Search - Tara Road

Genre: Romance

This was my first Maeve Binchy book and I moderately enjoyed it. The setting was Dublin, Ireland, which was beautifully described. Ria and her husband fall in love with the house of their dreams. Miraculously they are able to find the way to afford it, move in, and start a family. Just as Ria thinks everything is coming together, her husband drops a bomb shell on her; he is leaving her. In response to this, Ria decides to take up the suggestion by a woman in America to trade homes for the summer. What will this trade do for the lives of these two women?

I enjoyed the description of the country of Ireland and the careful details of the house on Tara Road. The audiobook version was narrated by a woman with a convincing accent. Although this is a romance technically, it is really about the breakdown of a romance.

While I initially enjoyed the story, I had several problems with it. I feel that only some of the characters were well developed while others were sort of left as incomplete shadows. I had a deep understanding of Ria and really connected with her – although I have had none of her experiences. At the opposite extreme, I could not connect at all with the woman that she trades houses with. I felt that all of a sudden this woman was thrust on the reader without any background story and she was expected to be a large part of the story. Upon the house switching storyline (about halfway through) I lost interest in the book.

I don’t seem to be having much luck in the romance genre, I’m not sure if I will read another one any time soon. I would recommend the audiobook to anyone wanting to read this as I think I would have lost interest much quicker if it was a printed copy.

3 out of 5 stars