Amazon Category:  Romance Publisher: Authorhouse ISBN-10:  1420890018 Type: Fiction Pages: 268 Copyright: November 9, 2005 ISBN-13: 9781420890013 Morning Coffee is a romantic novel that explores how sometimes the best life has to offer can come as a complete surprise.   Morning Coffee is a romantic novel that follows the journey of Katie Mariano as she comes to grips with the sudden death of her husband, Jack, and moves on with her life.   The story begins less than a year after Jack's death. Katie is still adjusting to the sudden loneliness of her life while also dealing with the guilt she is experiencing when she realizes that perhaps she never loved her husband as deeply as he deserved. She also struggles to come to grips with her lingering feelings for her first love, Neil Hoffman. As is the case with so many first loves, Katie continues to hold the love affair close to her heart. And to this day, Katie wonders whatever became of Neil.   For his part Neil, who is now married to Lynette, still thinks about Katie as well. It's now twenty years after the fact but Neil is still affected by the break-up to the point that it has affected his marriage and family life. Neil was just as hurt by the shattered relationship as Katie and it still haunts him today.    In college Katie and Neil had a mutual friend, Mike Schaefer. Mike was the outgoing, happy-go-lucky friend of Neil's who became friendly with Katie through Neil. In their college days, Mike shared with Katie an interest in art and in the years since he has found a way to run a very successful business within the art world in the city in which he lives.   Mike learns of Jack's death many months after it occurred. Upon hearing the news Mike goes to Neil's office to see if he has heard what happened. When he finds out that Neil is unaware, Mike breaks the news to his old friend. Mike then takes a ride out to Katie's country home to offer his condolences in person. At Katie's house, Mike notices some of her artwork and invites Katie to join him for a party he's hosting that will include many artists. Katie's interest is piqued and she somewhat reluctantly agrees to attend.   Mike then again calls on his old friend and tells Neil that he has seen Katie and invited her to attend his party. Mike then takes matters a step further and invites Neil to attend as well. The party arrives and becomes a pivotal time in the relationships of these three old friends.   Morning Coffee explores the complex romantic relationships of the characters involved.  The romantic nature of the book leads our heroine on a journey which allows her to find  the one person you want to face life’s challenges with,  The one person you want to share life’s most intimate moments with, the one person you want to share your life with.  It is about finding the person you want to wake up next to and share Morning Coffee with for the rest of your life. Excerpt Katie opened her eyes as the light softly filtered through the curtain casting rays of dusty gold on the wooden floor. She looked around her familiar bedroom and saw all the pictures of the kids, now nearly grown, and the picture of Jack and her on their wedding day. She smiled at the picture. It had been a nice day, an almost per-fect day, as she thought back on it. The one little glitch in that beautiful day had been her own doing, she thought guiltily. Katie knew in her heart that as she stood in front of family and friends, saying her vows and making promises for the future, a woman should not have a single errant thought. A thought so thoroughly unexpected and vivid that she couldn’t see the wonderful man standing in front of her with love in his eyes. What she saw instead was a different man, a man who she truly believed to be the love of her life. And with that guilt Katie Mariano’s marriage began. It had been a good life actually. The union had produced two wonderful children, Sarah and Mac, who were her reasons to live. She and Jack had a working marriage, one that appeared happy and to a large extent had been just that. The very young man she had married had grown into a loving father and husband as the years had marched on. They had come to a settled contentment in life when Jack had left one day for a short drive to the video store, never to return. Katie turned her eyes away from the wedding photograph, trying to block the thoughts that had begun. She pushed back the covers, swung her feet to the floor and got out of the bed. She gently put the covers back in place and with that the bed was made. It no longer struck her as odd how easily a bed was made that was shared with no one. As she continued on to the kitchen, she was still trying to push back the tide of her thoughts. Katie poured herself a cup of steaming coffee and wrapped her hands around it as she headed outside to the front porch to enjoy the morning. Instead of picking up the paper as she usually did, Katie walked over to one of the chairs on the covered porch. She sat down and sipped her coffee as she tucked her feet under her and stared off. She did not notice the grass that was in need of a mow or the hedges that were in need of a trim. There was suddenly some clamoring in the house and the front door flew open as her sixteen-year-old son, Mac, burst out the front door and saw his mother sitting alone. Mac gave her a quick smile and said, “’Bye Mom, I’m going to Bran¬don’s. I know. I need to mow the lawn. I promise to do it later.” Mac jumped on his skateboard, turned and waved goodbye to his mom. As Katie waved back she thought to herself that she would give the odds of the lawn being mowed by nightfall about a fifty-fifty chance. Katie smiled as she realized that the ache she felt for her son, who had lost his father at such a pivotal age, had diminished slightly. He had navigated what was now almost a year without a father’s guidance and seemed to be doing much better. The relief Katie felt in how well Mac was dealing with the sudden loss of his father was immeasurable. She was certain that as time went on the drop in his grades that had occurred after Jack’s death would improve as well. None of them deserved to have Jack ripped out of their lives by that drunk driver but it was for Mac that Katie felt the most pain. She hugged herself tightly as she always did when wondering whether it was chance or destiny that had kept either of the kids from being in the car with Jack that fateful day. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a few sparrows that had landed on the dewy grass. As Katie watched the birds danc¬ing around the lawn she thought back to her younger years before she had met Jack. She could picture the blanket that was laid out on the patch of grass just above the beach. Katie could envision the love of her youth lying on his side on that blanket, resting his weight on one elbow and looking at her intently while she sat next to him. The memories of their love making may have faded over time but the unending feeling of two souls destined to be together still rang true. They had poured their hearts and souls into each other. With a small pang of guilt, Katie thought that the joining of soul mates had meant more to her than any vows ever spoken. And she wondered what had ever become of Neil Hoffman. Katie continued to think of that young man on the blanket from those many years ago as the sun rose higher in the sky, warming the porch and making the morning shadows appear smaller. She re¬membered back to when she introduced Neil to her parents, Derek and Anne-Marie Moynihan, and the sadness that she had felt when they did not see in him what she had seen. In hindsight, perhaps the Moynihans never saw Neil at all. They had only seen the differences that existed between them. They had seen the differences in faith. They had seen that he was a few years older, years that would mean so little later, but seemed like too many to her parents back then. At that time Katie hadn’t understood, she had only felt their disapproval. She thought back with a deeper pain, remembering the look in Neil’s mother’s eyes when she first saw the girl that her son had fallen so obviously in love with. The look was a mother’s concern for her son, understandable now, but back then she only knew that the differences in their upbringings and faith were insurmountable obstacles to some. Back then Katie was hurt and she was scared. Katie now knew that the problem with sharing so many of life’s firsts with one person was that there was no basis for comparison. She naively thought back then, when the outside pressures began taking their toll on their young love, that she would find another soul mate. Katie had thought that finding that magnetic attraction that inexplicably draws two people together could easily be repeat¬ed. How wrong she had been. Not long after the break up that had broken her heart, Katie heard Neil had married. With a sudden pang of pain, Katie remembered catching a glimpse of Neil and the very pretty young woman who she later learned became his wife. Katie had heard that the couple soon after had a child and she had no doubt that Neil had grown into a wonderful husband and father. She was certain that the woman who had become his wife was a very fortunate woman who was sharing a full and happy life with him. Katie had heard that he had married a woman that matched his upbringing far better than she had. Still a small part of her wondered if it really mattered what looked right on paper. Did a match that made perfect sense make for a happy union? Katie mentally rolled her eyes to herself for dwelling on such nonsense. It was silly to waste her time dreaming her romantic thoughts of lost love. Telling herself it was time to put the past behind her and move on, Katie rose from the chair and took her empty coffee mug inside. She walked to the sink, rinsed out the mug and then headed to the shower to begin her day.

