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The Street Where You Live

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'Roisin Meaney is a skilful storyteller' Sheila O'Flanagan

'Utterly irresistible' Irish Independent

When a heatwave coincides with rehearsals for an end-of-summer concert, temperatures soar - so too do the small town scandals ...

It turns out that some members of the choir have secrets they are desperate to keep hidden.

Christopher, the handsome and talented director, is embroiled in a steamy affair with someone who is strictly off-limits; Molly has become obsessed with a young boy whom she's convinced is her grandson; while Emily has just fallen in love - with the wrong man.

As opening night approaches, it becomes clear that there are some tough decisions to be made. But until the curtain falls, you never know what might happen on The Street Where You Live .

'A real treat ... Meaney wraps her readers in the company and comfort of strangers' Sunday Independent

323 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 8, 2017

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About the author

Roisin Meaney

43 books400 followers
Born on 3rd September.
A published author of twenty books for adults and three for children, Roisin worked as an advertising copywriter for a number of years, and brings a vast amount of experience to the editing team. Her first novel, The Daisy Picker, won a Write a Bestseller competition. Her third novel, The Last Week of May reached number one on the Irish bestseller list and her fourth, The People Next Door reached number two. Her books have been translated into several languages, and two, Semi-Sweet and Life Drawing for Beginners, have been published in the US. She is currently working on her next book, which is scheduled for publication in autumn 2023. She is also plotting another children's book - shhhhh.

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5 stars
433 (37%)
4 stars
450 (38%)
3 stars
220 (18%)
2 stars
46 (3%)
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19 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
Profile Image for Obsidian.
3,274 reviews1,166 followers
June 25, 2024
Updated June 25, 2024: Honestly this is still just three stars. The book just drags badly I thought and there's so many loose ends. You are just left guessing too much for me about what happens next with all of the characters.

January 26, 2021 update: This was actually better as re-read I think. I ended up giving it 3 stars. I think the first time through I was just annoyed with how slow going it was and skimmed some stuff. I think that some of the plot points were a bit absurd, but for the most part I liked the inner workings of a local community choir members.

I actually felt for Christopher a lot in re-read. I don't think I caught why he was so sour on people the first time through.

Emily still needed to work through how she treated her son and daughter. I did feel for Emily since she just feels a little lost while you are reading the book.

I did think the ending worked a bit better now too. It was good to see how the different characters have changed their plans and themselves when we check back in three months later.


Original review:
This is going to be short and sweet. Just pass on this book. I read two other books by this author and enjoyed them. I hoped this would be good too. But this reads like a very rough rough first draft. Things are not fleshed out enough by far for half the characters. Things are not really resolved, I guess the author wants us to imagine how things will go. And way too many characters in this with no one taking a form hold in my brain.

I was actually surprised to get to the end considering how endless the book seemed to be on the plane.

The book takes place over the summer and involves members of an amateur choir and those who are connected to them. So at one point I think we have Molly and Emily (mother and daughter) the choir director Christopher and his neighbor (Freddie) and her daughter, Emily's handyman friend Clem. I feel like there is someone else I am blanking on, but I won't go and look it back up.

I don't know what else to get into except nothing flows together right at all. Each character has major issues that they needed to see a therapist about. I didn't care about Christopher and thought he was awful. Emily was way too naive and kind of a jerk about a guy who seemed to like her. Molly was too focused on her son that she had not seen in years. I thought Clem was okayish, but we don't get to spend much time with him.

