Book Review | “Learning to Love” by Sheryl Browne #ChocLitSaturdays

Posted Saturday, 30 September, 2017 by jorielov , , 1 Comment

ChocLitSaturdays Banner Created by Jorie in Canva.

Why I feature #ChocLitSaturdays (book reviews & guest author features)
and created #ChocLitSaturday (the chat via @ChocLitSaturday):

I wanted to create a bit of a niche on Jorie Loves A Story to showcase romance fiction steeped in relationships, courtships, and the breadth of marriage enveloped by characters written honestly whose lives not only endear you to them but they nestle into your heart as their story is being read!

I am always seeking relationship-based romance which strikes a chord within my mind’s eye as well as my heart! I’m a romantic optimist, and I love curling into a romance where I can be swept inside the past, as history becomes lit alive in the fullness of the narrative and I can wander amongst the supporting cast observing the principal characters fall in love and sort out if they are a proper match for each other!

I love how an Indie Publisher like ChocLitUK is such a positive alternative for those of us who do not identify ourselves as girls and women who read ‘chick-lit’. I appreciate the stories which alight in my hands from ChocLit as much as I appreciate the inspirational romances I gravitate towards because there is a certain level of depth to both outlets in romance which encourage my spirits and gives me a beautiful story to absorb! Whilst sorting out how promote my book reviews on behalf of ChocLit, I coined the phrase “ChocLitSaturdays”, which is a nod to the fact my ChocLit reviews & features debut on ‘a Saturday’ but further to the point that on the ‘weekend’ we want to dip into a world wholly ideal and romantic during our hours off from the work week!

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

Acquired Book By: I am a regular reviewer for ChocLitUK, where I hand select which books in either their backlist and/or current releases I would like to read next for my #ChocLitSaturdays blog feature. As of June 2016, I became a member of the ChocLit Stars Team in tandem with being on the Cover Reveal Team which I joined in May 2016. I reference the Stars as this is a lovely new reader contribution team of sending feedback to the publisher ahead of new book releases. As always, even if I’m involved with a publisher in this sort of fashion, each review is never influenced by that participation and will always be my honest impression as I read the story. Whether the author is one I have previously read or never had the pleasure to read until the book greets my shelf.

I received a complimentary copy of “Learning to Love” from ChocLit in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

Why I have been looking forward to reading Sheryl Browne’s Contemporary Roms:

If you take a ganderment around my blog and the reviews I am featuring for Romance Fiction and Women’s Fiction – you’ll start to notice a bit of a threading of ‘hope filled stories’ where all is never quite lost and despite your obstacles, adversities and storm brewing difficult seas to navigate in life – there is a better tomorrow just about to surface on the horizon. I love stories of redemption inasmuch as stories of life affirming new possibilities. I love rooting out stories that make your heart lift and your spirit to feel a bit of an intact of joy as your reading about characters who are finding their way inside their lives – moment by moment, striving to arrive inside their tomorrow with a bit more confidence and a lot more affirmative conviction life is surely going to be alright.

I love finding families who are struggling to right what went wrong too, such as the family we are stepping inside to find occupying the story of Learning to Love. These are people whose spirits are on the lower end of the spectrum where hope feels like a far-off dream – not quite in reach and a bit difficult to fuse into their living reality. I like taking the healing journey with characters who aren’t quite sure how tomorrow is going to pan out but aren’t quite ready to throw in the towel either! Characters who have a bit of moxie or just a pure belief in themselves to overcome ‘whichever’ curveball life wants to hand them to face – to strengthen themselves through the journey.

I appreciate writers who are writing about non-traditional families, as there are so many routes towards parenthood as there is family – to root out the stories of everyday people and give back a bit of a shining light to guide a troubled ship into a safe harbour is a keen discovery! I am passionate about small towne fiction too! I love writers who write about community togetherness and the interactions of community members who have a genuine respect and care about everyone’s well-being – it’s the throwback to the way life always used to be, but isn’t quite as noticeable now.

Ms Browne never fails to ignite my curiosities about how her characters will live through their circumstances and find the will to right their sails towards a better tomorrow. She writes with a heart-centred focus on second changes and new beginnings. We all need stories like this to read, to re-bolster what we all know to be true – no matter how difficult our difficulties might seem, there is a way forward and through to an even keel of shared happiness with those we love most.

