Sunday, January 17, 2016

Blue Light Special!!!


I'm late to the party on this one as it was a best seller some eight years ago. It's one of the rare self-published books to gained enough attention for a traditional publisher to pick it up and promote it. I recall being intrigued by the title but somehow I never read it till now -- it was a deal on Kindle for 99 cents. (And still was, as of yesterday.)

This is one of those books that grabbed me and kept me reading long after midnight. Set in present day Salem, Massachusetts, rife with Wiccans and psychics of one kind and another, it's the story of Towner, granddaughter of a charismatic lace reader. 

"The Lace Reader must stare at the piece of lace  until the pattern blurs and the face of the Seeker disappears completely behind the veil . . . an image will begin to form . . . in the space between what is real and what is only imagined."



Towner is a very likeable enigma. She is still trying to cope with the memory loss and confusion of past events caused by the loss of her twin sister as well as various dark family secrets. And she is trying hard to stay away from reading lace herself--fearful of what it may tell her of her past and her future.

The story twists and twists again -- but the twists have been artfully set up, though the reader may see the setups only in hindsight.

There are good guys and bad guys, an island sanctuary for abused women turned lace-makers, gardens and boats and dogs, mysterious women, widows walks and hidden rooms, obnoxious tourists, scary followers of an even scarier self-proclaimed holy man, and more than a touch of what may be the supernatural -- or is it?  I thoroughly enjoyed The Lace Reader.

More about the book and the lace HERE.




5 comments:

Ms. A said...

If I still read books, this sounds like it would be right up my alley!

Thérèse said...

How fun!

Barbara Rogers said...

Looks like one I'd really enjoy. Thanks

Stella Jones said...

That sounds like my sor of book Vicki. Thanks for the plug.

Frances said...

Vicki, I am wondering why/how I might have missed hearing about The Lace Reader before now, and thank you so much for this post. I am going to hop over to my marvelous library's website to see if they've got the book in their stacks. A true treasure trove, those stacks.

We saw our first snow flurries ln late afternoon today. Don't think that those flakes will amount to much beyond their lovely reminder of watching the first snowflakes, and realize that yes, it was snowing! Finally. xo