After The Wedding by Roisin Meaney

I purchased this book without knowing that it was a sequel to One Summer, it becomes very apparent during the first chapter or two that these are a cast of characters that we have met before and the assumption is there that you are already familiar with them.  However, there is just enough recapping here so that you can dig on in and get to know them all, along with their backstories, without it being overt or of detriment to those readers who have done the sensible thing and read them in order.  This is the real charm of Roisin Meaney's writing - believable characters that seem to effortlessly unspool on to the page and capture you in their web.

There is so much going on in this book - a wedding, a missing child, retirement, fostering of a very damaged teenager - that it could have been very disjointed and confusing.  Somehow it all weaves together as a whole and you get the idea of a very real community on Roone.  The myriad story threads are weaved skilfully together and each character has their own definite voice with some being substantially more likeable than others.  Indeed, so realistic is the setting and the storytelling that you can feel the briny air on your face and yearn for a swift pint at Fitzgeralds.

I'm not quite sure how Roisin Meaney does it but long may she do so.  This is yet another book about normal people in (mostly) normal situations but somehow she elevates the mundane to the wonderous.

**Review originally published February 2nd, 2018**