Tag: family

Puddings, family, grief and secrets make an intriguing narrative in The Sweet Life Café, along with a living Funeral, which creates a long overdue meeting of Aunt and Nieces on the small but lovely Anchor Island.

Sisters Addie and Suzanna Rafferty have not returned to Anchor Island other than very briefly in the years since they left to attend University, establishing their own lives and in Addie’s case becoming a mother of seven-year-old Isaac.

When they receive an invitation to their Aunt Gayle Rafferty’s Funeral they are both devastated, each for their own reasons, both reluctantly agreeing to go back to the Island one last time. Suzanna’s marriage is at an all-time low and Addie is wondering if there is more to life than working in a job that does not fill her with happiness.

As they draw closer to the Island, they both begin to realise that there are so many ghosts that perhaps need attending too from the years they lived there with their Aunt after the death of their parents; Suzanna always pushing back determined to leave there forever once she could and Addie agreeing to a pact to do the same.

All does not go as planned and the Funeral is not exactly their Aunts funeral! Their Aunt who is very much alive, has invited them back for a very specific reason, issuing the invitation to what was meant to be a ‘living Funeral’ to ensure they both would come.

As the days pass everyone has to face up to the issues that have caused them to hold on to  old secrets and deeply held hurt that must be bought into the light of day before anyone can heal from the tragedy of the past and they can begin to rebuild their lives as a family once again.

The Sweet Life Café is a gem of a story laced with generous helpings of pudding as fresh beginnings are there to be embraced, one delicious pudding at a time!!!

Emotional and heart wrenching The Twin from Amanda Brookfield captures the deep love that binds twins along with the passive aggressive nature that often is part of being a twin.

The twins are adored by their beautiful mother from the very day of their birth: they are charmed and charming, Cath being the slightly older, Rob the gentler of the two. Since the first day of school Catherine has always protected Rob from the school bullies.

A fractured childhood with the death of their beloved mother, a remarriage of their father to a woman they knew well but who had no love for them and the birth of their stepbrother Oliver only made this protective instinct of Cath’s stronger. She is openly defiant; Rob follows in his sisters’ footsteps.

As the years pass this protective instinct rises each time life sends them a challenge until it becomes commonplace to Cath and a bit of an issue for Rob, especially once he marries.

We meet Cath going to Robs funeral, devastated, bitter, hurting, angry, and inconsolable. So begins a reckoning long overdue as her stepbrother Oliver has come to the funeral, invited but unwanted, at least by Cath.

Weeks later Cath finds she is no closer to accepting Rob’s death, allowing her grief to colour very aspect of her life, to the point where she is destroying her own relationship with Alastair, a man who loves her unconditionally but finds the burden of her grief overwhelming.

Deeply perceptive to the inner workings of family Amanda Brookfield has captured with grace the destruction than can be caused when death occurs and the ability to rebuild if only it is allowed, as Cath faces the loss of her relationship, the death of her father and the retelling by Oliver of his life as a young boy.

While The Twin is a challenging read, it draws to a careful conclusion with Cath eventually understanding that there comes a time in life when you must confront your reality and accept that all is not as it appears to be.