Review: Barefoot Girls by Tara McTeirnan

Barefoot Girls
by Tara McTeirnan
Published by Bramblevine Press
Released February 2012
Copy received from author for review

From Goodreads:


When her hometown newspaper reviews Hannah O’Brien’s newly released novel, the nature of her book is called into question when the reviewer suggests it is a memoir depicting her neglectful alcoholic mother – Keeley O’Brien Cohen, the most beloved of the Barefoot Girls - a little too accurately for fiction, citing rumors rather than sources. 

Deeply hurt and betrayed, Keeley cuts Hannah out of her life. Desperate, Hannah does everything she can to apologize and explain, but her pleas fall on deaf ears. Meanwhile, the rest of Hannah’s life starts to unravel, pushing her to risk her engagement to Daniel, the one man who had been able to scale the high walls around her heart. At the eleventh hour, the Barefoot Girls are able to convince Keeley to send Hannah the keys to the Barefooter house, the home and heart of their friendship. Barred from their clubhouse since she was twelve, Hannah grabs the chance to visit the little shack filled with memories and perched at the tip of Captain’s Island in the Great South Bay on Long Island, New York.

As Hannah battles to come to terms with her equally blessed and troubled childhood and understand her mother and her sister-close friends, she’s confronted with the power of forgiveness and the dangers of holding on to the past.


My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this novel. Hannah, whose life seems to be coming unraveled at the seams, is searching for answers, but she's not even sure what the questions are. She's at an inexplicable loss as to what is missing in her life. She looks to her mother and the other barefooters for answers but they are such a fiercely loyal group it's like trying to crack a vault.

When Hannah goes to Captains's Island she feels like the answers are right in front of her, if only she knew what she was looking for.

The author gives us flashes of the barefooters' childhood through the stories they tell Hannah, and in flashes we see the secrets lurking under the surface of this idyllic island community.

The truth that Hannah has been looking for comes out in a dramatic climax and a very satisfying resolution for the reader.

Tara McTeirnan's Barefoot Girls is reminiscent of Kristen Hannah's beach themed novels, and just as poignant. I definitely recommend it!