I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Patricia Scanlan's A Family Reunion is a heartfelt story that carries readers on a journey of family relationships, self-reflection and ultimate reconciliation. With an unforgettable cast of characters, Patricia explores a plethora of topics including infidelity, love, trust and loyalty. Each page draws the reader in with a warmth, wisdom and love reminiscent of the works of Maeve Binchy. Scanlan expertly navigates the reader through a powerful and poignant story, perfect for fans of fiction about complex and nuanced relationships between loved ones.

This was a really loved read that I didn't want to put down. I highly recommend and would love to discover more stories from this author.

This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.

I did not enjoy A Family Reunion by Patricia Scanlan which is unusual for me as I usually love all her books but was really disappointed with this. I found it very boring and it did not hook my interest, in fact I struggled to finish it.

I was so keen when I saw there was a new Patricia Scanlan I didn’t read the synopsis and it wasn’t until I opened it that I realised I have already read and reviewed it on Netgalley.

Another great book from Patricia Scanlan. Idea for when you want to escape day to day stresses.

A Family Reunion where three generations of Irish women come together and where years of anger and regrets are shared.: retiring 80 year-old nun Brigid, her younger sister Imelda, Imelda’s daughter Keelin and granddaughter Marie-Claire. At Brigid’s 80th birthday, all are forced to confront memories and truths .

This is a book about four very strong woman.

We have Brigid who has retired as a Nun and her sister Imelda who each feel their life was better than the other. Keelin is the daughter of Imelda and feels her Mum has not supported her over the years. Marie-Claire is Keelin’s daughter who has come back from Canada as circumstances there have changed.

Imelda is always not very nice to her family and things come to a head at Brigid’s Birthday party and she says things that is a shock to a lot of people.

Eventually the four woman go on a trip of enlightenment and this is where things come to light over the woman’s life’s.

It was a good book.

‘A Family Reunion’ is the latest book by Patricia Scanlan.

When four feisty women from the same family, get together at a family reunion, anything can happen…

‘A Family Reunion’ is a hard hitting and emotional story about a family’s hardship with bitter feelings and revelations.

The story begins on the night of Brigid’s 80th birthday, when a surprise party is organised by her friends and family. Having spent over 60 years giving her life to the Catholic Church and helping those less well off, she’s looking forward to her retirement. But on that night, her younger sister Imelda, who has always jealous of Brigid leaving Ireland and having a more exciting life and leaving her to deal with the family farm and settle for a much slower pace of life than she ever desired. After Imelda reveals the bottled up emotions from the last 60 years, the story then flows for many decades and seen from 3 generations of women. Brigid and Imelda, Imelda’s daughter Keelin and Keelin’s daughter Marie Claire, who has just returned to Ireland from Canada after that her boyfriend was cheating on her.

The story is seen from the different narratives as they all battle with the aftermath of Brigid’s party and all the women are devastated at Imelda’s news.

Imelda is a hard character, she’s selfish absorbed and is not afraid to speak her mind. She longed to leave rural Ireland for the city lights of Dublin, but couldn’t with Brigid becoming a nun and has never forgiving her sister for taking away her opportunity and as the years go by with everyone singing Brigid’s praises, Imelda’s resentment grows.

Brigid is an interesting character, she became a nun to discover more opportunities in life and escape Ireland and found herself loving and embracing helping the sick in Africa and her narratives makes for humbling reading at times.

The story spans over 70 years and it really does make for upsetting and sad reading in part. The Catholic Church has such a strong hold over Ireland and over the years there have been terrible stories revealed with the Catholic Church in the forecourt of them. The Mother and Baby Homes where underage or unwed women had babies only for them to cruelly taken away from them to be sold or to have buried in unmarked graves. Women were unable to get contraceptives and had to travel to Northern Ireland and only recently in 2018, in the Irish Referendum, was it allowed that women could have abortions in Ireland and not have to travel to England for an already traumatic experience.

Patricia has truly written a story that evokes many reactions from the hardships that women faced living in Ireland, the treatment and judgement from the Church that impacted on so many lives as well as the lack of equality. To think, that women were unable to get library cards without consent from their husbands made for truly shocking reading. It’s remarkable to read how the country has progressed throughout the years but without the power and resilience of the women of Ireland, life could be a lot darker.

