Cafe du Jour

by Lilian Darcy

Love, loss and latté..."If today is a cup of coffee it has to be a big, piping hot café au lait, served in a bowl the way they often do in France. I drink it with my hands curved around the bowl for warmth... and for safety..."Susie used to have the perfect sister, the perfect boss, the perfect restaurant kitchen to cook in and a man who only needed a tweak or two. Now, everything is changing and all she can do is take it one sip at a time."Warm and witty... an excellent read." - Dianne Dempsey in The Melbourne Age newspaper"I loved this book. I was hooked from page one!" - Jane Porter, author of "Flirting With Forty" and "She's Gone Country""Lilian Darcy's writing is wonderful, and the characterizations are rapier sharp." - New York Times Best-selling author Mary Jo PutneyLength : 82,000 words

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Ebooks, Drama

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 3, 2011

About the author

Women's fiction and romance author Lilian Darcy has written more than eighty novels for Harlequin, Silhouette, Mira Australia, and Mills & Boon. Under another name she has also written for Australian theater and television.
Lilian's career highlights include many appearances on the Waldenbooks Romance Bestsellers list, five nominations for the Romance Writers of America's presitious Rita Award, and translation into twenty different languages.
Lilian has an active family life involving kids, chickens, cats, music, scouting, gardening, hiking and horses. Oh, and there's a husband in there somewhere, too.

Her upcoming releases include the first book in her Cherry Sisters trilogy, "The One Who Changed Everything" from Harlequin Special Edition, and a novella, "Marry Me, Cowboy" for Tule Publishing's Copper Mountain Rodeo mini-series, part of the exciting new Montana Born series, with authors such as Jane Porter, Megan Crane and C.J. Carmichael.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounding up!

First, I am surprised at the low ratings for this! Yes, the writing has its quirks, but for me, the storytelling blew me away. This is definitely not an upbeat and light beach read, and I don't think it's meant to be either. This book is a brilliant work of contemporary fiction. It is stark, sometimes witty, intense, often heartbreaking, but overwhelmingly true, with some lovely passages about family, love, and life.

The characters are honest, and hilariously awful at times. I mean, come on, has no one else ever had a really bad boyfriend before? lol! I have, and I think that's what I loved most about this. I related to Susie so much, and not just because she had an awful boyfriend, but her vulnerability, hoping for her sister and yet grieving for what they'd lost, hoping for her relationship and yet slowly realizing the truth of it. Hope versus stark reality, and the eventual lines that need to be drawn, even though nobody ever wants to draw them. In this first-person journal-like narrative, Susie doesn't know who to take sides with or believe, and neither will the reader until the end.

This book is for fans of emotional and truthful contemporary or literary fiction. Bonus if you love cooking, coffee, and (even though we know it's not nice) poking fun at new-agey people*. ;)

* I am kind of a new-agey person myself, sometimes, and I found the scenes hilarious!

[Dianne]

Love, loss and latté...

"If today is a cup of coffee it has to be a big, piping hot café au lait, served in a bowl the way they often do
Free today 6/5/2012



in France. I drink it with my hands curved around the bowl for warmth... and for safety..."

Susie used to have the perfect sister, the perfect boss, the perfect restaurant kitchen to cook in and a man who only needed a tweak or two. Now, everything is changing and all she can do is take it one sip at a time.

"Warm and witty... an excellent read." - Dianne Dempsey in The Melbourne Age newspaper

"I loved this book. I was hooked from page one!" - Jane Porter, author of "Flirting With Forty" and "She's Gone Country"

"Lilian Darcy's writing is wonderful, and the characterizations are rapier sharp." - New York Times Best-selling author Mary Jo Putney
Length : 82,000 words
Show Less

[Angelica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this because it was free on Kindle and because I love coffee. It was depressing. The coffee parts were clever, but most of them weren't that creative. The one redeeming factor is that it made me really appreciate my life, the life I enjoy being married to a devoted, committed husband who has a heart to serve God, me and our kids. I can't imagine spending 4 years of my life living with a self-centered jerk. I don't care how good looking he is. Reading this book was not all that enjoyable, but it did invoke a sense of compassion for all those women who have bought into the lie that living with a guy for years with no real commitment is a good thing. God has much better things in store for you, ladies! Choose to devote your heart to Jesus first; only He can truly satisfy.

Grace and Peace,
Angel

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect. The title made me think it was a cute little romance or a cozy. Some reviewers said it was extremely depressing so I went into with not too many expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Susie's life goes through a lot of changes in a year; coping with her sister's devastating accident and Susie helping with her recovery, her boyfriend not being very supportive and returning with a scheme to dupe people that Susie reluctantly goes alont with and stress on her job. I think she tried really, really hard to get through everything and all the while learning about herself and growing. I didn't find the story at all depressing.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intense book about a woman who's coming to grips with how all of her relationships are changing--her sister has had a motorcycle accident and has regressed to a teenager, her boyfriend of four years has always been a self-centered jerk and she's never realized it, and her boss, who supposedly considers her a daughter, betrays her and puts a knife in her back. All in all, though, it's a great book. It's good to finally read a book where someone learns about themselves and others and does something about solving her problems instead of idling standing by.

[Lesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't too bad. I was surprised to find that the author usually writes romance novels, because this one was nothing like that. I don't know what it was about it, but I really did enjoy the author's writing style. I didn't care for the coffee entries; I thought they added absolutely nothing and often didn't have any correlation to the story line. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending. This was a quick read for me.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really?

So, I'm actually super mad at myself for taking so long to read this book. It was kind of sad but sweet. I enjoyed reading about the love and care that Susie and Karen had for each other. I also enjoyed the way Susie talked about the group, I felt like I could really see the people in Jodys group. And now it has ended too quickly.

[Cindy]

I had to abandon this one..I just really don't enjoy this style of writing, with choppy, short sentences (and non-sentences). My rule of thumb: if I'm 10% done and don't like the main character or care what happens, I stop reading.

[Susan O'Neill-Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this easy read. The characters were likable, especially the main character, Susie. She is going through alot of changes and trying too hard. I think tis a girl thing alot of us can relate to. This one was an Amazon freebie and didn't disappoint (me).

[Lisa Vira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thankfully a better ending then start. In fact I'm normally so disappointed in endings but glad Suzie got her head together and was able to move on. And ending with hope but not "fairy-tale".

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this: Susie's story sounded so real, her being pulled into a workshop scheme by her boyfriend, her trying to make a name for herself as a restaurant chef, her sister Karen, all the extra characters together changing her life completely. I felt for her.

[Mary Seely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another free Kindle download. I got it because it was free and easy to delete if I don't like it. It was a journal format and a good story about family and expectations.

[Tina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't even know what this book is about! It is boring and writing is so scattered. Sorry just couldn't take any more!!

[Caz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Free kindle book.

I'm still thinking about my rating and review for this one. Not the most enjoyable of reads but I was glad to finish it.

[Alison]

kindle chic lit

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely way of painting pictures with words and turning a phrase

[Ginny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it. Not written well and was just plain boring.

[Tracey Washington-lacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed it more towards the end. Ending the relationship took too long. Good conclusion.

[Kary · Rating 4 out of 5]

good story; liked each story line; thought more could have been done about the cafe de jour as I expected more since it is the title of the book figured there would be more to it

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected, but in a good way. Had a surprising depth to it.