This was an enjoyable escape of a novel in which plenty of things happen - sometimes reading like a recap of a soap opera - but in which it's the characters, not the plot, that keeps you reading. Part of the appeal to a Maeve Binchy novel is in losing yourself (suspending your disbelief!) in Binchy's fictional corner of Dublin and immersing yourself in the characters' lives. I really like Binchy, actually, and I think she's a far better writer than many people give her credit for. That said, there are problems with Tara Road, as engaging as I found it.

For what I expected - a nice, light story with a happy ending, long enough to keep me engaged for an evening laid up with my sprain - this was perfect. Could it have benefited from an editor? Absolutely. It's LONG and very exposition-heavy. I don't think Tara Road is one of Binchy's best but she is a very good storyteller, and there are many glimpses of her talent throughout this book - though not necessarily in the main narrative. My interest was held by the side stories - Colm and Caroline, Hilary and Martin, and I wanted more of them, and less of Ria and Danny.

There was a time in my life I would have turned away from a book because of it's size. This one would have gotten passed because of this size. I'm glad I didn't pass it up.

Maria (Ria) is a very unselfish woman living in Ireland on Tera Road. Her life fell into her hands by the luck of her husband, Danny, and his real estate working with Barney McCarthey. This is a tale of many lies revolving around these men, with wives who turn a cheek to their indiscretions.

Ria is very social and her friends and neighbors play an important role in this well written story. Some of the friends turn to be anything but that by the end though.

Through a chance phone call Ria's life takes a turn for the better. After receiving some very upsetting news from her husband, Ria has the opportunity to leave her troubles behind and spend the summer in America by swapping homes with Marilyn. Marilyn has her own share of heartaches that need to be handled and gladly accepts the house swap for 2 months to escape to a new land as well.

This book was very well written, and caught my interest from the beginning. I can not wait to pick up another book by Maeve Binchy. She is a wonderful author.

A fabulous soap opera/melodrama. It could be that I'm a menopausal woman trapped in the body of a creaky, unathletic twenty-something, but I give this book an A+! I can imagine just buying or borrowing a stack of Binchy books and binging on them like Thin Mints.

I have been wanting to read this book forever since this book refers to characters that are in later Binchy novels. How I wish that I had stayed away from it. This book is 656 pages. Due to a nasty cold plus fever I had the past couple of days I wondered if perhaps I was being too harsh about this book. Then I re-read some passages and decided that no I was not. I think the biggest thing for me is that I cannot believe this was once upon a time selected as book as the month by Oprah Winfrey. I am also flabbergasted this became a movie as well. I am hoping the movie cut way down on the Ireland parts, but since there is no way I am going to sit through a movie based on this book I will just blissfully let that go.

“Tara Road” though it talks about two main characters is for all intents and purposes just about one, Ria. We follow her through graduating and going to work for a real estate firm where she ends up meeting her future husband, Danny Lynch. We follow Ria through I think at least 14-15 years where she is a stay at home mom, doing what she can to make her husband and children happy. That all changes when her husband informs her that he is ready to move onto someone else. When Ria realizes that her life as she knows it is coming to an end, she decides to house swap with an American woman named Marilyn Vine. Marilyn is also looking to get away from her home due to still trying to do her best to get over a tragedy.

Ria is pretty much a doormat from the beginning of this book to the end. If you expect to see any self awareness, it’s not there. Even after her husband has left her, Ria is still hoping for a reconciliation. Heck, it was maybe at the 99 percent mark she finally moved on from the guy. I initially felt sympathetic to Ria since you find out pretty soon that her husband was the worst from the very beginning. I think that is why the book doesn’t work honestly, or it didn’t work for me. You are just waiting for Ria to have her eyes opened to what her husband was getting up to. And then she does, and she still thinks he is the best thing ever. Even after all evidence points to the contrary.

Marilyn felt like an afterthought to me. She definitely has more backbone than Ria. But the two women’s friendship comes out of nowhere for me and I thought it a bit much for them to behave as if they are best friends forever at the end of the book.

Secondary characters (man there are a ton) were pretty shallow. Ria’s sister is jealous, Ria’s daughter is pretty much a brat, Ria’s son is clueless, Ria’s best friend is terrible, etc. I just felt like the book went on and on and you don’t see any growth at all except in the case of Ria’s daughter finally catching a clue. I really hated Ria’s best friend Rosemary and her other friend who was in an abusive marriage. The book just painted them in broad strokes and I really didn’t understand what I was supposed to take away from these two characters at all.

The writing was typical Binchy, but after a while my eyes started to glaze. Way too much of this book was about Ria shopping for furniture to do up her new house, wallpaper, rugs, how rooms and kitchens looked, etc.

The flow was lopsided too. Once you figure out what is going on in the book most of it was just me waiting for everyone else to catch up too.

I usually love Binchy novels. However, I realize that the earlier novels are never my cup of tea. They are way too long (this one is very long) and there always seems to be a lack of development or closure to the books. This one had a very abrupt ending and I hated that a guilty party was never confronted in the way that I thought they should have been. I read “Quentins” before and I do know that Ria ends up in that book as well, and you do hear about what becomes of her. But after reading this book and knowing what happens to her in “Quentins” I felt really dissatisfied. Probably because I think her happy ending as it is shown was pretty bogus.

C+

I really liked her book a Week in Winter. It’s seem to have a beginning middle and end plus you’ve got to know the characters. I enjoyed this book but it was quite slow at the beginning until they do the house which and then it just seemed to end. I’m not sure I like it very many of the characters. On the other hand I always like to read about Ireland so that was a plus.

This is the first time I've read Maeve Binchy, though I've heard of her for a long time. At 642 pages, this book is one of the longest I've ever read (probably second longest to Gone with the Wind).

The thing that is remarkable is that there are no wasted parts of this book. It's dense. Everything serves the story. Everything keeps moving. There are no forays into intensive detail, no historical background that goes unused. The characters are believable, even when they make surprising moves. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing. I felt connected to the characters and was genuinely proud of their personal growth, genuinely interested in what would happen to them.

It amazed me how many characters there were, yet the way they were introduced, I never got them mixed up or confused.