A story on renewing old friendships and finding love along the way
“Morning Coffee” written by Elizabeth Alan is a combination of two authors, Karen Elizabeth Luethke and Chester Alan Blum. By combining each of their middle names, an author was born: Elizabeth Alan.

This is a story about loss, survival, renewing friendships and love. This novel is about the guilty pleasures we all partake in and how sometimes the best things in life will come as a complete surprise.

It’s been about a year since Katie Mariano lost her husband, Jack, in
an automobile accident. His death brought about the renewal of friendships from long ago.Throughout Katie’s marriage, she was weighed down by what could have been. She has always carried a piece of her first love, Neil, within her and now she continues to be plagued with memories from her past.

When a friend from college comes back into her life and expresses his condolences about the loss of her husband, sparks begin to fly. This new romance helps her put closure on her feelings for Neil and her guilty feelings about her marriage.

Throughout the novel, the authors weave the story around having that first cup of coffee in the morning.Interestingly, the two authors met on an Internet message board and developed a friendship. They wrote the entire novel via e-mail, swapping story ideas and text over the Internet. While Luethke used her creativity to design the cover of the book, Blum used his creativity to write songs, some of which are in this book.

This book is a good, fast read. While there isn’t much conflict to drive the story further, this is a sentimental read for the romantics at heart.

“Morning Coffee” by Elizabeth Alan can be purchased on Amazon.com.


A slow start, but worth reading, by Book Of The Moment Reviewer
First of all, I have to say that the way this book came to be is worthy of a mention here. Elizabeth Alan is in fact two people: Karen Elizabeth Luethke and Chester Alan Blum. Karen resides with her family in California, while Alan lives in New York with his family. The two now authors met through an online message board which was dedicated to a reality tv show...random? They made a connection and due to a mutual love of the arts, became fast friends. Their novel, "Morning Coffe" was written entirely through emails that the two sent back and forth across the country. Nifty story huh? I thought it was...

"Morning Coffee" is a romance; not my first choice in genres. I started the book with bias, and after the first fifty pages was basically bored senseless (KEEP READING) I actually found myself begrudging the fact that I had promised to review it, as that meant I would need to actually read the entire book. Boo. Suddenly, it was a few hours later and I was 200+ pages into the book, and without realizing it I had become captivated by the story the pages told. While the beginning is very slow, its sets the tone and precedent for what is to come...and the rest of the book is great. Imagine my surprise..

The story is about several characters...Katie is a recently widowed mother of two teenagers, trying to figure out how to be herself, and how to survive in the world without her late husband. Out of the blue she receives a series of phone calls from old college friends she has lost touch with through the years. The first is from Micheal, a friend of hers, but more importantly, the best friend of her former boyfriend...Neil. Neil and Katie had been head over heels in love, but due to hesitations on the part of their parents, were torn apart, and parted on bad terms. The break up lacked closure, and now twenty years later, both Neil and Katie still found their hearts and minds wondering what if. The second phone call came from (you guessed it) Neil himself.

Soon after that, Mike is planning a dinner party; wanting to see his two old friends find some sort of peace and closure with each other, he invites them both. From here we follow along as two of them fall completely and utterly in love, in a way that is beautiful and inspires envy.

After I finished reading the story, I was baffled at how this was written by two people. These two authors are completely in sync with each other. At no point does it become jumbled due to two different voices trying to dominate...the story is fluid, and could easily pass as having been written by a sole individual.

All in all, its a decent read. Like I mentioned, the beginning was a little slow, but its worth sticking with. It will make you feel sort of warm and fuzzy inside.