What do readers think of The Disenchanted Widow by Christina McKenna? Write your own review.

Fleeing from an IRA enforcer, Bessie and her young son find themselves in a small town in Ireland-Tailorstown. The inhabitants of Tailorstown are revealed as the story progresses. But this is no sleepy village! McKenna takes readers on so many twists and turns, that you can't put the book down. The ending is suspenseful and thrilling. This is one book that I'll recommend to my book club.

I had some difficulty getting into this book. I was reading another book that I really liked so put this one down for a while. I had a rainy day with nothing to do so finally started reading this. Once I got past the accents, I did enjoy the book. I found the historical perspective of Ireland in the 80's interesting as well as many of the characters in the village. This book served to remind me that so often in life,we end up where never thought about being dealing with people we had no idea we would ever know. I may recommend this to my book club.

In the summer of 1981 a young widow is forced to flee Belfast with her son to start a new life. She finds herself in a small rural community with a mixture of interesting individuals, which she will have to interact with regardless of how she feels about them. The reader comes to know these characters as their stories are also unfolding as we read. The stories of these other characters become involved with her story, some of them being dangerous. The turbulence taking place in Belfast that summer reaches the small community. I enjoyed this book very much. The characters were unique. Her journey's twists and turns made for suspenseful reading.

This book has more twists and turns than a crooked country road. It is filled with wonderful characters; the town busy body, small boy who could have come out of a Charles Dickens novel, his beautiful mother, a priest with a secret and many more. They all are in a tiny Irish village where "everyone knows your name." There is a mystery thrown it too.
It is a page turner and I will recommend it to my book club.

I wasn't sure at first if I would be able to get interested in this book since this is not my genre but, as it turns out, I was pleasantly surprised. Spoken in the dialect of the Emerald Isle, this is really a story about happy endings and learning not to judge people by their outward appearances. Intermingled with the daily struggles and humorous experiences of the residents of sleepy Tailorstown, is a promise that lives can change in an instant.

Don't look here for a cozy story about a quaint Irish country town. Bessie Halstone is on the run from a terrifying IRA enforcer. With her son, Herkie, she becomes stranded in Tailorstown where she soon interacts with the inhabitants. Bessie's difficult life has left her hard-edged and un-likeable. I especially was put off by her harsh language with her child. The heavy Irish dialect was tiresome. The book was also much too long. I think it would have been much better told in about half the pages. Lorcan Strong was Bessie and the book's saving grace. The ending was thrilling and satisfying. I just wish it had come sooner.

The Disenchanted Widow is a good book for those weekends when you just cannot face another demand being made of you and only want someone "to tell you a story." It touches on the terrorism that took place in Northern Ireland and England in the 1980s because it is that terrorism that puts the plop into action. While some of those scenes are horrifying, they are a small portion of the book. The majority of the story is clever and humorous. If you enjoy books that really leave an impact and make you think, this book is probably too light a read. If you like to see flawed characters work through the situations that come their way and, in some cases, get what is coming to them, then you will enjoy this book.

I was a bit put off when I got the book and it said "stunning sequel to The Misremembered Man"! Fortunately, they weren't that connected because I didn't feel as if I was missing any essential information. The story involved a woman, Bessie, and her son, Herkie (short for Hercules!) who are on the run from Belfast and the Irish Republican Army who mistakenly thinks the pair is hiding some of the IRA's stolen money. The setting is 1981 and feelings are high and bombs are going off.

It took me a while to realize that a major reason I enjoyed this book so much was because of the similarities with the 44 Scotland Street books by Alexander McCall Smith. The characters were funny and weird and the relationships very real. The book often made me laugh out loud and I really cared about the characters. I think I'll go back and read the first book in the series.