This book sees Opal complete more missions for the keep and then through to graduation and stepping out on her own to take control of her destiny, or so she thinks. I didn't see such a dramatic ending, these events will definitely give a new slant to the final book. I find myself on a countdown to the release date of "Spy Glass" in September 2010. Also, as in Storm Glass, the author keeps spending loads of time having her characters alluding to events that happened in her 'Study' series, so basically she is spoiling that entire series for anyone who hasn't yet read them (myself). Yes, the first series was successful... but the author is trying to scrape by with a new series, while the characters in the 'new' series just rehash events in the old one.

The heroine of this book, Honora, is a wonderful character. we meet her as she embarks on a new marriage to a slightly swarmy typewriter salesman in the pre-depression 20's in a small coastal town in NH. The depression hits, and her quiet, muted efficiency as a housewife becomes a beacon of stability and honor as the people around her become involved in labor strikes and violence. She collects pieces of sea glass from the beach - ones that have been worn smooth from their time in the ocean, but...more The heroine of this book, Honora, is a wonderful character. we meet her as she embarks on a new marriage to a slightly swarmy typewriter salesman in the pre-depression 20's in a small coastal town in NH. The depression hits, and her quiet, muted efficiency as a housewife becomes a beacon of stability and honor as the people around her become involved in labor strikes and violence. She collects pieces of sea glass from the beach - ones that have been worn smooth from their time in the ocean, but that have become so strong they never break, and that glass becomes the metaphor for Honora in the maelstrom of the times. Told from the rotating perspective of 5 different characters. Written in a quiet and muted literary style that matches Honora's key attributes, yet the novel becomesThis book is the reason that whenever I walk on the beach, I am walking stooped along the shore, searching for little bits of beach glass in the sand. So far I have collected two bowlfuls. I don't have a big white platter like Honora does in this book, but a bowl full of beach glass is very satisfying to run your hands through (don't worry, it is so dulled by the sand and the waves that it's smooth and curved, not sharp anymore) . . . And although so far I've mostly found green, white, and brown, little Gabrielle (maybe because of how short she is and consequently how much closer to the ground) just this week found a lavender one with starbursts on it . . . SCORE! Like those translucent shards that Honora finds on the beach, Sea Glass is layered with the textures, colors, and voices of another time. There is Vivian, an irreverent Boston socialite who becomes Honora's closest friend even as she rejects every form of convention. McDermott, a man who works in a nearby mill, presses Honora's deepest notions of trust--even as he embroils her in a dangerous dispute. And there's Francis, a boy whose openness becomes the bond that holds these people together as their world is flying apart. Opal is a wonderful focus for this book, she has a fabulously rounded personality with many qualities and imperfections that make her so appealing to the reader. In this second book, Opal gains in confidence with her magic abilities but wrestles with the dilemmas this power provides. She has to grow in maturity, to judge people, their intentions and deal with some serious circumstances whilst losing faith in her supporters. Vivian, a friend that Honora met on the beach was smart, sassy and wise. Vivian can see a way to the future and she valued friendship as it should be. The story follows the arc of their relationship from good times to bad and explores the discoveries they make about each other as a result of their travails. Part of the subtext of the story is revealed through homey letters from Honora's mother. Sexton becomes involved with a group of men fomenting a strike at the local textile mills. Their home becomes the headquarters of the organizers, bringing them into the center of a dangerous and controversial movement.

I also found absolutely fascinating the descriptions of Sea Glass, those colourful shards of glass smoothed by the sea that one sometimes comes across on beaches. Anita Shreve cleverly uses Honora’s collection of these shards as a link throughout. This is a fast and easy read set in 1929 New England during the start of the depression. Our characters include a young newlywed couple, an 11 year old boy, a young 20-something man who has worked in the mills all his life, a 30-something wealthy woman, and a few communists to round out the group. The very unlikely people come together and their lives change forever. My heart went for Francis, his mother was to my father's. In the Great Depression, families were divided up between the relatives. As with "The Pilot's Wife" by Anita Shreve, "Sea Glass" really resonated with me since I grew up on the coast of Maine and experienced so much of what the protagonist, Honora, experiences. "Sea Glass" takes place in a New Hampshire beach town and actually travels to places familiar to me in Maine - particularly Sanford where I was born and spent my early years! Like Honora, I've walked the beaches and searched for sea glass. I always love the way Anita Shreve writes about character interaction. Using her words, I can always picture exactly the way a person is moving, smiling, speaking, and how they are feeling. Maybe that's why I'm so addicted to her despite the fact that half of her books are disappointing.I loved that Honora loves sea glass, but her new husband thinks it is trash. To Honora they were broken shards of colored glass that were discarded but the sea had made it strong and beautiful. The working conditions at the mill were terrible, and the mill owners decided to reduce the meager wages they were paying. The men started to organize into a union, and Sexton and Honora were swept up in the effort. The story is told in chapters from the views of five characters. There were also letters from Honora's mother, Alice, advising her how to maintain a household on a small amount of money, and offering warm motherly support. It is a house on the beach. Honora doesn't mind renting--despite its age and all its flaws, the old house is the perfect place for a new marriage. She and Sexton throw themselves into fixing it up, just as they throw themselves into their new life together. Each morning, Honora collects sea glass washed up on the shore, each piece carrying a different story in its muted hues. So far this trilogy for me fits two reading groups, adult fiction and young adult. The sexual content has little detail compared to some writers in the genre but for me the plot base is richer than novels that specifically target YA and provides interest for YA and adults together.

Throughout the story, Honora walked the beach looking for smooth sea glass. She imagined that different colors of glass represented the various people she knew. The sea glass was bounced around by the waves like Honora was challenged by life. But they both ended up beautiful and unbreakable.Even if I hadn't been drawn to this book on a personal level, I would have enjoyed it. Shreve weaves a story about a newly married couple (Honora and Sexton) and the many people who touch their lives - from the wealthy heiress who owns a grand beach house down the shore from their rundown cottage, to the lives and struggles of Sexton's co-workers. It is about love, personal frailty, friendship, flaws...and so much more. And, topping it all off, sea glass! Beautiful, tumbled, thrown about, surviving - as do we. This is the 2nd Shreve book I finished in the last couple of weeks. I really enjoyed reading it, though not quite as much as Light on Snow. The structure of the book -- alternating between the viewpoints of the different characters -- made it take a little while to really get into it and feel invested in the characters, but once they started intersecting, I couldn't put it down. And the structure provided some great symbolism -- little threads weaving in and out of others' lives, sometimes only briefly, and sometimes with monumental consequences. Set in New Hampshire during the troubled years of 1929/30, Sea Glass is about the coming together of a motley collection of people in troubled times. It was a strange time for them all as although the strikes and Wall Street crash were affecting them all they were happy that summer of 1930, in their innocence not knowing how disastrously it would all end. As the reader I certainly had no inkling of how things were going to turn out, for me the sign of a well told story. A heartbreaking and vividly descriptive insight into the far reaching consequences of The Wall Street crash and the mill strikes. McDermott cared about people and when the little mill boy, Francis' mother dies, he takes him under his wing. He is very caring and I kept wishing that Honora and he were married instead.