Those who know me are going to say I’m biased because I’m reviewing a book by one of my own people so of course I’m going to think highly of anything written by an Irish woman. Everyone knows I think all the Irish have been gifted supernaturally to be excellent storytellers AND it’s being put out by an Irish publisher on top of it.

BUT! You would be wrong, well a little bit wrong. Of course I wanted to review it because it’s by one of the most amazing women to set the gold standard for Women’s Fiction in Ireland. Thankfully though, I don’t have to use a thesaurus to look up the antonyms of whatever I think to provide a glowing review just to keep up the idea that the Irish can’t write bad books. Thank you Ms. O’Brien for saving my butt by writing a worthy novel that is perfect to have at the ready as the summer holidays approach.

She writes about relationships, love, heartbreak, grief, parenting, faith, family and how fragile everything can be. It is definitely a character driven novel with a whole lot of them but she develops each of them with ease from the beginning and keeps them and their stories from falling over a cliff. I loved how she set up the relationships between the various family members because I could see a lot of similarities with my own family which caught me laughing and shaking my head at times.

Overall this covered the emotional spectrum with the perfect twist to keep you wanting to read til the end. You can’t help but get pulled into and ride out the journey with laughter and tears as you discover O’Brien has earned her reputation for being one of the best Fiction writers of the Emerald Isle.

Daniel O’Connell has brought his twin boys, Pat and Sean with him to Ballyanna Ireland to research a documentary he’s working on. He’s also hoping to find a way for both he and his sons to recover from the death of his wife. their mother. Sean has not spoken a word since his mother’s death and Daniel can only pray for a miracle. Annie has returned home to Ballyanna following the disastrous implosion of her love life and plans to help her mom with the running of their hotel to help take her mind off her lover’s duplicitous actions. This is a beautifully written story about family and home. O’Brien made me want to spend some time in Ballyanna in the wonderful world she created.