Blonde, The Buddha, The Claddagh.

Mary Barrett is a colourful Galway girl. Her world is made up of the old in her love of the traditions of the Claddagh and the new - her obsession with false eye lashes and big bags.

Nora, her eccentric grandmother has become her reference for life, and her grandparents' love story was the family fairytale both her and her sister Sarah grew up on.

Her safe and familiar world as she knows it in the city of the tribes has started to come undone.

Unknown to those who love her most, she is struggling to put the pieces back together.

The language of survival and meaning is new to her but she is trying to learn quickly.

But something is about to get in the way of her come back.

However, all eyes are on Katie O'Flaherty, the latest addition to the Barrett and Joyce family circle.

Having played with vinyl and angels - Mary is relieved that her friend Katie has finally found a respectable career in counselling, a world far removed from the dangerous worlds her wishes have taken her.

Unlike Mary, Katie is in constant search for meaning and explanation which is symptomatic of the world she came from.

Those who love her tug at her grip on her tragic past.

Much to Mary's relieve, Katie finds love with the reliable Ben from the Claddagh.

There is just one problem - Ben has a secret and she is missing a vital accessory.

In sharing, Ben makes her feel she will never be enough so she goes in search of a Buddha.

It is the loving ways and wise words of Nora Joyce that anchors the characters during turbulent times.

At eighty she drinks baileys rather then milk. She wears red lipstick and sings nightly with the Claddagh Swans for company.

The past she attempts to leave behind finds a new lease of life in the present - thanks to Sarah, Mary's older sister.

This is not what the considerate and careful Sarah intended.

It was Nora's leaf reading that gave it away before it happened.

While some people take secrets to the grave; Nora decides to part with her painful secret in order to save Mary from hers.

The outcome of sharing is not what she intended. When you turn the last page of this book you will want to dip your feet in the waters that surround the Claddagh or drive to the rugged Connemara coast and cross the sand bridge to the tidal island that is Omey.

You will nearly hear the characters calling your name and you will want to call their names back.

When you turn the last page, you will want to walk in the footsteps of the characters who you will be sad to say goodbye to.