Review: The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri

The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri 

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 320 

Format: book 

Buy the Book: Amazon 

Goodreads:  Married to the youngest attorney general in Massachusetts state history, forty-year-old Nora Cunningham is a picture perfect political wife and doting mother. But her carefully constructed life falls to pieces when she -along with the rest of the world - learns of her husband Malcolm's infidelity.

Humiliated, hurt, hounded by the press, Nora packs up her daughters, Annie, seven, and Ella, twelve, and takes refuge with her maternal aunt on Burke's Island, a craggy spit of land off the coast of Maine. Settled by Irish immigrants, the island is a place where superstition and magic are carried on the ocean winds, and wishes and dreams wash ashore with the changing tides.
Just as she begins to regain her balance, her young daughters embark on a reckless odyssey of their own, a journey that will force Nora to find the courage to chart her own course-and finally face the truth about her marriage, her mother, and her past.





Kritters Thoughts:  Centered around Nora, a woman who has just been devastated by her husband's affair that has gone public, she decides to go back to the last place where she felt safe.  With the help of her aunt, she starts to put back the pieces and find a new direction to take for her life.  


From the start I fell in love with the complexity of Nora, she was running from a bad situation, but ended up in the past that wasn't filled with true happy memories either.  Her girls were portrayed in just the right way as a little distraction from the story at hand, but in the end became a very central focus.  Then there was her Aunt Maire and who couldn't fall in love with a woman who was trying to help her niece pull it together and start a new path.


The one thing I wished for was more interaction in the beginning via phone with Nora's cheating husband.  There were just a few phone calls and I wish we heard a little more of what was going on with him.


I loved this book and thought the story had heart and soul, but wasn't too over the top, it was just right.  With the setting at the beach, this may be a great addition for your beach bag this summer!


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own. 

Other Tour Stops:

Tuesday, May 15th: 2 Kids and Tired

Wednesday, May 16th: Seaside Book Nook

Thursday, May 17th: Sarah Says Read

Friday, May 18th: My Two Blessings

Monday, May 21st: Savvy Verse & Wit

Wednesday, May 23rd: All Grown Up?

Thursday, May 24th: Paperback Princess

Friday, May 25th: Kritters Ramblings

Tuesday, May 29th: Bookstack

Wednesday, May 30th: A Cozy Reader’s Corner

Thursday, May 31st: My Bookshelf

Monday, June 4th: Life In Review

Tuesday, June 5th: Drey’s Library

Wednesday, June 6th: Good Girl Gone Redneck

Thursday, June 7th: Peeking Between the Pages

Monday, June 11th: Tiramisu Mom

Tuesday, June 12th: Wandering Thoughts of a Scientific Housewife

Friday, June 15th: Luxury Reading