Sisters of Glass

Sisters Of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I visited the Island of Murano twice in my life and the only word I can use to describe what I saw there is magic. It is a small place with a huge soul, so when I noticed Sisters of Glass on Netgalley and realized what it’s about, I jumped at the chance to read it. I felt that the spirit and the mentality of the place were captured exceptionally well.

Like her father before her, Maria has never left the island of Murano. She adores her family’s glassblowing business and has every intention of working with glass for the rest of her life. Her older sister Giovanna doesn’t share her interest at all, she only wants to marry a nice nobleman and be a lady in Venice. But when Maria’s beloved father passes away, his will clearly states that Maria is the one who needs to marry a nobleman and Giovanna the one who should stay on Murano. With her family in financial trouble, Maria needs to marry well and quickly and Senator Andrea Bembo seems like an excellent choice. Everything is working out great until Maria realizes that she has feelings for one of her family’s employees, Luca – an orphan and certainly not a nobleman, and the obvious choice for Giovanna to marry. At the same time, Maria notices that it’s not her Andrea Bembo really wants to marry, but her sister Giovanna. If these two couples follow their hearts, Maria’s family will be ruined, but if they don’t, four people will be miserable forever.

”For after the ship
takes you to consummate your marriage
and live in the house
of Andrea Bembo and his father
you shall not return to us”-
Vanna can hardly
finish the last words-
“but only wave us good-bye from on board.”



This would have been a lovely and charming little story were it not for the author’s attempt to turn it into a novel in verse, a decision that backfired spectacularly. The idea itself had merit: were the attempt successful, the fairytale feel of the story would have made a good combination with this type of narrative. However, there was no real poetry in it, the sentences were just awkwardly broken into lines. I decided to completely ignore it at one point, and only because of that did I manage to finish, and actually enjoy Maria’s story.

Although it apparently has 270 pages, it took me no more than an hour to read Sisters of Glass, and I finished it with a smile on my face. If you can get past this whole unsuccessful ‘novel in verse’ business, the story is quite charming and incredibly cute.