Synopsis:
At 19, Marnie plunged into first love
with Joe, a guy who was completely wrong for her. Their romance was fast and
exhilarating and like nothing Marnie had ever experienced or understood. Just
as quickly as it began, it was over, with no explanation. He left her with
unanswered questions and unexpected feelings of loss and regret, and a quiet
grief she would carry with her for the next fifteen years. When Joe returns, Marnie is a 34-year-old wife and mother to two rambunctious little boys, who is slowly healing from a devastating loss. All the emotions she suppressed from the past fifteen years surge to the surface, threatening to ruin her marriage and destroy her family. She'll need to confront the one person who hurt her the most to realize that love and loss sometimes go hand in hand… and that you have to live with some of your toughest choices for the rest of your life.
A Little Bit of Everything Lost is part coming-of-age/part love story. It's a story about a woman desperate to make peace with the past. It's for all women who have ever experienced the magnitude of first love, whether it was a lasting bond or a fleeting moment. Because first love - while it might not have been the best love - is a love none of us ever forgets.
PURCHASE LINKS:
EXCERPT:
October 2004
The whole process irritated the hell out
of Marnie.
The microwave timer buzzed, frozen pancakes warmed and ready.
The microwave timer buzzed, frozen pancakes warmed and ready.
“You’re going to
be late for the bus!” she yelled as she searched the meat drawer for ham.
“Why don’t I do
this the night before?” Marnie muttered into the fridge. She found meat, made
sandwiches, and moved to the pantry to grab syrup for the pancakes.
The lid was
sticky.
She heard the
boys arguing about who got to play Xbox first when they got home from school.
They were going to be late. Again. And the lid was covered in syrup. Again.
“Damn it, boys!
Get down here. Now!”
They were still
arguing as they bounded down the stairs and Marnie knew Jeremy had taken his
forefinger and thumb and whacked his younger brother on the head because Trey
yelped, “I’m telling!”
“No tattling,”
Marnie threatened. “Or there’ll be no soccer after school.”
“Good. I hate
soccer practice,” Jeremy said.
“Me too,” Trey
agreed with his older brother.
Marnie shook her
head. There was no winning here. She was losing the battle that was good
parenting, and she didn’t know how she was going to survive. High school –
hell, junior high school – was still
eons away.
The rumble of
the bus wheels turning onto the street signaled panic in the boys’ eyes.
“The bus!” Trey
screamed.
“Grab a granola
bar, your lunches and backpacks, and run!”
No matter what
chaos each morning brought, Jeremy and Trey were endearing still, her little
boys, taking the time to kiss her, and to tell her they loved her. Every morning,
no matter what, they managed to love her. If only that were enough. If only.
As Trey buried
his head into Marnie for a hug, she inhaled the little boy smell of him. Oh
God, how she wished they didn’t have to grow up, didn’t have to become big
boys. Big ones – well, big eight-year-olds like Jeremy – were already showing
signs of pulling away, of needing her less and less. Of asking for fewer
cuddles, and practically no more bedtime stories, wanting rather to stay up
late to watch basketball with Dad when he was home. At least six-year-old Trey
could still be babied. He and Marnie would snuggle at night and make up stories
about worms named Pinkster and Swirmy, who lived in huts in their backyard, and
ate muddy cakes filled with flies.
Marnie sighed.
“I love you boys. Have a good day.” She touched her belly.
“Love you too, Mom.
Bye!” And the door banged behind them. Her double tornado gone. She heard them
screaming down the drive, Trey shouting for Jeremy to wait up for him, always,
always chasing after his older brother.
Marnie opened
the microwave and took out the mini pancakes the boys hadn’t had time to eat.
She grabbed the syrup bottle again, forgetting it was sticky.
“Damn it,” she
said to no one, because no one was home. It was Tuesday, and Stuart was gone.
