I find Maeve Binchy novels relaxing even when they have sadness and a bit of stress and upheaval in them. Tara road is very much about women's friendships and how important they are and how they are such a source of strength. Tara road is very much about the importance of friendships and I really like that about the book.

Pis rosmary

Thoroughly enjoyable 'summer book'. Not too heavy, but not a mindless waste of time either. Her mastery as a storyteller is obvious.

This was my first Maeve Binchy book years ago and I fell in love with her writing.
Reading it now feels just the same. The way she writes her female characters, the emotions she evokes and just the storytelling itself are all so good.

The reason I like this book is very complicated, but you'll love it. This is definitely a chick lit book about a woman who lives in Dublin, runs a Bed & Breakfast with her lazy husband. She is real busy working all the time, taking care of her kids. Come to find out, her husband is having an affair with her best friend.
Now for the reason I liked this book. I read it and it was ok. My mother had given me a hard cover copy. I had a best friend who was a big time athlete and not much of a reader but I thought she'd like it because it moved fast and was light weight. She never read it but returned it years later after I found out she was having an affair with my husband.

Maeve Binchy will always be Maeve Binchy- a light vacation read full of a half billion characters and narratives, set in Ireland. The themes will be family, community, and finding yourself and everything will work out in the end. That may sound like I'm complaining, but I'm not. The stories are always well woven, the characters well rounded, and I LIKE pretty bows at the end of my books. Tara Road isnt my favorite, but it's exactly what I signed up for when I opened it.

I was positively wallowing in Tara Road, in the gorgeous house, the lives of the huge cast of characters, all their personal dramas and foibles, some great to hate and some to love -- just a great, delicious, mesmerizing soap opera. Maeve Binchy was blessed with amazing imagination and storytelling ability.

It's a fun book for the long, cold days of winter. Get this book, a blanket, and your favorite beverage, then let it snow!

This reads like an Irish version of Fried Green Tomatoes. Good read, but long!

Another well-rounded novel about community and self-discovery from Maeve Binchy. Tara Road's plot takes a bit longer to get going compared to other Binchy novels that I've read (you can only read about property development for so long), but the story line picks up in the second half of the book once Ria and Marilyn swap places and begin reconciling their own inner pains amidst their temporarily adopted communities. Binchy again displays mastery of crafting believable characters in heart breaking and heart warming stories.

Ovaj puta sam išla na sigurno sa Maeve Binchy... Volim kako ona piše, tako da tu nema nekih iznenađenja..Knjiga samo može biti više ili manje dobra.. Ova je, eto više dobra.. Mislim da vas je većina upoznata sa njezinim knjigama, a tko još nije..pa, vrijeme bi bilo da se upoznate.. Kuća u Ulici Tara bila bi izvrsna za početak...

I've read this book over and over; Maeve Binchy -- who, I was distressed to learn, passed away earlier this year -- always gives this reader her money's worth. While I've enjoyed all of her novels, this remains my favorite. Definitely light reading, but her characters (new and recurring) are always so appealing, the plots always interesting, and her descriptions of Irish life, whether in the countryside or in Dublin, always compelling. Don't be surprised if you start asking people to "mark your card" rather than asking for advice, referring to blankets as rugs or sweaters as jumpers, and describing self-importantly people as "jumped-up" after reading a few of her books!

Binchy is one of my favorite authors and I think this is my favorite of her books. Great for a vacation read. She always wraps her stories up in nice little bows at the end, which may not generally be what would happen in reality, but I think that's why I like it - she's good at reminding people that things always work out in the end. Also, she has really strong female characters, or ones who start out weak but find strength, usually through other great women characters, which is always something I appreciate.