Series: Teapot
Collector Mysteries
Author: Amanda
Cooper (pseudonym of Victoria Hamilton)
Pub. Date: June
3rd, 2014
Blog By: Sophie Taylor
There's a rap song I've been listening to, mostly for the chorus. Skylar Grey sings that part, and the lyric is "I'm coming home/I'm coming home/tell the World I'm coming home/Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday."
That song in my head kept me going once I decided to move home to Gracious Grove, which isn't really even my home, but more homelike to me because it is where Nana - my mom's mother, Rose Freemont - and Auntie Rose's Victorian Tea House is. Gracious Grove is a medium sized town tucked away in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, and it is the most beautiful spot in the world. I'm a little biased, but oh well.
Why is Gracious Grove and my Nana's home and business my only true home? Well, I'll tell you about me an my life.
I'm Sophie Taylor, and I'm a very fortunate girl. My family is wealthy. It's not me that's rich, it's my father; after all, he's the one who worked his butt off (and still does) to get the Taylors where they are today. Oh sure, he's not exactly self-made. He started out with money, but made more. A lot more. He always jokes, he makes money and my mother spends it.
That's just one of the problems between my mother and I. I don't want to criticize her; I love her so much, more than she probably know. But we're so different! I yearn for a connection, but we seem to stare at each other across a Grand Canyon of misunderstanding. We just don't have anything to talk about.
On the other hand, my Nana and I are soul deep friends, as well as grandmother and granddaughter. I know I've moaned about this before, but losing my restaurant, In Fashion (in the garment district in Manhattan) hurt deeply. Where was I to go? I couldn't run home to Mom. She was in Milan, or Rome, or somewhere warm and sunny and seaside. So I ran home to Gracious Grove, New York. Home to Auntie Rose's Victorian Tea House, and Nana. Home to work and cook tearoom fare and recover.
Home.
Gracious Grove will always be home to me, but what is home; a place? People? A feeling? What is it for you?
Why is Gracious Grove and my Nana's home and business my only true home? Well, I'll tell you about me an my life.
I'm Sophie Taylor, and I'm a very fortunate girl. My family is wealthy. It's not me that's rich, it's my father; after all, he's the one who worked his butt off (and still does) to get the Taylors where they are today. Oh sure, he's not exactly self-made. He started out with money, but made more. A lot more. He always jokes, he makes money and my mother spends it.That's just one of the problems between my mother and I. I don't want to criticize her; I love her so much, more than she probably know. But we're so different! I yearn for a connection, but we seem to stare at each other across a Grand Canyon of misunderstanding. We just don't have anything to talk about.
On the other hand, my Nana and I are soul deep friends, as well as grandmother and granddaughter. I know I've moaned about this before, but losing my restaurant, In Fashion (in the garment district in Manhattan) hurt deeply. Where was I to go? I couldn't run home to Mom. She was in Milan, or Rome, or somewhere warm and sunny and seaside. So I ran home to Gracious Grove, New York. Home to Auntie Rose's Victorian Tea House, and Nana. Home to work and cook tearoom fare and recover.
Home.
Gracious Grove will always be home to me, but what is home; a place? People? A feeling? What is it for you?
About Tempest in
a Teapot & the Teapot Collector Mysteries by Amanda Cooper
Sophie Freemont
Taylor, failed restaurateur, chef and teapot collector, is at loose ends in
Manhattan until she decides on the spur of the moment to return ‘home’ to
Gracious Grove, a town in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Though not her real home town, it is where she finds
respite at her grandmother’s establishment, the same place where Sophie fell in
love with teapots, Auntie Rose’s Victorian Tea House. Her grandmother, Rose
Freemont, aka ‘Nana’, welcomes her with open arms and twenty nine year old Sophie
settles in to find her groove cooking again, even if it is ‘only’ tearoom fare.
At the same time she reestablishes friendships with her childhood buddies Dana
and Cissy, and her first love, Jason Murphy.
Life in Gracious
Grove is never boring, but is not usually as spirited as it becomes when there
is a murder at the tearoom next door, the establishment of cranky octogenarian Thelma
Mae Earnshaw. Thelma has nursed a six decade long grudge against Nana, who she
claims stole her beau, Harold Freemont, also known as Sophie’s grandfather and
Nana’s late husband. But despite Thelma’s irascibility, Sophie feels compelled
to help figure out who killed a local socialite with a baked goody at Thelma’s
tearoom, Belle Époque. It’s unnerving that it occurred so close that Sophie heard
the hubbub surrounding the murder by poison! Too soon the danger strikes close
to home with an attack on her Nana, and Sophie races the clock to figure out
what is going wrong in the pretty little town of Gracious Grove.
Amanda Cooper is the pseudonym for bestselling cozy mystery author Victoria Hamilton. The Teapot Collector mysteries will each feature a recipe and a special section on tea tips written by professional tea blenders The Tea Haus!
For more on Tempest in a Teapot and the Teapot Collector Mysteries, visit the series’ Facebook page:
To pre-order on Amazon go to: Tempest in a Teapot
To pre-order on Barnes & Noble go to: Tempest in a Teapot
Learn more about Amanda Cooper, her alter ego Victoria Hamilton, and all her mystery series at: www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.com
To pre-order on Barnes & Noble go to: Tempest in a Teapot
Learn more about Amanda Cooper, her alter ego Victoria Hamilton, and all her mystery series at: www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.com
Posts
For me, people make a place feel like home. My best friends are in Threadville.
ReplyDeleteTo me, home is where my animals are.
ReplyDeleteTo me, home is where family is.
ReplyDeleteHome is definitely a feeling. It is happiness and security and relaxation. Home is comfortable.
ReplyDeleteAnd must include animals.