Sweetly written and crafted with the warmth of Irish culture and dialogue, A story of revelations, hope and the power of family blood, ‘A Family Reunion’ is a poignant and insightful about how the consequences of one night can changes lives forever.

You can buy ‘A Family Reunion’ from Amazon and is also available to buy from good bookshops.

I’ve been reading Patricia Scanlan’s books for as long as she’s been writing them. I love that her protagonists are always women and that her stories are always absorbing and authentic. That said, while I enjoyed this latest offering and would still recommend it, it didn’t quite hold the same appeal for me as previous novels.

A Family Reunion traces the lives of three generations of Irish women: retiring 80 year-old nun Brigid, her younger sister Imelda, Imelda’s daughter Keelin and granddaughter Marie-Claire. When long held grudges and secrets are laid bare at a party to celebrate Brigid’s birthday, all are forced to confront memories and truths that threaten to split the family asunder.

I enjoyed the dual timeline of the narrative that switched between the past and the present, recounting the very different lives led by all four women. Brigid’s 60-odd years of devoted service to the work of the Catholic Church. Imelda’s decades of drudgery. Keelin’s difficult journey of self discovery. And Marie-Claire, whose richness of choice is beyond anything the others could dream of.

The Catholic Church plays a big role in this book: its power, its doctrines — especially with regard to issues like contraception and abortion, its stranglehold on Irish society, and its bigoted treatment of women. And I feel that Scanlan uses the novel and its characters as a form of rebuke against this establishment.

However, this is an objective that she pushes too far and one that unravels in the joint ‘pilgrimage’ made by the four women to try and effect a reconciliation. The revelations, soul searching and changes of heart are all a bit too trite and unconvincing, and there are certain confidences shared amongst the three generations that I found so improbable as to be almost ridiculous.

These last few chapters aside, this is still a book worth reading. Scanlan’s writing is full of heart, as always, and her characters beautifully drawn. There is much to appreciate. It just left me wanting.

Hooked a gripping read fun characters loved the plot your there with them I lovely easy to read book you pulled into the story love it all

(This was previously published as The Liberation of Brigid Dunne)

I’ve been a huge fan of Patricia’s for many years and have read all her books, so I was thrilled to have the chance to read this one. I wasn’t disappointed.

Four women from the same family – sisters Brigid and Imelda, and Imelda’s daughter (Keelin) and granddaughter (Marie-Claire) – and the occasion of Brigid’s 80th birthday. Brigid is a nun, but Imelda has always been jealous of her older sister. There’s also tension between Imelda and Keelin, and everything comes to a head at Brigid’s birthday party.

A beautiful book that I didn’t want to put down; it had Patricia’s usual warmth, humour, and real-life situations, and I really didn’t want it to end!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster UK for an advance reader copy in return for an honest review.

I am a huge fan of this author and have read a fair few of her books. This is one I hadn’t read so was super excited for this tour. I definitely haven’t been disappointed. This has been the perfect escapist read and I have no shame in admitting that this is a book I have devoured from cover to cover in one sitting.

This is a novel which is filled with a mix of wonderful characters who really allow the reader to get a feel for the dynamics within the family. I have loved the dual timeline this is told through. I feel it has been insightful and extremely informative in allowing us some background information.

I love that Scanlan has included the cheating boyfriend in the beginning of this one. This has pulled me in completely and really captivated my attention. Scanlan has filled this book with drama and scandal which has made this a book which I haven’t wanted to put down.

This is a perfect book to curl up and escape with. The read is engaging and enjoyable and absolutely fantastic. This is a definite five star read and quite possibly my favourite by this author.

Compulsively readable women’s fiction does not get any better than Patricia Scanlan’s latest novel, A Family Reunion.

When Marie-Claire found out that her partner Marc had cheated on her, revenge had become uppermost on her mind. Determined to make him pay for breaking her heart, Marie-Claire travelled from Toronto all the way to Ireland and to the house of Four Winds for her great aunt Reverend Mother Brigid’s eightieth birthday celebration. But Brigid’s birthday will not just be an opportunity to celebrate the Reverend Mother reaching eighty years of age, for it will also bring together three generations of women who never really got along – Marie Claire’s mother Keelin and her grandmother Imelda. Their relationship has always been fractious and with tensions running high and long-held resentments and dangerous secrets threatening to come to the surface, it looks like this family reunion is going to be absolutely explosive.

