Reviews - The Long, Hot Summer

"there is a dark and contemplative voice skilfully hidden at the heart of this book.... (it) romps along at a pace that you can't help but get caught up with."  See the full review
Irish Independent

"Dublin heatwaves are as rare as hen's teeth, but the scorcher of 2013 offers a background for this drama of a family preparing for the 80th birthday of their matriarch.  Showbiz, politics, sex and death - this gorgeously written story tackles a lot of themes, all brilliantly done".  See the full review here
Sunday Mirror

"The MacEntee family gathers to celebrate the 80th birthday of their matriatch, Deirdre, a flamboyant former actress.  A compelling saga of nine lives, four generations and one extraordinary family."  See the full review
Red Magazine, July 2015

"breezy, perceptive, light-footed."  
Metro

"The characters are so real that you become part of their lives and tragedies."  
Sainsbury's Magazine

""... a lovely piece of writing... it held me from beginning to end." "  
Gay Byrne, Lyric FM

Reviews - This is How it Ends

"An odd couple enjoy a short-lived love affair as the world reels from recession in this memorable debut novel.  It's impossible to look away from this love story – it is unexpectedly quirky, grown-up but pleasingly whimsical. Watching Addie cross over from her dark lonely place, accepting her single status, to girlish glowing happiness is enough to have you cheering out loud.It's impossible to look away from this love story – it is unexpectedly quirky, grown-up but pleasingly whimsical. This is How It Ends will leave you feeling utterly bereft to no longer be in its company."  See the full review
Nicola Barr, The Guardian

"So now the scene is well prepared for their meeting in this very satisfying story of people who are easy to believe in and hard to forget. Kathleen MacMahon writes with a confidence and ease and with an unerring sense of timing. ... There are no cardboard characters here; everyone is three-dimensional and presented with their flaws well in evidence. They may annoy you from time to time, but then isn’t that what happens in real life too?" See full review It Started in Sandymount
Maeve Binchy, author in Irish Times Review

"MacMahon is an extraordinarily self-disciplined writer. Her dialogue couldn't appear more naturalistic. Her prose couldn't be tighter; yet it could not appear more effortless or beautiful in passages like this, "Strange, the way you manage to block things out. The way you convince yourself about something one way or the other, the way you manage to convince yourself so convincingly. Until the moment you realise you were never convinced at all".  See full review Bittersweet, engaging debut has Hollywood written all over it
Lorraine Courtney, Sunday Independent

Sure enough, the couple soon fall in love. Yet, while in some novels this might be all we get, Kathleen MacMahon proves a lot more generous - both to her readers and her characters. Read full review 
James Walton, Debut Fiction, Mail Online  

THIS richly poetic first novel combines a strong contemporary feel with a sense of timelessness. The action is set in Dublin against the gathering clouds of financial recession and optimism of Obama’s 2008 election victory. The issues the book raises are the eternal ones of loss, deceit and inadequacy. MacMahon’s prose fizzes from page one, capturing the imagination and holding the reader.  Read the full review
Vanessa Berridge, The Express  

MacMahon's narrative is about unexpected love, but mainly it's about transformation, from success to its opposite, from being alone to being part of a family—however dysfunctional—and about “a time filled with the magic of possibility, a time equally fraught with danger.” It seems that MacMahon does not agree with poet William Butler Yeats, for instance, who wrote that “romantic Ireland's dead and gone.” In this tale, designed for a summer's afternoon, romantic Ireland is fairly pulsing with life. Some dreams come true, others decidedly do not. Perhaps only the churlish among us could find fault in a love story that unfolds to a Bruce Springsteen soundtrack on the shores of Dublin Bay.  See full review
Nancy Wigston, Toronto Star

"'This Is How It Ends’ is just the beginning - sometimes we hunger for a mystery. Other times we crave the fantasy world of vampires. And for the days you want a novel about family ties and romance, summer serves up This Is How It Ends.  MacMahon's journalist eye enhances the political and historical backdrop of her novel. Readers mourning the loss of Irish author Maeve Binchy may find a new friend in MacMahon, who delivers a similar sort of family drama well suited to drowsy afternoons and a cup of tea with a packet of tissues nearby."  Read full review
Carol Memmott, USA Today

"It's This Is How It Ends that takes this week's title thanks to a brilliantly drawn, empathetic and believable cast of characters - a hard thing to pull off. I've written and re-written this review but every version has felt like a spoiler.  All I can say is that it's definitely worth reading and I predict you will be recommending it to other people too ...)"  Read the full review
Jamie Klingler, Stylist Magazine  

"A unique romance that can't fail to enchant you... By the end you feel you know Bruno and Addie as well as your best friend."  See full review
Heat Magazine   

‘I had instant empathy for the sensitively drawn characters in this novel, which made reading it almost like spending time with dear old friends and family members. The author cleverly intersperses elements of modern-day politics and Irish culture into a storyline that tackles a confronting subject with honesty, humour and warmth.’ 
Mindfood Book Club

This is a beautiful, humorous, gentle love story that's on a nose-bleedingly higher level than your average romance. Reading this means being slowly lulled and then swept away to book heaven where the greatest sadness will be finishing it and having to leave everyone in it behind. I know – I'm underselling this aren't I?  Read the full review
Ani Johnson, The Book Bag.co.uk 

"Commercial literary fiction." That's the phrase used by Kathleen MacMahon's agent to describe MacMahon's much-heralded debut novel, This is How It Ends.  Is MacMahon the new Donoghue, capable of winning plaudits from critics and sales from readers eager to see their own lives - recession and all - reflected in fiction? On balance, and with some reservations, I'd have to say yes.  MacMahon's great strengths are often in what she doesn't do. She doesn't cripple her cleanly styled writing by saddling it with unwieldy metaphors. She doesn't push her characters through endless plot hoops in a dizzying, unrealistic fashion. And she doesn't pretend that life for her characters is hunky-dory" See full review Artistic Licence: A new breed of fiction (Subscription only)
Nadine O'Regan, Sunday Business Post

"The dialogue throughout is pitch perfect. Bruno’s inflections are pure American, the Irish voices are equally faultless. The exchanges in particular between Addie and Bruno, and between Addie and Della, ring so true I could hear them clearly as I read.  A note of caution: this book will not let you off lightly. It will break your heart in two, it will wring several tissues’ worth of tears from you, and it will haunt you long after you close it. But this is all good, because who wants a book that leaves you untouched? Not me. Just be prepared, that’s all I’m saying."  See the full review on Bord Gais Energy Book Club
Roisin Meaney, Bord Gais Energy Book Club

"Now that we have the book, it's easy to see why This is How it Ends generated such feverish excitement among publishers and fetched such a handsome sum. ... In a way, this is all very ordinary, but that's what helps to make this an extraordinary book. It's quite clearly commercial fiction but drawn from a subtle and muted palette of blues and greys and dazzling silvers, as opposed to the usual gaudy magentas and violets. MacMahon writes with the moderating influence of acknowledging life as a cruel mistress." See full review
Irish Independent Review

"I was moved by This Is How It Ends, a tender - but never sentimental - story of unlikely love. With great wit and humour, Kathleen MacMahon skillfully captures the nuances and complexities of relationships old and new" 
Catherine O’Flynn, author of What Was Lost and The News Where You Are