Review: When Irish Eyes Are Smiling by Matthew Robbins

Author: Matthew Robbins

Publisher: JMS Books

Length: 137 Pages

Category: Contemporary

At a Glance: When Irish Eyes Are Smiling has an ending that made me smile and hope that I’ll hear a little bit more about Felix and Ronan.

Reviewed By: Kim

Blurb: Felix is in real trouble this time. Not only did he wake up nearly naked in a foreign country — drugged and abandoned as a prank — but soon he finds himself being interviewed by the police after crashing the truck of his handsome rescuer, Ronan Malloy. The only way for Felix to make amends is to work off his debt on the injured Ronan’s shabby, struggling farm.

Ronan Malloy and his granddad Lorcan have big plans for their ancestral farm. Their new boutique cheese will put Malloy Cheesery the map. But he hasn’t struck it rich yet. Between the bank and his scheming neighbor, he has enough troubles and doesn’t want to deal with an untrained Yankee on top of it.

Although Felix resents having to stay behind as his friends continue their backpacking adventure across Europe, he begins to see that farm life isn’t so bad. Ronan’s charming smile and sparkling eyes are an added bonus. And Ronan learns soon enough that the Yankee isn’t as helpless as he thought.

Felix isn’t sure he’s up to the task of saving the deeply indebted Malloy Farm from calamity and devious plots for its downfall, but for Ronan, he’s willing to try.

Review: Matthew Robbins is a new-to-me author, and I liked how the beginning of When Irish Eye are Smiling grabbed my interest right away. I liked Felix almost immediately; he’s sweet, smart and is the type that doesn’t run away from his responsibilities. Although, he does have a problem with whom he calls his friends. With friends like Sam, who needs enemies? Especially when Sam drugs Felix’s drink because he thought it would be funny to let Felix get into all kinds of trouble.

But without Sam’s shenanigans, Felix would have never met Ronan.

At first, Ronan comes off as someone who takes everything with a grain of salt, always smiling and joking around, but when he’s hurt, he does show that he has a bit of temper. Mostly, though, it comes out that he’s under a lot of stress, trying to save his granddad’s farm. There’s also the fact that one doesn’t really know which way Ronan feels about Felix as they get to know each, other than he thinks Felix is a rich, spoiled American kid who knows nothing about farm life.

Felix has a lot on his hands, proving he can do the job to pay off his debt.

I really liked When Irish Eyes are Smiling. It has humor, a little angst that makes things interesting, it made me wish I could visit Ireland, and it has an ending that made me smile and hope that I’ll hear a little bit more about Felix and Ronan.

You can buy When Irish Eyes Are Smiling here:
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