Sandy Taylor grew up on a council estate near Brighton. There were no books in the house, so Sandy’s love of the written word was nurtured in the little local library. Leaving school at fifteen, Sandy worked in a series of factories before landing a job at Butlins in Minehead. This career change led her to becoming a singer, a stand up comic and eventually a playwright and novelist. Sandy Taylor now lives in Somerset, England. “ The Irish Boarding House” is her eighth novel. Once I started I was unable to put it down and devoured this truly enthralling tale in a single evening … heart-warming yet heartbreaking … I completely lost myself for a few hours within this emotional rollercoaster .’ Momo’s Book Diary

The Irish Boarding House - Bookouture The Irish Boarding House - Bookouture

Beautiful... heart-warming, and heartbreaking all at the same time... 5/5 stars.' Goodreads reviewer, 5 starsDisclaimer: all items are bought personally unless otherwise stated. Posts that have been commissioned will be labelled as sponsored or collaborative based on the brand’s preference. I attempted to leave a review on this books many months ago when I finished reading it but had technical issues. My review will be less complete since so much time has passed since finishing it. Now here's the thing about The Irish Boarding House - it had that same feeling of the world around me being erased, and I genuinely loved the characters and I didn't want to stop reading ... but it was also occasionally repetitive and simple? Plus even the *high stakes* moments never actually *felt* high stakes. I don't know that I've ever read a book that had this many plotlines wrapped up in such beautiful, tiny, lovely bows before. Mary Kate Ryan was raised by her loving grandparents in a small cottage. Her mother left her with them. As a woman Mary Kate was sad and hated living in the boarding house. One day she receives a letter announcing that her mother has died and left her an inheritance. First thing Mary Kate moves out of the sad boarding house and buys her own boarding house.

The Irish Boarding House by Sandy Taylor, Aoife McMahon The Irish Boarding House by Sandy Taylor, Aoife McMahon

Dublin 1952. When Mary Kate Ryan receives a surprise inheritance from the woman who abandoned her as a tiny baby, she's stunned. All her life, she has longed to know why her mother disappeared, and now she's devastated to realise that every lonely night she spent without a home or family of her own, her mother knew exactly where she was. Mary Kate Ryan had it tough, as someone who was abandoned by her mother when she was a baby. She was happily brought up by her grandparents, but when they died, her life took a perilous turn. Suddenly, she inherits a large sum of money, which changes her life and a lot of other people besides.

To keep account of your life, Mary Kate, to mark your red-letter days, to gain wisdom from your failures and take pride in your successes. Never throw them away, but read them now and again, for they will remind you of how far you've come." This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Bookouture via NetGalley. The Boarding House’ is an emotionally powerful story precisely because, as in other stories from Dubliners (‘ A Painful Case’, about a non-affair, springs to mind), the emotions of the characters are complex and constantly in flux. Mary Kate Ryan had lived with her grandparents on Tanner's Row in Dublin since her mother had abandoned them all when she was a baby, and when first her grandmother, then grandfather died and she no longer had a home, she felt lost and alone. The boarding houses she went to were dingy and dirty, nothing felt right anymore. The day she received a letter from a solicitor, her life changed - the money that was now hers saw Mary Kate buy a beautiful old home that had been left to ruin. Mary Kate had it renovated and turned into the Dublin Boarding House for Single Ladies.