Coffee Killed My Mother

<p>Anna Lee is an anxious 17-year-old whose life is stuck largely because of her strained relationship with her mother Jacqueline a quirky recovering alcoholic who is now addicted to coffee. The two take a road trip to explore independent coffee shops along the east coast but Jacqueline's real agenda is an opportunity to reveal a series of disturbing family secrets-a fatal drunk driving accident an abusive parent and her mother's betrayal of a woman Anna Lee holds dear. </p><p><br></p><p>As Donna Stramella strengthens Anna Lee's voice and probes her choices readers receive a realistic story of an entire family struggling to recover not just from alcoholism but the codependent pattern it creates. ...thoroughly engrossing and hard to put down. Midwest Review</p><p><br></p><p><em>Coffee Killed My Mother</em> is a wonderfully written tale about a mother-daughter journey. Stramella's novel shows an admirable level of professionalism with its characters and settings and promises great things for the first-time author. Nancy Stancill Author of <em>Saving Texas</em> and <em>Winning Texas</em></p><p><br></p><p>Written in Anna Lee's seventeen-year-old voice Stramella's writing is superb her characters fully developed and relatable her settings of small-town eastern seaboard America realistic. Easily one of the best novels I've read this year I look forward to reading more of Donna Stramella's work. Toni Morgan Author of <em>Patrimony</em> and <em>Queenie's Place</em>. </p><p><br></p><p>Stramella does a wonderful job of doling out Jacqueline's persona from behind a curtain of secrets and half-truths that drives the story's pacing to its unexpected conclusion. James White Author of <em>Ransoms are for Amateurs</em> and <em>Helen and her Brothers</em></p>