Fingal and Dierdre's story at last. I enjoyed it very much, not least because whiner Barry is back to his old whiny ways, worried that Sue won't come back from France. I expect he will be taking center stage again soon, and I dread the day. Trouble with the new doctor is on the horizon, which makes sense, given the reformation of both Fitzpatrick and Bertie Bishop -- what shenanigans can occur, with those two out of commission? ( )

Well I think this series is going to continue on for some time. I am no longer going to follow it where it goes. Patrick Taylor joins a list of authors that I have read and initially loved, who I decided that time is short, and I refuse to read anymore books by this author anymore when there are better books to spend my time with.

Please note that if you have not read the series til now, there will be spoilers included from the previous books.

I was initially crazy about this series. The first book in the series, An Irish Country Doctor (Irish Country #1) was a bit long and had a lot of medical information that I didn't think was that necessary, but all in all I was pretty happy to read about the characters of Doctor Fingal O'Reilly and Doctor Barry Laverty. Reading about the mythical village of Ballybucklebo and all of it's citizens was a fun way to pass the time.

Up until An Irish Country Courtship (Irish Country #5) I was pretty happy with the series. Mr. Taylor took pains to include both Fingal and Barry's points of view so it didn't feel too bogged down with just one character. However, that all seemed to stop when we started to focus solely on the character of Fingal in the series, starting with A Dublin Student Doctor (Irish Country #6). Though we seemed to return to form with An Irish Country Wedding (Irish Country #7) and I hoped that the standalone novel that we got focusing on O'Reilly was just a one-off. Especially because I didn't love it the same way that I loved An Irish Country Girl (Irish Country #4) that focused on the character of Mrs. Kinky Kincaid who was the housekeeper to both Doctors. However, Mr. Taylor proceeded to write whole novels with O'Reilly with the reader following his student days in Dublin, his initial romance with his now wife, Kitty, and we would hear rumblings about how he met and lost his first wife which were Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor (Irish Country #8), An Irish Doctor in Peace and at War (Irish Country #9) and The Wily O'Reilly: Irish Country Stories (Irish Country #10). In the latter books we lost the important POV of Barry which I thought kept the books more realistic.

Reading about O'Reilly at a younger age became increasingly boring to me as a reader. And that's because we already knew his story in the first book. A widower who lost his wife during World War II. Why in the world this is constantly harped on through what is it now, 9 books if you take away the one focusing on Mrs. Kincaid, was a bit much. And I think that's the problem. Reading about O'Reilly's past through several books was not that interesting. He served on a warship, he got married, he lost his wife, I don't think readers needed to be taken down every nook and cranny in the character's life.

We pretty much lost any other characters being discussed in depth in these books now. Mrs. Kincaid (now remarried) was barely in this book), Barry, Jenny, heck even most of the villagers are now tertiary characters in the saga of O'Reilly's life. And since we didn't really get a chance to know the character of Deirdre in the last book, we focus on her a lot in this book, and wow, this character read like a cardboard cutout of a perfect woman. Unlike with the character of Kitty, Deirdre never felt real to me in the last book or this one.

And the plot line which was thin at best, is pretty much the same as it is through the last several books. We always have a mysterious ailment that the Doctors try to figure out, usually it is an ailment attached to a character that the Doctors do not get along with. The character of Donal who always has a scheme that O'Reilly feels obliged to help out in, Barry going through issues in his relationships, O'Reilly trying to stick his nose in something and fix it, etc. These are all things that we have read before. There is nothing new here in the series, or nothing new that is going to keep me coming back for me.

The writing was clunky throughout the book. I think that was because we had Taylor throwing in references to O'Reilly reading about nuclear testing going on in Nevada, the Beatles, etc. The medical discussion about the rhesus monkey blood type put me to sleep, several times. I always thought the book had way too much in depth medical discussion back and forth between characters that dragged, but this one took the cake.
And once again the flow was horrible from beginning to end in this book from the flashbacks to O'Reilly's past and the present. We have O'Reilly and Kitty making that trip to Spain and it literally only took maybe 6 or 7 pages. I cannot believe this was a whole plotline in the last book for it to be dealt with this quickly in this book and for it to not even really matter at all.

The setting of Ballybucklebo never comes fully alive in this book. Probably because we were often in other places in O'Reilly's past in this book, and we would only have brief conversations with characters in the present.

