Lessons in Heartbreak

Izzie is a happy, single Irish woman living in NYC. That is until she meets her married boyfriend, Joe, does her life become miserable. While Izzie goes through the tribulations of a disastrous affair, she learns of her beloved grandma having a stroke in Ireland. The book then goes on to tell the stories of a few women in the family and their broken hearts do to some kind of adultery. Whether they are the other woman or the woman being cheated on and how this takes a toll on either woman. You definitely learn to sympathize with both sides of the adultery story.Izzie's Aunt Annalise's husband has been cheating on her with her best friend. Annalise takes this so hard, she almost doesn't come out alive. Izzie's dying grandma, Lily, tells her story through diaries set back in the war in the 1940's. Each story is interesting - but Lily's is much more fun to follow.It was a fun book to read, but not if you're looking for any kind of romantic, happy ending.

I gave this rating because I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it difficult to put the book down. This is Cathy Kelly at her bestI have read a few of Cathy Kelly's books but this one in my opinion is her best. Her descriptions are fantastic and her storyline is brilliant and again in this book leaves one guessing for awhile as to what will happen. Will she go back to her lover or will she make the break? This book is very well written and very enjoyable. I would recommend this book to all romantic readers,

I am a Cathy Kelly fan and really enjoyed this book. It's interesting how the lives of her characters are intertwined. I like the way Cathy Kelly has a little bit of romance (but not too much), some drama, some heartache - all in the right proportions.I can recommend this book to Cathy Kelly converts and if you haven't read any of her books, what are you waiting for!

Not her best. Love her books, but the title reveals that this read is going to be a bit of a downer.

Excellent

A lovely story which follows the lives of some likeable characters. Unfortunately I found the story got a little repetitive & dragged on in parts.

Love Cathy Kelly. Stories are warm, you wish some of the characters were your friends, and she writes like a dream. Highly recommended.

This novel starts out as pure chick-lit, with the obsession over the male love interest, but she is so shallow and Joe is so clearly a deceiving liar we don't like either of the characters.Jodi the outsider Australian who has moved into the quaint little village of Tamarin (which kept reminding me of a monkey) was more interesting to me than the main character Izzie. Her life is not perfect, but she gets on with it without bitterness or angst.Annaliese and her husband splitting was totally dull, with the only spark of interest in that story line her life literally being saved by Mac. But the men in this book are all like cardboard, flat and lifeless. If Joe has any real feelings for her in the book, he sure never convinces us.The only high point of the book is the Lily thread, and her relationship with Jamie, also a married man, like Joe. They tell the same lies to get their women into bed, only Jamie dies, and she meets her husband Robby and presumably learns not only to love, but allow herself to be loved in return.Joe is just an awful character, and the whole 40 and pining for a child issue has been done better elsewhere. As for a book of Irish interest, nothing, totally flat. They mention Waterford a few times and the town reminds me of Dungarvan, not far from the great big house Lismore Castle, but there is hardly any visual description of the country at all.So for the Lily story, 3 stars, the rest was neither romance, nor literary fiction. The whole marketing of this story as an Irish girl's tale was also completely misleading. For those looking for real modern romance set in Ireland, try Sorcha MacMurrough or Evelyn Trimborn, for historical romance, Shannon Farrell.Otherwise, anyone looking for happiness or love in this novel is going to be heart-broken. This was a depressing book in the end, defying or rather jumping genres and not ever getting it quite right.

"Lessons in Heartbreak" truly has more sadness than gladness, as all aspects of heartbreak are thoroughly told and analyzed.Three women from the small Irish town Tamarin and three love stories. Izzie, who has lived in New York for ten years, falls in love with Joe who is separated from his wife!! In Tamarin, Anneliese, originally from Austria, is left by her husband of 37 years, Edward. And Izzie's 95 year old grandmother Lily, has a painful love story in her past, unbeknowst to anyone in her family.As we follow the three womens' joy, sorrow and heartache, there is little room for Kelly's usual joix de vivre. Of course, there is not much room for fun and laughter in the midst of so much unhappiness. But still, as wisely and with much insight the many aspects of unhappy love are told, I miss the usual Kelly sparkle. No matter how rough the going, there are usually always room for a few laughs in her books, funny remarks thrown in which make you crack up.I admit I have been used to Cathy Kelly's books as lessons in happiness rather than heartbreak. Maybe that's unfair but I think the overall positive and lighthearted stories are what she does best and which have made her books such pageturners.This one is not. For the first time, I skipped pages. After all, the "falling in love with a separated man" story has been told numerous times before. Anneliese's story of depression is tough and complex, and could fill an entire book in itself.One part of the book which truly caught my interest, was granny Lily's secret love story. There was fire and passion when levelheaded young nurse Lily met Jamie, the love of her life, during World War II. But the story was cut short and Jamie was mostly the mystery waiting to be solved by the family as Lily lay dying.Also, the book touches the issue of skinny - anorectic/bulemic - models in these fashion mad times. Izzie and a friend opens an agency for plus-sized (= normal sized) women in New York, a great success. Yet, also here there is material for a totally separate book.If this book is a first attempt at a different direction in her authorship, Kelly has not succeeded. Many see Cathy Kelly as a typical chick lit author. I don't think so. Her previous books are so much more than that. I think Cathy Kelly has created her own unique style with that very special sparkle of hers, packed with funny remarks, self irony and "devil may care" attitude.Heartbreak is a part of life most of us experience sooner or later, but I hope Cathy Kelly goes back to writing more upbeat books with that irresistible sunny flair of hers. About life, not fairytales, simply the wonderful Kellyish style I have come to love so much.

The book itself is, as usual, Cathy Kelly at her best. Not sure when this review was shown in my Amazon but for some reason I have been sent another?

Bought for someone else

Arrived when it should and is in good condition very pleased.

I read all Cathy Kelly's books and as a rule love them but was disappointed in this one, the story lacked hinted of a back story regarding the grandmother which was not quiet fulfilled.