Bitter and jealous Imelda refuses to let this opportunity go by without twisting the knife in and when she makes a shocking revelation, all hell breaks loose. The four women find themselves forced to confront old demons they’ve spent a lifetime running away from and as they begin to question the choices they’ve made and the truths they have always taken for granted, they begin to wonder whether there is any way back from this shocking family reunion that has shaken the foundations of all of their lives forever.

Can these four strong and capable women ever find a way forward after all the earth-shattering discovers they’ve made? Will the bonds that bound them together be severed forever? Is forgiveness possible? Or has the truth torn them asunder for good? Have they burned all their bridges? Or is a second chance just around the corner? And how does Marc figure in all of this?

Patricia Scanlan’s A Family Reunion is a doorstop of a novel that I devoured in a matter of days. Patricia Scanlan is a master storyteller and a fabulous chronicler of women’s lives and in A Family Reunion has written an engrossing, absorbing and enjoyable tale that is even more addictive than your favourite Netflix binge-watch. A mesmerizing tale of secrets, lies, deceptions and relationships, A Family Reunion is full of believable, flawed and lively characters that leap off the pages and will feel like old friends by the time you get to the end of the book.

Top-drawer escapism from the Irish queen of women’s fiction, Patricia Scanlan’s A Family Reunion has got winner written all over it.

I read lots of Patricia Scanlan books years ago and then she dropped out of favour. When I saw this one I thought I’d give it a try. I’m afraid I wasn’t keen on it. I struggled with the Gaelic words and the story didn’t interest me as much as I hoped it would. I feel her earlier books were so much better than this one. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This is storytelling at its best, something that Patricia Scanlan excels at! Taking readers through 70 years of Irish history and giving a fascinating look at the emancipation of women in the Catholic faith, I thoroughly enjoyed and was intrigued by facts and issues that were dealt with here that I knew nothing about, especially the story of Mary Magdalene. (I’ve since done a bit of Googling!)

The story is character driven, with the main characters being four strong women from the same family: Sisters Brigid and Imelda, Imelda’s daughter Keelin, and Keelin’s daughter Marie-Claire. The reader is taken from past to present, starting with a brief prologue, first in the ’50’s where an obviously young, scared girl, all alone on Christmas Eve, loses her baby; then moving swiftly to the mid-’80’s where another young woman shares her secret pregnancy with the man she loves; and then to 2017 where Marie-Claire discovers that her partner has been unfaithful. She immediately decides to leave Canada and return to Ireland so that she can be with her family and celebrate her Great-Aunt Brigid’s 80th birthday, after which she will decide what her next steps will be. This is a decision that changes the trajectory of her life and of the three women who are most important to her.

Brigid is turning 80 and has just retired from her numerous years of service to the Church. Her most recent role as Reverend Mother surely indicates her dedication and devotion to the Catholic faith that she’s served unfailingly for all these years? However, as we get to know Brigid it’s clear that her entry into service was not the vocation that others may have thought it to be. Her sister Imelda, has understood this all along! However, as time marches on and Brigid achieves the increased admiration that comes with rising seniority within her Order, Imelda becomes increasingly maudlin and bitter … not just about her attitude towards her sister, but towards everyone and everything in her life.

Meanwhile, Brigid herself is starting to feel an intense dissatisfaction with the way in which women are treated by the Church. Despite her respected position, she knows that were she not retiring, she would have had to leave the Church anyway as she knew that she had started to resent so much of what she (and so many others) had been taught about Catholicism and the place of women within it, from the time she was very young. She is envious of her sister who got to stay at home, marry and raise a family, something that circumstances prevented her from doing.

The growing resentments and perceived notions of how each sister has lived her life just continue to bubble under the surface of everything they’ve both done over the years. Things are bound to come to an earth-shattering, ground-breaking halt sooner or later … and they most certainly do: at Brigid’s surprise 80th birthday. Just how that happens, well, you’ll have to read the book to find out, but suffice to say, the impact on Brigid, Imelda, Keelin and Marie-Claire is life-changing, and things will certainly never be the same again.