I just felt like this written more as short stories about people living in the same town. I think that if Meaney had pulled a Binchy (write about people who live near each other in a small town) with some small connections here and there, but we get to follow their stories through it would have worked better. The way this was written we just get some barely there development of characters and rush to an ending.
Profile Image for Dale Harcombe.
Author 14 books432 followers
April 5, 2018
Christopher, who had years earlier wanted a music career, has started a community choir. As the story opens, the choice is getting ready for a concert singing lots of well-known songs from the musicals. But one of the choir members, Jane, doesn’t turn up. The story then flips back and introduces us to others in the choir, including Molly who is in her fifties and her thirty year old daughter, Emily. Molly is carrying a lot of heartache after her son and Emily’s twin disappeared without a word years earlier. Molly, who is a widow, works as a cleaner and this introduces the reader to many of her clients who live in the area. Some of them have connections with the choir in various ways. The story ends up going back to the night of the concert but not without a few little twists along the way.
I enjoyed his story, although at times I had a bit of trouble keeping the characters straight as there are a number of them and the focus flits around a lot from one to the other. However it is still an enjoyable read. I loved the inclusion of bits of songs from one by Kristofferson to all the well-known music. The range of characters and the setting of Ireland in a heatwave are both well developed. It is a story of friendship, family, betrayal, romance and hope. Molly is a particularly endearing character who, despite circumstances life has handed her tries to mainly keep a positive attitude
Profile Image for Suze.
1,884 reviews1,295 followers
March 6, 2018
For Christopher music used to be his entire life. Now he has a job at a supermarket that he finds far more boring, but he wasn't able to follow his passion anymore. He's taking some steps and is finally letting it back into his world again. He started a choir and he's taking directing it incredibly seriously. His cleaner Molly and her daughter Emily are part of the group. Singing songs should be fun and straightforward, but a lot is going on behind the scenes of the choir. Someone has a secret relationship, someone else's son might have a child she didn't know anything about and someone has never been lucky in love. The choir is working towards an important performance and the members are having a lot on their minds. Will their big evening be a success despite or maybe because of everything?

Molly loves her daughter Emily. She wants Emily to be happy and hopes she can fix her up with a nice man. Emily has a twin brother, but they haven't seen him in years, which brings quite a bit of tension into their home. Mother and daughter are having a nice enough time living together, but are they truly happy or are they both longing for something more? Being in the choir might be fun and Molly and Emily are enjoying it, but Christopher isn't an easy man to deal with. Nobody knows he's struggling after having his heart broken. Maybe his new neighbor might bring some joy back into his life? While music binds, so much is happening behind closed doors that people who all live close to one another don't want others to know. Will their secrets come to the surface eventually?

The Street Where You Live is a beautiful fascinating story. Roisin Meaney gives her readers the chance to take a peek behind doors that normally remain closed and that's a topic I absolutely love. Her main characters are interesting and versatile, Molly and Emily are sweethearts with an unlimited amount of care and kindness to give and Christopher is edgier, he's moody and closed off. There are several more fabulous characters and I was captivated by all of their lives. I love how Roisin Meaney alternates between them and each personality is equally interesting. Molly cleans a lot of houses, so she knows what's going on in her town very well. However, does she also know what's happening under her own roof? I loved these contrasts and was constantly surprised by Roisin Meaney's fabulous twists and turns.

Roisin Meaney has a fantastic engaging writing style. I love how she makes her characters and setting come to life. She gives the exact right amount of details and every description is spot on. She makes it easy to get to know the people she writes about through and through. I loved how the setting and the main characters in The Street Where You Live are an inextricable part of each other. The result is a gorgeous charming story filled with intrigues, entertainment and emotional scenes. I really loved The Street Where You Live, it's a wonderful special book.
Profile Image for Mary Lou.
1,124 reviews27 followers
November 9, 2017
The Street Where You Live is yet another in a long line of wonderful books by Roisin Meaney.
The large cast includes Molly, a youngish widow whose grown-up son Philip left home suddenly some years back and has not been in touch since, and his sister Emily who has always felt the lesser of the twins and now fears being left on the shelf.
Molly’s job brings more characters into the spotlight, together-with members of the choir to which Molly and Emily belong.
It’s the combination of the characters with good story-telling and a genuine and fearless style that makes this read so enjoyable.
Perhaps these characters will not let Roisin go. The open ending might imply the possibility of a sequel. Now that would be good.
Profile Image for Marcia.
Author 3 books26 followers
July 14, 2019
A good read but not my favourite by this author. If you’ve never read her books, I always recommend The Daisy Picker first!
Profile Image for Rose Servitova.
Author 4 books50 followers
July 3, 2017
A reminder of how great Irish storytellers are! This gem had me hooked from the start. Great characters...flaws, fate, humanity and the goodness of people - the author understands the workings of our minds and our motivations so well. I loved it.
Profile Image for Leona.
1,580 reviews
July 21, 2017
Another wonderful book by Roisin Meaney. I've read all her books and never been disappointed. This book was brilliant and kept me interested right to the last page . I loved all the characters, my favourite one being Molly . This is a perfect holiday read and one I highly recommend
Profile Image for Emma.
103 reviews8 followers
August 31, 2019
Throughout this novel, I loved the way I could hear it in an Irish accent, some of the words she uses reminded me of Irish friends, which was a nice personal piece of nostalgia for me.

