Review: A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy

As a young girl, Chicky Starr was quite content with her life on the rugged West coast of Ireland and was prepared to live out a quiet life in Stoneybridge. When she meets a dashing young man visiting from America, Chicky's plans change and she heads to the US to make a life with her new love. When she ultimately returns to Stoneybridge, Chicky is an independent woman and no longer satisfied to just live a careful life in the small town. She bravely decides to buy the house belonging to the elderly Sheedy sisters and converts it in a guest house. In an effort to bring business to the new endeavor and also celebrate its launch, Chicky offers a week in winter at Stone House. When the lucky guests arrive, readers are treated to learning about each of their stories. In her final book, Maeve Binchy has once again created a delightful cast of characters - I didn't want that A Week in Winter to end!

A Week in Winter starts with Chicky's story and builds out from there. It moves on to Chicky's best friend from childhood and her troubled son, Rigger. Chicky takes Rigger on to work at Stone House and slowly turns his life around. Chicky's niece, Orla, reluctantly returns to Stoneybridge from London where she fled to escape small town life in the West of Ireland. She is at a crossroads in her young life and, despite not wanting to come home, she recognizes the opportunity with her Aunt as a chance to start over. She brings modern sensibilities to the old Stone House with Facebook and Twitter promotions. Like those working at Stone House, the guests are also looking for rejuvenation at the house - even if some are not aware that they are really looking for it. Each has their own unique circumstances which drew them to this week long vacation. For example, Lillian and her daughter in law to be, Winnie, have been thrown together by their love for John and must find a way to get along for his sake. A stern headmaster is sent to Stone House as a present for her retirement but even the breathtaking, rugged beauty of the West can't penetrate her tough exterior. The book reads like a set of interconnected short stories with Chicky and her Stone House as the anchor and consistent thread.

I definitely recommend spending time in the West of Ireland with Chicky and her assortment of family, friends and guests. Author Maeve Binchy completed this book just a few weeks before her death at age 72 in July 2012. Reading her final book was bittersweet - her books are always comfort reads for me and this one was no exception but I was plagued by disappointment realizing this would her last book. I don't generally re-read books but I may need to make an exception with Maeve Binchy.  

Review: Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

In Heart and Soul, Maeve Binchy once again assembles a cast of loveable characters in her homeland - Ireland. This time the characters are all connected to Dr. Clara Casey who accepts the role of establishing a cardiac clinic in Dublin despite the fact that it means working for the miserly Frank who doesn't care about the outcomes of the patients so much as the bottom line in the accounting books. He has met his match - Clara is a force to be reckoned with both at home with her smart-mouthed teenagers and at the clinic as she tries to establish a state of the art facility focused on patient care.

Dr. Casey surrounds herself with a staff that all have their heart and concern for patients in common. There is young Dr. Declan Carroll who has recently qualified and is doing a rotation through the clinic; the Polish emigre Ania who works hard in her new country at many jobs including an assistant to Dr. Casey and the lovely Fiona Ryan - a nurse with charm to spare. Each staff member in the clinic has their own back story that gets explored as the novel progresses. In much the same way, the patients of the clinic are also a varied crew of characters. They each have their own story and many of those stories start to intersect with those of other patients or cast members. The result is the depiction of a real community where you feel you would know everyone as you passed them in the street.  

My Thoughts
 As I have said before, I am a big fan of Maeve Binchy - her novels bring me comfort and are always enjoyable reads. She charms me with her stories of Irish towns and their residents. Heart and Soul is no different and it is extra special in that it brings characters from earlier novels in for cameo appearances which brings back fond memories of those books. Clara Casey is a strong female character - she is an accomplished physician who assumes the challenging role of building the Heart Clinic while she is mother to two headstrong teenagers at home. The author, however, humanizes her by giving her a cheating ex-husband which adds interest to the story and shows the softer side to Clara. I read this book before the death of Maeve Binchy and had been looking forward to reading many more books by the author. While I am saddened to hear of the author's death, I am cheered to learn that a final book which the author finished prior to her death will be published. After that, I guess my only choice is to re-read all her novels!