Customer Reviews

Apartment 3b

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first book by Patricia Scanlan I have read and I want to read more. It truely is storytelling at it's best, the characters are exceedingly well developed to the extent that by the end of the book you feel that, love them or hate them you know them intimately - highly recommended

I really enjoyed reading this book, getting to know the characters. As with all of Scanlan's books I have read, I had difficulty putting it down. The characters are well-drawn and interesting. It was somewhat challenging, at times, to keep everyone straight--and it was hard keeping up with all the jumping around in time. The ending was not what I had expected at all, and was a letdown for me.

As far as I know Ms. Scanlan has not written in a few years, which is sincerely regrettable. I have read a least three of her books and for all of them I couldn't put them down. Her stories draw you in and make you want to become a part of her characters lives. To solve their problems and be a shoulder to cry on.

This book is lovely. It follows the lives of several people, all attempting to but Apartment 3B in Dublin, from the 60s to 1991, and will sometimes make you want to cry at the tragedy that strikes some of the books most innocent characters, and yell at the more annoying ones! The characters are interesting and believable. A little slow to start, but nonetheless a lovely read. Again, again!

Living in the U.S., it is now always easy to obtain copies of books by Irish authors. This one by Pat Scanlan makes me even more determined to make the effort to order Irish-authored books, especially hers!

I've read many of Scanlan's hard-to-put-down books this year and while this one isn't bad, it's just not her best. I had problems keeping track of the many characters and the long time spans of each section of the book was sometimes confusing - I'd turn back to remind myself of what year the previous section was. I liked parts of it very much; the characters are typical Scanlan and mostly very enjoyable. I'd recommend other books of hers to readers new to her - such as Promises, Promises/Mirror Mirror and Francesca's Party - over this one. And I HATED the ending. This one is not a keeper for me. If you like Debbie Macomber or Maeve Binchy, you will feel right at home with Scanlan's work.