Although my usual reading matter of choice are crime thrillers, I do have a penchant for Maeve Binchy and her warm, insightful and ultimately uplifting novels set in Ireland and the irreverent humour of Marian Keyes. According to the premise of Claudia Carroll’s novel this big hearted tale of female friendship and the lives of those who reside in Primrose Square, Dublin 2 appears to share much in common with these novels. Sadly I found the whole novel pretty laboured and uninspiring stuff that frustrated with its repetition and hackneyed set-pieces, all mined to cringeworthy and highly predictable ‘comic’ effect. Although the ‘secrets’ are eminently guessable (pretty obvious), the exact circumstances are eked out painfully over the entire length of the novel which only serves to highlight the plodding pace further.