I adored this book. It’s a story to immerse yourself in. I’m sure that much of the subject matter might well be controversial, but it’s all based on historical fact, so there really is nothing to argue with. For someone like me who finds other religions and their intricacies and backgrounds interesting, it really was an eye-opener. There’s also an esoteric aspect added in which really blended nicely with the whole theme of the female role in Catholocism, what that role is and how it’s evolved and developed over time. There is so much one can say about organised religion and the way it labels and boxes in certain types of people – wars have been, and probably will continue to be – fought over it. There will always be those willing to follow the rigid dogma of their religion of choice. But just as there are those who find it impossible to live without those structures and harsh rules, there are also those who know that in order to make religion (whichever one it may be) more welcoming to those who are on the outside, there will need to be a flexibility and fluidity to the boundaries and fences that confine it, in order to welcome these others into its embrace. The author has displayed this delicately and sensitively and can be commended for it.

Each of the main characters has something endearing about her, even prickly Imelda. As each one’s story unfolds, readers will undoubtedly choose their favourites. I think for me it was a toss-up between Brigid and Imelda. Both of them had difficult choices to make and both made the absolute best out of those choices. But once certain things came to light and they realised that once again, changes would need to be made, neither of them shied away from making those changes even at their advanced ages. These are both amazing, brave women that Patricia Scanlan has created. They’re wonderful!

This is a highly recommended 5-star read.

The book begins in Canada, with Marie-Clare overhearing a conversation about her partner Marc taking another woman Amelia, away when she is out if town. She decides to get her own back and teach him a lesson and tells him she is going home to Ireland to her great aunt Brigid eightieth Birthday party.

Brigid is the sister of Imelda who is Keelin’s mother. Keelin is Marie-Clare’s mother.

Brigid is the Reverend Mother superior in a local convent and it is apparent from the outset that her and Imelda have a turbulent relationship. The convent are organising a surprise party for her, Marie-Clare heads off to support Una one of the nuns at the convent. Imelda and Brigid have completely conflicting views on religion. There is lot of unspoken tension between the sisters and you know quite early on that some quite significant events have happened to the two over the years.

Then at the Birthday party it really kicks off and there are some home truths revealed.

The story then takes the reader back to the 1950s and Brigid becoming a nun and heading to Africa. In contrast Imelda who wanted to emigrate to America ends up marrying a local man Larry and having three children, she feels trapped and disillusioned and as a Catholic, birth control is not an option. Imelda decides to take matters into her own hands but then gets a huge shock that changes her life forever.

Imelda’s daughter Keelin decides to join the convent too and this just increases her bitterness towards her sister and the church. There are many surprises in this book and it kept my interest throughout

This was my first book by this author and I enjoyed the unfolding of the history of the family. I loved the family dynamics and the four strong women at the forefront of the story. There is plenty of drama, deceit and secrets and made me very grateful to have been brought up in a time where women are able to make choices about their bodies and lives. There are some shocking revelations in the book and there was many areas of Irish history that I was not aware of.

A great read especially if you enjoy a family saga with plenty of drama and secrets.

Thank you to Anne Cater for my invitation to the tour and to Simon and Schuster for my gifted copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

4 stars ****

A Family Reunion was a very intriguing, absorbing read which is actually the first I have read by this author.

I love books that follow generations of the same family as its always interesting to see the history the different women had experienced. This book looks at the life of one family throughout 70 years of Irish History. Some of the subjects covered are quite heavy, emotional ones which made for hard reading at times. I had never realised the struggles that women had with getting simple things like contraception in Ireland so it was interesting to read more about their fight to use it and to see the abortion laws changed which obviously helped change a lot of women’s lives for the best. There is a lot of Religious information included which I didn’t know about and I found myself googling a lot of the places and terms to find out more.

The three main characters are all really strong women who I really enjoyed reading about. I found that I really loved some of them but really didn’t like others though they did all grow on me as the book continued. It was interesting to learn more about them and to see how they dealt with the choices they’ve had to make. It made me wonder if I would have made the same decisions and what I might have done differently.

Overall I really enjoyed this book as I felt it was a great mix of historical fiction and family saga which I thought worked very well. It definitely kept me reading too late at night as I was very interested to see what would happen next. As mentioned above this was my first read by this author and I would definitely be interested in reading more soon.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Simon and Schuster for my copy of this book.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

An enjoyable read.

Marie-Claire finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her, so the dilemma that she was chewing over is solved as she goes back to Ireland to see her family and for her Great Aunt Brigid's 80th Birthday party. Only for sparks to fly.

A book that covered the lives of three generations.,

A story well described and it does go into the religious side and the Ives f those characters.

There’s several points of view, and loads of drama.