BOOK: Watermelon by Marian Keyes

Watermelon, by Marian Keyes, 417 pages

Ireland Reading Challenge

Summer cover. Chick lit. Great summer book.

 In what might be one of the toughest set-ups in chick-lit history (the guy has to do  something awful to the girl, leaving her to pick up the pieces), James leaves Claire THE MINUTE SHE GIVES BIRTH. Okay, not the minute, but once the baby is cleaned up and presented to the two of them. Seriously. James certainly starts this book in a desperately deep hole that may be impossible to get out of. Claire gathers her baby, some post-partum symptoms, and a few clothes, and heads home to Dublin from her life in London. Loved Claire's family in Dublin - functionally dysfunctional if you like. [There are several other books about the family, since there are at least five sisters. Maybe more. Someone is in the States. Details aren't vitally important in a book like this.] The mom hasn't cooked in twenty years; Dad does all the cleaning; one sister appears to be a drug addict, but a delightfully wonky one; another sister in uni gathers fellas around her like flies. How convenient, because how else is Claire going to meet a new fellow to help her get over the idiot James?

There is romance, there is growth, there is baby love,  there is the idiot husband returning? What will Claire do? Has she outgrown James? Will she go back with him so her baby doesn't grow up in a broken home? Marion Keyes is a chick-lit writer who will stay on my reading list. Fun and humorous, and set in Ireland.This is give me some light Irish reading to replace my beloved Maeve Binchy.