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Summary: A Novel of Secrets and Betrayal
Review: Tara Road is the home of Ria and Danny Lynch. There they move in and work on the huge elaborate home to make it their dream. Ria, a stay-at-home mom, endlessly smiling to keep up her house and the happiness of her children and work-a-holic husband. Everything seems perfect to Ria until her world comes crashing down on her when Danny tells her he is leaving for another woman.A chance phone call gives Ria the opportunity to swap homes with an American woman for the Summer. Ria sees this house exchange as a chance to get away from her problems and eagerly jumps on the opportunity. The American woman has secrets of her own she is running away from. In different countries, in different homes, these women find their strength and courage and who they really are.
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Summary: Irish tale of love, life, despair and renewal
Review: Maeve Binchy weaves another strong Irish tale of love, life, despair and renewal. Tara Road is a contemporary novel set on the streets of Dublin. The story pivots around the life and love of Danny and Ria, from their beginnings through their troubled times. They start their life with the purchase of a beautiful older home that Danny foresees as a house of possibilities and immense potential, just like he views his own life, starting from nowhere and reaching the highest peaks. Maeve Binchy creates people that strike a chord in our hearts. Rosemary, so beautiful and committed to work, Gertie, married to an abusive alcoholic, Marilyn coping with a sad past, Colm and his sister, hiding a secret while running a restaurant, Hillary, thrifty in life, in love and in her dreams, and Ria's mom, a woman of strong opinions freely shared. Danny and Ria's children are almost too real, mothers everywhere will recognize a touch of their own children in them. All the "sidestories" bring a fullness to the story and open your eyes to a world of love, despair, hope and inner strength and the value of true friendship.
Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous ... Loved It!
Review: This book is fabulous! All I want is an enjoyable book to read at night before I go to bed to wind down after a busy day - and this book fits the bill perfectly. The characters are wonderful, and interesting and you can't help but get involved in their story from the very start. It's also a really "meaty" novel. By this I mean, the story is well developed, goes where you want it to go, you find out how each issue is resolved and you aren't disppointed when the book ends ... their are no loose ends that leave you thinking "where's the rest of the book"? Highly recommended if you are looking for an enjoyable easy to read novel.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: If you don't read any of Binchy's other books make sure you read Tara Road and Echoes. They are both phenomenal reads. I ended up staying up until almost 4 to finish Tara Road. While I was a little tired at work the next day it was definitely worth it.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book! But We Need A Continuation!
Review: I really enjoyed Tara Road thoroughly! This is one of Binchy's best as I have heard from other readers. It is all about two sisters, Hilary and Ria. In the beginning they live with their widowed mother Nora. Then the girls each meet a man. Hilary gets married to the kind down-to-earth Martin, and Ria meets up with Danny at her job. Danny is a little too smooth. Beneath that cool smile there's waters deep. You have to read to know what I mean here. Anyhow, Danny says they will have an expensive house on Tara Road, and Ria wonders how. Danny pulled some strings to get in there. They go on as a family, later having two children.
Later on though there is a devastating betrayal that happens to Ria and she doesn't know how to get through it. It so happens at this time, that another woman gets in contact with Ria for an opportunity to exchange homes for the summer. This gives Ria some solace, and taking this other woman up on it, she goes to the US and the other woman, Marilyn, moves into Ria's house on Tara Road in Ireland. What these two woman gain from the exchange is remarkable.
I left out parts of the story in my review here. You will need to read to find out how it's really put together. You won't be disappointed!!
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: There's no doubt Maeve Binchy is the best of all authors from English-speaking countries. No one can beat her. "Tara Road" is just a sample of such fact - this book made me learn what the word "engrossing" really means. I could hardly stop reading it - everything is so vivid - the places, the characters, the dialogues, the situations... I was so absorbed by the story that I completely forgot the time. I was so involved with the whole thing that after hours reading it, when I tried to fall asleep, I kept dreaming about Ria - I was so worried and sorry for her, she seemed so real to me, I couldn't stop thinking of her final destiny - not even when I was fast asleep.
