Why a Booktrail?
1989, 2016: Two women, separated by time and linked by a mysterious island in the Indian Ocean
The Girl from Lace Island
What you need to know before your trail
1989
Leila is exiled from her exotic home on Lace Island to a cold English boarding school, when she is just 15 years old. She is immediately homesick not just for her family but for her island which she loves to explore. However, when she does get back, it’s clear that her paradise island has changed beyond all recognition and the life she once loved is now just a memory. Worse still, everyone and everything she loves is now in terrible danger.
2016
Jess dreams of far off places, of white sandy beaches and warm tropical seas. With her new job as cabin crew, she starts to realise that dream and travels to some wonderful places.Not to mention into the arms of the mysterious Blaise. But Jess has a troubled past and her present is about to become complicated and dangerous . . .
Two women, decades apart, both are on a mission to find out the truth about Lace Island
Travel Guide
Lace Island
Sadly not real as it does sound very idyllic in many ways. The author says that the book and the location was inspired by a family holiday to Kerala in 2012. She and her husband had taken their family there in 2012 following a holiday ten years earlier with one of their babies at the time. She says that as in the book, parts of Kerala had changed beyond recognition but despite that it was all still very magical.
It was when writing in the visitors book of the remote homestay they were staying at, where she felt a connection to all those who had visited the place before, right there on the yellowing pages.
In the novel:
“From out at sea, with this perspective, she couldn’t see the paddy fields, the village by the small port or the landing strip. Instead, Lace Island looked like the proper desert island it was, the land covered in palm trees , the shore fringed by the whitest of sand. The only building she could see was the old lighthouse, its white tower rising up to the sky.”
Other locations in the novel mentioned are Surrey where the school is to where Lelia is effectively banished, and Miami where Jess flies to after having landed her dream job as air hostess. But none are quite as magical as the island of Lace.
Then there’s the blue lagoon that shimmers and you’re fully immersed in to the sights, sounds and exotic fragrances that make up Lace Island. No to mention the large coral reef that gave it its name.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Girl from Lace Island
Author/ Guide: Joanna Rees Destination: London, Surrey, Indian Ocean (fictional Lace Island), Miami, Departure Time: 1989, 2006
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