Two Spoons of Bitter: A story of love, betrayal and redemption

*WINNER of the 2019 Royal Palm Literary Award for Literary Fiction & Finalist Wishing Shelf Awards*

Ella Donovan can't wait to see her hapless past and her bleak Midwest hometown in her rearview mirror. She arrives in a charming Southern city of colorful bridges and gleaming beaches for her dream job working with teen addicts. But not all is as it seems in a place where the Confederate flag still flies over the downtown courthouse. Nearly unhinged by a boss who wants her to fail, Southern gentleman who aren't so gentlemanly, and a corrupt, racist and homophobic social service system beset by an escalating global pandemic, Ella struggles to find her footing. Just when she thinks she's mastered it all, a fateful phone call unleashes a Pandora's box of devastating family secrets - driving her into the arms of a forbidden romantic liaison. If not for fierce Jo Gaetano, her wise-cracking coworker and new best friend, Ella just might break under pressure. Will Ella be able to redeem the past and find hope and renewal amongst the wreckage of her losses and unfortunate choices? Based on true events.

Author: Sonja S. Mongar
Publisher: Paradise Alley Publishing
Published: 06/03/2018
Pages: 354
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.79d
ISBN: 9780692055243

About the Author
Mongar, Sonja S.: - "Sonja S. Mongar, MFA - Award Winning author... A product of railroaders, ranchers, moonshiners and suffragettes, Mongar, was born in Montana - at the foot of the Bitterroot mountain range - in the Clark Fork River Valley. Yearning for greener grass, her parents made stakes in four states and two provinces before landing permanently in swamplands of Florida when she was a teen. But the traveling blues was already in her blood, so she kept on movin' - the marvelous adventures and shattering mishaps imprinting themselves upon the landscapes, characters, and dramas of her imagination. There will always be a train, a lost highway and a character adrift in her stories. Educator, freelance journalist, memoirist, songwriter and blues harmonica player, Two Spoons of Bitter is Mongar's first novel and has won multiple awards. A former tenured professor of English from the University of Puerto Rico specializing in creative writing, she currently mentors new writers in the Western Connecticut State Low Residency MFA in Creative and Professional Writing program. She divides her time between the Pacific Northwest and Southeast Coastal Florida where she bears witness to the magical unfolding of her four grandchildren's lives. Projects underway: Riders of the Dust - a 1920s Western screenplay inspired by her fierce Montana grandmothers."