The ending didn't have the same ring to it as previous books. I swear it felt like a mishmash of the previous books with a celebration always happening at the Doctors home with somehow the entire village able to be in their upstairs parlor. It's not very believable and I just sighed my way through it.

I just plan on re-reading the books from the series that I liked, and pretty much ignoring all new offerings. ( )

Another excellent installment in the series. This book picked up where An Irish Doctor in Peace and at War left off. As in the previous book, this one alternated between Fingal's past and his present. The "past" part of the book began with Fingal reporting to the naval hospital at Haslap for additional training in anesthesia and trauma surgery. He was looking forward to the next three months, as he and Dierdre planned to marry during this time. But there were unexpected obstacles to their plans.

I loved following Fingal through his time at Haslap. He learned a great deal medically, and also had the opportunity to experience different ways to deal with problems. The Fingal of the present has always been known as the Wily O'Reilly, but in this book, we got a glimpse of how he learned some of that wiliness. I love that Fingal considered all aspects of the patient important, not just their medical issues. There were several instances of him doing what was right for the whole patient, even when it got him in trouble with his superiors. I loved the Scottish doctor who was such a tremendous help and example to Fingal. I also appreciated the realistic look at wartime medicine and the challenges it created. The descriptions of Fingal's experiences both on shore and at sea were vivid, especially the feelings of witnessing the effects of the battles.

A big part of this section was the furthering of the relationship between Fingal and Deirdre. I loved seeing them snatch what time together they could, rejoicing in the simple things when they were together. I ached for them both when Fingal discovered that he had to have permission to marry even after attaining the next rank. It was fun to see that a case of "who you know" came to their rescue. It was sweet to see them settle into married life, all the time knowing that their separation loomed ever nearer. The poignancy of their letters to each other, once he returned to HMS Warspite, was incredible. How I cried when I finally found out what ended their marriage.

Back in the present day, life went on for Fingal and the village of Ballybucklebo. I loved seeing Fingal and his medical school classmates together for their class reunion. Their concern for one of those classmates was clear, especially when he resisted their attempts to help him. This was a man who was always standoffish, but Fingal and the others refused to give up on him. There were also a couple of problem pregnancies to deal with. One of the things I love best about Fingal is that he was never too proud to admit when he needed help. I loved seeing his determination to catch up on advances in medicine so that he could better serve his patients. Outside of medicine, Fingal still seems to be the glue that holds the village together. From bird counting with his brother to helping his friend John with a tricky problem, I loved seeing how various threads were connected. On a personal front, I loved seeing Fingal and Kitty deal with the ghosts of their pasts and move forward in their new lives together. Meanwhile, Barry missed his fiancée Sue, who was in France on a special educational trip. I ached for him as he worried about the effects of their separation on their relationship. Fingal's recent problem with similar feelings gave him the ability to provide some much-needed advice. Some lighter moments were provided by yet another of Donal Donnelly's schemes, this one involving a canine mésalliance and its results. ( )

While not as interesting as the previous volume in the series, one still learns a great deal about medical practices in the 1960's and the 1940's. Dr. Fingal O'Reilly is narrating two periods in his life as a medical doctor. One covers his WW II service aboard HMS Warspite and on land at the naval hospital in Portsmouth and the other covers his years in the 1960's as a highly loved and respected country doctor in the Irish village of Ballybucklebo.

He also reveals what happened to his first wife who was carrying their child and who his second wife is and her role in his life before he met Deirdre, his first wife, and how she re-entered his life in the 1960's to become his second wife.

In the narrative we meet many eccentric characters who inhabit Ballybucklebro as well as the many medical colleagues he calls on to help with the medical needs of his patients. This is a very romantic book because of the many love stories we read about as well as the views of a rural Irish village Taylor gives us. I think a tougher editor would have made this a shorter read without hurting the story.

The recipes for some of the dishes his housekeeper, Kinky, makes in the novel are appended at the end of the book. There is also an Irish expression glossary at the end of the book as well. ( )

This book gives you more of the backstory for Dr. Fingal O'Reilly of Ballybucklebo, Ireland. This book switches between the present day and O'Reilly's time serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. The book is very sad at times when focusing on the war. I'm still really enjoying this series, and am not looking forward to when I catch up. ( )