Rachel's Holiday Audiobook By Marian Keyes cover art

Rachel's Holiday

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Rachel's Holiday

By: Marian Keyes
Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.02

Buy for $18.02

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel
The fast lane is much too slow for Rachel Walsh, and Manhattan is the perfect place for a young Irish female to overdo everything. But Rachel's love of a good time is about to land her in the emergency room and cost her a job and the boyfriend she adores.

When her loving family hustles her back home and checks her into Ireland's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic, Rachel is hopeful. Perhaps it will be lovely - spa treatments, celebrities, that kind of thing. Instead, she finds a lot of group therapy, which leads her, against her will, to some important self-knowledge. She will also find something that all women like herself fear: a man who might actually be good for her.

©1998 Marian Keyes (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Fiction Women's Fiction Funny Witty

Critic reviews

"A lively drama...Keyes' stylish wit keeps readers attentive, and her take on addiction is insightful and compassionate." ( Publishers Weekly)
"Keyes' intriguing, fast-paced account of an addict's recovery features personable characters with realistic blends of humor and imperfections and a heroine who, despite her exasperating self-pity and shallowness, is witty enough to keep readers rooting for her." ( Booklist)
"The story is funny, fast paced, and sometimes intense." ( Library Journal)
Exceptional Writing • Insightful Storytelling • Excellent Narration • Lovable Protagonist • Emotional Journey
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
Not what I expected. I thought it would be a fun holiday listen. Instead it was a deep and serious story of a self destructive woman’s addiction to alcohol and drugs and her painful and lengthy journey through rehab told in excruciating detail.

A woman’s tale of addiction and rehabilitation

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Did Rachel aver tell Luke why they laughed at him and his friends?

I mean pant sharing was way too funny!

One question

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I like Marian Keyes, and I remembered Rachel's Holiday as being both funny and intense, chronicling Rachel Walsh's realization of her addiction and her steps to cure it. However, as an audiobook it was only okay: the reader seemed over-earnest and lacked the ability to offer any accent besides her own basic Irish; the long flashbacks and retelling of various unhealthy decisions, made unskippable by the audio format, became boring or unbearable. Luckily, it was abridged, you might be thinking: but the abridgement was truly a hatchet job, leaving several noticeable gaps in the story that an alert editor should have sorted out. Chris's car was stolen? What? Jackie's husband wore a wig? What? Lastly, I was flabbergasted by the note in the conclusion thanking all the "brave men and women" who took cocaine for the purposes of research and reported to the author how it felt so she could use it in her book. What the heck was that? Again, maybe an attempt to be funny, but where was her editor? All in all, a weak "okay" at best.

Not As Good as I Remembered

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I didn’t realize this was an abridged version. I read this book years ago and it’s a fantastic story. However, as this is an abridged version, huge portions of the story are cut out. You miss out on her background in NY, her experiences under the influence, and more importantly, her relationships with her best friend and boyfriend. It hurts the overall story and it’s a shame. Buy the book. I beg you.

Abridged!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What made the experience of listening to Rachel's Holiday the most enjoyable?

I liked that you saw Rachel's life through her eyes, and in the beginning, agreed with her "nothing's wrong with me' opinion. You start to see her problems at the same time she does, by listening to her peers.

What other book might you compare Rachel's Holiday to and why?

It's not the same..but "Running in Heels" by Anna Maxted has the same type of story. The main character has no idea she is anorexic, and neither do you, not in the beginning. It's not until her friends show her (and you) the facts that she finds out.

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite scene was when Rachel hooks up with Chris and realizes quite literally in the middle of it, that it isn't what she wants anymore.

Interesting Listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the second time I've read it and it still makes me laugh outloud!!!

Hilarious and sweet!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
i think i just needed to get use to the narrators accent .. which is great and once i did i found the story very interesting and kept me wanting to find out if Rachael could beat her habit .. find out why it started ... and how her relationship with the lovely Luke will pan out .. all with a dash of humor

2nd try and enjoyed it thoroughly

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I can't say enough about this book. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading it. At times I hated the MC, Rachel but I kept going because the writing was exceptional, witty, touching, insightful, heartfelt, heartbreaking, romantic and inspiring. My favorite thing about it was that I learned so much about myself through Rachel's and other characters ordeals and progress. It is written so the story moves along at a constistant pace. I never wanted to put it down, though I did to sleep, shower & work. The minute I awoke I hit play to continue listening, hoping the story hadn't gone on without Mr. I didn't want to miss a minute so I read while brushing my teeth, walking the dog, preparing meals, et al! lol

This year I have read about 300 books through audible and kindle with THIS book being in my top 5 for the year!

The narration was extraordinary!

A MUST read!

10 STARS! 1 of best book I've ever read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely favorite book ever and prefer this performance to the other one available but sadly this one has been abridged and missed out too much which I was very disappointed about.

It has been abridged

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
....so I delved into my second Marian Keyes novel. (I’ve read Sushi for Beginners more times than I’d like to admit). Lovely story...witty...funny...and the characters always seem to end at least slightly better off than they started. It’s just perfect comfort food for my brain in disquieting times.

I knew I needed a happy ending...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews