The Connellys of County Down
Fiction
Celadon
August 1, 2023
Advance reader copy
288
Free from publisher via Bookish First
When Tara Connelly is released from prison after serving eighteen months on a drug charge, she knows rebuilding her life at thirty years old won’t be easy. With no money and no prospects, she returns home to live with her siblings, who are both busy with their own problems. Her brother, a single dad, struggles with the ongoing effects of a brain injury he sustained years ago, and her sister’s fragile facade of calm and order is cracking under the burden of big secrets. Life becomes even more complicated when the cop who put her in prison keeps showing up unannounced, leaving Tara to wonder what he wants from her now.
While she works to build a new career and hold her family together, Tara finds a chance at love in a most unlikely place. But when the Connellys’ secrets start to unravel and threaten her future, they all must face their worst fears and come clean, or risk losing each other forever.
The Connellys of County Down is a moving novel about testing the bounds of love and loyalty. It explores the possibility of beginning our lives anew, and reveals the pitfalls of shielding each other from the bitter truth.
My review:
This is a wonderful character study of a family in crisis, and one that you find yourself rooting for. Each of the three Connelly siblings have complex issues they are dealing with, but things start to really ramp up when the youngest is released from prison, where she has served time for drug trafficking. When she comes home, all three are living under the same roof, and we follow them as they try to navigate their own paths, but also navigate around each other. The author does a great job of fleshing out all of the characters in this novel, even the secondary ones. I found myself really rooting for each member of this family, even when they were not at their most likable. My favorite relationship would have to be that between Tara and her nephew Connor. When things got tough, she would ask him to tell her a joke, to which he always complied. breaking the tension of the moment. While I did have an idea as to the circumstances surrounding Tara's prison sentence, it was still an interesting dynamic of the story to explore once it came to the forefront.
While not huge on plot, this was a really well executed story of a family, who despite their faults and secrets, learn that love and family always come first.
