The House on Willow Street

Written by Cathy Kelly

Narrated by Amy Creighton

The warm, engrossing new novel from the No. 1 bestseller, Cathy Kelly

Tess used to be happy with her lot: she 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 that her secrets stay hidden.

Danae is the village post mistress in Avalon 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?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Mar 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9780007414710

Cathy Kelly

Cathy Kelly worked as a journalist before becoming a novelist. Her debut novel, Woman to Woman, became an instant number 1 bestseller and since then she has published 22 novels, which are loved by readers all around the world and have sold millions of copies globally. In addition to her writing, she is a Unicef Ambassador and lives in County Wicklow with her family and dogs.

Reviews for The House on Willow Street

[icewineanne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As others have said in their reviews, so many characters were introduced in the beginning that I thought I would not be able to keep up with all of them. This was not an issue after the prologue as there were really only 4 main characters their families.
If you enjoy Maeve Binchy books, you will probably enjoy Cathy Kelly novels as well. These are definitely fun "chick lit" reads.
The only downside to this book was the quick wrap-up of one of the main characters' storylines. It seemed as though Cathy Kelly wasn't sure how to end this particular storyline. She had built up the mystery over the full course of the book and brought it quickly to a close in the last 5 pages of the book. It was a very disappointing. I won't dismiss the novel altogether, but I will give it a rating of only 3 stars. Half way through the book, I would have rated it closer to 4 stars. Hopefully Ms. Kelly will improve with her next book.

[sueincyprus · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A warm, character-based novel reminiscent, at times, of Maeve Binchy. Four different women are the main characters, the focus a small village in Ireland. Relationship problems dominate, and some quite deep issues are covered. The writing is good, the conversations believable, the main characters three-dimensional and sympathetic (even if I couldn't quite believe in the rebellious but mostly reformed Suki). Some caricatures in the minor characters, and a somewhat underwhelming revelation towards the end when we finally discover Suki's sister's secret - but overall a very enjoyable novel. I haven't read any Cathy Kelly before this, but will be looking out for more of her books.Definitely recommended if you like women's fiction.