The Carrier of the Mark Blog Tour: Cork City

Cork City is the second biggest city in Ireland and it houses the tallest building in Ireland, The Elysian. It’s split down the middle by the River Lee and the main section of the city is actually built on a boggy island in the middle of the two sections of the Lee. It gets an average of 151 days of rain a year and suffers from fog… a lot. This is a little problematic for a city which built its airport on the top of hill overlooking the town.

St. Patrick's Street is the main street of the city. It’s built on a strange curve because it was constructed on arches over a channel of the River Lee! It is off this street that you will find many of the points of interest mentioned in Carrier of the Mark. The Huguenot quarter is a maze of little paved pedestrian streets that buzz with activity, chic cafés, and culture.

The English Market is another prominent feature of Cork, and one close to my own heart. It is one of the oldest of its kind. It’s been around since 1788, and is even 80 years older than Barcelona's famous Boqueria! It’s an indoor market with the most amazing vaulted ceilings, indoor fountains and tunnel like alleys of the most fabulous sights and smells you can imagine. Gorgeous!

Cork's most famous building is the church tower of Shandon, which dominates the North side of the city. It is widely regarded as the symbol of the city. At the very top of the tower sits a weather vane in the shape of an eleven-foot salmon. Interesting!

Cork City is also the destination of choice for the girls of Kinsale in Carrier of the Mark. It’s about a thirty minute bus ride into the city and it’s where they hit the shops, do some damage to the credit cards, and gossip over frothy lattes in the super trendy cafes.

Each stop on The Carrier of the Mark tour features a guest post from Leigh offering a special look at an important place in the book. Be sure to visit Well Read Wife on Monday, October 10 for the next post!

Leigh Fallon was born in South Africa, raised in Dublin, Ireland, and moved to Cork in her twenties. While living in beautiful Kinsale, her novel, Carrier of the Mark, was conceived. She promptly abandoned her “riveting” career in corporate treasury and discovered Inkpop, a website for budding writers of teen fiction. Within weeks, her manuscript hit the coveted top-five spot and was reviewed by an editor at HarperCollins. A few emails and some hysterical screaming later, she signed her first deal. Leigh and her family now share their time between Ireland and the United States.

Their love was meant to be.

When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRís.

But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago—and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.