Check out this author Q&A for Brunch at Bittersweet Café by Carla Laureano (Interview)


I've started reading this and it's so good so far! I'm looking forward to sharing my
review later in the week. In the meantime, enjoy the interview with the author below...

Brunch at Bittersweet Café
(Supper Club #2)
By Carla Laureano
Christian Contemporary Romance
Paperback & ebook, 432 Pages
February 5th 2019 by Tyndale House Publishers

Summary

From the RITA Award–winning author of Five Days in Skye comes a sweet, romantic treat that will leave you hungry for more.

Baker and pastry chef Melody Johansson has always believed in finding the positive in every situation, but seven years after she moved to Denver, she can’t deny that she’s stuck in a rut. One relationship after another has ended in disaster, and her classical French training is being wasted on her night job in a mediocre chain bakery. Then the charming and handsome private pilot Justin Keller lands on the doorstep of her workplace in a snowstorm, and Melody feels like it’s a sign that her luck is finally turning around.

Justin is intrigued by the lively bohemian baker, but the last thing he’s looking for is a relationship. His own romantic failures have proven that the demands of his job are incompatible with meaningful connections, and he’s already pledged his life savings to a new business venture across the country—an island air charter in Florida with his sister and brother-in-law.

Against their better judgment, Melody and Justin find themselves drawn together by their unconventional career choices and shared love of adventure. But when an unexpected windfall provides Melody with the chance to open her dream bakery-café in Denver with her best friend, chef Rachel Bishop, she’s faced with an impossible choice: stay and put down roots with the people and place she’s come to call home . . . or give it all up for the man she loves.

(Affiliate links included.)

Author Q&A

1. What inspired you to write Brunch at Bittersweet Café?

Typically, I can pinpoint one moment that inspired the direction of a story, but this book came along far more gradually. I knew after writing Melody in The Saturday Night Supper Club that her relentless positivity and cheeriness hid some deeper issues, so it was really just a process of exploring what those might be—particularly after the hints I gave about her mother in the first book.

The spiritual themes, however, came from growing up as a Christian and how often I’ve seen outward happiness mistaken for true joy. The fake-it-’til-you-feel-it mentality is prevalent in some Christian circles, even today, and it’s one that Millennial Christians are rejecting in greater numbers.

2. How do you expect the novel to resonate with your audience? What are you most excited for your readers to experience through reading this story?

I feel like Melody is a character that most of us can relate to in some way. She has all the ingredients to have her dream life, but she still stumbles along because she’s so inwardly conflicted on what she wants. It can be so tempting to live your life in a holding pattern, especially when the Bible emphasizes patience, but that attitude can also lead us into the trap of simply waiting and hoping without taking any steps of our own. That, combined with the pressure to always show a cheerful exterior, can lead us to magical thinking, where we just know that everything will be all right if we keep going as we are, rather than to a deeper faith in which we are tested and strengthened by trials.

3. What role does faith play in this story?

Through both Melody’s and Justin’s journeys, I explore the meaning of faith and the different—and erroneous—ways we can look at God. I think without meaning to, we can start to view God as the magical gumball machine in the sky: put in a quarter (your

prayer), get your gumball (your wish). But our experience with God is not transactional; it’s a relationship. Both characters have to learn that true faith is releasing your dreams, hopes, and sorrows to a God who loves us and trusting Him to give us what we need, not what we think we want.

4. What lessons or truths do you hope people take away from Brunch at Bittersweet Café?

I hope that readers will be encouraged by the idea that they can trust God in both their best moments and their worst, because He knows what lies ahead when we can’t even begin to anticipate. I’m a bit of a control freak, so this is a lesson I have to learn over and over and over again. I’m sure God looks down on me with exasperated amusement from time to time, like “This would go a lot faster if you’d just let me steer.”

5. As an author, what did you particularly enjoy about writing this story?

I love learning about new things, so researching the aviation component for Justin’s career was so much fun. I spent hours reading FAA publications, scouring pilot forums, and learning the ins and outs of general aviation airports. Fortunately, I have a pilot friend who answered my questions, reviewed the flight scenes for accuracy, and even took my sons and me to his hangar to see the experimental plane he built. Were it not for the fact that I’m terrified of tiny planes (airliners don’t count), I would be tempted to get my private pilot license. I find the technical details fascinating.

6. What was the most difficult part of writing this story?

I struggled a bit with revealing Justin beyond what he wanted Melody to see. He’s such a charming, charismatic, keep-it-together kind of guy that at first even I was fooled. It wasn’t until the very end that I finally figured out the things that he was hiding and was able to portray him as an interesting three-dimensional person.

7. The first book in this series, The Saturday Night Supper Club, introduced us to Melody Johansson. What will we discover about Melody in this book that may surprise us?

