Review: The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations. Now the disappearance of two women is bringing Towner back home to Salem – and is bringing to light the shocking truth about the death of her twin sister.

I received this book from www.heylady.net a few months ago and have been anxious to read it after reading so much about it. Fortunately our book club chose to read it this month, so that gave me a chance to move it up my To-Read list!

At times I got confused during the story, it is mostly told from Towner’s perspective, but not always. There is also quite a bit of foreshadowing in the story. But, otherwise this was a great read. For the record, I don’t believe in fortune telling or witches or lace reading, but still, I found the storyline very fascinating. The storyline revolves around a lot of abuse both as a child and as an adult. As someone who used to work with victims of abuse, the author did a great job portraying their emotions and thoughts. The story grabbed me right away in the first 3 chapters, then there was kind of a lull in the story and then the author grabs you again in the last 100 pages of the book. The story got extremely intense and I could not put it down until the end. I was grateful that the author left the story with a hopeful ending because by the end, I needed it. Even though this is fictional, I am curious to find out how much of this kind of fortune telling, etc really takes place in Salem. Maybe someday.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars and I look forward to reading Barry’s next novel! Thanks to www.heylady.net for sending me this book in a giveaway and to my bookclub gals for reading it with me! Can’t wait for the discussion!