Monday 5 September 2011

Review - Coffee at Little Angels by Nadine Rose Larter

Crikey!  This book had me sat around the pool on holiday with tears streaming down my face and people asking me if I was ok!  What a tearjerker but a lovely and well written one at that!

Coffee at Little Angels is about a group of small town high school friends.  Some have moved away from the town to make a life elsewhere, and some have stayed around.   They share a ton of memories between them, some good and some bad, but haven't really caught up as a group for a long time.  Reunited in grief when one of their group Phillip, is killed in a hit and run accident, they all return back to their home town, dealing with his death in different ways.  The book starts with Phillips death and his thoughts and feelings and a really strong opening line!  

A number of both new and old issues and emotions are raised and dealt with between this group of friends, and the book deals with many subjects including that of grief, loving and losing, discrimination, jealousy and above all friendship.

Nadine's style of writing is excellent, with the emotions from these very strong characters being felt deeply and you could easily imagine yourself being an additional member of the group sitting around the breakfast table joining in with the conversation.   The book was not written in chapters but in reasonably short sections from the view of each of the characters making it easy to read, once you had worked out the style. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book even if the sobbing left me feeling a little exhausted! 

I believe that Nadine decided to write this and use her experiences from losing a childhood friend of her own, which is perhaps why it's written so well and so clearly from the heart.   An excellent and delightful read, so honoured that I have been invited to review it. 

Nadine lives in Port Elizabeth with her son, fiance and two step children.  She is never happier than when she's writing, writing short stories and poems from a very early age. 

Over the last two years she made the decision to become a full time author and is developing her writing skills all the time.  Judging on this book, I think she's doing a fantastic job! 

You can find out more about Nadine and her other writing  at http://www.passingtheopenwindows.co.za/


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