The Ballroom Café cover art

The Ballroom Café

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The Ballroom Café

By: Ann O'Loughlin
Narrated by: Grainne Gillis
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About this listen

Sisters Ella and Roberta O’Callaghan live in separate wings of their crumbling Irish mansion. They haven’t spoken for decades, torn apart by a dark family secret from their past, and communicate only through the terse notes they leave for each other in the hallway.

Debbie, an American, is searching for her birth mother, hoping to discover who she really is and what happened to her.

With the bank threatening, Ella tries to save the family home by opening a café in the ballroom, much to Roberta’s disgust. And when Debbie offers to help out in the café, the war between the sisters intensifies. But then Debbie begins to unravel the truth....

©2015 Ann O'Loughlin (P)2015 Oakhill Publishing Contemporary Contemporary Romance Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Romance

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Critic reviews

"A moving tale of loss, love and redemption." (Bella Magazine)
"Deftly written, moving and courageous." (The Sunday Times)
"Slow-marching, romantic prose draws us into an old world that is rustic, genteel, quaint...[but] scandals lie in wait." (Irish Independent)
"Highly engaging debut you will want to dive into." (Sunday Independent, Ireland)
"A lovely first novel." (Cathy Kelly, best-selling author)
All stars
Most relevant  
I loved it!!! I would love to share the precise reason i loved (well the main reason!!) .. but fear it would give too much away.... well done Ann O’Loughlin!!! A wonderful listen, thank you x Jacqui Strogen

Something Different...

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Sweet story but not particularly gripping. However, it is well written and interesting enough to make you want to finish it. The narrator is good but all the voices are rather shouty and manly which I found probably made me less into the book than had I read it. I felt Ella would have had a softer voice

Sweet story

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I found this book unusual as it has some very surprising plot twists and turns, some of them are a bit disturbing too as you find yourself thinking 'could this really have happened?', especially if you've seen the film Philomena. I suppose it may be the mark of a good storyteller that she makes it all seem quite real and once you get absorbed by it, the storyline is unpredictable and that makes a nice change.

Although, I'm not sure about this narrator...I persevered with her and did begin to get used to her, by which point she didn't seem quite so strange! Worth it though for a good story.

Surprising plot

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How did the narrator detract from the book?

narrator was awful - her stupid accents made me stop listening after about an hour

couldn't get into this

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This book has been totally spoilt by the aggressive harsh tones of the narrator. She shouts the words painfully, like a child learning to read. I could not endure the confusion her narrative created, but stopped listening. I shall purchase this title in book form, as it has all the ingredients to making it “a good read”.

A good story

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What would have made The Ballroom Café better?

Take your pick - believable dialogue, less extreme story lines or less unlikely characters. Or it could have been shorter.

What was most disappointing about Ann O'Loughlin’s story?

The dialogue - I simply could not believe that real people would talk in the pretentious and convoluted way portrayed. The dialogue was not credible, let alone convincing or engaging

Would you be willing to try another one of Grainne Gillis’s performances?

God no. The dialogue was bad enough to begin with, but it was all too evident that Grainne was reading it off the page (as opposed to making it sound like spontaneous conversation). There were times when the reading was so dead and clunky that is spoiled whatever (small) enjoyment could be wrung from this book.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Ballroom Café?

Anything involving characters speaking to each other, as this never sounded convincing

Any additional comments?

There were some quite decent ideas behind the book and some story lines that probably looked plausible or even interesting when first presented, but it was all let down by the execution; both the detail of the writing and the awful stilted reading of it.

Don't bother

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