The Woman Who Stole My Life, by Marian Keyes

Back and forth in time we go, over a few years in the life of Stella Sweeney, Dublin beautician, wife and mother of two, who wrestles karma to find happiness. Keyes delivers in her usual warm, funny-wry and poignant style, an engaging tale of a woman attempting to rise above her own fears and self-limitations. Some stupendously slappable characters, not least at times Stella herself, stop the story tipping over into fairy-tale territory, but the inevitable happy ending does arrive in a bit of a rush, after the long drawn-out journey towards it.