Review: The Lace Makers of Glenmara - Heather Barbieri

Genre: Fiction
Pages: 304
Published: 2009

"You can always start again," Kate Robinson's mother once told her. "All it takes is a new thread."Overwhelmed by heartbreak and loss, Kate follows her mother's advice and flees to Ireland, her ancestral homeland, hoping to reinvent herself. In the seaside hamlet of Glenmara, the struggling twentysix-year-old fashion designer quickly develops a bond with members of the local lace-making society—and soon she and the lace makers are creating a line of exquisite lingerie, their skilled hands bringing flowers, Celtic dragons, nymphs, saints, kings, and queens to life with painterly skill. The circle also offers them something more: the strength to face their desires and fears. But not everyone in this charming, fading Gaelic village welcomes Kate, and a series of unexpected events threatens to unravel everything the women have worked so hard for.

My thoughts:

First I must say that my review is not going to give this wonderful book justice. It's just one of those books that are  so wonderfully written that I just not have enough words to express why I loved it so.

Kate designs clothes and loves to sew gets dumped by her fiancé, so she leaves for Ireland and just wanders around. She is both sad over her relationship and her mother's death. She is a bit broken and she finds solace in Glenmara. A broken town with no tourists and  people are fleeing because there is nothing to do there, but she finds wonderful friends there, Bernie who rents out a room to her and who is lonely too. And the rest of the Lace makers who all have different problems, if it's husbands, themselves or children. With each other they find a new goal in the lingerie they start to make, and they each find that they lost too. They might be older than her, but they are all women and the friendship they form is strong.

The prose is beautiful, and something as simple as them sitting there and talking still brings out everything the book has to offer. It is well written and with it's story about friendship, loss and new-found strength it makes it a story  for everyone. There is also a bit of romance hidden in the background, but even though I love romance it is the life of these women that is more important (still yay romance).

It also made me tear up, because it's not all fun and friendship. There is also jealousy and a priest that is just an ass.

Now look, I just can't bring it justice. It's just impossible. The book was lovely, and it also has these pieces of magical realism in it. It's a book you read slowly to savour all the words.

Conclusion:

Of course I recommend this book to all. I loved it, it was wonderful and it when I finished it I was happy. This is how I want my fiction to be like. It was perfect.

And a big thank you to Anna from Diary of an Eccentric. She sent me this book, and you were so right, it was just the book for me.

Rating:

Read it!

Cover:

Nice



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