Coffee Sonata Kept Me Up All Night

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	• Coffee Sonata Gun Brooke Bold Strokes Books, 2006 - 290 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Coffee Sonata Kept Me Up All Night

Gun Brooke is a talented story teller who has created four interesting women - two older, two younger. Coffee Sonata is the story of how these four women come together to form friendships and love interests. The four women are from very different backgrounds. Brooke has the talent to make the reader believe that a world reknowned opera singer could fall for a coffeehouse owner and that a rich, sophisticated businesswoman would fall for a small-town reporter.

The connecting force for these women is music - not coffee as the title would indicate. It was in Brooke's descriptions of the music that they create together that I think she failed. Music is, under the best of circumstances, difficult to describe adequately without comparing it to another piece of music. Since the women were creating something new, Brooke had nothing to compare it to, and thus failed to put the music in the reader's mind.

It would be interesting to read a sequel to this book to see how well the women fare in their new relationships.

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A delightfully entertaining book!

In a small town, everyone knows everyone. Or do they?

Michaela Stone, owner of the Sea Stone Café, is a woman thrown more than one hard knock by life. Vivian Harding is the "Diva" of the Opera World. Michaela and Vivian are two women who would most likely have never met were it not for the mysterious circumstances that brought Vivian back to East Quay. What were those circumstances? It seems no one is telling, least of all the key player in the mystery.

Eryn Goddard, a reporter for the local paper, hopes to discover why one of East Quay's famous children has suddenly returned. Manon Belmont is the rich and sophisticated head of the illustrious and well-known Belmont Foundation. Manon has an extreme distrust of the press, which sets her and Eryn's first meeting off to a rocky start. So imagine their surprise when the two women discover they are neighbors in the same building.

Eryn nevertheless sets out to befriend the seemingly aloof socialite but finds one roadblock after another thrown up in her face with each attempt. Manon makes it painfully obvious that there are things about her that are off topic...especially things about her past. Why? What could have happened to make such distrust so focused? What happens when secrets held are in danger of being discovered?

The guiding force of life soon sends the four women on the paths chosen for them. Vivian and Michaela begin to discover that age is only a state of mind when love enters the picture as Manon and Eryn decide that maybe having faith in each other can take them a long way towards a possible romance and the four of them discover that friendship could be the key to it all.

Coffee Sonata, a wonderful mix of romance and drama with a smidgeon of intrigue thrown in, takes the reader on a journey with two different sets of women. Each woman has been dealt different sets of cards by life. What happens when all the cards decide to return to the same deck in one small town? Take a load off, pull up a stool, have a cup of java at Michaela's café and enjoy another tremendously entertaining story woven by author Gun Brooke, who gifted the reading world first with the engaging book, Course of Action.

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Another Winner

Award winning author Gun Brooke has given us another delightful romance with Coffee Sonata. I was so totally immersed in this story that I read it in one sitting.

Brooke builds anticipation as she introduces us to her four main characters. We want to know who each will fall in love with and how they will come together, and Brooke does not disappoint us. Vivian Harding suddenly comes home to East Quay to give her last performance as an opera singer after staying away for years. Her friend, deeply closeted socialite Manon Belmont, has arranged for Vivian to perform a benefit concert. Eryn Goddard is a top notch reporter covering the diva's return when she attends a press conference staged by Manon for Vivian. She is captivated by both Manon and Vivian. Mike Stone is the owner of a coffee shop and spends so much time there that her home is in the secluded basement below it. Mike seems the most unlikely to fit in with this group, but Brooke makes Mike's story the lynchpin of Coffee Sonata. These four women are not searching for romance. They are not even looking for friendship, but all of them find both in this most unusual romance.

