Rating: 
Summary: Maeve Binchy' s Tara Road is well worth the ride
Review: Ladies do yourself a favor and treat yourself to this wonderful story about two women with very different life styles who live in completely different environments but through a very unusual set of circumstances meet and become involved in each other's life......This wonderful book lives up to all my expectations of this fine author's literary work...My only complaint is I loaned the book to my shopping buddy and on President's Day she chose to stay home because she just could not put the book down!
Rating: 
Summary: Worst of Maeve Binchy
Review: Although Maeve Binchy is a "lightweight" writer," I usually buy her books her "hardback" because the character descriptions are good and "alive." This was the worst Maeve Binchy book I have ever read and I've read them all. It was predictable, redundant and the characters were stereotyped. Read her earlier books; they are much, much better!
Rating: 
Summary: Another great read from Maeve.
Review: I have been an avid reader of Maeve Binchy's novels over the years and am proud to say that I own a copy of all of them. Even thought Tara Road is not my favourite (that goes to Firefly Summer or Circle of Friends) it's a great read. In true Binchy style, it's filled with great characters, amusing dialogues and the ability to suck you right into the heart of the story. I know I've enjoyed a story when I'm sad that it finishes, when I wish that it was a whole series so I could sticky beak into their lives some more. You feel like you want to share a cup of tea and a bit of a chat with Ria in that kitchen of hers! I was rather suprised that it was chosen for Oprah's Book Club though, did anyone else think that?
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Summary: Chemically Identical to Seconal--bottle it and sell it
Review: The story is boring and ridiculous. How can one's marriage be storybook perfect right up to the moment that one's husband announces his intentions to marry a pregnant chippy? Poor Ria's character was so underdeveloped that she couldn't see what we all knew from page one was coming. Furthermore, nothing induces me to care. Also evident and unchanging from the beginning is that Rosemary is a one-dimensional scum-bag. I have never abandoned a book mid-read, but this one sorely tests me.
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Summary: Makes me want to visit!
Review: The characters, fascinating... the descriptions, vivid... the premise, compelling. A real page turner, this one. Tough to put down. My only disappointment: the final few pages. Some of the scenes (the last meeting with Danny, the encounter with Mona and Barney) didn't really add to the story. I had hoped the author would use those pages to tie up more loose ends. When they make the movie (and they will!) bet ya the ending will change to the obvious one. Otherwise movie goers who fall in love with these characters will throw popcorn at the screen.
Rating:
Summary: ENTERTAINING LIGHT READ
Review: I found Tara Road to be an enjoyable book and a relatively quick read. It was my first Maeve Binchy novel, and I think that perhaps I will now read another one. Some things in the book were rather predictable, however. For example, as another reviewer noted, it was certainly no surprise that Danny was Rosemary's "mysterious" lover.One odd thing - on the dust jacket it says that Ria finds herself missing Colm more and more while she is away living in Marilyn's house. Excuse me, but did I miss something? It didn't seem to me that Ria thought very much (if at all) about Colm while she was in the United States. Did she? Anyway, I would recommend this book to all who are looking for some pleasant fun, as opposed to a great work of literature.
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Summary: Couldn't put it down, but...
Review: I read this heavy tome in 2 days - staying up until 3 am and then reading it at lunch. But I had one problem with it - the reader was informed of everything going on in Ria's and Marilyn's life except for the biggest thing (don't want to spoil it TOO much)which was unleashed on me as a huge surprise. All in all, though, a good read. It made me think, cry, laugh, and want to know these fabulous women!
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Summary: Rambling, repetitious and melodramatic
Review: I'm no literary snob --- there are many popular novelists whose work I quite enjoy --- but I think this book, to put it bluntly, sucked, for many of the reasons already pointed out by other readers. Apart from the two-dimensionality of most of the characters, the book truly could have benefitted from a good editing job to delete the numerous redundancies. (How many times, and in how many ways, do we have to be told that Ria's friend Rosemary is beautiful and successful and famous, or that Ria herself is the undisputed goddess of domesticity?) In addition, Ms. Binchy, skilled as she may be in Britspeak and Irishspeak, seems to have no ear for American English, as also pointed out by at least one other reader. I, too, was surprised that Oprah picked this one; most of her choices have leaned more toward the contemporary literary-fiction type. This may be unfair, but after reading Tara Road, I am fairly certain I will not be picking up another Binchy novel any time soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to put down
Review: I read the book in two days. The characters were so well written you just had to know how their stories unfold. At times there doesn't seem to be a mystery of what's happening to them or going to happen. But like a good soap opera plot, you just had to know whether you're right or wrong. Thus, you read on and on. The way some events turn out isn't the way you imagined it would. All in all, if a book is hard to put down, then it's definitely a good read.
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Summary: Elegant, Up-to-Date Story
Review: Tara Road, by Maeve Binchy, read by Terry Donnelly. Although I enjoyed it the first time in hard back (before "O" selected it) I also snatched up the recorded version, despite the abridgement. The reader is excellent, though Kate Binchy is still my favorite, with mild Irish tones and smooth transitions between characters. The abridgement was done with surgical skill - I was aware of the missing pieces, but the story never suffered for it. This would be an excellent introduction to Books on Tape, as well to the human foibles that Maeve Binchy writes so kindly and sincerely about. This author has a magic to showing the reader what makes each character "tick" and assuring us all that we can be lovable despite ourselves.
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