This novel was heart-warming and filled with delightful, likeable characters. Set in Dublin in the 1950s, it was peopled with mostly Catholic women – women who had faced adversity of one kind or another.

Mary Kate Ryan was a wonderful character, though to be honest I found her a little to good to be true. She was a woman who having had very little, then inheriting a fortune, decided to ‘pay it forward‘ by assisting others who were alone, or down on their luck.The boarding house was a warm refuge, filled with caring people. People who, though not related by blood were indeed a sort of ‘family’. It was the sort of place you would want to live yourself.

I loved the Irish jargon throughout the book. I could almost hear the lilt in the sentences.

If I had one bone to pick about this novel, it is that it is a little too saccharine. If you like your fiction to have a rosy hue shed by rose coloured glasses, then you’ll love this. Lovable characters, a nice setting, and a satisfying and happy ending.

This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Bookouture via NetGalley.

ISBN: 9781803140827 –  ASIN:  B0B63P3T5L –  358 pages

Sandy Taylor grew up on a council estate near Brighton. There were no books in the house, so Sandy’s love of the written word was nurtured in the little local library. Leaving school at fifteen, Sandy worked in a series of factories before landing a job at Butlins in Minehead. This career change led her to becoming a singer, a stand up comic and eventually a playwright and novelist. Sandy Taylor now lives in Somerset, England. “The Irish Boarding House” is her eighth novel.

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