Customer Reviews
A comforting, satisfying read! - By: J. Johns, 21 Oct 2008 
I love Binchy's books & eagerly awaited this one. I wasn't disappointed - soon I was back in her world of quirky Irish characters. I didn't want this to end & felt the book stopped a little too soon. I loved the reference to characters from past books & the overlapping lives, making me remember the characters as friends I'd met long ago & were happy to be re-acquainted with. Binchy weaves a colourful, vivid tale that I most thoroughly enjoyed. If you like character driven novels, this one is for you!
Heart and soul - By: MrsB, 21 Oct 2008 I must admit that my favourite Maeve Binchy novel is Scarlet Feather so what joy to see how the twins are getting on. Still completing each others sentances. We meet new characters as well & they each have their own story. I like this format & I also like happy endings, so this book was a winner for me.
Too twee or not to twee that is the question? - By: M. Bohan, 16 Oct 2008 
I found this book had very little substance even the few dramas in it were quickly dispatched with. It was almost like a collection of short stories but with each one being interwoven with the next. As lovely as it is to always have happy endings (if only life was reallly like that) I found myself hoping for a bit of oomph & was disappointed.There are quite a few characters from previous novels in it & if you have not read these books then some of their stories wont mean a lot to you. When I think of the early Maeve Binchy books that I have enjoyed in the past I am afraid that lately her work has been a bit of a let down for me.
Don't get me wrong, if you like your books to be full of reallly nice people, even the only nasty one came round in the end, & predictable outcomes then you will enjoy this, but it reallly lacked an impact factor for me.
The competition of popular Irish women writers is too strong for Maeve to rest on her laurels & she should get back to the likes of "To Light a Penny Candle" & remind them & us of why she was the queen for so long.
Warm and real - By: Sissel M. Østdahl, 12 Oct 2008 It's something comforting about Maeve Binchy's books. The cliché about a book being like a good friend, is so very right in her case. Of course, one is interested in finding out what happens to the characters, but there is no hurry. In the case of this book, it is much more preferable to sit down with a cup of tea & read quietly a couple of hours before going to bed.
"Heart & Soul" is a book to be devoured & there are many actors on the stage in Dublin. First there is Clara Casey, senior cardiac specialist at a new heart clinic at St. Brigid's Hospital, Clara's two daughters Adi & Linda, who in their twenties are having trouble settling down & finallly her ex-husband Alan, who is asking Clara for a divorce in order to marry a much younger woman.
Coming to work at the clinic is also Ania, a young girl who has travelled from Poland in order to mend a broken heart. Young Doctor Declan Carroll was originallly meant to spend a six-month posting but meats beautiful nurse Fiona. And then there is Father Bryan Flynn, whose life is turned upside down when his reputation is threatened.
Extra spice is added when we also meet old friends from both Scarlet Feather, Evening Class, Nights of Rain & Stars & Whitethorn Woods. Nora who is still always callled Signora & Aidan, & Brenda at Quentins, where Declan takes Fiona out to dinner for the first time.
"Heart & Soul" is a book about ordinary people with ordinary lives. Joy & sorrow, struggle & hopes. And as always, the author shows us the importance of the smalll things in life - which often do not prove so smalll after alll.
Maeve Binchy is a wonderful storyteller, who has once again written a book which grows on the reader & is slowly creeping into our heart & soul.
Enjoy!
A feast for the heart AND the soul - By: MrsT, 11 Oct 2008 When I picked this book up, I knew it would contain characters who would become important to me & situations I would think about. I was not disappointed. I found Clara Casey to be a thoroughly engaging central character & the focal point of a clinic was a good choice, with the dramas & lives of the staff & patients providing a great narrative.
However, the real joy was in picking up the threads of other characters from Scarlet Feather, Nights of Rain & Stars & also Whitethorn Woods.
I was hooked until the end & am now almost desperate to book a table at Quentins - Early Bird menu for me though! Thank you Maeve.
