Rating: 
Summary: Very Good and Real Issues
Review: Having tried to read the Last Chance Saloon, it never did fully grab my interest. I didn't expect Rachel to be much different but I got surprised. I hear great things about Keye and decided to grab this one and give it a try. Rachel grabs you from the beginning and holds your interest until the end. With her witty barbs to her denial about her addictions Rachel Walsh takes the reader on a light hearted yet intense journey into addictions. The reader experiences an up close look at different addictions and some of the mechanisms behind them and how to begin the journey to overcoming. A serious subject matter handled not only with humor but without making the addictions themselves a laughing matter.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun, entertaining read...
Review: This is the second book by Marian Keyes that I have read. The first was Angels. This book is wonderful if you are looking for a lazy day on the beach read. I did not come across any life shattering and moving excerpts, however I do enjoy a light read now and again. If you are into the whole chick literature scene I would certainly recommend this book for you.
Rating:
Summary: not what you expect.....much better!!!
Review: Rachel is a young Irish girl living the high life in New York City, but what Rachel does not seem to understand is that she has a drug problem. When she is forced to return to Ireland and her parents send her to rehab Rachel is certain that this should be treated as a vacation opportunity. Rachel doesn't have a clue, or does she??
This is qute a different type of tale from Marian Keyes. This is a hard tough tale of coming to terms with life, learning the weak points, strenghtening them and taking on the challenges that come.
Rachel's family, the Walsh's are as looney as ever and that is a challenge of it's own, a very large challenge. The real question is whether or not Rachel can own up to having a drug problem or has the entire situation been overblown by her friends and family.
This is an interesting and open look at life in a rehabilitation center from those on the inside and how they learn to understand themselves or continue to live in denial.
Marian Keyes renders an amazingly human look at a difficult situation with a soul-touching grace and simplicity that brings Rachel's story home to your heart.
Rating:
Summary: Some holiday!
Review: Rachel's friends are worried about her "use of recreational drugs," and just to make them happy, Rachel checks into what she things is going to be sort of a spa holiday with a few optional chats on her little problem. To her horror, she finds herself in an honest-to-God drug rehab program - and she's pretty much stuck there. Hard to imagine a story based on this premise being funny, but since the Irish M. Keyes is the author, well, yup, it's funny. Rachel confronts her addiction, learns a bit about herself and some destructive relationships, and we have a longish but fun read.
Rating: 
Summary: rachel's luke
Review: rachel's holiday is just another masterful work of marian keyes whereby she captures your heart and modern sensibility with an ubelievalble knowing and grace. she really did her homework on this one, she nails the partying addiction as something to be reckoned with, as it should be. the character of Luke is utterly delicious but also a 'strong and morale force to be reckoned with-solid-as-a-rock-type-save-your-soul'type of man'that wins all of our hearts... it took me several days to get over him!./..rachel's journey is insightful,entertaining(at least), valid, for any of us who has led a lifestyle that might compare. I Love Marian keyes and I am psyched to read the, unfortunately, 2 last novel that she has written, that i haven't read: angels and sushi for begginers
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely FABULOUS!
Review: This book is one of the best I've read in a long time. The main character (Rachel) always kept me laughing with her self-depreciating comments, and outlook on life. At times my intestines were in knots, and other times I was crying from laughing so hard. Great book if you just want to have a good time.
Rating:
Summary: A Holiday To Remember!
Review: Rachel's Holiday, by Marian Keyes, explores the life of a 27 year old young Irish lady, "Rachel Walsh" and what happens when she is checked into the "Betty Ford clinic of Ireland": The Cloisters. Famous people were known to go there. And besides, even though she loved doing cocaine, drinking alcohol, taking pills, and having sex with almost any guy who wanted her.Rachel thought a break from NYC would be good for her. And besides, her boyfriend, "Luke" had just broken her heart. She muses:
"A rehabilitation place seemes like a good idea. A great idea...I'd read about the Cloisters and it sounded wonderful. I had visions of spending a lot of time sitting around wraped in a big towel. Of steam rooms, saunas, massage, seaweed treatment, algae, that kind of thing."
Rachel also believes that "maybe for people like me [her]...ones that didn't have serious problems would be allowed out in the evenings to walk down to the local pub." We learn a new definition of what a serious problem could be.
