Sweet Bitter Love [Paperback]

Rita Schiano (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

Explores a relationship that walks the fine line between compassion and codependence.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Schiano serves up passion, courage, and clear-eyed honesty in this dramatic debut novel about the emotionally-gripping sides of alcoholism and recovery. This roller-coaster romance vividly captures the rhythm and feel of love's sometimes rocky ride.

From the Inside Flap

Susan reached out and wiped the tears from my cheek. She lay beside me and held me. "It's a long time since I've been with a woman," she whispered.

I was stunned! She had never mentioned a woman lover before. My mind raced with a million questions I wanted to ask, "Who? When? Where?..." but my body took over. Ask those questions now and this moment is gone, it reminded me.

I looked at her and said, " It'll come back to you. It's like riding a bike." We laughed wildly.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Rising Tide Press (AZ) (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883061156
• ISBN-13: 978-1883061159
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,180,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rita Schiano is a freelance writer, resilience coach, and the author of "Live a Flourishing Life," "Painting The Invisible Man," and "Sweet Bitter Love." She has written two full-length screenplays, and one television pilot. A former jazz and nightclub singer, Rita is a published songwriter and member of ASCAP. She is currently at work on a new novel, "From Hell to Heaven in Five Hail Marys."

Follow Rita on Facebook and Twitter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss this book!, May 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sweet Bitter Love (Paperback)

I first heard the author, Rita Schiano, read her short story Brown Shoes (Early Embraces Anthology) at the 10th Anniversary celebration of My Sisters' Word in Syracuse, NY. She was awesome! (And GORGEOUS! ) I finally read her novel Sweet Bitter Love...thank goddess! It was incredible! I laughed, I cried. She took me on a rollercoaster ride of emotion. Don't miss this book. It's due to become a classic!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stirring romantic novel. Highly recommended!, January 3, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Sweet Bitter Love (Paperback)

In her stirring novel, Sweet Bitter Love, Rita Schiano captures the passion, pain and fragility of modern day romantic relationships. And she does so with the honesty, insight and confidence rarely found in a writer's first novel.
Sweet Bitter Love chronicles the relationship of two women. Jenny, a writer, is the main character. Susan, a business professional, is the object of Jenny's passion. This romance evolves from Jenny and Susan's chance encounter in a local coffeehouse, through their platonic friendship, to a blazing love affair that proceeds with wrenching twists and turns. It is through Jenny's eyes that the story unfolds.
It is the paradoxical nature of the relationship that Schiano captures best, it is as intense as it is fragile. Readers will cycle through feelings of joy, bitterness, excitement and anger as they learn how and why the relationship unfolds as it does. Schiano aptly records Jenny's acute awareness of the personal degradation she suffers in punishment for her love of the elusive Susan. She also surprises us by her ability to have Jenny question her own self-destructiveness juxtaposed by her adeptness to rationalize how increasingly fewer "good times" off-set the anguish from the increasingly many disappointments. Jenny is stood-up, lied to, withheld important information and manipulated. In short, she fell for an alcoholic who is confused by her sexuality.
Schiano is graphic and detailed in characterizing all aspects of Jenny and Susan's relationship. Whether it is from Jenny's revealing and insightful private thoughts (themselves fascinating examples of how the irrationality of yearning can over take one's world weary wisdom), to the explicit descriptions of her and Susan's love-making. The latter may be tough on the modest, gentle reader. But if the realism of honesty fits your reading palate, this is a must read.
Author Schiano presents this dramatic tale of love, pain and soul-searching in clear, easy to read prose with an energizing style that dares the reader to set the book down. Highly recommended!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a typical love story, May 15, 2001

By 

Harvest Moon (Grand Prairie, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sweet Bitter Love (Paperback)

I was pleasantly surprised by Schiano's Sweet Bitter Love. The front cover art is a bit tacky and the back cover gives the impression that it's just another romace novel. But you know what they say about judging books by their covers...

While Sweet Bitter Love is the story of a relationship between two women, it is so much more. Told in the first person, it is a candid and tender look at the emotional risks we take when we become emotionally involved with another. Schiano doesn't gloss over problems of enmeshment, alcoholism, and loss of self, rather she tackles them head on with sensitivity and insight. The end result is a story that is engrossing, powerful, and refreshingly realistic.