Rating: 
Summary: Not Her Best
Review: Always with Maeve Binchy there is great detail in the description of characters. So much so that you feel as though you know every one of them. They become like old friends, in most of her books. Scarlet Feather, though filled with great characters, lacked the great story line of her other books.My favorites in the book were the adorable twins, who you had to love by the end. But the story moved slowly in parts, then suddenly a lot of things happen at once. I believe I've read every one of her books. This is not one of my favorites. I did love Circle of Friends though. There is a great one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read
Review: As a huge fan of the first Maeve Binchy book that I read, Tara Road, Scarlet Feather did not disappoint me. I couldn't put the book down and felt like I got to know every one of the characters. Excellent poolside read!
Rating:
Summary: A Scarlet Tapestry
Review: This book is richly filled with the types of characters and everday life situations that make Maeve Binchy books so wonderful to read. While the plot is not riveting, the character development and handling of the various life crises are so beautifully handled that it doesn't matter that this book is just about everyday life and everyday people. In fact, you like the book BECAUSE it is about everyday life and everyday people. Anyone who cannot find a character to relate to in this book must lead a sad and boring life. I thought the scenes involving Marian's wedding plans were particularly funny and poignant. If you like Maeve Binchy's very particular style, you will absolutely love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Scarlet Feathers
Review: The book has several good plots in it but it took too long to develope each of them. Each plot was interesting and kept me in suspense as to the outcome. But,the events went on too long before I knew how the plot would end. There were too many charaters, places and events to remember and keep organized in my mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Who wrote this book??? It can't be Maeve Binchy.
Review: When I saw that Maeve Binchy had a new book out, I was so excited that I stopped reading a very good book to start this one. What a waste of time and money, and I bought it in hardcover, no less. The characters are really caricatures and the plot was so boring that I reluctantly stopped reading. There are too many great books out there to waste your time with this. I have read all of her books and I truly find it hard to believe that she actually wrote this book. It is nothing like her rich and well developed past books, and I was totally disappointed. Our entire book club could not finish this book. I must add that any of her past books are terrific and she has brought me many hours of reading pleasure in the past. Perhaps my expectations were too high.
Rating: 
Summary: An Easy, Entertaining Read
Review: Scarlet Feather, like all Maeve Binchy books, is filled with predictable characters and situations, lovingly drawn. You know from the beginning that relationships will fail, new, better ones will begin, and everything will turn out for the best. While it isn't great literature, it is fulfilling escapism. So, as long as you know what you are getting into, this story of two friends and their catering business in Ireland is a fun and enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Even Though Not As Gripping As Earlier Novels
Review: If you are thinking of reading your first Binchy novel, I wouldn't start here. Go to her earlier work, which is her very best, such as "Glass Lake" or "Circle of Friends." However, if you've read all of Binchy's work, as I have, then this is a very good novel that you will find entertaining. Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather are catering partners in Dublin. Most people think they are also married but they are not. Cathy is married to a civil liberties barrister, who is totally uninvolved with his personal life, and Tom is living with a woman who will do anything, yes anything, to get a modeling career. These relationships, in short, are headed for big trouble. As usual, Binchy also involves Tom's and Cathy's Mum and Dad, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, colleagues, friends and associates in the story, enmeshing them all in the plot line. She is one of the few authors who can carry off a large cast of characters without making a mess of the novel by losing the thread of the story line. Cathy and her parents must also take on her husband's young cousins. Their parents are being evaluated by social services as unfit and you will rapidly come to the conclusion that social services is giving these parents way too many chances. These 8 year olds, Simon and Maud, almost steal the show they are such great characters. Because of their odd home life with their wholly unreliable but upperclass parents, they are terribly serious and literal about everything and this leads to plot twists that are the most entertaining in the book. Of course the big question becomes whether Cathy and Tom will personally move into a relationship since everyone else thinks they are so perfect for one another. You'll have to read the book to find out the answer to that question! I know nothing about the catering business but found it fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Get on with it!
Review: Rubbish, I can't beleive that Binchy has got so bad with her writing. The book was too long and painstakingly slow. Just like her last book Tara Road, my only thought was "Get on with it"
Rating: 
Summary: One Step Down
Review: I love Maeve Binchy, but this latest book just didn't capture my interest like the others I have read. I didn't get very involved with each of the characters, and I ended up not really caring much at all about Cathy's and Tom's catering company. I think there is too little time and too many books- if you start this book and are not fully captivated by it within the first 100 pages, put it down fast.
Rating:
Summary: Maeve's written one too many
Review: I had heard that this novel was to be Binchy's last. Unfortunately I think she should have quit a couple of books ago. TARA ROAD was marginal, but SCARLET FEATHER is just plain awful. The plot line is so thin you can see through it. The characters are shallow, uninteresting, and self-absorbed - with the exception of the sainted Muttie and Lizzie who are drawn as caricatures of working class Irish, to the point of being insulting. The fast-action style of cutting from one character to another may work in the movies, but is oddly out of place in a novel of this sort. Too bad Binchy didn't quit with THE GLASS LAKE - now there was a fine book!
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