-quoted from my Cover Reveal for ‘Learning to Love’

I did want to take a moment to explain my interest in Ms Browne writings are for her Contemporary Romance novels rather than her gritty Romantic Crime novels – as she has a series of crime stories being published through ChocLit but for me personally they were a full step outside my comfort zone, which is why I haven’t been participating in the ChocStars Cover selections nor hosting the Reveals; sometimes a girl has to be honest with herself about her boundaries in Crime Fiction! However, I had previously learnt about her Contemporary Romances – not just through the Reveals themselves but through conversations during #ChocLitSaturday, where I had the joys of hearing about her writings and the stories which were going to be released or were released (depending on when the chat took place).

Having said this, you do get a proper sense of what you’d find in Ms Browne’s Death by ChocLit line of stories because there is an infusion of gut-stopping suspense hovering in the background of ‘Learning to Love’. So much so, you nearly forget how the story began and where you’ve been during it’s discourse – as there is an about-turn of truth, action and sequencing where I half laughed to myself realising the beauty of the story was more in the unexpected revelations than in the calm pacing increasing the climax!

I was definitely on the edge of my chair – curious about how this tangled web would unweave itself but moreso, curiously content to watch it all unfold – the horror of it all, watching as these characters I now felt so dearly attached too were once again jettisoned into a sieve of unknown trauma and emergency situations! I can see why those who like True Crime or Hard-Boiled Crime Dramas would find their niche in her Crime series – for me, there just outside my cuppa, but the suspense threaded into this novel was ‘just the right balance’ for me to be included! Your heart nearly stops a beat just awaiting the ‘ooh’ moment!

Therefore, as I am making my way through both ChocLit’s FrontList and BackList titles as I review for them – I wanted to select this particular title as my ‘first’ novel by Ms Browne due to the premise of the story and of how I felt this story would be a fitting read right now as Summer starts to fold into Autumn.

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

On my connection to the author:

I happily have had the pleasure of interacting with Ms Browne through #ChocLitSaturday the chat off/on for the past two years (or thereabouts). She is a delightful presence to have in the chats and I am thankful she found a niche where she felt comfortable chattering with fellow ChocLit authors, Romance novelists, book bloggers, readers, and other bookishly chatty spirits who alight on Saturdays!

I am disclosing this, to assure you that I can formulate an honest opinion, even though I have interacted with her ahead of reading her novels. I treat each book as a ‘new experience’, whether I personally know the author OR whether I am reading a book by them for the first time. This is also true when I follow-up with them on future releases and celebrate the book birthdays that come after their initial publication.

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

Book Review | “Learning to Love” by Sheryl Browne #ChocLitSaturdaysLearning to Love
Subtitle: When is the right time to love again?

Sometimes help comes from the most unlikely places…

Living in a small village like Hibberton, it’s expected that your neighbours help you in a time of need. But when Andrea Kelly’s house burns down, taking all her worldly possessions with it, it’s the distant and aloof Doctor David Adams – the person she would least expect – who opens his door not just to her, but to her three kids and slightly dotty elderly mother as well.

Andrea needs all the help she can get, dealing with the aftermath of the fire and the suspicious absence of her husband, Jonathan. But as she gets to know David and his troubled son, Jake, she begins to realise that maybe they need her help as much as she needs theirs…


Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

Find on Book Browse

Book Page on World Weaver Press

ISBN: 9781781893524

on 6th April, 2017

Pages: 320

Published by: ChocLitUK (@ChocLituk)

Available Formats: Paperback & E-Book

The Rest of my Life by Sheryl BrowneLearning to Love by Sheryl Browne

Ms Browne’s ChocLit Contemporary Roms:

The Rest of my Life (see also Cover Reveal w/ Notes)

Learning to Love (see also Cover Reveal w/ Notes)

Converse via: #Contemporary #Romance + #ChocLit

About Sheryl Browne

Sheryl Browne

Heartache, humour, love, loss & betrayal, Sheryl Browne brings you edgy, sexy, poignant fiction. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and shortlisted for Innovation in Romantic Fiction, Sheryl has seven books published with Safkhet Publishing.

Sheryl’s new contemporary romance novel was recommended to the publisher by the WH Smith Travel fiction buyer. THE REST OF MY Life comes to you from award winning Choc Lit.