I will admit I got a little confused at times with the many different people in this story, especially at the beginning. But the way everyone links to each other throughout the story is really beautiful.

I really enjoyed being let into the different parts of their lives and the story is literally the street where they live. We don’t realise what is going on in the house next door, to the woman we might see in the supermarket every week, or a person we might share a hobby with.

In this novel, it’s the choir that connects a lot of the characters. Christopher, who after losing his own musical career has ended up leading the local choir, local cleaner Molly who after watching her son head off to New Zealand never to be seen again is living with her daughter Emily who is one of the choir’s best singers but sadly has been unlucky in love.

They all have a story of their own to tell. There are fledgling romances, new neighbours, heartbreak, family secrets and a very interesting dalliance to contend with.

In the street where you live some people’s stories were good, some sad and others were both in parts and I think Roisin dealt so well with writing about hurt, heartbreak, loss and grief .

I truly felt she wrote from her heart, whether it was new flushes of romance, or the heartbreak of a loss of someone you loved, I felt she knew the emotions of all those things. I just think they were wonderfully written.

This was a beautiful book and definitely an author I will be reading more of in the future. I read this over two days and after feeling a little bit low recently, it was the perfect book to make me feel a little bit brighter about life.
58 reviews2 followers
August 6, 2017
I could not stop reading this book.
What pulled me in where the characters. The characters she created seem to be alive. They are all very different from each other, all dealing with the hardships life threw at them in different ways.

The way Roisin Meaney writes about love in this book was the next highlight though. Love is not something mystical or something all consuming. Love is a part of everyday life, but it is still wonderful and I still wept happy tears for one or two characters when they found what they were looking for. But romance is not dominating any one character's life. They are all adults with other relationships and concerns unrelated to Romance.

I also loved the ending - I won't give anything away, but the ending was perfect for me because while it was mainly positive, it was also totally believable. This is a feel good book that makes you believe that maybe some things will work out.
Profile Image for Suzanne Ryan.
162 reviews2 followers
August 28, 2019
The Street Where You Live winds together the stories of people living in the same locality, some of whom sing in a choir together. Molly and her daughter Emily are both in the choir. Molly is a cleaner who works for most of the people whose stories are told, she is a widow who is missing her son, Emilys twin. In the book she strikes up a friendship with Clem, who has his own secrets. Christopher is the choir director who lives a quiet life but also is having an inappropriate dalliance with one of the choir members. Hos life is shaken up when the little girl who has moved on next door discovers a hole in the hedge and a love for his dog.
I enjoyed this book as I have with all from Roisin. The characters all have their own lives and secrets but they are all woven together in lovely ways.
Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and Roisin Meaney for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
172 reviews
July 25, 2017
This was an easy book to read. It is a tale of considences. You want the story to end to see what will happen to all of the characters as apart from Jane and Kathleeen they are all endearing. A book to read on your holidays. Meaney was an author that I had not read before but I enjoyed this so much I have now ordered some of her older books.
Profile Image for Tracy Green.
113 reviews3 followers
October 7, 2018
Great Read

I just discovered this author and I am catching up by reading a couple of her titles a week. I love the complexity of her characters; the way they are intertwined but the year reader discovers just how slowly as the storylines are gently knitted together. She has already become a favorite author.
517 reviews3 followers
April 1, 2018
Are there enough words?

Love reading your books. They epitomize all that I love about home, even though it has been a long time since I was there . The characters are wonderful and you have a lovely style of writing.
Profile Image for Marj.
24 reviews
July 11, 2021
As always,.sorry to see it end...

One of my.favorite authors. The characters are real and so richly developed, I feel like they are neighbors and friends. Was sorry so much was left up in the air but maybe a future book?
402 reviews1 follower
April 16, 2018
Roisin is one of my favourite authors and this one was just as good - I love the way she has such different characters but they all have their own voice
60 reviews
July 30, 2018
Loved the characters and their interaction with each other, intentional and accidental. I wasn't ready to leave the neighborhood when the book ended! Glad I found Roisin Meaney.
Profile Image for Kim Solleder.
222 reviews
June 12, 2022
a wonderful read, Roisin Meaneys books are one of my favourite, did not want this book to finish
Profile Image for Marjorie.
667 reviews6 followers
June 12, 2018
This is exactly what I have come to expect from Roisin Meaney, a group of disparate characters who are linked through circumstance or location. The link this time comes from the Amateur Choir that Molly and Emily are part of and then spreads to include customers at the Supermarket where Emily is a check-out girl and Christopher (the choir leader) is the Manager and clients of Molly's house cleaning service.

