I’d been curious about Marian Keyes for a while but I wasn’t curious enough to try her books on my own – I waited until one came up for review. My curiosity is assuaged but by no means satisfied. This boring story of a woman’s struggle to put her life back together went nowhere fast.

In Watermelon and then Rachel’s Holiday, Keyes explored the lives and relationships of two sisters in the Walsh family. She continues that exploration in Angels, featuring sister Maggie, whose seemingly neat and tidy little life falls apart the day she learns her husband Garv is having an affair. Then on the heels of that revelation, she’s fired. After hibernating for a while, she leaves Ireland and heads to California to visit her best friend Emily, a budding screenwriter. Maggie immediately becomes involved in Emily’s life and begins to experience the Hollywood lifestyle while trying to determine what to do with her life.

Maggie makes little progress with her life (she sits on the beach and shops a lot) at first. Emily’s friends accept her with ease – taking her to parties, dinner, and getting her urgent appointments with their stylists. Maggie becomes fond of L.A.’s accoutrements, such as the “complicated martinis” everyone drinks. She experiments in her new surroundings, having a one-night stand with a man and a flirtation with lesbianism. It’s the meeting with Shay Delaney, a man from her past, that finally propels her in a direction to do something.

Maggie and Garv stopped communicating at some point, and she eventually realizes that she’s partly responsible for the problems in their marriage. After two miscarriages she and Garv stopped talking; not only did she withdraw emotionally, guilt from an earlier tragedy made things worse. Maggie subconsciously believes her miscarriages are punishments for a past deed, and she thinks that Garv blames her too. His actions never convince her otherwise. But she only comes to this realization when meeting Shay again, and the closure from that meeting ends her thoughts of “what if?” and makes it possible for her to work on her marriage.

Maggie’s friend Emily’s life as a screenwriter would seem to provide an interesting backstory; her scripts are held up in production, or rewritten, or doctored. But as interesting and over-the-top as Emily’s script problems are, eventually her story becomes tedious. The same cycle occurs approximately three times, and after a while, even readers will conclude that her scripts are not destined to sell.

About the only truly entertaining part of the book occurs when Maggie’s family decides to visit. They are the stereotypical “fun” in dysfucntional. Her slutty sister sleeps with Maggie’s one-night stand even as her flaky sister seems to have grown up a bit thanks to a job she got through Garv, a total surprise to Maggie. And though I didn’t enjoy the book, I must give the author props for her depiction of Maggie’s mother, particularly when she visits Emily’s neighbors for fable night (a party wherein each guest tells fables). Seeing her interact with the kooky neighbors and their kooky friends provides a really funny contrast. The family proves to be just as dysfunctional in LA as it is in Ireland.

Maggie is eventually forced to make a choice between returning to Ireland or remaining in L.A. Given her past and her experiences in L.A., her decision is sound. Despite not being classified as a romance, Angels wraps up the end in a nice, predictable little bow.

It’s not easy to warm up to either Maggie or Emily; neither are entirely likable and their self-centeredness grows annoying as the book progresses. Even worse, their bond as best friends didn’t ring true. The lack of connection with these two, and repetitive, boring pacing made this book a struggle to get through. Two other AAR reviewers recommended Keyes’ books, but I won’t be picking them up.