I don’t want to give away all the fun details, but one thing that you definitely wouldn’t expect is her educational background. She was homeschooled, entered college at sixteen, finished at twenty, and promptly abandoned her plans of further literature degrees in favor of something she loved more—baking. I actually borrowed the details from my own history: I turned seventeen shortly after high school graduation and finished college a couple of months before my twentieth birthday. I never intended to become a professor like Melody, but I did at the last minute decide I had no interest in grad school and decided to go into the workforce instead. I was afraid that studying literature was killing my love for it, and I’d rather write it than analyze it.

As for the rest, you’ll have to read to find out!

8. Can you tell us more about Melody’s love interest, Justin Keller? Why did you decide to give him the job and the backstory that you did?

One of the “rules” for writing romance is to create a potential love interest who seems to be the worst possible match in every way. For a woman who secretly craves permanence and has been betrayed by a man she loved, who could be worse than a pilot who travels more than half the month and stays away from serious relationships because of the demands of his job? Then there’s the fact that Melody is very much a free spirit, and pilots tend to be very focused and literal-minded, so there was the instant potential for interesting conflict.

Because of all those differences, it was fun to discover that they both have hurts in their past that affect their relationships with God and their willingness to commit to each other. In the end, they have far more in common than first appears.

9. Part of Melody’s past involves pain, which tends to influence her decisions and the way she lives her life. Can you tell us why you included those painful circumstances in her story? How do you hope reading about Melody’s story will encourage readers?

Pain is unavoidable in this life, and how we deal with it shapes us as people, whether we mean it to or not. But it’s a topic that isn’t often discussed among Christians. We want to gloss over the hard stuff to get to the part where God makes it okay again, even though it’s the space between the two that forms our strength, our character, and our faith. I wanted to make a statement that acknowledging your pain does not make you a bad Christian. It does not mean you don’t have faith. It means you’re human. That’s one reason that Jesus experienced life as fully human when he could have easily made everything go his way—he understands what it means to be hurt, betrayed, and alone.

I hope that readers who have felt obligated to plaster on a cheerful facade when they’re hurting will say, “No more.” It’s okay to hurt. It’s okay to ask for help. None of that makes you weak. It takes more strength to deal with your pain in a healthy way than it does to push it down and ignore it.

10. How do you hope Melody’s story encourages single women specifically?

It can be so tempting to think your life will begin as soon as you find “the one” and get married, but the result is often living as small a life as possible while you’re waiting. The world can use your gifts and your talents, regardless of your marital status. Trust me, God knows where to find you . . . you’re not going to miss the man He has for you while you’re off being the person He meant you to be. I hope my single readers realize that they are complete just as they are and feel empowered to pursue their dreams, trusting that God will bring all the elements of their lives together at the right time.

11. Why do you think it’s important that this series talks about the intersection of culture, feminism, career, and faith for the Christian woman?

It’s downright difficult to be a modern Christian woman! We pursue career aspirations, but we often have traditional plans for our personal lives. We are dedicated to paving a way for the women after us, but we want to be open to God’s detours. So often, we are told that not only can we have it all, we must have it all . . . and if we’re struggling with keeping it together, there must be something wrong with us. In this series, I wanted to show that everyone struggles at times, and although Rachel, Melody, and Ana share similar beliefs, their paths are all incredibly different. It’s okay if your life looks different than everyone else thinks it should, because God’s plan for you is as unique as you are.

Other Books in the Series

The Saturday Night Supper Club
(Supper Club #1)
By Carla Laureano
Christian Contemporary Romance
Paperback & ebook, 416 Pages
February 6th 2018 by Tyndale House Publishers

Summary

Denver chef Rachel Bishop has accomplished everything she’s dreamed and some things she never dared hope, like winning a James Beard award and heading up her own fine-dining restaurant. But when a targeted smear campaign causes her to be pushed out of the business by her partners, she vows to do whatever it takes to get her life back … even if that means joining forces with the man who inadvertently set the disaster in motion.

Essayist Alex Kanin never imagined his pointed editorial would go viral. Ironically, his attempt to highlight the pitfalls of online criticism has the opposite effect: it revives his own flagging career by destroying that of a perfect stranger. Plagued by guilt-fueled writer’s block, Alex vows to do whatever he can to repair the damage. He just doesn’t expect his interest in the beautiful chef to turn personal.

Alex agrees to help rebuild Rachel’s tarnished image by offering his connections and his home to host an exclusive pop-up dinner party targeted to Denver’s most influential citizens: the Saturday Night Supper Club. As they work together to make the project a success, Rachel begins to realize Alex is not the unfeeling opportunist she once thought he was, and that perhaps there’s life–and love–outside the pressure-cooker of her chosen career. But can she give up her lifelong goals without losing her identity as well?

(Affiliate links included.)

About the Author


Carla Laureano is the RITA Award–winning author of contemporary inspirational romance and Celtic fantasy (as C. E. Laureano). A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked as a sales and marketing executive for nearly a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write fiction full-time. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and two sons, where she writes during the day and cooks things at night.



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