A review by leona28
Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy

3.5

The July pick for the @maevebinchybookclub was Firefly Summer and as per usual I started this one right at the end of July, not leaving myself much time to read this massive book at around 900 pages. Although it wasn't my favourite Maeve Binchy book, I still enjoyed this one which is set in Mountfern and follows the lives of all the people of the village. As you can imagine when the book follows the perspective of a whole village there were a lot of characters to remember in this one! I did at times get a little confused but it's easy to remember the main characters as they constantly appear throughout. The book is set in 1962, when an Irish American millionaire Patrick O'Neill comes to town to rebuild the local manor house ruin. We see the tensions and relationships between the locals and this outsider and how that develops over time. Full of family and local village drama throughout.

I do feel in this book that the character development was done well and you got more of an insight into the characters in comparison to some of Binchys earlier work. In particular I loved the characters of Kate and Rachel.

Overall, a nice cosy read if you enjoy small town stories with lots of characters.