The characterisation is, as always excellent, and they are living and breathing flawed people from all walks of life. Unfortunately, The Street Where You Live, just felt much, much bleaker than the other novels I have read by this author. There are moments of romance but not much jollity along the way and although I enjoyed reading about the inhabitants of this small Irish town I did find it hard to raise even a rueful smile throughout the book.

It is entertaining and it is a very good study of ordinary people doing ordinary things. The only extraordinary thing about them is quite how dismal they are, maybe the unrelenting sunshine has something to do with that - we just don't get long, hot summers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. I also found the lack of chapters to be a hindrance to reading anywhere other than from the safety of my couch. The first "chapter" is approximately half the book and this makes finding the ideal place to stop quite difficult in a "but how will I know where I was up to way" and not the preferred "Oooh just one more chapter" way.

Sadly not the strongest of her tales due to how unrelentingly gloomy I found it all.
Profile Image for Dana.
1,348 reviews
March 16, 2020
Mediocre and forgettable, unlike many of Roisin Meaney’s other novels. “The Street Where You Live” was a pleasant enough read, but I never felt an urgent need to keep reading, nor to pick it up when I had free time. It should not have taken me a week to read this one. As per the author’s usual style, there is a cast of characters all interconnected in some way, in a small town in Ireland. Each has a backstory, a heartache, and a potentially happy resolution to all that troubles them. The cast of characters was just not as appealing, nor relatable, as they could have been. I didn’t hate the book, but it’s not one I would highly recommend.
Profile Image for Janette.
445 reviews
May 12, 2018
Another fantastic book from Roisin Meaney, I loved this book. Excellent storyline with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Interesting characters who I could empathise with. Well written, the characters come to life. This is a story of friendship, family, betrayal, romance and hope.

An easy book to read - perfect for a cosy afternoon on the sofa or as a holiday read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
323 reviews1 follower
December 6, 2020
This one was ok but wouldn’t rate in my top 20 reads. There was a main protagonist and then a lot of smaller characters that were all linked to her in some way. For me personally, there were too many characters to keep track of and sometimes I found myself having to re read certain parts to try and make sense of what was happening and to whom. I usually really enjoy work by this author so this was a bit of a disappointment.
Profile Image for Bobby Hall.
14 reviews1 follower
November 8, 2021
A lovely story, although maybe a few more characters than needed, tells the stories of a small town choir's individual members and how often our preconceived ideas of people are usually wrong. This Irish author has the gift of telling a story as only the Irish can, and sometimes long-winded...lol I enjoyed this book and it has made me purchase several other Roisin Meaney books. There is nothing like an Irish tale be it real or not.
4 reviews
January 16, 2023
There is no plot here but we see what happens in the lives of people in a small town in Ireland. They are a part of choir and since its a small place there lives are intermingled. Yet Its interesting!
547 reviews
April 13, 2025
An entertaining book about the ways in which friendships develop between those who live and/or work in small communities. Such friendships often form the basis of deeper relationships, some of which may be considered illicit.
Profile Image for Susan.
319 reviews
January 10, 2026
Quaint

A quaint Irish town, it's residents and how surprisingly intertwined their lives become. Much in the style of Maeve Binchy, this pleasant story of life in an Irish town and finding happiness is a bit slow but enjoyable.
Profile Image for Gill Brown.
740 reviews7 followers
July 17, 2017
Fantastic book. A warm and lovely story and I love how the characters lives were interwoven even though they didn't know it. Brilliant.
Profile Image for Sheree.
26 reviews
September 6, 2017
Cute book with likable characters. A really nice easy read.
Profile Image for Marjan.
812 reviews3 followers
June 29, 2018
Aardig , niet zo leuk als andere boeken die ik van haar heb gelezen
Profile Image for Bernie.
92 reviews1 follower
February 26, 2019
This is an easy read, I thought the characters were good enough. For me there were too many coincidences and it all fell into place very neatly in the end.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews