Rating: 
Summary: I thought it was very good
Review: This is the best book I've read since The Triumph and the Glory and that was way back in March. The quality of the writing is just superb. The characters so unrelentingly vivid they become as familiar as family. A very good book, I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Best novel I had read in many years
Review: I enjoyed reading Tara Road and the excellent way Maeve Binchy intertwines the lives of all connected to Tara Road.This was the first book by this author and can't wait to start the next one!
Rating:
Summary: Superb and elegantly written
Review: Maeve Binchy writes like no other writer. Her characters so so much alive that one actually feel as if he/she is in the story as well. It is a superb tale about a woman with a scum for a husband and another with a dark secret. Buy it, you won't regret it!
Rating: 
Summary: Characters you grow to know
Review: I'm not usually big on books that delve into the private lives of people in modern day towns. In fact I only read this book because it was given to me as a gift. But I really enjoyed it. Binchy describes the characters in a very clever way - you learn more about them as their lives progress, and that's how life is. Highly recommended, and not just for women.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: I love how the character's lives were woven together into a wonderful tapestry. And finally! An Oprah book blissfully divoid of foul language!
Rating:
Summary: Crushingly eye-opening
Review: I so enjoyed getting to know the characters in this book. I thought about them often and was sad when the book ended. The book gave a painful look inside the life of someone that most would envy. It certainly gave us stay-at-home mothers something to think about.
Rating: 
Summary: good potential but insubstantial
Review: This is one of those books that you really wish were better than it is. The narrative is just intriguing enough to keep you reading to the end, but the characterizations are pretty shallow and there is some needless and not very subtle foreshadowing of events, which end up as a let down because there just isn't that much going on in the book. Time and time again I wished that the heroine, Ria, was less passive passenger and more captain in her own journey. Basically an enjoyable easy read but not one you're likely to remember in the long term.
Rating:
Summary: Fresh journey from Ireland to America and back.
Review: While reading this book, I had to keep reminding myself that the story takes place in this century. For some reason, during the chapters that occur in Ireland, I kept thinking I was in a time gone past. Ms. Binchy's prose, and this is her first work I have read, is often quaint, and simple. I must confess, I enjoyed the Ireland parts better perhaps because I have a fondness for Ireland. Her characters were rich and well woven and I found myself indeed caring for the outcome. A nice book to read by the fire and another reason to visit Ireland someday.
Rating:
Summary: I kept waiting and waiting for the story to begin!
Review: From the reviews of Tara Road, I expected the book to evolve around two women and their exchange of homes. I eagerly started the book, curious how this exchange would occur. Chapter 1, then Chapter 2, I read more and more, still waiting. Well over half of the book was read before the story truly began. Don't get me wrong, the first of the book isn't poorly written, but it is very slow-moving. Tara Road has two very distinct parts. The first gives us a thorough, sometimes sophomoric account of Ria and Danny's marriage. The second, which I found much more enjoyable, tells how Ria and Marilyn come to exchange homes and heal wounds from major hurts in their lives.
Rating: 
Summary: Trashy novel dressed up with an impressive cover
Review: I was terribly disappointed in this work. I read it for a book club I am in, and, had it not been for the book club, would have never finished. I trudged on through every long, boring page, only to find that the ending was every bit as unimpressive as the rest of the story. I am amazed that such a poorly written book with no real substance is loved by so many.
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