Review for In a Book Club Far Away by Tif Marcelo

In a Book Club Far Away by  Tif Marcelo

ebook, 400 pages

publication: April 6th 2021 by Gallery Books

Genre:  Womens Fiction, Contemporary, Books About Books

 

From the author of Once Upon a Sunset and The Key to Happily Ever After comes a heartwarming and moving novel following three Army wives—estranged friends—who must overcome their differences when one of them is desperate for help.

Regina Castro, Adelaide Wilson-Chang, and Sophie Walden used to be best friends. As Army wives at Fort East, they bonded during their book club and soon became inseparable. But when an unimaginable betrayal happened amongst the group, the friendship abruptly ended, and they haven’t spoken since.

That’s why, eight years later, Regina and Sophie are shocked when they get a call for help from Adelaide. Adelaide’s husband is stationed abroad, and without any friends or family near her new home of Alexandria, Virginia, she has no one to help take care of her young daughter when she has to undergo emergency surgery. For the sake of an innocent child, Regina and Sophie reluctantly put their differences aside to help an old friend.

As the three women reunite, they must overcome past hurts and see if there’s any future for their friendship. Featuring Tif Marcelo’s signature “enchanting prose” (Amy E. Reichert, author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake) and the books that brought them together in the first place, In a Book Club Far Away honors the immense power of female friendship and how love can defy time, distance, and all old wounds. 

My Thoughts…Three friends, Army wives, were rocks for each other during deployments, returns from deployments, and children being born.  Until something happens and they parted way, two of them not talking to each other.   The third brings them back together when she has surgery and needs their help with recovery and her daughter. 

I love the dynamic of these ladies.    Their friendship is one that withstands time and even when they lose touch when an SOS is sent, they show up.    I like that they call each other out, protect each other, and stand strong in their beliefs.    Even when things are tough, they come together, putting aside their differences and help each other out. 

The different timelines gave me a better understanding of the life they lived while in the military, the way their husbands were involved in their lives, and how they ended up where they are now.   I have a bigger appreciation for the spouse who is not military, the way that they had to step up at home and must keep things in order all on their own.   It is almost like being a single parent.    Life is never easy, but military life has added challenges.   

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Meet Tif Marcelo...I've lived a nomadic life, and it's given me the gift of adventure. Born in the Philippines and raised in the diverse and free-spirited city of San Francisco, I quickly realized I had my own story to tell. (Mine always involved a handsome boy and ended with a kiss to end all kisses, of course.) I took my imagination to the bookstacks of Parkside Library on Taraval Street, where I was enabled by an understanding library staff who didn't turn me away despite V.C. Andrews books burgeoning from my arms at the age of eleven. By the time I discovered Amy Tan, Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende at fourteen, I knew that my legacy would include the written word.

My path would take me to the military, when I enlisted at the age of 17 out of love of country. After high school, I went to college and got my nursing degree and an Army officer commission, which led me to my own military hero, and to more adventures. The travel, the struggle, the lessons, and the gifts. Our four wonderful children. The amazing community of friends we're honored to be part of. They all had a hand in growing me, and now my stories have a little more to them than a handsome boy and a kiss to end all kisses. Through it all, I never stopped writing. I kept journals, spoke stories to myself and blogged for almost a decade. Books remained my haven and consolation. When I discovered that I had the stamina to write a novel, I found myself revisiting the promise I made to myself when I was a little girl: that I would put my stories in those book stacks somehow.

And I have!