Barefoot Over Stones

by Liz Lyons

What would it take to destroy your closest friendship? asks this enthralling debut novel about love, loss, and friendship by a sparkling new Irish writer Alison and Ciara meet at college in Dublin and soon become firm allies, sharing an apartment and facing the world together. Ciara is all that Alison aspires to be—sassy, confident, and fearless. Although their backgrounds could not be more different, they find solace and humor in each other’s company. That is, until gorgeous Dan Abernethy, a young medical student, enters their lives, and everything changes irrevocably. Friendship loses out when love turns Alison’s world upside down and a terrible betrayal threatens the closeness known only to best friends. It is only when tragedy strikes many years later that Alison and Ciara are able to discover the redemptive power of friendship.

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2009

Reviews

[Louise]

Barefoot Over Stones is the debut novel of Irish author Liz Lyons. I came across it in my local library and when I discovered the story was set in Ireland it compelled me to give the book a go. I grew up in Ireland, and although I've now been back in the UK for over 10 years I am still fascinated by all things Irish.

The book revolves around Alison, Ciara and Dan who are all studying in Dublin. Alison and Ciara are flatmates whilst Dan becomes Alison's boyfriend fairly early on in the book. Although the blurb implies that Dan is the sole reason their friendship goes wrong there is far more too it, a medley of events and characters are responsible for the demise in their friendship. All the characters are well written and I felt myself caring very much about what happened to them, on the flip side there is one particular character that I truly despised the entire length of the book!

A nice easy red which I sped through in a day.