The Secret Life of Sarah Meads by V.K. Tritschler

Title: The Secret life of Sarah Meads

Author: V.K. Tritschler

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Opens:

Sarah had managed to survive two whole weeks of hectic working motherhood. Not one sickness, injury or serious incident that entire time. It had to be a record.

Blurb:

What do you get when you mix a frustrated working mother, an absentee husband, a handsome stranger and a psychotic work colleague? Sarah Meads was about to find out. The hardest part was going to be keeping it quiet. Well that…and keeping her sanity.

My thoughts:

Sarah Meads is a working mum with three children and a husband, Richard. Richard does nothing around the house to help and is working late at night and weekends, he treats Sarah nicely enough, just expects her to wait on him, pick up after him, and provide her body when he needs it, life is good for him – not stressed at all. At the opposite end of the emotional scale is Sarah, she is stressed beyond measure trying to juggle all the normal day to day activities and life is not much better at work. She enjoys her work, but one of her co-workers, Lynley, is a bully, and makes Sarah’s work life hell. There is a scene that involves the radio that made me want to ring up the office of Anti-Discrimination and report a bully!!!

THE SECRET LIFE OF SARAH MEADS opens at the school fete, Richard has had a prior appointment so Sarah has taken her sister Jazz along to help her with the three kids. Her sister talks her into going into a Gypsy tent to have her future read. Instead of the gypsy she meets her grandson Antonio who reads her palm in his grandmother’s absence. Sarah is stunned at how her body reacts to Antonio – and he seems equally smitten. Flustered she leaves the tent and goes back to her life. However some of the things Antonio said stuck with her and in an effort to get out of the stressed rut she is living in Sarah decides to learn how to be a witch. With only google to guide her along this path her exploration leads to some really funny scenes which include the arrival of a mangy cat, and the police. However life cannot continue like this for Sarah and things escalate until finally a revelation causes her world to turn upside down and she has to learn how to get her life back on track.

I really, really enjoyed THE SECRET LIFE OF SARAH MEADS. It is a debut novel for V.K. Tritschler and I can’t wait until she writes another one – well she has – it is being edited now. I related, to a certain extent, with Sarah. Her mother and father is my mother and father to a T. Sadly my father is no longer with us – but mum? Yep just like Sarah’s. Balancing work and motherhood – also struck a chord. Luckily my children are now all grown up with children of their own – but gee it was hard for a while. AND, unlike Sarah my hubby played a huge part with the parenting roles. So didn’t relate to a Richard character in my life – although my sister certainly could with her husband!!! I love it when I connect with the characters in a book. The storyline covers some pretty heavy stuff; bullying, mental health, family relationships to name but a few. But the way it is written allows you to understand what is happening without descending into the pits of despair. I was particularly taken by the following quote:

There are four things I need you to always remember alright?"

"Sure," she said.

"One, always breathe," he said "It sounds simple but breathing is sometimes the hardest thing in the world. If you’re ever struggling, stop, and take a couple of deep, slow breaths. Count them out loud if you need to. Two, always have dreams and ideals and never let anyone tell you it’s impossible. Something impossible is only something possible that hasn’t yet been done. Three, get out of bed every single day. Especially if you don’t want to. Because yes, even without you the world keeps turning, it’s simply a little more interesting with you in it. Four, never give up. That means on life and yourself.

I think we can all take this advice on board. There is a happy ending – but it is more the start of the road to a happy ending rather than the actual happy ending. And I liked that. The ending was perfect for the story.

Rating: Excellent Stuff – a real page turner and hard to put down. I carved out extra reading time just so I could finish it. This book got carted into the bathroom with me, read over meals, read at work, and/or kept me up late at night. If this author has more work, I will certainly read it.

Want to know more about author V.K. Tritschler? Click Here

With thanks the author for my copy to read and review.