I love it when you stumble across a book that is so completely unique and unusual that you would struggle to place it in any one genre. That’s precisely what happened when I picked up and tried to categorise Sarah Marie Graye’s wonderful debut, The Second Cup.

The story follows a group of four friends who have kind of drifted together and don’t seem to have much in common. Or at least I thought so at first. As we learn about each girl, I really felt as if I got to know them and their insecurities. Faye seems to be the main character, although they all have equal parts to play, but the story and the whole ‘butterfly effect’ starts with Faye. After a heart-stopping moment when she thinks she sees him in the street, Faye is reminded of her university boyfriend, Jack, and decides to trace him but unfortunately, Faye is too late as Jack has taken his own life. As Faye recounts this story to the girls, the ‘butterfly effect’ takes hold to varying degrees as they each look at unhappiness in their own lives.

There are so many topical issues discussed in The Second Cup, that it will resonate with so many people. In addition to the difficult subject of suicide, I found the adult bullying of Olivia very thought-provoking. When you think of bullying, you automatically think of schoolchildren but as we are now gradually becoming more aware of mental health we are learning to look for bullying in our adult life. People can be cruel and unaware of the effect of their actions, but one thing they should be aware of is that karma really is a b*tch sometimes.

As a huge fan of our national drink, I loved the references to tea that are sprinkled throughout the story along with little anecdotes about tea-related things such as tea moths, teacup rides, and Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter's Tea Party. I thoroughly enjoyed finding these little snippets hidden between chapters and even learned some things about tea along the way! Sarah Marie Graye is spot on about one thing: you never need to answer the question about a second cup because the answer is always yes!

The Second Cup is an intensely thought-provoking, genre-defying book; what a wonderful, hauntingly beautiful debut.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. ( )

The Second Cup is a roller coaster of emotions that centers around suicide and how it affects four friends each having personal issues of their own.

The story is told in first and third person which took me a little while to get used to, but once I became accustomed to Sarah Marie Graye’s style of writing, I can see why the different styles were necessary to the central line of the story. I was able to get more of an indepth look into each of the four friends. Faye is an artist who never really got over her first love, Jack. Often times she would see him in other people, only to be disappointed when they really were not Jack. Jack walked away from her seven years ago and she has not seen him since. Beth wants to live recklessly, but she is not reckless by nature. She buys a motorbike, but realizes that perhaps it may be too dangerous and decides to give it up. Olivia feels like the outsider of the group, and Abbie settles for a man and a marriage that she never really wanted. What happens between all four friends when Faye breaks the news that she finally found Jack, but he committed suicide and why does Beth take this news the hardest?

I will admit that I found The Second Cup very hard to start with for the first fifty pages or so, but after that the story really opened up to me and I felt myself finally connecting with each of the women and being able to sympathize and relate to some of the issues they were facing as a group and individually. Mental health is just one of those topics that no one ever wants to talk about and sarah Marie Graye does it in such a way that is realistic and told from the heart. Depression, unhappy marriage, and suicide are just some of the topics that are touched upon in the story and we can see that the author takes such great care in expressing how these issues affect not only these women, but many other people as well. We really get to see how Jack’s suicide impacted each of these women individually and I found myself sympathizing with each of them. I especially loved the interviews at the end and it was really a nice added touch to see what happened for each of the characters once the story ended.

The Second Cup is Sarah Marie Graye’s debut novel. It is beautifully told with real life issues and real life pain. I am so glad I had the chance to read it as the story really takes on some heavy hitting subject matter that will suck you right in and pull every emotion out of you. I found myself really caring for these women and I know you will too. ( )

Wow, the blurbs were totally correct on this. It was definitely deep and dark, very dark.

The story is about suicide and is told from multiple view points. I found it interesting how differently everyone reacted to the news of Jack's suicide.

While yes, it was deep and dark, it was very well written. I definitely had to read a "feel good" book after this one. That doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a chance. It just means that I think the author did spot on with it in this book.

Thanks to the Disassociated Voice and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. ( )