Minding Frankie / Maeve Binchy 381 p.

I know a woman whose sister went to school with Maeve Binchy, so, yeah. Lately I've been searching for a sweet, cozy, non-stressful romance which is also intellectually stimulating, and I'm still looking. There was plenty of sweet and cozy here, but effectively no romance. Dubliner Noel has just begun to get sober with AA when he finds out that he's going to be a father, and that his baby's mother is terminally ill. He turns to an implausibly extensive network of family and friends for help in caring for the baby and keeping an oddly villainous social worker from getting too involved. Are you annoyed when books or movies have loads of characters who appear to have all the time in the world to garden, cook, babysit, etc., no evident financial concerns, and no job? If so, give this a miss.