Heartwarming - Rated 
This book has to be one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. The friendship portrayed within its pages is heartwarming and it is so wonderfully evoked. If there is one thing that Maeve Binchy can do, it is to create character and mood like no one else. You really feel lost when you finish the last sentence.
The only bad thing about this book is that when you've read it, it's over. One of the few books I would willingly pick up to re - read!!
Read this if you can!!!
Irish life - Rated
This book reminds me so well of the many holidays - especially Christmasses - that I have spent in Ireland. The descriptions of rural family life are brilliant, and as a solitary English girl whose best friend is the oldest of 7 Irish children, I found the relationship between Elizabeth and Aisling totally convincing. When I first visited Ireland - many years ago now - I was overwhelmed by the difference of it all, the Catholicism, the huge families, the social networks which (as a child of suburban London) I had never experienced. I still love Ireland, and this novel was full of the reasons why. It does deal with issues - domestic violence, divorce, alcoholism - which dispel the myth of Ireland as a utopian paradise, but it still manages to be a really good story, and one which you don't want to end - is there a sequel? I would love to know what happened to the girls in the end.
Unmissable - Rated
This book shows Binchy at her best. It's warm loving characters make it impossible not to become deeply involved in their lives. I was mortified to read the last few pages, it was like losing a group of friends. The book is fantastic and you will not be able to put it down from the first page.
Friends forever - Rated
Elizabeth is quiet and shy; Aisling is loud and boisterous. In 1940, aged ten, Elizabeth is evacuated from London to an old friend of her mother's in Ireland. There she meets Aisling, the same age as her, and they become fast friends. The book deals with the next twenty years of their lives as they fall in love, have to deal with many problems, and turn to each other for support and friendship. It's brilliant.
All women should read this book - Rated
Someone once described that reading a Maeve Binchy book is like "talking about all the gossip with your best friend in your favourite tea shop" and they were right. When Elisabeth meets Aisling when she is shipped off to Ireland at the beginning of the Second World War, little does she know that this is the beginning of an inseperable bond that will span 20 years of their lives. The story follows the two friends through good and hard times, as the story jumps back and forth from Ireland to London. Whilst reading this novel, you begin to feel part of the lives of the two friends as they share loves, losses and many good laughs. An essential addition to everyones bookcase! Read it !
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