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

My Review of learning to love:

One of the things I loved instantly about how Ms Browne knits us into her literary scene is that she takes us forward into the sequences without too much back-story – allowing instead, the characters to unfold their story at their own pace and in their own words of explanation. Sometimes this vexes me, as it’s an art form of itself in a novel – how much to ‘show’ vs how to much to ‘tell’ and sometimes I opt for the opposite way round – however, in this Contemporary Rom, what makes it work is how difficult the tension is for both of Browne’s characters to depict – on one hand you have a single father trying his best to recoup the lost hours with his ten year old son after the fatal loss of wife and mother and on the other hand, you have a woman whose striving for peace in a household of a blended family (her two kids, their new toddler with a Mum facing challenges of her own) whose attempting to re-define her professional life if only to save her soul in the end from burn out.

You get right inside their lives as their days are beginning and this is where Browne shines because you see the muddling of how your not expecting things to ‘unravel’ when your doing routine things – for David, it’s the curtains and rail which rain down on him whilst attempting to start his morning and for Andrea, it’s finding she’s running a household solo despite having a partner-in-arms who’d rather have a whinge about what is ridiculous about her new career plans than to pitch-hit and help her get the house up and ready for the day ahead. I think that is what is the hardest – your trying to do your bit, shoulder everyone elses issues, muddle through the unexpected ‘whichevers’ and still find the peace of mind to carry-on a vexing conversation with your sufficient other whose irking your ire as your carrying your toddler downstairs!

Oh, what was the point? Jonathan seemed determined to be dead set against it. But she so needed a change of direction. Personal satisfaction aside, work-life balance dictated she needed to make changes. With three children, two of whom were throwing themselves heartily into the truculent teenager phase and one into everything toddler, and a mother who would try the patience of a saint lately, there was no balance. Her ‘plates’ were skew-whiff and her balls were dropping all over the place.

-quoted from “Learning to Love” with permission of the publisher

The reason I selected this quotation to share is because there was a moment within this novel (quite early-on) where I recognised something – not just of my own life and experiences, but also, of a beloved film of mine (‘One Fine Day’ starring Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney) of the analogy of ‘balls in my face’ coming back into play! It’s a quintessential moment of ‘One Fine Day’ where the single Mum architect is at her absolute last wits and feels as if she has too many balls to juggle and not enough patience nor energy to sort out how to keep them all from pummeling her all at once! It’s speaking in regards to the chaos of ordinary life, the imbalance of raising children and managing a career without a partner to help offset the hours & responsibilities whilst trying to stay sane and consider the potential of a ‘new love’ in the mix. In essence, it’s one of those films you can curl up inside and cheer-on the lead characters whilst you feel their angst & hope the resolutions which are coming will give them a measure of peace knowing life is not always this chaotically insane!

On a personal note, I think anyone who has had medical afflictions affecting their families can attest to how quirky your life becomes when your moving through transitions of ‘roles’ in family – from daughter to caregiver or from grand-daughter to morale coach and supportive right hand. There are moments in our lives which test us – there are medical conditions which vex our sensibility (yes, memory issues and dementia are some of the hardest to circumvent or otherwise, work round as best as one can) but somewhere, right in the midst of all of ‘that’ you have to find your Zen. Any which way you can, too! This is why I think I could relate to Andrea the most – it wasn’t I could just feel the vexations as it pooled off her soul, it was I could personally relate to the balls she was trying to juggle even if circumstances differed between us – you can still reach an ‘imbalance’ of where you need to seek a path back towards stablisation for your own well-being and sanity.

Right in the middle of getting to know David and Andrea – whilst being left curious about why Jonathan is distancing himself from Andrea and the children; we’re given a segue about ‘Sally’. A woman who went the wrong way round to fix a mishap in her marriage – it’s inserted so very cleverly, if you blink you might miss the impertinent details of it. Sally’s section reminded me of a wickedly woven short story – where despite the shortness of it’s breadth, it packs a powerful ‘punch’ of dramatic insight! You feel for Sally even if your first instinct is to pity her – she’s drawn the shortest straw and she’s left abandoned. Quite gutting but then, you hope she’s strong enough to rally and carry-on; after all, she has a lot more living to get done! This is in reaction to the cad of a husband she was thankfully without quite suddenly however, the worst part though is reconciling the miscarriage – taken so close to full term; your heart just bled for her reading about the tragic loss.

