This was an audiobook read. Visiting again the citizens of Ballybucklebo. It feels like going home. The book template is very predictable but nonetheless enjoyable. The only thing that was grinding my gears was Barry's behavior throughout the book. That behavior came out of nowhere and was very surprising for the character. ( )

It's a good thing that I'm looking for long-haul audio books. This particular installment was a bit of slog -- will they _never_ just get married, already? OMG. At one point late in the book Fingal refers back to initial sweepstakes that opened the book as 10 weeks previous, and I thought, so... that's at least an hour of listening for each week, then? Let's just say it proceeds in a stately manner. That said, there were some delightful highlights, some unexpected twists and turns, and Barry is a drama llama, as per usual. ( )

Ehh I dithered about this one, but honestly it had so many things wrong with it, I could not enjoy it much. I think that's because Barry sucked a lot in this one and we had random plot devices used to get rid of a romance and a character that has been around for several books. I usually enjoy these books and the village of Ballybucklebo, but ultimately think this was just a so-so installment in the Irish Country series.

In "An Irish Country Practice" Barry and Fingal are dealing with different things.

Barry is becoming increasingly nervous about marrying his fiancee Sue Nolan due to her wanting children and Barry being hesitant about being a father. If you are wondering where this random divergent interest thing came from, you are not the only one. Up until the last book there has been no mention of Barry not wanting children. I at least understood why he was hesitant in the last book due to being concerned about bringing children into a world that is dealing with so many awful things. But this book he turns into Ebeneezer Scrooge and decides that he doesn't like kids and was really nasty towards one of them to the point I really wish that Sue had dumped Barry's butt.

Fingal is agreeing to take on a trainee and to help with having GPs certified. It's not that interesting. He also has to help out his colleague Fitzpatrick who develops an addiction to betting (that comes out of nowhere) and realizes that one of the village women is being beaten by her spouse. None of the stories were satisfactorily resolved to me. I mean they were resolved, but resolved with what I called hand-waving writing to not have to really deal with what Taylor sets in motion in this book. We also still have Fingal wanting Kitty to retire and is going around "subtly" trying to make her see how much more appealing it would be if she stayed home. I can honestly say that I don't even get why Fingal wants Kitty to retire just so she can sit around and be outdoors with him while he still has plenty of work? I hope she doesn't retire. Between Fingal and Barry I wanted to kick both of them in the shins for how they were acting in this one.

The main reason why I liked this one is that there are callbacks to the villagers in this one. We forget it's been about 3 years or so since Barry has started working with Fingal, so we follow up with some of his earlier patients and some we have not heard from since "An Irish Country Christmas."

The writing (medical) I will just say was okay. I just thought the issues which Taylor tried to delve into in this one didn't make a lot of sense at all with the overall story structure.

The ending was just okay and I was very annoyed we only hear about Barry's wedding in the afterword written by Kinky Kincaid (now married and I can't even remember her married name). ( )

The latest book in the Irish Country series, though book 14 will be out soon. In this one there's a new trainee to show the ropes, with more coming in the future at the request of one of the local teaching hospitals. Doctor Laverty is looking for a house for him and his soon to be wife while dealing with doubts of wanting to have children in their future. There's a huge issue with Number One Main Street with the county wanting to take it so they can widen the roads in the area due to more use. There are surprise twins, new puppies, and possible domestic violence to sort out. As well as many more issues that everyone seems to know about in the small community. I really loved this one, it seemed to finally be back to the style of the first few books in the series that make me a fan. ( )

Life and death, love and laughter, all a balancing act under the direction of Dr O'Reilly. Each of his books are so satisfying! ( )