The plot is wonderful and convincing, Ria's son is a real character and has us readers in fits of laughter. The scene when Ria and Marilyn meet for the first time made me burst into tears. I also specially liked the parts when they visit a fortune-teller, it was an interesting feature, because here in Brazil we have lots of mystical elements in our culture. Danny Linchy (Ria's husband) is a real .... (excuse my French) - I wish he had been a bit more "punished" in the end, unfortunately he wasn't and that's a pity, but that's OK - many times in real life people like him manage to get away with it anyhow. I was glad when I finished this book because I could finally have less disturbed nights of sleep - but I thoroughly enjoyed every page, paragraph and word of this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Lack of creativity
Review: Having read two books (Evening Class & Tara Road) by this author, I was overwhelmed by the similarities. In fact, it became distracting and predictable. Reading summaries of her others raises questions in regard to her level of creativity. In a nutshell, Binchy's material has lots of little dramas going on, yet nothing gripping to capture the reader's interest. Feels like someone is simply letting the reader in on the town gossip. Tara Road is such a thick book, yet has so little to contribute. Being paid by the word, perhaps? Amazon[.com] ratings scale: 2 stars = Disappointing
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Summary: Assembly Line Maeve Binchey
Review: Average Maeve Binchey is still a good read because of her sense of place, relationships, and all the different characters, but this book seems a little bit feeble to me. The big secrets the two women discover about each other are pat and don't really resonate. Their whole friendship is kind of contrived. The book isn't nearly as vivid as her best books, which are, IMO, Circle of Friends and The Glass Lake. This reads like a book she pumped out on contract, like she had no story to tell but came up with one and then shoved in her usual heartwarming formulas. I found the heroine Ria irritating for most of the book. Don't know if we're meant to take her as innocent instead, but she's the kind of woman who can only see things one way, assumes everyone close to her sees things that way too, and if any contrary evidence reaches her ears or is in front of her face, she totally rejects it. She never pursues any line of conversation that is outside her way of thinking - it can't be taken seriously or be really happening. No woman should have her husband cheat but the shock Ria felt was absurd, considering everything she had shut out. She's willfully blind and when you imagine knowing somebody like her you think she'd be one of those people who are complacent and out of it and edit out anything they don't want to hear. If they don't understand it, it can't be happening, which is a kind of arrogance. Ria isn't meant to be arrogant, but her complacency and dismissal of anything that impinges on her own points of view *is*.
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Summary: Been there, done that...
Review: Here's something bizarre: while reading "Tara Road", the lyrics of an old, cheesy pop song kept coming to me. They go something like this: "words don't come easy to me..." Well, these lyrics stuck to my head, I think, because it's the complete opposite with Binchy. Words come easy, very easy to her!! This book is long, & I think definitely too long for the actual content. The story is not bad at all: Two women, Ria & Marilyn. One Irish, living in Dublin. The other American, living in Stoneyfield or whatever it's called. Both trapped in a very bad situation, a life crisis of some sort. So far, so good. There's also a large supporting cast of characters, which are all vividly drawn, as are the main characters. One basic characteristic of all Binchy's books is the fact that the reader is instantly drawn in the characters' world, in their everyday lives. This happens in "Tara Road" too...But there's a catch: these everyday lives of these everyday people are, I'm afraid, not that interesting. One thing that disappointed me is Ria's stupidity, or naivite (if I want to be kinder). All sorts of cheating & infidelity & deceit happens under her nose. But Ria, angelic Ria, doesn't understand a thing. She keeps on cooking & baking in her delightful, homey, filled-with-people kitchen, & doesn't have a clue about anything. This to me is, to say the least, insulting to the reader's intelligence. I mean, come on, how stupid can this woman be? And OK, she's naive, she's innocent, she's angelic & only thinks kind thoughts. But Binchy could at least give us a satisfying ending. I won't go into details, but I can say this: there's no sense of closure in the end, no sense of understanding or seeing things clearly. Yes, Ria has grown & changed after coming back from the States. But her blindness when it comes to her husband is very much the same. As for the other main character, Marilyn, I think she's probably thrown in the story to (supposedly) make it more colourful, more international. But, as many reviewers have noted, Marilyn & her American friends use, surprisingly, Irish expressions! Plus, there's essentially no description of America & Ria's surroundings there, except of course a detailed description of Marilyn's house. It may sound that I didn't like the book: it's not true, I did enjoy it & read it easily in a couple of days, at the beach. But if I had to say one thing about it, it would be that this is a retelling of the same old story that Binchy writes. After reading some of her other books, "Tara Road" seemed like words, words, words that came to no satisfying conclusion...
Rating:
Summary: A lovely book to get lost in.
Review: This novel won't disappoint Binchy fans. It's easy to get caught up in the characters' lives and the goings-on at Tara Road. Underneath, it's a story about a number of strong women and the different life choices they make. However, it's also full of enough gossipy details to make you feel like you're one of their many neighbors. A great, quick summer read.
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