Angels By Marian Keyes

This is my first book of 2009. I have only read one other Marian Keyes Book that I liked and was glad that this book was my random pick. I give it a 3.5 stars out of 5.

Angels by Marian Keyes was about Maggie. She is one of the 5 Walsh sisters. The good sister and daughter that does no wrong. Maggie thought that she had a great life. She was married and had a career. Then one day it is gone. She finds out that her husband was having an affair and she loses her job. All she had left was to move in with her parents and 2 sisters. She goes crazy doing this and decides to go to LA for a month to take some downtime with her screenwriter friend. Of course she finds out that her friend is going broke and that she hasn't been able to sell her screenplay. She also meets new friends or frenemies. She learns about herself in ways she never imagined and of course the old boyfriend and family make their appearance.

Marian Keyes books are Chick Lit with Soul. Her books are about serious issues that women go through. She has a series that are about the Walsh sisters. They are from a crazy family and they try so hard.

I really really identify with Maggie. She is the sister that does no wrong in her parent's eyes. She is the one that is always following rules and being safe. Anytime that she ever did something wrong she got caught. So when she decided to leave her husband she was scared to tell her family. She began to doubt herself and how she failed as a wife. The whole book people told her that they felt that she played it safe by marrying Garv. She began to feel like that herself after seeing her ex, the one that she dumped Garv for in High school (Shay).

When Maggie went to LA she decided to let her hair down. She cut it short because Garv never wanted her to. She then slept with Troy, the man that everyone warned her about. She also decided to experiment with her friend Lara. She decided that she wasn't a Lesbian. Seeing Maggie go through all this made me sad. I wanted her to find herself.

As the story goes on we find out that the reason why Maggie and Garv do not have kids was because she miscarried twice. We find out that she did get an abortion when she got pregnant with Shay. She still thought about that child 14 years later and she blamed herself for her miscarriages. She thought that Garv did to since he knew. Of course Shay had taken off on Maggie and she never got closure. When she sees him in LA she finds out he is married with 3 kids, but that he would allow her to be his mistress for when he was in LA doing business. This stopped the thinking of her life with him and what it could have been. She realized that she really did Love Garv and wanted him back. Lucky for her he was in LA trying to win her back. He told her that the reason why he went astray was because he was grieving and they just never talked anymore. Plus he always felt that she wanted to be somewhere else, with Shay!

I didn't really like how in the end Maggie blamed herself in a way for the reason that Garv went astray (although it didn't get sexual till Maggie left). She felt that she was just as much to blame as him because she felt that she was having her own emotional affair with the What If man. I know that there are times when people do wonder what if, but that would not make it ok for your spouse to cheat. I know that Marian Keyes had to make some way to bring them back together, but I didn't really feel it.

In the end Maggie was 8 months pregnant with Garv's baby and Shay lost his big Movie Company Job. All was well in Ireland (where they moved back to) and in LA. All in all I really really liked this book