"You can always start again," Kate Robinson's mother once told
her, "all it takes is a new thread." Overwhelmed by heartbreak and
loss, the struggling twenty-six-year-old fashion designer follows
her mother's advice and flees to her ancestral homeland of Ireland,
hoping to break free of old patterns and reinvent herself.

She arrives on the west coast, in the seaside hamlet of
Glenmara. In this charming, fading Gaelic village, Kate quickly
develops a bond with members of the local lace-making society:
Bernie, alone and yearning for a new purpose since the death of her
beloved husband, John; Aileen, plagued by doubt, helplessly
watching her teenage daughter grow distant; Moira, caught in a
cycle of abuse and denial, stubbornly refusing help from those
closest to her; Oona, in remission from breast cancer, secretly
harboring misgivings about her marriage; Colleen, the leader of the
group, worried about her fisherman husband, missing at sea. And
outside this newfound circle is local artist Sullivan Deane, an
enigmatic man trying to overcome a tragedy of his own.

Under Glenmara's spell, Kate finds the inspiration that has
eluded her, and soon she and the lace makers are creating a line of
exquisite lingerie. In their skilled hands, flowers, Celtic
dragons, nymphs, fish, saints, kings, and queens come to life,
rendered with painterly skill. The circle also offers them
something more --- the strength to face their long-denied desires
and fears. But not everyone welcomes Kate, and a series of
unexpected events threatens to unravel everything the women have
worked so hard for. . . .

THE LACE MAKERS OF GLENMARA © Copyright 2010 by Heather
Barbieri. Reprinted with permission by Harper Perennial. All rights
reserved.