Lagan Love by Peter Murphy Review and Giveaway!!

If you know something about passion, and desire, and giving everything to live your dreams then leave your world behind for a while. Come with Janice to Dublin, in the mid nineteen-eighties when a better future beckoned and the past was restless, whispering in the shadows for the Old Ways. Janice has grown tired of her sheltered existence in Toronto and when Aidan leads her through the veils of the Celtic Twilight, she doesn’t hesitate. In their love, Aidan, Dublin’s rising poet, sees a chance for redemption and Janice sees a chance for recognition. Sinead tells her that it is all nonsense as she keeps her head down and her eyes fixed on her own prize – a place in Ireland’s prospering future. She used to go out with Aidan, before he met Janice, so there is little she can say. And besides, she has enough to do as her parents are torn apart by the rumours of church scandals. But after a few nights in Grogan’s, where Dublin’s bohemians gather, or a day in Clonmacnoise among the ruins of Celtic Crosses, it won’t matter as the ghosts of Aidan’s mythologies take form and prey on the friends until everything is at risk. Lagan Love is a sensuous story of Love, Lust and Loss that will bring into question the cost we pay for our dreams.

Peter Damien Murphy

Peter Murphy was born in Killarney where he spent his first three years before his family was deported to Dublin, the Strumpet City.

Growing up in the verdant braes of Templeogue, Peter was schooled by the De La Salle brothers in Churchtown where he played rugby for ‘The Wine and Gold’. He also played football (soccer) in secret!

After that, he graduated and studied the Humanities in Grogan’s under the guidance of Scot’s corner and the bar staff; Paddy, Tommy and Sean.

Murphy financed his education by working summers on the buildings sites of London in such places as Cricklewood, Camden Town and Kilburn.

Murphy also tramped the roads of Europe playing music and living without a care in the world.
But his move to Canada changed all of that. He only came over for a while – thirty years ago.
He took a day job and played music in the bars at night until the demands of family life intervened.
Having raised his children and packed them off to University, Murphy answered the long ignored internal voice and began to write.

He has no plans to make plans for the future and is happy to let things unfold as they do anyway.

LAGAN LOVE is his first novel.

My Thoughts:

As I am a fanatic for anything Irish, I found Lagan Love to be a very well written and compelling novel about Dublin in the 1980's. As soon as I started reading this book I was swept into Dublin, its people, places, poverty,strife and lore. The characters were very intriguing, Aidan, a poet looking for redemption, spends his days in the pub drinking,and writing. Janice, a college student at Trinity College, is also a painter wanting to be famous. Aidan and Janice meet and the path they follow in their relationship is often tense but always exciting. This is a story of love, lust with a bit of Celtic mysticism and myth thrown into the mix. As I read this book I could imagine Grogan's, the pub filled with eclectic characters and hear the conversations going on about life, love, poetry and Lenanshee's. I thoroughly enjoyed the story but I would have liked to have seen the last part of the book go a little more into detail as to what happens to the characters as time goes on. I highly recommend this book to the reader who wants to experience this authors writing and Ireland. Peter Murphy's takes his own life experiences and puts that toward an awesome story that I hated to see end.

I received this book from the author and was not monetarily compensated for my review.
Peter Murphy has generously donated signed copies of Lagan Love for giveaway.


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