A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy
Stoneybridge is a small town on the west
coast of Ireland where all the families know one another. When Chicky Starr
decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the
windswept Atlantic Ocean and turn it into a restful place for a holiday by the
sea, everyone thinks she is crazy. Helped by Rigger (a bad boy turned good who
is handy around the house) and Orla, her niece (a whiz at business), Chicky is
finally ready to welcome the first guests to Stone House’s big warm kitchen,
log fires, and understated elegant bedrooms. John, the American movie star,
thinks he has arrived incognito; Winnie and Lillian are forced into taking a
holiday together; Nicola and Henry, husband and wife, have been shaken by
seeing too much death practicing medicine; Anders hates his father’s business,
but has a real talent for music; Miss Nell Howe, a retired schoolteacher,
criticizes everything and leaves a day early, much to everyone’s relief; the
Walls are disappointed to have won this second-prize holiday in a contest where
first prize was Paris; and Freda, the librarian, is afraid of her own psychic
visions.
This was the last book by Maeve Binchy –
she passed away a few days after completing this novel. Her books
seem to follow a pattern and this one was no different. It was a timeless story with
interesting characters with problems and romance / humor. We loved the old hotel setting in
Ireland. It was a quick, easy, fun read
for the summer. Our group liked this
book.
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