Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – Author Updates – #Reviews #Family Lisette Brodey, #SouthernCulture Claire Fullerton, #Fantasy Tyler Edwards

Posted on February 22, 2021 by Smorgasbord - Variety is the Spice of Life.

Welcome to the first of the author updates this week with recent reviews for authors on the shelves.

The first review today is for the latest book from LIsette Brodey.. a story of family and relationships The Sum of our Sorrows.

About the book

In an idyllic suburb in Northern California, tragedy strikes the Sheppard family when Abby, the mother of three daughters and wife to Dalton, is killed in a car accident. Charlotte, the middle daughter, is in the car with her mother and survives without physical injury but remains deeply scarred on the inside.

Dalton tells Lily, his eldest daughter, that she must sacrifice long-awaited college plans and put her life on hold to take care of her sisters. Lily is torn between her devotion to family and an increasing need to find her place in the world — but how can she leave, knowing her family may crumble? Will her presence eventually cause more problems than it resolves?

The Sum of our Sorrows reveals how the aftermath of a family tragedy can precipitate sorrows never imagined. It is a tale of grief, hope, healing, coming-of-age, friendship, and survival. It is also a love story of two broken souls living through pain in search of better days and the renewal of one’s spirit.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I write characters as I hear them speak to me. Some of these stories contain non-gratuitous expletives and sexual references. This book also contains some situations that may be triggering to some readers. If this is not to your liking, please don’t read this book. Thank you.

A recent review for the book

Jan 30, 2021 Richard Schwindt rated it it was amazing

Lisette Brodey is one of those authors who writes for her readers. It occurred to me while reading The Sum of Our Sorrows that if you like to lose yourself in a good story featuring relatable people (and a few nasty ones), Brodey, and this book in particular, was for you. It begins in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy. Eighteen year old Lily, along with her 2 younger sisters lose their mother in car crash. Her fifteen year old sister is in the car and traumatized. Her father is devastated, drinking and seems to lose himself. In the weeks that follow Lily will lose her friends and dreams too. This family is tortured in its grief, and she has to hold it all together. The story follows her, and the subsequent events, leading to love, disclosure and redemption. I have rarely appreciated the writer’s commitment to good fluid prose more than in this book. It is a cliché to say that you were “captured by the story” but in this case I certainly was. I can see The Sum of Our Sorrows appealing to many diverse readers on that basis alone. Highly recommended, with tea by the garden.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US- And: Amazon UK

A selection of books by Lisette Brodey

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK – Follow Lisette: Goodreads – Website/blog: Lisette Brodey – Twitter: @LisetteBrodey – Facebook: Lisette.Brodey

The next author today is Claire Fullerton with a review for her novel Little Tea.

About the book.

Southern Culture … Old Friendships … Family Tragedy

One phone call from Renny to come home and “see about” the capricious Ava and Celia Wakefield decides to overlook her distressful past in the name of friendship.

For three reflective days at Renny’s lake house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, the three childhood friends reunite and examine life, love, marriage, and the ties that bind, even though Celia’s personal story has yet to be healed. When the past arrives at the lake house door in the form of her old boyfriend, Celia must revisit the life she’d tried to outrun.

As her idyllic coming of age alongside her best friend, Little Tea, on her family’s ancestral grounds in bucolic Como, Mississippi unfolds, Celia realizes there is no better place to accept her own story than in this circle of friends who have remained beside her throughout the years. Theirs is a friendship that can talk any life sorrow into a comic tragedy, and now that the racial divide in the Deep South has evolved, Celia wonders if friendship can triumph over history.

A recent review for the book

T. Bakken Friends Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2021

I knew in the first pages of Little Tea that Fullerton’s storytelling would transport me. Her descriptive passages about the humidity and verdant landscape are palpable. I knew I would feel at home in the female company of the three friends reunion on the lake. Fullerton weaves their past and present and deep understanding of one another together beautifully. What I didn’t know was that this story – of friendships, and first loves, and reliving the triumphs and tragedies of the past – would carry profound lessons on what it means to be happy, balanced, and open minded. Fullerton is a skilled linguist and philosopher – wrapped up in a fantastic storyteller. Little Tea is a gift I’m so glad I opened!

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – And : Amazon UK

Also by Claire Fullerton

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – and: Amazon UK – Follow Claire : Goodreads – website: Claire Fullerton – Blog: Claire Fullerton WordPress – Twitter: @Cfullerton3

Delighted to welcome Tyler Edwards to the Cafe and Bookstore with his books and today I am featuring his latest release the dystopian, science fiction novel The Outlands

About the book

In the ruins of the world that was lies the city of Dios, a haven protected from the hostile environment known as The Outlands. Ruled by an oppressive Patriarch, the people of Dios are conditioned in fear. The smallest infraction could result in banishment to the Outlands, a fate worse than death.

With his make-shift family of “Undesirables”, Jett Lasting struggles to find his place in a world where drawing attention to yourself can get you killed. His very existence is considered a crime. To survive, he must avoid guards, beggar gangs, and an ever-growing tension that could drag the whole city into chaos.

Jett unwittingly becomes entwined in a plot to overthrow the government where his choices could lead to freedom or the death of everyone he’s ever known or cared about.

One of the recent reviews for the book

Nancy S Fantastic Story that will keep you on the edge of your seat

I couldn’t put this book down. If you like sci-fi, dystopian fiction, you must read this one. The twists and turns don’t stop. My only complaint is that it ended too soon!! Looking forward to the next book in this series.

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK

Also by Tyler Edwards