An Irish Love Story

Part 1. One Irish Spring. American Patrick O'Connor, meets Maggie, a brash red-head who has a low opinion of Yanks. Yet, O'Connor invites her to be his tour guide of County Cork. They start for the beach and wind up lost in the mountains. What happens next you may guess. But there is a problem--he has a wife and family.
Part 2. One Irish Christmas. A surprising development brings Pat O'Connor, now a successful author, back to Ireland 20 years after his first visit. His trip triggers a search for Maggie that seems destined to fail. Then he gets two surprises, one bitterly unwelcome.




It started great, I was liking everything, you think it's a little predictable but, I mean it's not called An Irish Love Story for no reason. The problem is who he is, I don't know how I could give that more than three stars, especially when everyone seems to be okay with it.

Even though I have problems with love at first sight and loving two people at the same time, the same way, I might understand the need to include them in books. But here, it was just too strong, their actions and other people's reactions were just not for me.

But I feel like I connect so much with this guy in many different ways, though I am not excusing his choices or how things happened. It's like major parts of his story I understand and remind me so much of my own. Not everything though, the main idea that I believe is wrong, I don't share it with him. It's in the description from Smashwords but that's not really the big twist.
"I'm sorry, Padraig, that I've been such a poor companion today. I really am very happy that we are making this trip." I should have said this back then when I had the chance.
"I wrote a love story set in Ireland. It was published-mainly because I kind of forced the publisher to issue it."
"I didn't care if it never made a dime" "Of course, the names were changed, the characters were fictitious, and most of the actions in the book didn't really happen. But I managed to capture the essence of the love that Maggie and I shared with my words" That's what I have in mind for the book I've been trying to write for the past 9 years.
"Much of it was fiction, but it was the only way I could keep the love Maggie and I had alive." "It was my way of keeping her close to me." This is the reason why I want to finish my story.
Honestly, I like love stories with happy endings, if the circumstances in this relationship would have been different, I would have loved this book.

It could be a relatable experience for some people but it depends on their side of the story to see this as a bad reminder or to feel a connection with the characters.
I liked the setting and at first I was really into the story and the characters but after Part 2, I felt like they were not being realistic. I started feeling like they were just bad actors, if you could put it that way.

Favorite parts:
"The best way to learn about the Irish was to be a tourist"
"There, take that Green Hat!" It's fun seeing them not get along when you know something will happen eventually between them