Magnificent Agony - Katie Mettner Feature

Blurb

Eve Darling has learned one very important lesson in her twenty-six years; life never goes according to plan. 

The night of her high school graduation her heart was bursting with hopes and dreams for the future, but the universe had other ideas. Instead of New York and culinary school, she stayed in Magnificent, Wisconsin. Barely an adult herself, Eve was irrevocably tasked with becoming a mother to her big brother, Davis, a man with the heart and mind of a five-year-old boy. Now, seven years later, she’s become a successful entrepreneur, chef, and businesswoman. All of

Magnificent Agony on Amazon

those responsibilities came at a price and her personal life was payment. No one was more acutely aware of that than she was.

And then, with one phone call, everything changed.

‘After life organizer’ Abraham Von Sallage was not like any funeral director Eve had ever known. He was young, charming, witty, and had a unique perspective on life, because his business was death. They both carried burdens society couldn’t, or wouldn’t, acknowledge, and because of those burdens, they found an instantaneous connection. That night, as Abraham stood in the doorway of her cooking school, she saw hope in his eyes.

And then her world crumbled.

An inexplicably cruel twist of fate called into question everything she knew about life, and death. With her soul adrift in guilt, she clung to the only person she could trust to save her from the agony her life had become. Shrouded by grief, it would take the love of one man, and the resolve of an entire community, to show her just how magnificent life could be.

Thanks for having me on the blog today to talk about Magnificent Agony, Tobi! Magnificent Agony is a brainchild from another series of mine, The Northern Lights Series. In the third book, Winter’s Rain, Winter Cheyne writes under the penname of Winter Rayne as a new adult writer of the trilogy called The Magnificent Series. I loved the title, but I was tied into two series I needed to finish, so it wasn’t until the beginning of 2016 that I could seriously consider writing it. Suffice it to say Magnificent Agony took me somewhere I was not expecting to go. The title alone tells the reader that things aren’t going to be all Skittles and rainbows, as Winter likes to say, and it’s not. Magnificent Agony a whole lot of agony. The agony of regret, guilt, and grief, but I think the greatest part of the story, is the magnificent part. Because in among all of that agony is where the town of Magnificent learns the most important lesson.

Eve Darling is the owner/operator of a cooking school and retail kitchen store in Magnificent, Wisconsin. When she’s not working, she’s with her brother, Davis, at the local assisted living facility. Davis is a 46-year-old man with the mind and heart of a 5-year-old, and Eve was tasked with being his mother much earlier in life than she should have been.

Abraham Von Sallage is the new owner of Von Sallage Funeral Home after his uncle retired and moved to Arizona. His family is coming to visit and Abraham wants to impress them by learning how to cook. Eve and Abraham’s ‘meet-cute’ involves Cornish game hens, red wine, and smexy Levis.

You get to meet many more characters of Magnificent, Wisconsin including Sally Anne, Eve’s best friend, and the town’s favorite barista, and Rock Maresanti the director of Two Acres Assisted Living. You even meet Bob the butcher at the local GoodEats Grocery store. Just when you think you’re in for a fun, flirty romance, reality strikes and the agony sets in. In the beginning of the book Eve, Abraham and the rest of Magnificent live detached lives from the community at large, until one man tears them apart, and at the same time brings them back together.

A friend asked me what the theme of Magnificent Agony is. What it is that I want the reader to pull from the pages and remember long after the cover has closed? Ultimately, I hope the reader feels on a personal level that when bad things happen to good people it takes a community to heal them. In order for that to happen the community members must stop living solitary lives and figure out a way to come together as one, when it’s the hardest thing to do. The second thing I hope the reader gets is that there are things that happen in this world that are terrible, terrible things and we don’t understand why they happen. Yet, if we step back and look at the bigger picture, we can see how even after the greatest disaster or loss,  kindness is what will repair the damage done by evil.

I found it hard to classify Magnificent Agony in a one genre because of all that it is, but I chose contemporary romance as the best place to start. What lies between the covers is a story about life, hope, death, grief, love, and the understanding that comes from forgiving ourselves. It’s about allowing ourselves to be carried when we can no longer walk, until the ground under us is a little bit firmer again. It’s about relearning how to embrace and live the life we want and not suffer through the life we hate. It’s about remembering the joys of childhood even when we think we’re too old. 

Thanks for inviting me to talk about The Magnificent Series, Tobi. The second in the series, Magnificent Destiny, will be released in October. That will be a second chance romance between two characters in Magnificent Agony that you'll also fall in love with. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Katie Mettner writes contemporary romance and romantic suspense from a little house in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. She lives with her soulmate, and together they share their lives with their three children. Katie has a slight

addiction to Twitter and blogging, with a lessening aversion to Pinterest now that she quit trying to make the things she pinned.

Links:

Magnificent Agony on Amazon US
Magnificent Agony on Amazon UK
Magnificent Agony on Amazon CA
Add Magnificent Agony on Goodreads
Follow Katie Mettner on Amazon US
Follow Katie Mettner on Amazon UK
Visit Katie Mettner’s blog The View From The Other Side
Follow Katie on Twitter
Come chat with Katie on Facebook
Are you a Pinner? Pin with Katie at Su