The Tavern on Maple Street

By: Sharon Owens

Narrated by: Caroline Winterson

An irresistible novel brimming with wit, warmth, and Irish humor, about the married owners of a friendly tavern in Belfast and the intimate lives of the customers and employees who band together to save it from demolition.

Jack Beaumont and his beautiful wife, Lily, are the owners of the tavern on Maple Street, a tiny Victorian pub they inherited from Jack's great-uncle Ernest. It's a quiet place, untouched by the modern world, and that's why the customers like it so much. But a property developer wants to demolish the tavern and build a shopping mall on Maple Street.

Jack and Lily and their little home-away-from-home are suddenly plunged into the limelight, caught in a desperate struggle to save their business from the bulldozers, or, with the help of some new employees, to at least make as much money as possible during their last few months as landlord and landlady.

In The Tavern on Maple Street, Sharon Owens delivers another delicious sparkler full of love, friendship, relationships, and the day-to-day lives of ordinary people, one that is sure to satisfy readers' insatiable appetite for her romantic and quirky Belfast tales.

©2005 Sharon Owens (P)2006 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Finalist, Romance, 2007

"The denizens of Maple Street represent her most charming creations yet." (Booklist)

Another wonderful story by Sharon Owens

I hope she writes more stories. I liked that characters and things from the other books made an appearance.

Wonderful Book & Wonderful Narrator

I'd previously read Tea House on Mulberry Street and really enjoyed it, so I was pleased to see audio offerings from Sharon Owens. I love the characters in these books and the way their lives intertwine.

The narrator was wonderful. She had a pleasing voice with an authentic Irish lilt.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audio presentation of The Tavern on Maple Street. I'm off to get another by this author now.

Entertaining

A pleasant little story, nothing exciting, but it kept me entertained. I like the way the author develops each character, and they each become a little story of their own within the overall story. I enjoyed this book enough to get another book by the author. I am currently listening to The Tea House On Mulberry Street.

A Quiet Pint

If you could sum up The Tavern on Maple Street in three words, what would they be?

A relaxing story.

What does Caroline Winterson bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I love her Northern Ireland accent. Beautiful. And she captures the characters so well, without slip-ups when switching between them.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh out loud at several points.

Any additional comments?

This is a nice slice of daily life in modern Northern Ireland, relatively free of the typical obsession with The Troubles. The well-crafted story is made even better by Caroline Winterston's narration.

Enjoyed it

This story reminds me of The Tea House on Mulberry Street. I enjoyed the storyline & characters. Easy listening & sweet.

Love this author!

I reread these stories yearly and you always learn something new about the characters each time. highly recommend!

Ready to Sing Song?

The book is very good BUT the Narrator is
awful! Sing songy and irratating inflection, or the lack there of, in her voice makes the book seem like a root canal.

I just struggled through it..I am not even sure the accent is authentic..it seems to slip in places and sound like south Philly?