Carole's Monday: Tea for three

Author: Melissa Crosby

Title: Tea for Three

(Mulberry Lane #1)

Genre: Chick Lit, Contemporary Fiction

Format: ebook

Pages: 264 

Published: September 12th 2020 

Where I Got It: My shelf (Amazon)

Summary: 

Three women. Three cups of tea. Three new beginnings.

Sarah Gardner's husband went to sleep one night in November and never woke up. At forty-years-old, the new widow is left to care for their three children, all of whom are under the age of five.

Twenty-five-year-old Filipina, Kate Morgan, thought she had met the man of her dreams during what was a perfect summer vacation. Now married to the handsome American who had swept her off her feet, and over 8000 miles away from home, Kate soon realizes that her mother was right: vacations end and people change.

Louise Delaney couldn’t ask for anything more. At fifty-nine, she had enjoyed almost four decades of blissful marriage to Warren—may his soul rest in peace. But Louise’s seemingly perfect world is upended when she gets a visit from a sixteen-year-old who says she is Warren’s daughter.

Three exceptional women—each of whose hearts are broken into a million pieces—come together in this extraordinary tale of life, love, and true friendship.

Review:

This was a freebie on Amazon that I got last year. Finally decided to give it a read. 

We follow three women who have gone through a lot but they have found each other. They meet up and have some tea and talked about their issues. There is Sarah who's husband went to bed one night and never woke up. At forty she is left alone to care for her three children. We also have twenty-five-year-old Filipina, Kate, who thought she had met the man of her dreams. He married her and brought her home to America, but she soon realizes that he is completely different. Lastly, we have Louise who has been a widow for a few years. They had been married for nearly four decades. However, everything is about to upended when she gets a visits from a sixteen-year-old who says she is Louise's late-husband's daughter.

Am I the only one who struggled with this? *scrolls through Goodreads* It looks like the average is over 4 stars. SOOOO many 5 stars. Eeee. I seem to be in the minority here. 

Okay. I didn't hate this. I did like this, but I did have my struggles. 

My main issue was that I had a hard time really connecting with ANY of the characters. Not that they are bad. I did feel so bad for them and I wanted them happy....but I just couldn't connect.  The POV would change at the end of every chapters...maybe if we got more time with each of the characters? I'm not sure. Don't get me wrong I loved the whole 3 women...3 cups of tea....etc, but I would've loved more time with each character or something. 

Another issue I had was that the story-telling did feel a little repetitive at points. Things would be repeated multiple times. Made me want to skim especially near the end. 

Besides for those two big things...I did enjoy it overall. It was beautiful watching these women become unlikely friends and get each other through these tough times over a nice cup of tea. Of course it gave me a hunkering for drinking tea so I did find myself brewing some tea while reading this in the morning. ;) But yes, it was for sure a good chick lit and would make a great Hallmark or Netflix movie. 

In the end, I had some big issues with this and I found myself wanting to skim here and there. However....I did think this was a beautiful story of friendship and love. Sad things happen but having good friends can make all the difference. I'll give this 3 stars.