READ THIS: The House on Willow Street by Cathy Kelly Our Coverage Sponsored by Cosmopolitan Dental, Official Dentist of Whom You Know
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Dr. Garo Nazarian is a Mover and Shaker:
Garo is half Irish and like Peachy, attended the most Irish Catholic college in America: Boston College!
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We're well into summer here in Manhattan, and on Fridays, summer means scooting out the door before 5pm (actually, if you live here and have a real job, that could make you laugh. Perhaps we should say before 8pm or so in contrast to other weekdays?) and leaving your corporate life behind for some much-needed fun in the sun. You absolutely need a beach read that will entertain you with witty writing, complex characters and a plot that will enchant you, and The House on Willow Street is all that and more. Cathy Kelly is the latest and greatest big hit (for us....this is her 13th bestseller - Cathy we would love to catch up on the other 12 we missed!) to come out of the Emerald Isle, home to the best writers and storytellers in the world. You know the reason why Whom You Know has had success is obviously since Peachy Deegan personally kissed the Blarney Stone. In The House on Willow Street, don't let the 400 plus pages frighten you; this lyric tale goes along much more speedily than you'd anticipate.
If you read READ THIS closely, you'll see we feature few writers of fiction, because not as many of them entrance us as much as F. Scott Fitzgerald, our most favorite, and obviously Irish too. Truth be told, Peachy would be fine with sitting on the beach and reading Tender is the Night or The Great Gatsby for the 129th time rather than some new trendy book that is supposedly by the next latest and greatest that we might not like. It is much more difficult for us to find laudable works of untruth than the solid, factual types in print inbetween two hard covers. We guarantee you'll love Cathy Kelly.
If you have lived in Ireland, you will relate to what is going on in these scenes and if you have not, they'll just want to make you go that much more. They are a sharp contrast to the hustle and bustle that is signature Manhattan, however, Manhattan in August is a bit slower than most of the crazy, super busy times of the year so perhaps now we are at our most Ireland-like in terms of pace. (not weather though!) Reading this book is like taking a vacation even if you are only putting your feet up in your own living room coffee table.
We read The House on Willow Street prior to Maeve Binchy's passing, and we'd like to dedicate this review in her memory. Peachy did meet Maeve in Boston during a Tara Road booksigning and has read all of her books since seeing the movie Circle of Friends ages ago. Cathy Kelly is most like Maeve of any author, Irish or not, we've read so if you like Maeve we believe you'll adore Cathy as well. Cathy is a total peach and this is not the only post you'll be reading on her.
The characters will become more and more endearing with each turn of the page. You'll find yourself personally cheering for your favorites and seeing how they confront their own challenges of life. We hesitate to go into much detail because we don't want to unweave the plot in front of you and deny you the pleasure of discovering it all for yourself. What we will say though is if you're going to pick one book to take to the beach this weekend, this should be it.
One question for Cathy: Where is Avalon??? We cannot find it in Ireland.
This book proves that 13 is not an unlucky number.
Whom You Know Highly Recommends The House on Willow Street!
Be sure to read it on the beach this weekend.
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The natural heir to Maeve Binchy returns, with four women and four complicated
pasts...
Tess lives in the idyllic Irish coastal village, Avalon, with her teenage son, Zach and nine-year-old
Kitty, and works in the local antiques shop. Her only regret in life is that everything went so horribly
wrong with her first love. Then her marriage falls apart and her first love returns to Avalon.
Suki, Tess’s sister, fled Ireland years ago to marry politician Kyle Richardon, but when Suki discovers
that a biographer is planning to tell all, there is only one place she can go to ensure her secrets stay
hidden.
Danae is the village post mistress and she’s worked very hard to make sure nobody knows where she
came from or who she is… Her past is her business and that’s the way she would like to keep it.
In Galway, Mara sits with a smile glued to her face at a wedding. She only wants to ask the groom one
thing: why did he tell her he loved her? Needing to put her past behind her, Mara packs up her life and
gets ready for a fresh start.
Can these four women lay their pasts to rest? Or do they need to look back before they can begin to
live for the future?
About the Author
Born in Belfast, Cathy always wanted to write and after studying journalism went
to work at one of Ireland's national Sunday newspapers. Her first novel, Woman
to Woman, went straight in to the Irish bestseller list and stayed there for 8 weeks.
To date she has written 13 novels including The House on Willow Street. Her
books are number one bestsellers and are published in many countries around
the world, in English and in translation. Cathy is an Ambassador for UNICEF in
Ireland, helping to raise awareness of the plight of children orphaned in Africa
through Aids, and recently finished judging the People’s Novelist competition
in conjunction with The Alan Titchmarsh Show. She lives with her husband,
John and eight-year-old twin boys in Co. Wicklow, Ireland. She is available to
interview and write features.