The heart lurch moment was yet to come – the one which explains the finer details of what the synopsis eludes to by way of a mind-numbing house fire! You can definitely relate to the feeling of ill dread of wondering if the smoke and flames you’re seeing as your driving are related to your own property and family; especially if you live in a high risk area for forest fires or where even controlled burns can jump fire lines and cause duress! Sometimes there are strong fires fuelled by lightning strikes which gag out so much smoke and mayhem, you wonder if your eyes will stop burning and itching!

I definitely felt a part of the anguish igniting through Andrea as she hurried home, barely able to drive and hardly able to think straight much less pray! Her knight in that moment turnt out to be someone she hadn’t expected; a bloke she overlooked because she questioned his motives towards his son (David; her new neighbour) and yet, in the middle of a full-out emergency, he provided the sanctuary and the comfort she needed the most!

The interesting bit to a patchwork quilt is how each of the pieces fit together – even if you cannot find the pattern of how they become stitched together, somehow, someway they simply compliment each other. In many ways, I felt like David and Jake and Andrea with her children and mother were squares on a patchwork quilt – each trying to sort out how to interlock together and see if they would form a bond which could last past the emergency. David took in the family out of compassion and kindness – to give them shelter and a bit of normalcy after such a magnanimous loss was the least he could do; having been front and centre on the fire.

Ryan, Andrea’s eldest was even offering advice to David about Jake; Sophie the rebel without a clue teen Andrea felt vexed about most days was surprisingly sisterly towards her younger sibling Chloe – all of their lives transformed in one disastrous evening which still did not have an explanation of ‘why and how’. It’s the kind of event which can break a family; even break the spirit of the people who are trying to survive and find their way through to the other side. If anything, you know Andrea has the fortitude within her to courageously guide her children forward but it’s the magnitude of the loss and the questions swirling around why Jonathan was absent which lead you to wonder about what else is percolating in their lives just out of view.

The more you learn about David’s past and the heartache surrounding him and Jake, the more you feel for them for having to move forward without having enough hours to settle their emotional anguish. They both lost so much in such a short period of time – David hasn’t yet learnt how to be the father Jake needs most and Jake isn’t willing yet to heal from his broken heart to accept his father as someone he needs in his life. The realistic edging Ms Browne knitted into their back-story and into their current reality rings so very authentic and true to circumstances you can readily see IRL people living through themselves. Even in the manner of how Andrea is dealing with the declining health of her Mum; every step of the way, Browne finds a way to add dashes of humour or honest retorts which humanise the hardest discussions and endeavour to bring the humanistic side of her drama into the brightest light possible.

I think the most shattering truth is when a doctor cannot save one of his own; where he loses a loved one and can do nothing to save their life or offer an explanation afterwards which would lessen the hurt to those who are left behind. The grief engulfing David is multi-layered and well expressed by Browne. Browne knits into the psychology of her characters well – where she doesn’t make excuses for them, but also allows them the muddlements we all face ourselves.

Eva was the secondary character who pulled at my heart-strings the most – she had such a kind nature about her and such a willingness to be neighbourly. She was a woman with means and had a sharp mind for understanding things which went underhand – as she was quite the key to knowing what was unravelling Jonathan! It was her passion for gardening and her quirky clever way of convincing young children to eat vegetables which staid with me the most – she just had this charming personality which won you over as soon as you met her! Her spunk and resolve to continue to seek out as much life as she could is also what softened your heart and gave you a lot of mirth of joy whilst reading her scenes and sequences!

As the Suspense pulls itself towards the concluding second half of the novel, you start to piece things together even before David and Andrea do. You start to notice how all the little subtle ‘somethings’ are adding up and their concluding in a way you wish they wouldn’t except to say, it would give the most freedom for David and Andrea to realise something about each other if it were to come to pass the way it was ‘appearing’ to be true! (if you read between what I’m hinting at!)

What was so very convicting though is how authentic the transitions were in this drama – of how people can merge their lives together out of tragedy and find a release of relief in how well they seem to be thriving under a situation that is less than ideal but within it’s quirkiness of unexpected ‘elsewhere’ quality, it was providing a safe haven for everyone who was residing there. Sometimes you have to ‘change’ your perspective and ‘change’ where your living to better see the truth in the pudding waiting for your notice!

