Book Review: The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange
Strong family ties, secrets that shouldn’t be kept, and loyalty to a fault, my review of The Connellys of County Down will let you know just how heartwarming it is to read about this one Irish family’s journey to finding their way back to each other.
Book Information
Tara Connelly protects her family. Even if it means she can’t protect herself. Having just been released from her 18 month prison sentence, Tara tries to find where she fits back in her family. What she discovers, though, is the holes that her family kept hidden that may just lead to their own demise.
As Tara finally starts getting back to normal (she has a job that she loves, a man who loves her, and is back on track), her own family’s secrets start to come back to haunt her.
Review | Heidi Dischler
So, I primarily got this book (thanks Book of the Month) and read this book because I had read We Are the Brennans before this and loved it. While The Connellys of County Down had the same feel as We Are the Brennans, it didn’t have the same spark.
Now, I don’t want everyone to take this the wrong way. I actually really did like this book. the problem is that I didn’t like it as much as I liked Tracey Lange’s We Are the Brennans. It didn’t have the same depth or spark or flare. I also felt like there wasn’t enough of that Irish detail that I loved so much from her other novel.
With the plot itself, I didn’t feel like the stakes were high enough. I felt like, for the most part, we were ambling along in the novel until you found out a secret towards the end of the novel that gave you may fifty pages of intrigue? It just didn’t entertain me in terms of plot. I felt like the whole story behind the Connellys of County Down that their mother used to tell them should’ve been a bigger thing but it wasn’t. Then that goes to the reason why Tara went to prison in the first place, and how all of this mess could’ve been avoided if Tara and her siblings just told the truth. But, you know, that’s just my advice. After all, honesty is the best policy.
The main thing I loved about this novel was how it was centered around family, and Tara being as strong of a character as she was. It made for interesting dynamos between both character, but my favorite was always between her and her nephew.
Overall, while this was not my favorite book from Tracey Lange, it definitely wasn’t bad either. I would give it 3.5 stars overall (rounded to 4 for Goodreads). It’s definitely enjoyable, just doesn’t have the same flare that We Are the Brennans did.
Source: Personal Copy
(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)