Rachel is shocked when she finds out that she herself is very much mistaken, and that an addict is an addict. Though she goes into a program and stays there initially feeling a hatred of the Cloisters, Rachel learns a lot about addiction, where it stems from, why it happens, and what we (she) can do about it. The novel was very touching and also funny - I laughed out loud in certain parts and then the parts that brought tears to my eyes.
I could relate becaue I am also 27 and see many Rachel Walshes in real life. This is a lesson for them. Rachel gains new viewpoints on who she is and what she is (and is not) capable of doing in the real world during her "holiday" and her attempts to apply her newfound skills to her real life. This is a story of growth, realization, acceptance and determination, and most of all that we all struggle to maintain "normalcy" in the face of adversity.
Rating:
Summary: Loved this Page Turner!
Review: I truly enjoyed this book. A serious subject, yet the author had a way of appropriately adding a humorous theme. I think that anyone, with our without an addiction, can identify with some of the insecurities that Rachel experiences in this book. I actually had some tears as I was reading this and was shocked at how I was affected. This was my first Marian Keyes book and I will definitely look for another book by her....after I digest this one for a little while though. :)
Rating:
Summary: A holiday from the mundane!
Review: "They said I was a drug addict," begins twenty-something Dubliner Rachel Walsh in Marian Keyes's second installment of a series of five books, each about one of the five Walsh sisters. In Rachel's Holiday, we're introduced to the middle child, Rachel. Fleeing dreary Dublin as a young woman, Ms. Rachel Walsh not so much steers, but lands herself in the center of the city that never sleeps - New York, New York. But even the non-stop on-the-go lifestyle being offered to her isn't enough. Soon, things speed up(and so does her heart rate) when she meets her new best friend - cocaine. Her family intervenes only after a near overdose and yanks her back home to Ireland. They soon cart her off to the Emerald Isle's answer to the Betty Ford clinic. Although naive and shallow Rachel is expecting to rub elbows with rock stars and lounge in the saunas, the closest thing she meets to a rock star is handsome, charming, yet self-destructive, alcoholic Chris, and the closest thing to a sauna is the laundry room where patients aren't allowed unsupervised. At Keyes's fictitious rehabilitation facility, the Cloisters, Rachel not only meets a cast of colorful(and sometimes downright creepy) characters, she also just might find herself amongst the rubble that her life has become - that is of course assuming that she isn't thrown out for misconduct first. Native Irish-woman herself, Marian Keyes draws here on her own darker experiences with alcoholism and the loneliness of the moment one realizes that they have chosen substance over self. Keyes is the author of Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Last Chance Saloon, Angels, Under the Duvet: a collection of nonfiction, and her latest arrival on shelves - Sushi for Beginners. Keyes is known for her sharp wit, heartwarming romantic comedies, wacky characters, hilarious dialogue, and sidesplitting scenes. Rachel's Holiday is a book that can be taken to the beach for a light read or stewed over vigorously in the wintertime. The characters are constant pleasers, each with multifaceted personalities and faults that make them consistently and animatedly come to life. The book is full of scenes that could surely remind most readers of his or her life and experiences in one way or another. The plot is full of sweet surprises and simple truths down to the very last word. Rachel's Holiday is touching on many levels and laugh-out-loud funny on millions. It's sad on still other levels and smile-invoking on a countless many. However, no matter what angle the reader should choose to view it from, all will agree that Keyes has triumphantly succeeded here. In this novel, few things could have been done on a better level. One of those few things would have to have been a slight scene expansion here and there, or a slight bit more dialogue in places. The only full-hearted complaint that a reader might voice would be that though thick do both the spine and conflict run, the reader's eyes ran faster through each delicious chapter and finished the novel in the blink of an eye! Marian Keyes's Rachel's Holiday is a must have for a romantic comedy lover. The strong characters, flowing dialogue, hilarious moments, and poignant message make for a story that you shall not soon forget. Rachel's Holiday is a hot piece of chick-lit with all that it's targeted audience looks for in their selections. Any enjoyer of the Red Dress Ink books wouldn't be able to put this hit down. This is a novel that will touch(and tickle) both Marian's old and new fans! A must have!
Rating:
Summary: Read everything by Marian Keyes
Review: My mom discovered Marian Keyes in Ireland a few years before her books were published in the States. What a wonderful writer she is. Rachel's Holiday is filled with humor, family and struggle. It's so easy at first to get sucked into Rachel's world and delusions and then realize you are going through the same denial she is. Part of series including Watermelon and Angels (you don't need to read them in order).
| 
