Win a trip to Salem with Brunonia Barry’s *The Lace Reader* and William Morrow

Bzzzzzzz.  Bzzzzzzz.  I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over all the positive BUZZ about Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader, which goes on sale at the end of this month! 

My copy of The Lace Reader will be tucked in my bag for the beach this weekend; I hope to have a review posted early next week.  In the meantime, you can check out these reviews on LibraryThing, and read the publisher’s synopsis:

Can you read your future in a piece of lace? All of the Whitney women can. But the last time Towner read, it killed her sister and nearly robbed Towner of her own sanity. Vowing never to read lace again, her resolve is tested when faced with the mysterious, unsolvable disappearance of her beloved Great Aunt Eva, Salem’s original Lace Reader. Told from opposing and often unreliable perspectives, the story engages the reader’s own beliefs. Should we listen to Towner, who may be losing her mind for the second time? Or should we believe John Rafferty, a no nonsense New York detective, who ran away from the city to a simpler place only to find himself inextricably involved in a psychic tug of war with all three generations of Whitney women? Does either have the whole story? Or does the truth lie somewhere in the swirling pattern of the lace?

The novel is a labor of love, and a self-publishing success story.  After completing her draft, Barry spent several years editing and finalizing.  Rather than spend more time trying to get in the door at a publishing house, only to then face the possibility of more extensive revisions, Barry and her husband decided to form a company that would publish and distribute the book.  The book was received so favorably that big publishing houses contacted them!  This is big news not only to publishing insiders, but in the mainstream press as well; read more in this article from the Boston Globe.  Perseverance pays off! 

The Lace Reader is set in Salem, Massachusettts, home of the Salem Witch Museum and Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables, among other local attractions.  Now, about that trip giveaway … I was catching up on my reading last night and saw a post at Book Club Girl that alerted me to this:  To celebrate the July 29 release date, William Morrow is giving away two prize packages which include two signed copies of the book, hotel accommodations, entry to a number of attractions, and gift certificates to local restaurants and stores.  Click here for all the details and to enter the sweepstakes.