Rating: 
Summary: Pure enjoyment...
Review: I'm giving this four instead of five stars because it's absolutely a blast of a juicy, gossipy "women's" book, which most of us women love; as for the actual writing - it's not Toni Morrison, okay? Indeed, as one reviewer below has written, it's a little disconcerting when Americans don't speak like Americans. We don't use expressions like "the lot of them" and "I'm off to the store," etc. - things like that. You have to wonder - don't these famous writers get edited?Still - this is a much more fun potboiler/soap opera than (ick) Danielle Steele, as another reviewer recommended. Danielle Steele's adjectives are, typically: "fabulous" - "fantastic" - "incredible" - "marvelous." As they say, never underestimate the reading taste of the American public! As far as I'm concerned, Pilcher is right up (or down) there with Danielle Steele. But Maeve Binchy was recommended to me years ago by a highly erudite librarian who read everything from Shakespeare to Joyce. Thus, when Tara Road came my way in the form of an unabridged audio tape read by Jenny Sterlin, I figured I'd take a chance, and man - couldn't get enough of it. It's easy listening, but as smooth as Irish coffee laced with Hagendaas ice cream.
Rating: 
Summary: YOU MUST READ !
Review: "Tara Road" is one of the most enjoyable book I have read. It is the story of the inner growth of two women: Ria & Maryline. Ria is an Irish woman who lives in Tara Road (a residential area in Dublin) with her husband,Danny, and two children. Their marriage is very happy until she discovers that he's going to have a baby with his new teenager girlfriend. Maryline is an American woman who wants to escape from her house and her husband because they remind her of the recent death of her son. Thanks to a chance phone call these two women decide to swap their houses for two months. It is through this experience that they both grow and becone more mature and stronger than before because in this period they share friends, habits and also learn awful secrets about each other. However, they both decide not to reveal them in order not to wrek each other's hopes.It is very easy for a foreigner student of English to read this book because the language is everyday and fluent. There are many dialogues which let the reader identify with the characters. So I strongly advise everybody to read it!
Rating:
Summary: Tara Road
Review: I enjoyed this book,I have shared it with several other people. After reading this book they all want to know; Is there a sequel? Thought you could answer this for use.
Thank you Mary
Rating: 
Summary: One of Binchy's Best But Still....
Review: I'm starting to think that Maeve Binchy has only written one novel and that she merely changes the title. WHY is her opinion of men and marriage so skewered (especially taking into consideration the fact that she dedicates every book to her husband)???????? This book was, admittedly, one of Binchy's better efforts, but her continuing theme of "girl-meets-boy-girl-marries/becomes involved with-boy-boy-cheats-on-girl-every-chance-he-gets-preferably-with-girl's-best-friend" is tiresome and depressing (i.e. I have yet to read a Binchy novel where this ISN'T the substance of the plot... and I've read them all). I could see the end coming from miles away and, really, didn't think the protagonist deserved all that much of a pat on the back. The subplot of drug addiction (of a character barely acknowledged by the author) and Ria's desire to have her own business (her husband isn't stopping her... she's just too lazy) are mere page-filling fluff and the entire house swap is a little much. Overall, a nice bathtub/before bed read but nothing compelling or original.
Rating:
Summary: Maeve Binchy has a way of making me "see" her characters!
Review: I love the way that I can envision Ria, Gertie, Rosemary,Colm and all of the other wonderful characters in "Tara Road"... At first I thought that the beginning of the book was too long, but I realized that it was necessary to really make me understand and care about Ria and her life, and everyone that revolves around her unique home. Binchy first made me ache to travel to Ireland when I read "Circle of Friends", and now with this contemporary Dublin setting, I'm seriously yearning to go. She makes things so easy to envision!! I stayed up late at night and got up early in the morning to enjoy all 502 pages. I'm hoping for a sequel, as I don't want to leave Ria's life-- I'd like to follow the next 20 years of it. This is a wonderful story, full of memorable, diverse characters whose lives are perfectly entwined by the "master" of slice-of-life writing. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: merely lukewarm
Review: This was a book that appeared to be in by a deadline. Characters were not fully developed.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the Read
Review: This book was worth the read. The characters were diverse and rich; the backstabbing targeted at the main character Ria was incredible. The only part I did not like was that Ria was so incredibly innocent, never suspecting friends and husband to the very end. I suspected certain affairs before they were ever made known within the book. I think Ria is much more intelligent than the author allowed. This woman should have never been subjected to so much betrayal, because the character was smart enough to know better. It was not the betrayal that I found unbelievable, but instead, the fact that Ria did not realize the betrayal.
Rating:
Summary: As long as you don't read the liner notes, you'll be fine
Review: I was really looking forward to reading this for book club as SO disappointed when it drug on and on and on... The problem? I read the liner notes. Now, silly me... I sort of expect that when the liner notes go into a lot of detail, I kind of expected all that to happen in the first chapter and then, the book would carry on from there. Not in this case. The book took up where the liner notes left off at roughly page 350! Had I NOT read the liner notes, I would have enjoyed the story very much. It was detailed, full of interesting characters and unusual--but plausible--situations. I agree with the reviewer who said, She ain't Toni Morrison. Right-O. If your expectation is esapist chick lit, then you'll be quite happy. If you're expecting literary material, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Very intriguing...
Review: book. Hard to put down. Characters all brilliant and well worth the read. Lots of twists and never dull. Left me with a lot of questions; like there was going to be a sequel but I don't know if I would read the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it until the end!
Review: Ria was a wonderful character. A great wife, mother and friend to everyone around her. I found it to be a shame that her friends weren't as loyal to her. But because of all of the circumstances that she finds herself in, she is stronger and wiser in the end. It left me longing for a sequel. Everything seemed to come to a halt rather abruptly without resolution. That is the reason that I only gave it a 4 instead of a 5 star rating.
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