On Mental Health & Degenerative Conditions:

The characterisation of Dee (Andrea’s Mum) was quite dear to me – as previously hinted, I’ve had my fair share of family members who’ve struggled with various variants of dementia including but not limited to Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s. The way in which Dee’s world was captured not only rang true to those of us who have loved ones who are struggling to move in and out of recognising their lives, but it is how humble Dee was written as well! She’s just trying to ‘get on’ with things as best she can, by what she remembers in ‘the now’ and despite the wrinkles in both memory and execution, she makes you laugh most of all!

Plus, of course, she has a few tricks up her sleeve – even giving you a stark pause of thought on perception of ‘memory’ and the illusions of how sometimes ‘memory loss’ isn’t the worst thing in the world to have to circumvent! There were a lot of lovely layers to her personality and to her story threads – whilst not delving too heavily into the medical bits of her condition, what was more compelling I felt, is meeting ‘Dee’ just as she is right now to the world. She has a lot of moxie – either a carry-over from her past or something she’s bolstered into her veins now – between her and Eva, these women help continue the misconceptions of ‘older characters’ in fiction & give validity to showing the concerns and the hardships of when roles reverse in families. Of course, for me personally – I loved there was ‘humour’ every step of the way, too! Without which, we’d all surely lose our noggins a lot faster! Laughs with mirth.

Content Note: Vulgarity

Ugh. The language derails a bit into a series of expletives I could have dealt without. And a few choice expressions where I felt an alternative one would have worked just as well to push the point forward – however, it’s more to the point I have only one word in stories which irk my ire and this particular novel had a heap of it sprinkled throughout the latter 25% of the novel! Up until then, it was the every odd strong word which fit either the emotional angst of the moment or just fit what you think might run through someone’s mind in a situation being seen. Afterwards? I felt like the word in question was being used as an ‘exclamation point’ to emphases a particular emotional unravelling but I’d rather have seen it dealt with differently. Even when used to describe a cheap one-night stand, I thought could have been worded differently – but that’s just my opinion.

The strength of the story was slightly jarred by the expletives at the end – it dampened my joy of the pacing, too, as it was marring the narrative for me, as I felt the story was stronger without the expletives. Jonathan was the key character who has the loosest tongue in the novel and despite being a dearly whacked out cad of a bloke, and a seriously hardened sociopath (in some ways!) – even knowing ‘all of that’, I still wished he expressed himself ‘slightly differently’ in certain instances.

on the contemporary rom styling of ms browne:

As I oft-times mention on Jorie Loves A Story, Contemporary Fiction in all it’s sub-genres is one of the hardest won ‘loves’ of mine in literature. I am most particularly particular about what I look for in Contemporary Fiction and what I like to soak inside whilst I find an author who writes the kind of Contemporary stories I love to read – thereby, whenever I find myself on the verge of entreating into a new Contemporary, I try to wander in with a bit of hopefulness of finding not only a convicting voice but a presence of place, time and setting which not only fuses with the modern world directly but presents itself with a charm of individual identity that gives you a pulse of how life is being lived ‘now’ through the changing lifestyles and personal journeys authors will thread into their narratives.

As soon as I finished Chapter 1 of ‘Learning to Love’, I knew I had found a new beloved Contemporary author – one who would fit alongside my previously beloved Contemporary authors who strike the beautiful balance between drama, our IRL world of familiarity and the conviction of how life although muddled with strife can have resolution in the end. I love reading dramas – irregardless of the time setting, but Ms Browne reminds me of why I love Butternut Lake* by Ms McNear – they both write about characters who have dramatic back-stories attached to them but of whom do not let themselves get defined by their circumstances or the hurdles they must overcome in life. These are the kind of stories I love to champion round – perhaps because my own life has had it’s fair share of strife and tribulation and it’s nice to see resolutions in fiction inasmuch as I observe positive outcomes in reality – whichever the case might be, I find myself wholly enthused to find these stories and to key into the stories which are being told which leave you happily altered by the characters you’ve greeted against the page who now feel as if they’ve left a piece of themselves in your heart.

*If you’ve not had the pleasure of visiting Butternut Lake, let me introduce you via my reviews and author interview: Up at Butternut Lake (Review); Butternut Summer (Review); Moonlight on Butternut Lake (Review).

I agree with the quoted reviewers in the front of the novel – this is an unputdownable page-turner because there are so many moving pieces to ‘Learning to Love’ it’s hard to forsake even a wink of your attention if only to miss what is going to reshape the destinies of all involved!

