Blog Tour: THE SERENDIPITY OF CATASTROPHE by Lisa Fellinger

 

THE SERENDIPITY OF CATASTROPHE

Lisa Fellinger

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GENRE:  Women's Fiction

 

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BLURB:

 

A mother defeated by anxiety. A daughter determined not to become her mother. Can one month in Europe reunite them?

 

Anita Lorello is paralyzed by grief. When her husband dies in an accident the night before a long-awaited retirement trip, she’s devastated by the loss of her partner and once again shelves her dream to finally visit Europe. But when her estranged daughter agrees to accompany her nearly a year later, Anita is eager for the opportunity to repair their relationship.

 

Carrie Lorello’s life is crumbling. After a night of clouded judgment ends in her being fired, her mother’s offer of a one-month paid vacation seems like her best option. But she refuses to get caught up in her mother’s irrational worries and critical comments, and under no circumstances is she to learn what a failure Carrie’s proven to be.

 

Desperate not to lose her daughter again, Anita fights to conquer her anxiety and become the mother Carrie always wanted. But as Carrie’s life grows more and more complicated, her mother is the last person she wants to confide in.

 

Without anyone else to hold them together, can Anita and Carrie overcome their differences, or will the secrets between them derail their trip and destroy their relationship for good?

 

The Serendipity of Catastrophe is an emotionally compelling work of women’s fiction. If you enjoy travel stories, complex mother-daughter relationships, and lovably flawed characters, you’ll love this hopeful story of resilience and second chances.

 

 

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Excerpt Two:

 

“Welcome to London,” the officer said.

 

Anita smiled, then pushed her way through the turnstile where she was reunited with Carrie.

 

“Ready?” Carrie asked, tucking her passport back into her purse.

 

She straightened as she fell into step beside her, full of resolve. She was through the flight, and immigration was less intimidating than she’d expected. Maybe this wouldn’t be so challenging after all.

 

Carrie led the way outside to the taxi stand, the crisp air and sunshine welcome after the stuffiness of the plane and airports. They slid into a waiting cab, Carrie gave the driver the hotel address, and they settled in for the half-hour cab ride.

 

Out her window, Anita took in her first glimpses of Europe as the sun began to fade into evening. She was in a country hundreds of years older than the United States, yet it didn’t feel old. There were old buildings, but more modern ones filled the spaces between them. Pedestrians passed by one another on the sidewalks, dressed much like people back home, checking their phones as they walked. Public buses exhaled to a stop in front of designated signs. New moms walked along with their strollers, couples passed by with dogs, and life continued on much the same as in Buffalo.

 

Anita smiled to herself, unable to believe she’d expected this to be terrifying. It was different, of course, but she was overcome with excitement, not fear. But wasn’t this precisely what she always did—built things up in her mind to the point she had no choice but to be terrified?

 

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What are the main themes explored in your book?

 

The most prominent theme explored in The Serendipity of Catastrophe is that of the mother-daughter relationship. The initial idea for this story was based around the question of what would happen if a woman was left a widow the night before she and her husband were about to take a long-anticipated trip? In then thinking about who she might go on the trip with instead, the idea of having her go with a daughter who she shared a strained relationship with seemed most intriguing. How might the differences between them make the trip more difficult, and how might the trip help them resolve those differences?

 

Mother-daughter relationships have always fascinated me. We often hear of mother-daughter relationships that are complicated and complex, and what intrigued me about using this kind of relationship as the basis for this story was digging in and exploring the reasons why this particular relationship might be strained. What might cause a woman who so desperately wanted to become a mother and loves her daughter more than anything to end up learning about her daughter’s life secondhand through her husband? And what happens, then, when the husband is no longer there? These are the kinds of character-driven questions I love exploring as I write.

 

 Along with the relationship between Anita and Carrie, the other prominent theme is grief and how it affects us. Of course, there’s the fact that Anita loses her husband and soulmate before the story even begins, and Carrie has lost her father. But the theme of grief is also present in how Anita views her relationship with Carrie. She grieves for the fact that their relationship isn’t what she’d hoped it would be, and that relationship is shaped by Anita’s unresolved grief over the three miscarriages she suffered before finally giving birth to Carrie, even if Carrie isn’t aware of them. For Carrie, she’s also affected by grief over the loss of her career and the life she’d been working to build for herself in Los Angeles.

 

My passion is writing stories about characters who are flawed in ways that make them real and relatable. Digging into the relationship between these two women and exploring the misunderstandings and hurt between them helped me create a story with characters readers may recognize themselves in and root for, and that’s always my biggest goal with my stories. 

 

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Lisa Fellinger writes contemporary women's fiction with lovably flawed, relatable characters. When she's not writing her own stories, she's helping others achieve their writing dreams as a book coach and developmental editor. She lives in Buffalo, New York with her husband, son, and fur babies.

 

Website: www.lisafellingerauthor.com

Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/ml6kpq  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisafellingerauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisafellinger_author/

 

 

 

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GIVEAWAY

 

Lisa Fellinger will award a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner.

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