She pulled a
paper towel off the roll and noticed it had a Fourth of July stars-and-stripes
pattern on it. Summer seemed like forever ago. She didn’t want to remember the summer
that didn't happen. She didn’t want to think of fireworks and pool parties,
barbecues and sparklers. And her boys, their tanned little bodies, their goggled
faces, swimming until they were so tired they would collapse into their beds
with no coaxing. She didn’t want to think about parades and fresh sugary-tart
lemonade, neighborhood get-togethers, of weekend trips to her parent’s lake
house, all the things they didn't get to do. She didn’t want to think about
what she should be doing now.
Marnie turned
the faucet on cold, saturated the paper towel, and rubbed the top of the syrup
bottle as best as she could to clean it off. Then she doused the pancakes with
syrup and popped the mini pancakes into her mouth, one by one, filling the void
with the golden yeasty fluff, not feeling or tasting, just chewing… chewing
until they were all gone; until the anxiety settled in the pit of her stomach
and she felt like she could begin her day.
She ran a mental
list through her head: the dry cleaners, she had to proof photos from last
weekend's shoot, a trip to the grocery store. And she would have to stop by the
post office to mail that package that had been sitting on the foyer table for
over a week now. The one Stuart had asked her to mail.
When he got home
last Thursday and spotted it still there, he had sighed. “I didn’t have time
today,” she said. “Tomorrow,” she promised. “I’ll get to it tomorrow.”
“I’m home now. I
can mail it tomorrow,” he had said, but he hadn’t gotten around to doing it
either.
The phone rang,
Marnie wiped her sticky fingers on another paper towel, and checked Caller ID.
It was Collette. She hadn’t talked to Collette since last week so she settled onto
a kitchen bar stool, ready for one of her usual pep talks. Marnie was desperate
for one today.
“Hey you,”
Marnie answered.
“Mar, hon. He’s
back in town.”
Marnie felt a
glob of doughy pancake she had just devoured rise to a lump in her throat.
My Review: 4 1/2 stars
Marnie has been through a lot lately. She just experienced something that brought back up old memories she thought she had dealt with. Then her first love, Joe, comes back into town, and that just further makes Marnie think about all the decisions she's made that have brought her to where she is today. Wondering is she'd done the right thing. Her husband, Stuart, doesn't know exactly everything that Marnie's going through and thinking, but he knows enough about his wife to care. One thing leads to another and finally Marnie and Joe have a conversation about 15 years overdue. This was one of those books that makes you sit and think about the things you've done and maybe want to change them if you could. It make you think of the could have's, should have's and would have's. All things you really can't change. The past is gone and you have to deal with the reality of what is now. Stephanie wrote a roller coaster of emotions, going between what was and what is with the chapters. I think that really gave the reader a chance to know what it was like then and now. The ending was bittersweet, yet hopeful. Really well done, Stephanie.
My Review: 4 1/2 stars
Marnie has been through a lot lately. She just experienced something that brought back up old memories she thought she had dealt with. Then her first love, Joe, comes back into town, and that just further makes Marnie think about all the decisions she's made that have brought her to where she is today. Wondering is she'd done the right thing. Her husband, Stuart, doesn't know exactly everything that Marnie's going through and thinking, but he knows enough about his wife to care. One thing leads to another and finally Marnie and Joe have a conversation about 15 years overdue. This was one of those books that makes you sit and think about the things you've done and maybe want to change them if you could. It make you think of the could have's, should have's and would have's. All things you really can't change. The past is gone and you have to deal with the reality of what is now. Stephanie wrote a roller coaster of emotions, going between what was and what is with the chapters. I think that really gave the reader a chance to know what it was like then and now. The ending was bittersweet, yet hopeful. Really well done, Stephanie.
AUTHOR
BIO:
Stephanie
Elliot is the author of A Little Bit of Everything Lost, What She Left Us, and the
novella, The Cell Phone Lot. She is also a writer and editor and has written
for a variety of newspapers, magazines and websites. In her spare time she
edits manuscripts for other writers and proofs executive documents. She lives
in Arizona with her husband and three children.
AUTHOR
LINKS:
My website:
http://stephanieelliot.com/
http://stephanieelliot.com/
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Thank you so much for this really kind review! :) And for taking the time to host me on your blog!
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