The Woman Who Stole My Life: British Book Awards Author of the Year 2022

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Truth be told, I picked this book up about 6 months ago through Audible, I listened to the first 4 chapters and I just wasn't getting into it, and I stopped listening. Suddenly I realized that he was very angry and in an instant I’d got him – one of those good-looking spoilt men, with his expensive car and his well-cut coat and his expectation that life would treat him nicely. Actually, most people seemed to put her down and blame her personally for getting ill - what on earth? Then came the awful reality as my car really did hit his – the sound of metal crunching and glass shattering and the bone-juddering violence of the impact .

To be honest, I can narrow my problem down to just her son and ex-husband because the rest aren't super awful, just not as good as I know the author is capable of writing. Shortly afterwards she has a horrific brush with paralysis when she contracts Guillain-Barré Syndrome, and is temporally unable to move or to speak.Enter Mannix, her therapist, who not only helps her regain the use of ‘everything’ through months of therapy but also understands her in a way that no one else does. She seems stuck in a little box of fear and preconceived notions, and nothing changes, not even after nearly losing her life - no new insights, no understanding. After her marriage breaks up, the only bright spots in her days are visits from her neurologist, Mannix Taylor, with whom she forms a reluctant alliance.

Ryan, the husband, had some bite in him at the beginning, but like his son, became so annoying a character that had he been real, I would have left the country to avoid for ever, bringing my children with me under false travel documents so he could never contact us again. Everything goes south from there, the story zigzagging from past to present in a confusing and unnecessary way. I found the protagonist to be irritating, constantly jumping to conclusions or being a doormat to her horrible family. Unless the author wanted to talk about the stress the tour put upon the characters and I seriously think that could have been done in about two or three paragraphs.

So let’s look at the karmic fallout from my good deed – three cars, all of them damaged, one wounded forehead, much irateness, shouting, raised blood pressure, financial worry and deep, deep blush-making humiliation. Entertaining and uplifting, The Woman Who Stole My Life is BESTSELLING author Marian Keyes' intriguing tale of finding true happiness in unexpected places . The missing star is because pages 400-500 (or there abouts) made for slow reading and not much development.