn't be a Marion Keyes novel without a perfect hunky guy). Be prepared. This novel has a standard story book happy ending that I felt was just a tad too much. But it's a funny book with charming characters (you can't even dislike Rachel). You'll find yourself sneaking away for a quick fix of this wonderful, funny, breezy novel. Enjoy!

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