Chelo Diaz-Ludden

I flew through this one in a day. I very much enjoyed the writing style of this author. She brought the twin sisters, Suz and Anne (yes, the splitting of the name Suzanne), to life. I loved her descriptions of the coffee shop, “The Bean”, and its customers. She created such a lovely coffee smelling, friendly ambience in the shop that I longed to stop by for a latte and biscotti and meet Bea, who helps Anne run the shop, and homeless Bob, who Anne leaves food for every day so he doesn’t need to raid her dumpster.

It’s a wonderful study of sisterhood and family. The twins team together to start “The Bean”; however, Suz, who is a great admirer of Mandela, decides instead to go to Africa to help the poor and leaves Anne to run the coffee shop. The mystery of what happens during Suz’s return for a Christmas visit is made all the more fascinating by Anne’s reading of Suz’s journals from her time in Africa. There are several separate stories within those journals that make for great reading aside from the central mystery. All threads of the book are expertly pulled together for a very surprising ending.

I won an e-book version of this book on BookLikes.… (meer)