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

This book review is courtesy of:

ChocLitUK Reviewer Badge by ChocLitUK.Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

In case you’ve missed my ChocLit readings:

Please follow the threads through #ChocLitSaturdays!

And, visit my ChocLit Next Reads List on Riffle (recently upated!)

to see which stories I fancy to devour next!

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

My ChocLit reads of October:

Reading ChocLit is a cuppa comfort & joy. You get to ‘return home’ to the stories penned in the beauty of the Romantic genres you love to devour with characters who inspire you & give you such a lift of joy to meet.

I wanted to select a few Contemporaries to explore as well as select a Suspenseful story to kick-off my annual focus on Psychological Suspense whilst digging back into a series I began earlier which I loved reading!

Learning to Love by Sheryl Browne

Emma There’s No Turning Back (Book Two of the Emma series) by Linda Mitchelmore

Before You by Kathryn Freeman

The Highwayman’s Daughter by Henriette Gyland

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

IF you love chatting about Romance novels, #amwriting adventures and being in a wicked good circle of writers and readers joyfully sharing their writerly & bookish lives, I invite you to join us for #ChocLitSaturday which is an extension of my reviews & guest features on behalf of ChocLitUK! All are welcome! Visit @ChocLitSaturday for more details!

We were meeting up weekly for a short bit this Summer – as my co-host Juli was able to re-attend #ChocLitSaturday whilst living in China as an ESL teacher. She was a happy presence the three Saturdays we were meeting up – however, then, life superseded the joy of chatting and the lightning storms wicked me offline to where, I ended up missing the fourth weekend, wherein Juli was going to try to reconvene once more before she would have to miss #ChocLitSaturday again for work as she was on medical leave. Those weeks she returnt were incredible as I had missed her wit and her engaging smile in our #ChocLitSaturday convos!

UPDATE: I had planned to resume our chats this September, however due to different circumstances I was unable to host the chats. We generally take an annual break around early November until January/February. Therefore, I am unsure if we have a chance to meet again until 2018. I am trying to schedule a chat this October if my connectivity issues resolve before the end of the month.

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

I look forward to reading your thoughts & commentary! Especially if you read the book or were thinking you might be inclined to read it. I appreciate hearing different points of view especially amongst bloggers who picked up the same story to read.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

{SOURCES: Cover art of  “The Rest of my Life”, “Learning to Love”; Author photograph of Sheryl Browne, Author Biography, Book Synopsis and ChocLit Reviewer badge were provided by ChocLitUK and were used by permission. Quote from “Learning to Love” was selected by Jorie and used with permission of the publisher ChocLitUK. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: ChocLitSaturdays Banner (Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo). Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination and from the art set I purchased on Etsy by rachelwhitetoo.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2017

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About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

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Posted Saturday, 30 September, 2017 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, A Father's Heart, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, British Literature, ChocLitSaturdays, ChocLitUK, Contemporary Romance, Content Note, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Domestic Violence, England, Family Drama, Firefighters & Paramedics, Fly in the Ointment, Green-Minded Publishers, Grief & Anguish of Guilt, Indie Author, Life of Thirty-Somethings, Life Shift, Loss of an unbourne child, Mental Health, Modern British Author, Modern British Literature, Modern Day, Realistic Fiction, Romance Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Second Chance Love, Single Fathers, Small Towne Fiction, Teenage Relationships & Friendships, Vulgarity in Literature, Widows & Widowers, Women's Fiction, Women's Health




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One response to “Book Review | “Learning to Love” by Sheryl Browne #ChocLitSaturdays

  1. I feel quite humbled and my eyes filled more than once while reading your review, Jorie. I do try to bring characters with all their quirks and flaws to the page and, you are so right, I don’t tend to apologise for their failings. I suppose I’m looking for that noblest of human emotions, forgiveness. Dee was based on someone very dear to me, as I suspect you might have perceived. She would have been utterly delighted with this, Jorie. And, yes, she would have laughed at your depiction of her. Even in the midst of her illness, she would have wholeheartedly agreed with you, without humour “we’d all surely lose our noggins a lot faster.” How very true. Thank you for making me smile, and for understanding my characters, my story, and my reasons for writing Learning to Love so completely. I adore this beautiful review. :) xx

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