Once in a Blue Moon Lodge by Lorna Landvik

If you are a Lorna Landvik fan – and what self-respecting Minnesotan isn’t – and enjoyed Patty Jane’s House of Curl, get ready for the sequel, Once in a Blue Moon Lodge.  It only took 23 years; I hope you weren’t holding your breath.In Once in a Blue Moon Lodge, we reconnect with Patty Jane, her mother Ione, and her daughter Nora (now 33).  The book opens with Patty Jane preparing to close the House of Curl and her mother Ione, abruptly announcing that she must return to settle some business in Norway.  What granddaughter would let her grandmother travel that distance alone?  Not Nora, who announces that she will be accompanying Ione.  Ione is a little less than begeistret  (begaystret) (that’s “excited” for you non-Norweigian speaking listeners); not because she fancies solo travel, but because she has a secret that she’s not quite ready to share.Spanning twenty years, the story takes us from this trip, to reunions with old lovers and new, revisiting old family members and adding new ones – including triplets, an old flame, and a neglected young boy. Through the good times and bad, Landvik shows us that love truly does conquer all.Once in a  Blue Moon Lodge came out in paperback in April – nudge, nudge, book clubs.  Re-read Patty Jane’s House of Curl -- or not – Landvik gives enough back story in Blue Moon Lodge so that it can easily be read as a stand alone – but why would you deny yourself the pleasure of a re-reading of Patty Jane’s House of Curl? Listen to my interview with Lorna Landvik on WTIP 90.7 below.