What a charmer! (This Charming Man - Marian Keyes)

Member Name: bigh11

Product:	This Charming Man - Marian Keyes
Date:	02/06/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great characters, good style of writing and a twist at the end.

Disadvantages: burny burny!! Grr!

I recently finished the latest instalment from Marian Keyes. I've read all Marian Keyes books and I wasn't disappointed with this one. I got the paperback copy from the local library.

The story follows the lives of four women, Lola, Grace, Marnie and Alicia and one man Paddy De Courcy. As with most books by Marian Keyes, the book is set in Dublin but we also visit County Clare and London.

The book switches between each of the four women and as the story unfolds you see how each of their lives have been affected by Paddy De Courcy.

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LOLA

Lola is a quirky stylist with purple hair (sorry Molichino!) She was Paddy's girlfriend until she found out he was marrying Alicia Thornton and her world was destroyed. In my opinion Lola's part of the story is the best; it's very funny and gives light relief to what can sometimes be quite a serious book. I love the style in which Lola's parts are written, very "Bridget Jones Diary."

GRACE

Grace is a reporter, at first you think she's going to be a typical hard faced reporter but then you realise she's got a much softer side. Grace is struggling at work due to a colleague that seems to know every celebrity in the world and keeps getting all the scoops. Her long term boyfriend is also getting friendly with his ex wife which annoys Grace.

MARNIE

Marnie is Grace's twin sister, she lives in London with her husband and two children. I found Marnie's story very sad and could relate to how she was feeling sometimes. We see how Marnie struggles to fight her demons and get her life back on track.

ALICIA

Alica's story is only touched on slightly, she has a few chapters to herself but we mostly hear about her through the other girls.

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It's quite a serious book, there are some heavy issues covered such as domestic abuse, alcoholism and it does get very political at times but I still found it very easy to read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. When it's switching between characters, you read about somebody being battered and abused by somebody but you don't find out who that is until the very end, I like this (not the abuse part you understand!) because it keeps you guessing and I changed my mind about who it was a few times throughout the book and I still didn't guess correctly.

My one tiny gripe with this book (well Marian Keyes really) is she chooses a word and it gets used way too much. For instance in this book Lola uses the word "burny" all the time and it does get very annoying. In "Anybody Out There" she uses the word "warcrime" a lot too. Just a tiny thing that I've picked up on that irritates me a bit!

Overall it's a brilliant book, sad and heavy at times but very funny and silly at other times. Well worth a read.

Summary: A great summer read