Tea For Two Therapeutic Review and Giveaway!

Trish Perry's latest release, Tea for Two, was a delight for me to read...mainly because I'm a therapist and the heroine is too.

Here's a blurb from Trish's website:

Counselor Tina Milano has been visiting Milly’s Tea Shop regularly for the past several months. She has many friends but no steady man in her life. Zack Cooper is a local farmer who provides Milly with fresh fruit and vegetables. As a single parent, Zack is doing his best to raise his teenage son and daughter on his own.

When the kids get in minor scrapes with the law, Milly gently encourages Zack and Tina to work together to draw the teens back before their rebellious natures land them in even hotter water. At first Tina sees the relationship in only a professional capacity, but soon her friends notice the luscious scent of romance in the air and decide to help things along.

Tea for Two is a faith-filled novel that explores the delight of second chances, warm friendship, and unexpected romantic encounters.

I appreciate small towns, I do. I live in one. And Middleburg, Virginia, definitely constitutes a small town. I felt for Tina, as she encounters the joys and pitfalls of living and counseling in a small town. Everyone knows everyone else, you can hardly go anywhere and not encounter clients. (This just happened to me at Applebee's on Cinco de Mayo....except I saw two, not just one.)

Anyway, Trish went to lengths to make sure that her romantic set-up passes the muster...and it "technically" does. When Tina agrees to informally help Zack with his teens, she tells Milly that it'll be all "loosy-goosey." The argument is then made that counselors often give informal advice to friends outside of their professional capacity, and this is very true. I don't enter into a counseling contract with someone I eat lunch with and help them process through several options available to them.

That aside, this story was such an enjoyable read, full of discovery and change for everyone involved, including a delightful little twist you just don't expect toward the end. Zack's children display classic signs of abandonment issues, and in the aftermath of Zack's own grief, he probably missed some signs prior to the police involvement that would have clued him in earlier to their distress. Tina's unabtrusive methods prove to help this fictional family, and the character arc for the kids and for Zack is satisfying to read. (And it gives me hope for a few of my own clients.....)

Tea for Two is the second book in Trish's Tea with Millicent series, but it reads fine as a stand-alone. To be entered in the giveaway, leave a comment below with your email address in a non-spam format; i.e., charactertherapist (at) hotmail (dot) com. I'll randomly pick a winner and announce it on Saturday in conjunction with my Weekend Funnies.

Don't miss out on this charming book!