Okay. I gave it a 100 pages, and then I couldn't take any more. Based on those 100 pages, I would say that this is a poorly written story, weakly propelled by mostly boring converstation. I did not find a reason to care about these people, or their problems. I don't remember Binchy's "Circle of Friends" being this bad. In fact, I recall having enjoyed that book. I will have access to my copy of "C of F" in a month or so. Might be interesting for me to take a second look at that book and compare it with "Tara Road." What really irks me is that I used a 33% off coupon to purchase "Tara Road"--what a waste!!