The Color of Tea: Review and Giveaway

"A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water."
~Eleanor Roosevelt

The Color of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe is a novel about Grace Miller, who yearns for a child and opens up a French café in Macau, China, where she and her husband, Peter, live. The couple desperately wants to have a baby, and their marriage suffers tremendously as a result of their inability to have child. Grace also longs for her mother, with whom she shared an odd yet intense relationship.  Not-so-slowly and surely, Grace immerses herself in her work at the café, and creates a new life for herself, although she still yearns for a child.  As she bakes macarons and brews tea, she builds her business and makes some wonderful new friends at her café, Lillian's.

I completely adored this novel, which conjures up exotic locales, flavors, and foods, such as, of course, the macarons featured so prominently in the book (pictured on the book cover, above, and to the left, photo courtesy of Wikipedia). Il est délicieux!  The author writes beautifully about food--I could almost taste the fabulously flavored macarons.  Grace's new friends, especially Rilla, Gigi, and Marjory, are offbeat, resilient, and always interesting. They bond over coffee, tea, and macarons, and support each other in numerous ways, small and large, as good friends do.

Most importantly, The Color of Tea  is about following your dreams--following your bliss--even when you're not quite sure how to accomplish your goals. This is a lovely and tantalizing debut novel with inspiring messages about the value of friendship and about bringing your dreams to life.  The Color of Tea is an emotionally satisfying read with a great deal of appeal for women of all ages. It would be the perfect novel for a women's book club, as long as tea and macarons were served at meetings.

If this book also sounds like your cup of tea (sorry, couldn't resist!), then you're in luck.  Originally published in 2011 in Australia as The Colour of Tea, this book is now published in America by Scribner, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.. Scribner is generously offering a copy of The Color of Tea to one of my readers (U.S./Canada only). 

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment. 
• For another chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower, or that you subscribe in Google Reader.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter.

Enter by 5PM PDT on Monday, September 3.  One lucky winner will be randomly selected and announced on Tuesday, September 4.  Good luck!


Special thanks to Lisa from TLC for sending me this book.  For more reviews, please visit the other stops on TLC's The Color of Tea book blog tour.

Mailbox Monday: Some Summer Books

Oh, the many woes of book blogging! Books are not always the easiest subjects to photograph, especially when you have several or many to include.  It seems that at least one of them will "act up", and refuse to cooperate in some manner.  A book cover won't stay flat, or there may be distracting shadows in the photo.  In spite of these difficulties, though, I brought my newest "mailbox" books outside and photographed them with my phone. Wisely, my new books realized that this was their chance to make a good first impression, and cooperated. ;) 

I received Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (of Arrested Development fame!) from the author's agent, Anna. I won Charlie: A Love Story by Barbara Lampert from Naida's blog, the bookworm.  The Color of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe arrived from the publisher for an upcoming TLC book tour, and In a Witch's Wardrobe by Juliet Blackwell is a mystery I won recently from Harvee's blog, Book Dilettante.  Last and certainly not least, I received The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith by Joanna Brooks from her agent, Jill; I'm planning to interview this author soon.


Mailbox Monday, one of my favorite memes, continues to be on tour, and has been hosted this month by Mrs. Q, Book Addict. What books arrived in your mailbox recently, or from elsewhere?

I haven't posted (or read) much this month, because I just had LASIK eye surgery and felt my eyes needed a break, but I did want to showcase some of the new books I've gotten this summer.  And remember that today's the last day to enter my international giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card, if you haven't already done so!