Parts were gripping, others not so much. About three quarters of the way through I thought it was never going to finish, but I'd admit she pulled it back in the end. Maybe my life and aspirations are too different but it was hard to identify with any of the characters. Oh and why do so many women in these stories struggle to say those three little words? I've never struggled in my life, just say it.

I found this book very compelling, the story came together piece by piece, which was annoyingly slow yet satisfying. I enjoyed the main characters and related greatly to Stella - to the point where I was frustrated with her unwillingness to hurt others temporarily for growth and change to occur. I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship between her and Mannix and the way their story was told. Overall, the book left a far greater imprint on me than expected.

These books are like a mindless balm to my soul. I have yet to meet a Marian Keyes book I haven't liked (Okay, maybe not Rachel's Holiday).

2.5 STARS

In the past I have been a huge fan of Marian Keyes' work. Her series centered around the Walsh Family was touching, hilarious, and highly relatable. With this latest offering, however, the characters are horrific people and the plot pretty unbelievable, so I was left rather disappointed in a favorite author.

Stella Sweeney is a forty something year old woman with a typical life: workaholic husband, two surly teenagers, and a stake in a local beauty spa. Until one day, her life instantly changes. Stella becomes completely paralyzed, needing to be hospitalized to even be able to breathe. It's discovered that Stella has Guillain Barre syndrome, and her recovery will be long, hard, and excruciating.

This is where Dr. Mannix Taylor, Stella's neurologist, comes in. Handsome, charming, and completely disarming, he and Stella quickly form a connection and a way to communicate--through blinks. While Stella's family seems to be falling apart without her, she powers through her rehabilitation and becomes close friends with Mannix. Until, when it's nearly time for her to go home, he inexplicably disappears.

It turns out that Stella's recovery journey has been turned into a book by Mannix, and after she returns home, her life is again turned upside down. She and her husband decide to split up--a fact not taken in stride by their kids--she gets a book deal, and reconnects with Mannix. But nothing can ever go smoothly, and Stella has to be careful about who she lets into her world and the decisions she makes.

To be honest, the most infuriating thing about this novel is that the main character is the very definition of the word "doormat." She lets EVERY SINGLE PERSON in her life treat her rudely and with disrespect. She takes sass from her kids, insults from her husband, bad advice from her sister, and even lets her best friend whine on and on to her without saying a word. Some of the things her own family says to her are so awful, I was cringing myself and kind of wishing I could slap an imaginary person!

Even though Stella pulls through a terrible illness, no one treats her the better for it, and she does not make any changes in her life. Any good things just kind of HAPPEN to her--it's by no ambition of her own. She also jumps from one relationship to another pretty quickly, because she can't bear to be alone.

There are SOME moments that are funny or redeeming, but not enough to allow me to gloss over the flat plot and absolutely terrible characters that poison this book. I am sorry to say that The Woman Who Stole my Life is more like, The Author Who Stole my Time.

I listened to this on audible, which I started about 3 weeks ago, so I’ll try to get this straight. The book starts out with Stella Sweeny attempting unsuccessfully to write a follow-up to a first book. She is back in Ireland after spending time promoting this first book in the U.S. Her first book seems to have been pretty successful and she is semi-famous. But she has come back to Ireland in disgrace. We don’t know exactly what happened, but it must be pretty bad. What happened to her? What did she do? Who is the man that keeps calling her telling her he misses her? What about her daughter? Who is Gina and why does she avoid thinking of her and knowing what’s happening with her? She lives with her hostile son, and her ex-husband, Ryan, is going off the deep end giving up all of his possessions in some kind of performance art and an attempt to reclaim his self-esteem and become as famous as his ex-wife.

From there we go back and forth in time. We learn how Stella, a working-class housewife, and beautician came to write her first book seemingly out of nowhere. Meanwhile, we follow Stella’s life in the present until her reminiscences of what happened in the last 5 years or so catch up with what’s happening now. So much happens. We meet so many people that have an important role in her life. There is a lot of humor and satire as well as a dark painful year where Stella is completely paralyzed because of a rare disease. Thanks to a brilliant neurologist who takes a special interest in her, she is saved from the intense physical pain she had to endure multiple times a day. He teaches her how she can finally communicate by blinking her eyes. He is an angel from heaven and a knight in shining armor. Even though she looks horrible, and can only communicate by blinking, they have a strong and special connection. By this time we know that Ryan, still her husband during these tribulations is a selfish jerk.

After she recovers, and after Stella and the doctor, Mannix, start divorce proceedings from their respective spouses, they meet up again and start an affair. They are head over heels in love with each other although Stella has constant doubt and fear due to the difference in their financial situations and social class.

After she breaks up with him because of pressure from her son and her family, Mannix sends her a gift to prove to her how much he loves her. He wants her back. You see, he had saved all of the notebooks he had filled up with their communications she had blinked out when she could not move or talk. He wrote an introduction and bound them together in a fine binding and had 50 copies privately printed for her to give to her family and friends. It's a long story, but this is the book that ends up getting published by a top-flight New York publishing house.

I liked Stella and loved her voice, but I hated her behavior towards Mannix and her parenting of her difficult son. Basically, she treats Mannix like crap. She lets her son run roughshod over her out of guilt and she caters to her son’s selfish demands over Mannix’s needs every time. Mannix never wavers in his devotion. What does she have to feel guilty over? For getting sick and throwing her family into chaos. Ryan was a terrible parent during her year in intensive care, impatient, unsympathetic, and bored with her, and she feels guilty. Oy Vey.

It turns out the big scandal that sent her home in disgrace is very much an anticlimax. The only thing she has to be disgraced about is her own private behavior towards Mannix. The happy ending feels tacked on. She didn’t earn it. Not one bit. There is no justice in it. She gives up trying to write a second book, which is ironic, because, as her agent says, an account of everything that happened to her from her backstory, to her year in intensive care, to her family and friends, to her relationship with Mannix as her neurologist, to her adventures in America, would have made a much more interesting book that her lame little collection of sayings and words of “wisdom.” If she told a true candid tale, it would have been a real eye-opener to not only her family and friends, but shined a light on the terrible care she got from her doctors and nurses in Ireland. (except for Mannix.) Apparently, Ireland has a pretty good healthcare system. You would never know it from this book. I wish Marian Keyes had ended The Woman Who Stole my Life (don't understand the title, exactly) with an addendum in which we learn that we had just finished reading Stella’s second book. **almost 3 stars.**

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