Becoming Finola

Sophie didn't expect to fall in love with the quaint Irish village of Booley. Before she visited, she couldn't even find it on a map! She's there for a vacation, but finds she doesn't want to leave lush, green Ireland - not to mention Liam, the handsome shopkeeper whose store she has been helping to run. Sophie extends her stay and finds herself welcomed into this quirky community with open arms. The villagers bend her ear with gossip and history about themselves. But the story she is most interested in is that of Finola O'Flynn - the namesake of the shop she works in, former tenant of the cottage where she lives, and Liam's ex-girlfriend. She left over a year before, but tales of her time there still flourish throughout town. The elusive Finola is clearly well-loved by everyone and begins to take on an almost-mythical status. Sophie's new mantra becomes WWFD or What would Finola do? She even starts to wear the clothes that Finola left in her closet and speaking in an Irish brogue at the store. With this new philosophy, Sophie's life magically begins to change for the better. She is more centred and more open to other people's affections. And her relationship with Liam is growing serious. But trouble begins when the object of Sophie's adulation makes her appearance--is there enough room in Booley for two Finolas?

"Suzanne Strempek Shea may just be the fiction find of the summer."

Suzanne Strempek Shea, winner of the 2000 New England Book Award for Fiction, is the author of the novels Selling the Lite of Heaven; Hoopi Shoopi Donna; Lily of the Valley; and Around Again; and the memoirs Songs from a Lead-Lined Room: Notes -- High and Low -- From My Journey Through Breast Cancer and Radiation; and Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama, and Other Page-Turning Adventures from a Year in a Bookstore. She lives in Bondsville, Massachusetts.