Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

So tantalizing is the mystery behind Anna Walsh's multiple debilitating and disfiguring injuries, it would be criminal to explain why the self-proclaimed owner of the Best Job in the World (PR maven for Candy Grrrl cosmetics) has left her trendy New York life to recuperate in the good front room of her parents' Dublin cottage, since Keyes herself strings readers along until the end of part 1 before revealing the cause of Anna's broken bones and broken heart. Suffice it to say that readers will be as devastated as Anna is to learn what awaits her when she returns to America and begins the agonizing process of rebuilding her shattered life. Hardly sounds like the stuff of raucous humor, now does it? And yet Keyes' latest madcap escapade starring one of the five wacky Walsh sisters teems with moments of joyous hilarity and laugh-out-loud humor. Anna is the kind of gal every woman would want as her best friend, sister, or daughter. Plucky doesn't begin to describe her approach to life, and her journey of self-discovery can stand as a provocative lesson in how to cope with demoralizing crises. Keyes fans will embrace this as her best yet, and first-time Keyes readers will want to read everything she's written. --Carol Haggas Copyright 2006 Booklist

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Keyes's proven formula for success—a chatty, engaging heroine, a bawdy sense of humor, an unhappy turn of events—works again in her eighth novel (The Other Side of the Story, 2004, etc.). Three of the five Irish Walsh girls have novels of their own, and now it's time for Anna's story. The first 100 pages build up a mystery of sorts: Anna lies dazed in the front parlor of her parent's Dublin home as her mother nurses her back to health. On her daily walk, the local schoolboys call her Frankenstein, and for good reason. With deep cuts and bandages on her face, fingers without nails, an arm cast and a limp, Anna has never looked less stylish (except when she wore all those hippie skirts). There are flashbacks to her recent life in New York, where she has The Best Job in the World in cosmetics public relations, and a hunky, adorable husband, Aidan. So what happened to Anna, and where's Aidan in her time of need? Against everyone's pleading, Anna returns to New York, and we learn the tragic truth: Anna and Aidan were in a car accident in which Aidan died. Now, Anna rings his cell phone everyday to hear his voicemail, she e-mails him about work, she wails at night and can't imagine life without him. Over 400 pages of a widow's emotional recovery would be hard-going if not for Keyes's humor and grand cast of characters with their own quirky subplots. Back in Dublin, baby sister Helen, an unlikely private investigator, keeps Anna updated on her current big case—tailing the local crime lords' misses, while Mammy Walsh keeps Anna current on her own little mystery—an old lady regularly brings her dog to poo on the Walsh's doorstep. And now, desperate to find out where Aidan is, Anna starts frequenting afterlife psychics, which introduces a whole new set of oddballs. Anna begins to crawl out of her sorrow, but Keyes is cautious with the expected happy ending—for all the comedy, she creates a vivid portrait of grief. The very best in chick-lit. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

The lovable Walsh family (Angels; Watermelon; Rachel's Holiday) is back in Keyes's newest endeavor, this time with Anna at center stage when she suffers serious injuries in a Manhattan taxi accident and ends up recuperating at home with her parents in Dublin, Ireland. But Anna has more to worry about: the escapades of her sister, Helen, a private eye working for Irish gangsters; her best friend and her sorry romances; her sister Rachel's upcoming nuptials; and her mother's obsession with a dog that is being trained to poop next to the mailbox. To boot, her husband, Aidan, back in New York, is not answering her emails and seems to have become a rather shadowy character. When Anna returns to Manhattan, her physical wounds finally healed up, life takes some shocking turns. Keyes has once again penned an intelligently written novel that is as warmly funny as her previous books but is ultimately much more heartbreaking. Recommended for all fiction collections.-Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.