by Cathy Kelly (HarperCollins) ISBN 978000737628
Tess and Suki are sisters who grew up in a beautiful house in a small Irish town, which they had to sell when they could no longer afford living there.
Their old house is bought by Cashel, the son of their nanny. Tess, whose marriage is falling apart, is the owner of an antique shop. Suki has led a turbulent life as the wife of an affluent American politician and the mistress of a rock star and returns to the small town to support her sister.
The best part of the book was the story of the post-mistress, Danae whose life is destroyed by something that happened in the past. The impact that this has on her soul was for me the most interesting bit and I wish Kelly had developed the other characters more and made them as convincing as Danae’s.
Unfortunately Kelly can be repetitive and contradictory and the story was a bit slow. The ending is predictable, but maybe occasionally that is just what readers need in their lives: nothing complicated.
Kelly is called the new Maeve Binchy, but I don’t think this book was very successful and I don’t understand why this is a number one bestseller.
Pauline Vijverberg
2/5