Little Tea
Southern Fiction
Publisher: Firefly Southern Fiction (April 28, 2020)
Paperback: 252 pages

Synopsis

Southern Culture … Old Friendships … Family Tragedy

 

One phone call from Renny to come home and “see about” the capricious Ava and Celia Wakefield decides to overlook her distressful past in the name of friendship.

For three reflective days at Renny’s lake house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, the three childhood friends reunite and examine life, love, marriage, and the ties that bind, even though Celia’s personal story has yet to be healed. When the past arrives at the lake house door in the form of her old boyfriend, Celia must revisit the life she’d tried to outrun.

As her idyllic coming of age alongside her best friend, Little Tea, on her family’s ancestral grounds in bucolic Como, Mississippi unfolds, Celia realizes there is no better place to accept her own story than in this circle of friends who have remained beside her throughout the years. Theirs is a friendship that can talk any life sorrow into a comic tragedy, and now that the racial divide in the Deep South has evolved, Celia wonders if friendship can triumph over history.

Review

This southern fiction novel covers several subjects including racial issues, mental illness, homosexuality, love, and loss.

This story is told from Celia’s point of view in two different timelines.  We have the current day which finds Celia meeting up with her best friends, Renny and Ava, to help sort out Ava’s life. The other timeline is Celia’s childhood and this is the storyline I really enjoyed the most. It is set in the 1980s in the deep south where a multi-generational family has different views on equality. Celia’s grandparents believe in segregation but her parents believe in equality and treating everyone with respect. This causes tension when the grandparents try to get back involved with the farming activities or are visiting.  Celia’s best friend is Little Tea and their friendship runs deep.  It doesn’t matter that she is black because Celia doesn’t see her skin color. Hayward, one of Celia’s brothers, expands their friendship to a trio and he encourages Little Tea in her athletic abilities but there is something more there.

The present day story ties to the past slightly. Ava wants to leave her husband and runs into her first boyfriend, Mark. This potential relationship with Mark is a trainwreck waiting to happen. From comments made by Renny and Celia, it seems that Ava might be depressed and has an issue with alcohol. Those two together never end up well for anyone.  But this trip together for the three of them brings up memories from the past that Celia might have been running from and this past story is much more complex.  In fact, Celia’s first love/boyfriend reappears in the present day.  That probably also brought back many memories, some good, some bad.

As I mentioned, the past story was my favorite and the one I was most invested in. As situations unfolded and we learned more about Celia, Hayward, John, Little Tea, and the rest, I suspected several outcomes but some were still a surprise. Some were happy, some were sad, and some were shocking. But each situation added complexity and depth to the story and the characters.

While I won’t tell you the ending, I suspected what was going to happen but I don’t like how the author ended the book. I felt like there was more information we needed to know. It is hard to say too much without giving away the ending, but there are many questions left unanswered, at least in my mind.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and will check out other books from this author. We give it 3 1/2 paws.

About the Author

Claire Fullerton hails from Memphis, TN. and now lives in Malibu, CA. with her husband and 3 German shepherds. She is the author of Mourning Dove, a coming of age, Southern family saga set in 1970’s Memphis. Mourning Dove is a five-time award winner, including the Literary Classics Words on Wings for Book of the Year, and the Ippy Award silver medal in regional fiction ( Southeast.) Claire is also the author of Dancing to an Irish Reel, a Kindle Book Review and Readers’ Favorite award winner that is set on the west coast of Ireland, where she once lived. Claire’s first novel is a paranormal mystery set in two time periods titled, A Portal in Time, set in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She is a contributor to the book, A Southern Season with her novella, Through an Autumn Window, set at a Memphis funeral ( because something always goes wrong at a Southern funeral.) Little Tea is Claire’s 4th novel and is set in the Deep South. It is the story of the bonds of female friendship, healing the past, and outdated racial relations. Little Tea is the August selection of the Pulpwood Queens, a Faulkner Society finalist in the William Wisdom international competition, and on the short list of the Chanticleer Review’s Somerset award. She is represented by Julie Gwinn of the Seymour Literary.

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