A collection of short stories, unconnected to each other, about the usual topics Binchy writes about — as the blurb puts it, "matters of the heart with powerfully compelling stories of love, loss, revelation and reconciliation." I'm not sure about "powerful" but the rest tracks pretty well. Too many of the stories have a sort of O. Henry twist that is cute the first time and pales in subsequent usage.

I really enjoy Binchy's writing but I don't think short stories are her milieu. She's much better in the sprawling multi-generational sagas of her early career, like Circle of Friends or Firefly Summer, or the later interconnected novels set in Dublin, like Tara Road or Quentins. A shorter format just doesn't give Binchy room to work her gentle magic, which thrives when she's giving us multiple points of view across people and time. ( )

This book was entirely short stories and all involved travel of some sort. Most of the characters seemed happier on the surface than the actually were. With the exception of the first story, they felt little pretty complete stories despite their length. I'd have liked the first story to be longer because I honestly had no idea what happened at the end. ( )

stories ( )

Short stories on relationships of different kinds and human interactions. ( )

Read for a challenge (Irish author"). Sweet short stories, ranging from horehound (intense) to fudge (rich) to cotton candy (fluff), so to speak. The best ones were the ones that had a little bit of the bitter, or the not-quite-happy ending." ( )