The Secrets of the Coffee Club is about three women vowing to start next chapters. They all know they need life to change but will their secrets ever allow them to move on?
Audrey, Maggie and Gem are united in their general feelings of rubbish-ness. Life, they agree, cannot carry on as it is, so together they form The Coffee Club. They are there to help, encourage, support and laugh. Everything they’ve always wanted their friendships to be.
But the closer they become, the more lies they tell. After all, they don’t want their new friends really knowing the truth. The more they begin to live their lives, the more their pasts unravel having devastating effects not just on them, but the people around them too. Cherry Blossom Park will never be the same again.
“Characters as compelling, but this one even more gripping”
— Amazon review
Why I wrote this book
I first wrote this book when my eldest son was in primary and in my naivety of him starting school, I had no idea what a juggernaut this new way of life would be for us all, not just him. I could only describe it as a treadmill, which seemed to get faster and faster no matter how hard we clung on. The lessons, the emails, the new people all around… I’m not just talking about the children here, I mean the parents too.
I was also slowly struck by the knock in confidence this new world can bring. Lawyers, journalists, stay-at-home mums, accountants, doctors, nurses, CEOs… nobody seemed to be immune. I’ve never been sure where this all comes from, so Audrey, Maggie and Gem were the perfect women to help me find out. I suspect it comes from ourselves if I’m honest, and just like our children finding their own groups, we too just want to belong.
But this isn’t just a book about parenthood, it’s about adulthood too. It’s about losing our identities, what happens if your realise your partner will never be who you want them to be, it’s about secrets which grow and lies we tell. It’s about being swept up with what you think you ‘should’ be doing, when deep-down you feel like it’s all wrong. It’s about disappointment, grief, hope and love. This I would say is the darkest so far of the Cherry Blossom books, and how frightening, yet easy it can be (if you’re not careful) for life to take you away from who you really are.