Fire and Ice is the first stop in the Tristi Pinkston blog tour for:

Bitter Blessings
by Christine Mehring
Paperback, 192 pages
Published July 8th 2011
by Cedar Fort
ISBN 1599555239
Source: publisher
4 stars

Megan has the perfect life, but when her mother dies in an accident, everything spins out of control. With the rest of her family falling apart, Megan must confront her past to uncover the truths that will keep everyone together. Thought-provoking and heartfelt, this book shows that even in times of trial, you can often find blessings.

Megan and her family are holding things together after the death of their father until one day they get a visit from the Tuscon Police and receive news that mom will not be home for dinner. Killed in a car accident, mom leaves her own mother as the primary caregiver to Megan and her two younger sisters. But Grandma hasn’t worked in years and turns to Megan to help support the small family. In a snowball of hard events she must put the pieces back together as to why insurance is refusing to pay out their claim, what their grandmother is hiding from them all and just how they are supposed to make ends meet.

With an awesome cast of supporting character including her best friend Adam and his father, Megan just may be able to survive the challenges that lie ahead. There were a lot of things I really loved about Bitter Blessings. It’s a short read that pulled me in and I finished it in one sitting. It addresses adolescent substance abuse, grief, financial hardship, codependency and religious bigotry in an artful, hopeful manner. I appreciate that so many hard things were covered and often found myself wondering if life could get any worse for Megan. But in the end, the author proves that sometimes things fall into place just they way they are meant to, even if it takes some time and effort. A clean LDS fiction title with an endearing example of friendship and faith.

About the Author: Christine Mehring grew up in a house full of books. As a child she was often in trouble for hiding out — in the school library. She wanted to be an astronaut, an archeologist, a starving artist in Paris (so romantic!), a gypsy traveling the world with a backpack, a teacher, a farmer, an international spy; the world was so huge and full of possibilities that is was impossible to choose just one. Then, one day, she realized that what she really wanted most of all, and what she was looking for in everything else, was stories. Now she makes stories, so some days she’s an astronaut, some days she’s a gypsy, and when she’s not writing she really does farm a small market garden with her husband, the beekeeper, and an assortment of kids and animals in an area of Nevada that might generously be called “the boonies”.

Visit the author’s website or click to purchase Bitter Blessings.