Customer Reviews

Sweet Bitter Love

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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!

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.

The reader sees the relationship from Jenny's point of view, from her beginning fascination with Susan, through to the end. It is an interesting look into the highs and lows of life with an alcoholic....This is not an easy subject....It is, however, a situation common to many. Schiano has opened the door to an important subject that few want to discuss. R. Lynne Watson, Mega Scene Vol. #14

Schiano's "Sweet Bitter Love" captured me and I got lost in the characters. The prose was very readable, but she fully developed the players and plot line. Although the topic of alcoholism is difficult enough in itself, Schiano combined this challenging topic with a lesbian love affair in a realistic, yet universally appealing manner. Steamy, passionate love scenes contrasted with the withdrawal of alcoholism continue to pull the reader in more deeply. Highly recommend!!

I recommend this book to anyone who has struggled through a push-pull relationship. Good writing, realistic dialogue. I hope she write another book soon!

I bought this book because I met the author at a seminar in March. I was unprepared for some of its content. As a heterosexual woman I was taken aback the women lovers because it is a life unfamiliar to me. But I stuck with it and realized that the story really is universal. Alcoholism, rollercoaster relationships, and old issues haunt any one of us. It has nothing to do with sexual preferences.
In the end, I recognized myself and a rough first marriage. I recommend this story to anyone.

An extremely realistic love story with the ending that should and does happen when people grow and find themselves. The lovers are lesbian, but their story is universal. Well written by someone who seems to have been there. I can see this as a movie some day--full of passion and pain, love and redemption.

This is a perfect title. It is sweet love, it is bitter love, and it is love. It also has some explicit lesbian love scenes, they are beautifully presented but you should know they are there if they would bother you. The main character, Jenny, is a writer and copy editor. The love of her life left her a year ago and she is now semi-open to a new relationship. Her friend Diane is a therapist living with Jenny's best friend Janey. Diane says something that I really find insightful and applies to everyone, we tend to search out relationships that mimic our childhood relationships until we get it right or have worked through the hurt and come out the other side. Good stuff. The relationship that Jenny develops involves love, alcoholism, Al Anon, obsession, deep emotional thoughts, and growth. The character is well written and well developed. I could feel her emotions, and understand them, even when I wanted to tell her to get on with it. But that's the sign of good writing, wanting to tell the character to grow up and get on with life. It's an interaction. I would recommend this book if you don't mind the lesbian aspect.

This book beautifully captures the feeling and excitement one gets when first falling in love. Even though I am straight and married, I was totally drawn in to the relationship developing between the two main characters, both women, and I wished for them to find happiness together.