Indie October Review: Coffee at Little Angels by Nadine Rose Larter

 Title: Coffee at Little Angels
Author: Nadine Rose Larter
Publisher: Katalina Playroom
Publish Date: May 26, 2011
Source: Received a copy from the author. This did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're looking for a story about friendship.

What's the Story?: 

From Goodreads.com: "Phillip, Sarah, Kaitlyn, Caleb, Maxine, Grant, Melanie and Josh grew up in a small town where they spent their high school years together as an inseparable clique. But high school has ended, and they are all living their own “grown up” lives, each under the impression that their group has basically come to an end. When Phillip dies in a hit and run accident, Kaitlyn summons the others to all come back home, forcing a reunion that no one is particularly interested in partaking in.

Coffee at Little Angels follows how each character deals with the death of a childhood friend while at the same time dealing with their own ignored demons after years of separation. Events unfold as the group tries to rekindle the friendship they once shared to honour the memory of a friend they will never see again."

My Two Cents:

This book is the story of a group of childhood friends who come back together when one of them (Phil) is hit by a car. None of them are particularly interested in coming back to their small town in South Africa but they come because of the memories that they had from growing up.

Each person deals with Phil's death in a different way. I found it sort of hard to keep track of all of the different characters. The "voices" in the book don't really seem to stand out from one anot...moreThis book is the story of a group of childhood friends who come back together when one of them (Phil) is hit by a car. None of them are particularly interested in coming back to their small town in South Africa but they come because of the memories that they had from growing up.

Each person deals with Phil's death in a different way. I found it sort of hard to keep track of all of the different characters. The "voices" in the book don't really seem to stand out from one another and the way that the review copy that I received of the ebook made it even more difficult to follow who was talking. Every couple pages there is a picture that says "Review Copy" and takes up about half the page on a regular sized Kindle. That being said, the regular ebook copy may make it easier to follow who was talking at what time. In general, it was hard to keep track of so many different main characters in the first place. One of the highlights of the book was seeing how differently each of the characters coped with such an event.

One thing that I noticed is that in the beginning when Phil is hit, it's a hit and run but everyone just sort of seems to accept that he was hit and the person didn't stop. It was interesting to me that no one wanted to figure out who killed their friend.

Bottom line: This book had a few high points but is more character driven than plot driven.