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The Way We Were by Sinead Moriarty
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The Way We Were (edition 2015)

by Sinead Moriarty (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
263883,411 (3.83)None
'Heartfelt and deeply moving ... I couldn't put it down.' Susan Lewis 'Intriguing and thought provoking ... a great read.' Katie Fforde 'Gripping and thought-provoking - I was desperate to discover how it would pan out!' Paige Toon 'We ate this fabulous story up - 4 stars' Heat magazine 'Love, lies and longing - this has it all - 4 stars' Woman magazine 'Intriguing - a dramatic twist in the tale will keep you engrossed.' Candis When Alice's husband Ben dies suddenly, her world falls apart. They shared twenty years and two daughters and life without him is unimaginable. Having lost her parents while young, Alice understands her girls' pain. At fifteen, Jools is at that awkward age and only Ben could get through to her. And eleven-year-old Holly looks for the answer to everything in books but this time she's drawing a blank. Alice realizes that for their sakes she must summon up superhuman reserves of strength. Somehow all three of them come through the dark days. In time, it's even possible for Alice to consider marrying again, with the girls' blessing. So when Ben turns up after three years, her world is again turned upside-down. The girls assume that their family can go back to the way they were. Alice is not so sure. Once more Alice has to find the strength to be the mother her daughters need her to be. But this time what that means is far from clear ... The Way We Were won the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction in 2015 'Fans of Sinéad know they can expect honesty, humour and great story-telling' Hello… (more)
Member:MHanover10
Title:The Way We Were
Authors:Sinead Moriarty (Author)
Info:Penguin Ireland (2015), 400 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Favorites
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The Way We Were by Sinead Moriarty

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Thanks to Penguin/Net Galley for this book for me to review and offer my honest review.

First book I've read by this author ... won't be my last. A modern day story about Alice and Ben, happily married doctors. One is totally content with their life the way it is, one craving a little adventure. This story follow the adventure of one that turns into a nightmare for all. Loved the cast of characters, and the story being told by different characters. All characters are totally relatable, and situations are current.

This book held my interest from the first page to the last. A beautifully written love story about the challenges of marriage and family and the importances of working together. ( )
  LoriKBoyd | Mar 24, 2020 |
Sinéad Moriarty was described to me once as the Irish female version of Nicholas Sparks and I’d have to say that seems fairly accurate as she has this ability to write novels centered on love, family and relationships that pull at the heartstrings.

This one was broken up into multiple parts with chapters from different characters point of views and although that sounds as if it could be confusing and take away from the story how she handled it actually made the story very easy to follow.

Moriarty definitely knows how to write the emotional spectrum of issues and for the most part accurately portray what someone would go through along with realistic behavior as a result of these intense situations.

As a parent of daughters it was hard at times reading anything to do with the Jools character because she was such a brat who came off abusive towards her sister and mother while worshipping her father as someone who could do no wrong. I often had to remind myself she was a teenager and that can be par for the course as we all know how selfish and self-centered teens can be but still at times I couldn’t help thinking that some stronger parenting might curb her thinking talking to her mother and sister the way she does is not appropriate.

The scene that was most cringe worthy for me was the first time Alice and her husband had sex when he returned. The way she described it, how Alice felt, was almost like she was being raped. I know that is incredibly strong but here’s Alice essentially being forced to have sex that she didn’t seem to want but felt forced to have simply because it was her husband. I get why she would have her do it because if your husband has been gone for 2 years and misses having sex with his wife it’s only natural he’d want to and if the situation with Alice was different and she had been pining for him those 2 years I’m sure how she would’ve reacted would’ve been different. BUT in this scene, how it was set up and where these 2 characters were in this particular moment of their lives – it was tough and that theme kept get portrayed for quite some time. I’m not saying the author did anything wrong, on the contrary I believe in a real situation this very well could be accurate. It’s a testament to her writing that she could create such a strong emotional reaction to one of her scenes.

My only true negative that I felt needed to be rethought in how it was written was the handling of Jools mental health issues was handled as I felt it was too quickly mentioned and blown off what she was doing to herself. This is a huge issue particularly in current society and I felt the way it was written made it seem like just because she allegedly stopped meant what she had been doing was no big deal now. Both parents seemed overly wrapped up in their own issues which is why they didn’t pursue this and they had long established giving into her rather than use stricter parenting methods. Something like this can appear to stop but once someone uses this as a coping mechanism the odds they will return to it without proper therapy is extremely high.

This was my first book to read by her even though she’s now written more than 10 but it was good enough I’m curious to see how her others one are so I’m adding her to my list of authors to check out. ( )
  ttsheehan | Sep 20, 2017 |
I am a huge fan of Sinéad Moriarty and have loved almost everyone I have read. I don't always read the synopsis of the book when I see she is the author because I figure I'm going to like it. So I started this book not really knowing what it was about. The book definitely didn't disappoint. It was a little predictable, but I can overlook that part.

Alice and Ben are both doctors raising two daughters. Holly and Jools. Jools is almost sixteen and has all the attitude of a typical teenage plus a little extra. She was honestly my least favorite character. Alice is a general practitioner while Ben is a surgeon. Ben is bored in his current situation and decides to travel to Africa to perform a surgery when one of his colleagues can't make it. Alice doesn't want him to go. While Jools is blowing out her birthday candles, Alice gets the phone call that Ben was killed. Ben and Declan, and intern, were not killed but taken hostage by a group of soldiers who needed their help. For two years, Alice believes her husband is dead and finally starts to live her life again and it's at her engagement announcement that she receives a call from someone she never expected to hear from again.

I love Sinéad Moriarty's writing style. I enjoyed the characters and the story-line. Yes, Jools was a little over the top. I couldn't put the book down because I wanted to see what happened to Ben and Declan. I definitely recommend the book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author, Sinéad Moriarty, for a free electronic ARC of this novel. ( )
  JenniferLynn | Sep 6, 2017 |
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'Heartfelt and deeply moving ... I couldn't put it down.' Susan Lewis 'Intriguing and thought provoking ... a great read.' Katie Fforde 'Gripping and thought-provoking - I was desperate to discover how it would pan out!' Paige Toon 'We ate this fabulous story up - 4 stars' Heat magazine 'Love, lies and longing - this has it all - 4 stars' Woman magazine 'Intriguing - a dramatic twist in the tale will keep you engrossed.' Candis When Alice's husband Ben dies suddenly, her world falls apart. They shared twenty years and two daughters and life without him is unimaginable. Having lost her parents while young, Alice understands her girls' pain. At fifteen, Jools is at that awkward age and only Ben could get through to her. And eleven-year-old Holly looks for the answer to everything in books but this time she's drawing a blank. Alice realizes that for their sakes she must summon up superhuman reserves of strength. Somehow all three of them come through the dark days. In time, it's even possible for Alice to consider marrying again, with the girls' blessing. So when Ben turns up after three years, her world is again turned upside-down. The girls assume that their family can go back to the way they were. Alice is not so sure. Once more Alice has to find the strength to be the mother her daughters need her to be. But this time what that means is far from clear ... The Way We Were won the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction in 2015 'Fans of Sinéad know they can expect honesty, humour and great story-telling' Hello

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