http://www.withloveforbooks.com/2018/03/the-street-where-you-live-by-roisin.htmlThe Street Where You Live by Roisin Meaney - Book Review, Guest Post & Giveaway
Review by Suze
For Christopher music used to be his entire life. Now he has a job at a supermarket that he finds far more boring, but he wasn't able to follow his passion anymore. He's taking some steps and is finally letting it back into his world again. He started a choir and he's taking directing it incredibly seriously. His cleaner Molly and her daughter Emily are part of the group. Singing songs should be fun and straightforward, but a lot is going on behind the scenes of the choir. Someone has a secret relationship, someone else's son might have a child she didn't know anything about and someone has never been lucky in love. The choir is working towards an important performance and the members are having a lot on their minds. Will their big evening be a success despite or maybe because of everything?
Molly loves her daughter Emily. She wants Emily to be happy and hopes she can fix her up with a nice man. Emily has a twin brother, but they haven't seen him in years, which brings quite a bit of tension into their home. Mother and daughter are having a nice enough time living together, but are they truly happy or are they both longing for something more? Being in the choir might be fun and Molly and Emily are enjoying it, but Christopher isn't an easy man to deal with. Nobody knows he's struggling after having his heart broken. Maybe his new neighbor might bring some joy back into his life? While music binds, so much is happening behind closed doors that people who all live close to one another don't want others to know. Will their secrets come to the surface eventually?
The Street Where You Live is a beautiful fascinating story. Roisin Meaney gives her readers the chance to take a peek behind doors that normally remain closed and that's a topic I absolutely love. Her main characters are interesting and versatile, Molly and Emily are sweethearts with an unlimited amount of care and kindness to give and Christopher is edgier, he's moody and closed off. There are several more fabulous characters and I was captivated by all of their lives. I love how Roisin Meaney alternates between them and each personality is equally interesting. Molly cleans a lot of houses, so she knows what's going on in her town very well. However, does she also know what's happening under her own roof? I loved these contrasts and was constantly surprised by Roisin Meaney's fabulous twists and turns.
Roisin Meaney has a fantastic engaging writing style. I love how she makes her characters and setting come to life. She gives the exact right amount of details and every description is spot on. She makes it easy to get to know the people she writes about through and through. I loved how the setting and the main characters in The Street Where You Live are an inextricable part of each other. The result is a gorgeous charming story filled with intrigues, entertainment and emotional scenes. I really loved The Street Where You Live, it's a wonderful special book.
Advice
If you love stories that allow you to take a peek in other people's lives you should definitely read The Street Where You Live.
About Roisin Meaney
Born on 3rd September. A published author of fourteen books for adults and two for children, Roisin has also written numerous articles for journals and newspapers. She worked as an advertising copywriter for a number of years, and brings a vast amount of experience to the editing team. Her first novel, The Daisy Picker, won a Write a Bestseller competition.
Her third novel, The Last Week of May reached number one on the Irish bestseller list and her fourth, The People Next Door reached number two. Her books have been translated into several languages, and two, Semi-Sweet and Life Drawing for Beginners, have been published in the US.
She is currently working on her next book, which is destined for publication in early summer 2018. She is also plotting another children's book - shhhhh.
Links
Website // Facebook // Twitter // Amazon
Cats
Guest post by Roisin Meaney
My man of the moment is Fred. He’s a handsome devil with his beautiful hazel eyes, and he’s as graceful as a ballet dancer. He licks my face to wake me in the mornings – and rather unusually for a male, cuddles are his favourite thing.
Before Fred there were others, lots of others. The most recent were Tux, Billy, Rolo, and Sherbet, in that order (although in the interests of full disclosure I must admit that occasionally I loved two at the same time.) Each one had his place in my heart, and each one was deeply mourned when he moved on, and remembered with great fondness. And I know I’ve said it before, but I really think Fred is The One.
Enough of this nonsense.
For as long as I can remember I have been cat mad. Growing up, we always had a cat around the place, on my mother’s insistence. Not because she was cat mad – she wasn’t – but because she was mouse terrified. She couldn’t even look at a mouse on telly without screaming, so throughout my childhood we were never without a mouse killer. Consequently, as my siblings and I moved out one by one and acquired our own houses, it was only a matter of time before a cat or two moved in with us. To the best of my recollection, in my case a cat came above a kettle on my list of essentials for my first house.
Now, years later, I couldn’t imagine life without a cat. In the inevitable but always short periods between old cat loss and new cat gain, my house seems unbearably empty. When Fred and his sister Ginger moved in two years ago they were bundles of fur, small enough to fit comfortably in my biggest teacup. Sadly, Ginger went out on her nightly prowl some months ago and never returned, but Fred is now a fine young fellow in his prime, happily terrorising the neighbourhood dogs when he’s not curled up on the couch catching up on his beauty sleep.
When I became a writer, it seemed a natural progression for at least one cat to feature in each of my novels. The first cat I named Bustopher Jones after one of the characters in TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. He had quite a starring role, belonging as he did to my main character, but since then cats have tended to occupy more casual positions in the stories. One Summer featured a grey stray, briefly glimpsed by various characters; Something in Common had Helen reluctantly taking ownership of a crotchety neighbour’s cat after the neighbour died; Dan in The People Next Door was left with his wife’s cat when she (the wife, not the cat) ran off with Dan’s uncle, and so on. Just as I couldn’t countenance living in a catless house, I couldn’t imagine writing a book without at least one cat in it.
And guess what? I have this very minute made a liar out of myself – because as I type this, I realise to my horror that my current work in progress is inexplicably minus a cat. I have no idea how it happened – but first thing in the morning I’ll smuggle one in somewhere.
Now to spend the night wide awake, figuring out how.
Giveaway
Five very lucky readers of With Love for Books will receive a paperback copy of The Street Where You Live by Roisin Meaney.
The winner will be notified by email and has 3 days to respond.
All of our giveaways are international.
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