RELEASE AND REVIEW -- Katie Mattner's MAGNIFICIENT AGONY, 4 Cranky Stars
Title: Magnificent Agony
Author: Katie Mettner
Hosted by: Lady
Amber's PR
Blurb:
Eve Darling has learned one very important lesson in her twenty-six years; life never goes according to plan
The
night of her high school graduation her heart was bursting with hopes and
dreams for the future, but the universe had other ideas. Instead of New York
and culinary school, she stayed in Magnificent, Wisconsin. Barely an adult
herself, Eve was irrevocably tasked with becoming a mother to her big brother,
Davis, the man with the heart and mind of a five-year-old boy. Now, eight years
later, she’s become a successful entrepreneur, chef, and businesswoman. All of
those responsibilities came at a price and her personal life was payment. No
one was more acutely aware of that than she was.
And
then, with one phone call, everything changed.
‘After
life organizer’ Abraham Von Sallage was like no funeral director Eve had ever
met. He was young, charming, witty, and had a unique perspective on life,
because his business, was death. They both carried burdens society couldn’t, or
wouldn’t, acknowledge, and in those burdens, they found an instantaneous
connection. That night, as Abraham stood in the doorway of her cooking school,
she saw hope in his eyes.
And
then her world crumbled.
An inexplicably cruel twist
of fate calls into question everything she knows about life, and death. With
her soul adrift in guilt, she clung to the only person she could trust to save
her from the agony her life has become. Shrouded by grief, it would take the
love of one man, and the resolve of an entire community, to show her just how
magnificent life can be.
ADD TO GOODREADS
BOOK TRAILER
REVIEW
I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I decided to read this book. The thought of a funeral director and a Chef was kinda odd, yet interesting. Then Eve’s relationship with her brother reminded me of the movie Love Actually. My favorite movie.
This was the story of Eve Darling, or as everyone called her, Darling, and Abraham Von Sallage, known as Von to most people in the tiny town of Magnificent, Wisconsin.
Von ran the family funeral home and was kind of in a depressed state because no woman wanted to date him because of the morbid nature of his job.
Darling had big dreams of being a top New York chef, but circumstances forced her to stay behind and help with her mentally disabled brother Davis. She opened a kitchen store and became famous for her Dutch ovens. She even taught a cooking class in the back of the store, which is how she met Von.
Davis, Eve’s brother, was an almost 40 year old man with the mind of a five year old boy. He loved Clifford the big red dog and Darling so much. He lived in the local nursing home.
This story at one point made me tear up because like any good story there has to be tragedy. In that tragedy, came a great love.
The only part of this story that bothered me was when they went off on a religious tangent. I understand that people turn to their faith in times of death and that's fine. It was already implied that the book would have some religious undertones because of his job.
That said it was a good different book. The writing was pretty and their first kiss was so sweet and pretty the way it was written. If a unique quirky story is what you’re looking for, this is your book.
BUY LINKS
TEASER
EXCERPT
The birds come frozen? Eve didn’t
tell me they come frozen! I felt myself hyperventilating a little bit. What do
I do now?
“Abraham?”
I turned quickly, my hand losing
its grip on the frozen hen in my hand. It went flying and missed the woman by
no more than a hair. It landed on the floor with a clunk, took out a display of
cracker boxes, and rolled a few feet where it came to rest, spinning slowly on
its breast.
“Did I scare you?” she asked
amused and I leaned against the large freezer.
“You didn’t tell me the birds are
frozen!” I exclaimed.
She took step back and tried to
hide her smile. “I guess I assumed everyone would already know that. I’ll make
sure to add that to the syllabus for the course.”
“Eve, what am I going to do? My
aunt and uncle are going to be here in,” I checked my watch, “seven hours and
the birds are frozen!”
She held her hands out to calm me.
“This isn’t the end of the world. We have options.”
“Options?” I shook the list at
her. “It doesn’t say on the list the birds are frozen. What options are left?”
She was giggling by the time I
finished my tirade. She snapped the list out of my hand. “It’s Sunday, right?”
she asked and I nodded, perturbed as I was. “Well, I know for a fact Bob will
have a fresh chicken or two in the back.”
“What good will that do us? I
don’t know how to cook chicken!”
She shook her head at me as if to
say, ‘Dude, take a pill.’
“Whether we cook four little birds
or one big bird the result is the same, right?”
I huffed a little and picked up
the offending hen off the floor. “It won’t look as fancy though. The little
hens all done up with the stuffing looked nice at class.”
She put my hands back on the cart
handle and set her own basket inside it. She steered me towards the meat
department in the back of the store, while trying to soothe my ruffled
feathers, no pun intended.
“We can make a chicken look just
as fancy, if not fancier, than the game hens, and with a bigger bird it’s more
forgiving. If you overcook it a little bit, no one will notice.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” I
mused as I stopped in front of the meat counter. “Oh, who am I kidding? I
haven’t thought of anything. Why did I offer to make dinner? This is going to
be a disaster.”
She laughed at me softly and I
stopped my whining to listen. It was soft and joyous. It reminded me of the
music that played from the transistor radio belonging to old Mrs. Mallard every
Sunday.
“Hey, Darling, I didn’t expect to
see you here. You usually spend Sunday with Davis,” Bob’s voice boomed from
behind the counter.
I looked up at our very
knowledgeable and overzealous butcher, who was leaning over the counter
addressing Eve.
“Not today, Bob, I have a client.
It’s a last minute thing and I need a chicken. I’m hoping you have a fresh one
hiding back there for me.”
“A client, you say? Are you doing
someone a favor again and making their dinner, so they can take credit for it?”
She bounced on the balls of her
feet and grinned. “Something like that. I’m helping a friend. I don’t have time
to defrost a bird, so if you don’t have a chicken, we’ll have to move to a nice
roast.”
He held up his finger and twirled
around, and I mean literally twirled around like a ballerina, and trotted back
through the small doorway that led to the coolers.
“Eve, what are you doing?” I
whispered, looking around the store for anyone we knew.
“I’m helping a friend,” she
answered out of one side of her lip. “He’s having a bird about the birds, so
I’m trying to find a bird that will stop the birding.”
I started to laugh, trying to hold
it in, but failing miserably. I was in a full on giggle attack by the time Bob
came back through the door. I had to cover my mouth and look anywhere, but at
her.
Bob held up a stripped down
chicken as though it was a newborn baby. “Look at this beauty. I wasn’t sure
what I would do with her. She’s so big. Just look at those breasts.”
AUTHOR BIO
Katie lives
with her soulmate, whom she met online at Thanksgiving and married in April.
After suffering an especially bad spill on the bunny hill in 1989, Katie became
an amputee in 2011, giving her the much needed time to pen her first novel,
Sugar's Dance. With the release of Sugar's story, Katie discovered the unfilled
need for disabled heroes and heroines! Her stories are about empowering people
with special circumstances to find the one person who will love them because of
their abilities, not their inabilities. Katie has a slight addiction to Twitter
and blogging, with a lessening aversion to Pinterest now that she quit trying
to make the things she pinned.
AUTHOR LINKS
posted by Cranky TBC @ 7:00 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Thank you for the wonderful post and review of Magnificent Agony! I appreciate your time and glad you enjoyed the story, quirky as it was :)
We love quirky! Glad you enjoyed our review!
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