The Lacemakers of Glenmara - Heather Barbieri

A while back I had read some reviews of Heather Barbieri's book The Lacemakers of Glenmara and was dying to read it myself. So when I was asked to join the TLC Book tour for this book I jumped at the chance. I'm currently on vacation to see family in Colorado and read half the book on the plane and the other half the next day. This is a perfect summer read.


The story:

Kate Robinson's mother always told her bad things happen in threes. So when her mother passes away, her boyfriend leaves her for a skinny model, and her new clothing line bombs, she just has to get away.

She decides to take a journey to her family's ancestral homeland of Ireland. She manages to wind up in the small untourist town of Glenmara by the sea. Some of the women there take Kate under their wing and she joins their lace making society and starts to learn the trade. Kate also has the wonderful idea creating beautiful lingerie with the lace patterns. And then there's Sullivan... But everything doesn't go as planned. Not all the townsfolk of Glenmara approve of Kate and many have deep secrets of their own.

I totally enjoyed this novel. It helped that it wasn't just narrated by Kate but also by various people of Glenmara. Each character had their own struggles, problems, and concerns but Kate's arrival changes each one of their lives. Also, since I'm a newbie knitter, I enjoyed reading about the lace making itself. I really wanted to see the patterns they were creating and love to know how to do it myself.  And I"m just a sucker for anything Irish, so this book was the perfect vacation read.

As a side note, Heather Barbieri mentions a few books in her novel - favorite books of Kate's and others and I kept wanting to write them down so I could read them in the future. When I went to Heather's website, I noticed she had a link to her favorite books. How cool is that?

For more reviews for Heather Barbieri's book, check out the TLC Book Tour:

Tuesday, June 22nd: Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker
Thursday, June 24th: Books and Movies
Monday, June 28th: Bookalicio.us
Tuesday, June 29th: Drey's Library
Wednesday, June 30th: The Tome Traveler
Friday, July 2nd: Redlady's Reading Room
Wednesday, July 7th: Raging Bibliomania
Thursday, July 8th: Savvy Verse and Wit
Monday, July 12th: Bloggin' 'Bout Books
Tuesday, July 13th: Chefdruck Musings
Wednesday, July 14th: My Two Blessings
Thursday, July 15th: Diary of an Eccentric