Each of these characters is intriguing, attractive and likeable, but they are heartbreaking too as the reader soon learns when their pasts and their deeply buried secrets are slowly and methodically revealed. Brooke does not give the reader predictable plot points, but builds a fascinating set of subplots and surprises around the romances. On top of this, we are treated to some very erotic scenes too. The author develops two romances within the book, and the story floats effortlessly back and forth between the two. She blends their lives, their friendships, and their loves with an easy writing style. This is most impressive since this is only Brooke's third published novel. This style also makes the reader care about the story's characters.

It may be an understatement to say that Brooke has improved with each of her books since Course of Action, her debut novel, and Protector of the Realm recently won 2006 GCLS awards. With Coffee Sonata, the author continues her award winning storytelling and gives us a charming tale.

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Wonderfully romantic and lyrical

This author's first novel 'Course of Action' is a favorite so I began reading this novel with admittedly high expectations. By the last page I (along with the 4 women in the novel) were completely satisfied.

The novel has wonderful moments of deep emotional impact and builds slowly from the first chapter and doesn't rush to finish. Laugh out loud humor is interlaced throughout out. And the passionate loving is beautifully written and always moves the story forward.

I would add how beautifully the music that runs throughout the novel accentuated the lyrical storytelling. The use of Gershwin's 'Summertime' from Porgy & Bess was a wonderful choice at the moment in the story and I am still humming it.

Wonderful imagery - 'Early morning mist caressed the ocean.'

This from the publisher's web site -

Nothing exciting ever happens in East Quay, a quaint New England coastal town. Not until its most celebrated daughter returns for one last performance.

Four women, Manon, Eryn, Vivian and Mike, whose lives unexpectedly intersect in a small town by the sea share one thing in common -- they all have secrets. Despite tragedy, past and present, each learns that life holds more than they dared dream.

Manon Belmont, socialite and president of a wealthy foundation, leads a closeted life. She thrives helping others, but denies herself happiness for reasons she shares with no one. Nothing is the same after she meets Eryn Goddard, a reporter who has lost track of her dream of a grand writing career years ago. Eryn is suddenly rescued from her mundane assignments at the local paper when Vivian Harding, East Quay's only world famous celebrity, returns for a farewell performance. Vivian carries with her a secret that she fears has not only ended her career, but will also destroy her life. She finds an unexpected source of understanding in Michaela "Mike" Stone, a street smart and brilliant café owner. Mike, in turn, works hard developing her business, and even harder at overcoming the shadows of her past. She feels utterly protective of Vivian, but will she dare to open her heart again?

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Love comes when least expected

In the village of East Quay, Rhode Island, where everyone knows your name and your history, it is difficult to keep secrets.

Vivian, a celebrated diva, unexpectedly returns to her home of East Quay after almost 40 years. She had vowed she would never return again but her friend Manon has presuaded her to do a benefit concert. For Vivien, it seems fitting to give her farewell concert in her home town. Everyone is shocked to learn of Vivian's retirement since she at the top of her singing form. What is Vivian's secret?

Manon is the head of a philandropic foundation her grandfather began. It is the center of her life. She has no family and her closeted life-style has made her lonely. Will she ever take a chance on love and with whom?

Michaela "Mike" Stone owns a cafe in town. She began her coffee shop with nothing and now has a thriving business. However, because of her past and her gender, she is yet to be asked to become a member of any local business organizations. It irks Mike and makes her think she can never escape her tragic past.

Erin Goddard is a writer for the East Quay newspaper. She is a talented reporter and offers from big town papers have come her way but she prefers to live her life in East Quay, even if her boss is a bigot and incompetant and her parents non-forgiving of her lesbian life-style.

How can these four different women become friends let alone two couples? It begins with coffee and ends with so much more. Music is a passion for all of them. Sometimes the person you least expect to is the one who steals your heart.

"Coffee Sonata" has a complicated plot and complicated characters. To coin a phrase "expect the unexpected". Unlike many novels in the romance genre, this book has you guessing all the way through.

I enjoyed it immensely and I look forward to reading Ms. Brooke's other published works as well.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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