Tiffanie DeBartolo wrote one of my very favorite books and I have been waiting on her new release FOR YEARS. Now it’s here and...I’m disappointed. I did not love it. I couldn’t stand the main character who was whiny and made terrible decisions knowing it was a terrible decision. I feel like there wasn’t enough information on the main lady for me to form an opinion on whether I liked her or not. In fact, my favorite character is the best friend and he didn’t get enough words devoted to him.

The story was slow and rather boring. I didn’t care about the characters enough to be invested in what happened. Overall, it was just slow and predictable.

Sorrow is the perfect fall book. It is pure nature, art, life, music and relationships. While you may want to try to classify this book, I don't think it's that easily done. It's not a romance. It's not women's fiction. It's a work of art is what it is. There is a friendship and relationships and family storyline all tied into this piece. There is a past and a present and using both of those aspects to help push the main character forward. It is what makes Sorrow so beautifully told.

This story is told completely from Joe's POV. We get to feel what being him is like and the decisions he makes. He has good intentions, but his feelings run rampant and it's almost as if he cares (and thinks) too much. He never wants to hurt anyone. And with that, he hurts everyone, including himself. Through him I found so much beauty in nature, music and art. I saw beauty in sadness and sadness in beauty. I'm just thankful that Tiffanie Debartolo did not shatter my heart with this one. But she did crack it and perhaps made something better.

While Joe was our main character, we couldn't have followed him on his journey without October and Cal. A bit of his past and present. Two people that shaped him in ways he could never expect. Having these characters balanced him and offered him insight and growth into the person he could and would become.

I really enjoyed this book and the ride it took me on. I felt apart of it by being able to see the places I've traveled to and lived. This book read like an ode to the Bay(ish) area. The nature and art and the people in it. I already can't wait to read this book again. It really felt like I got into the soul of the writer and her world.
Put this one on your TBR, guys! It's simply art in writing

This is one of the best books I've ever read. I really feel like it spoke to my soul. It was nurtured by the book's themes of music, nature, art, friendship, and love. There was almost a spirituality about it. I felt like I was learning about myself as I was learning about these characters. This is a book I'll never forget and will definitely reread for many years to come. It's my favorite Tiffanie DeBartolo book, and I'm so thankful to have been given a copy early.

Wow. This book has all the feels. I feel like I need to take a bath with a bottle of wine to just let it all soak in.

There is so much emotion to this tangled story and Tiffanie Debartolo certainly does not disappoint. Each character is expertly crafted and comes to life within the pages. She finds a way to skillfully weave three different time frames into one story and never have the lines blur.

When I started the book I resented Joe. He reminded me of every “poor me” person I’ve met and it was exhausting to try and relate to his sorrows as he put himself in the position we find him in. But I somehow found to love the awkward, quirkiness of his character and honestly loved how his story was tied up.

Another ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read from author Tiffanie Debartolo.

Definitely worth a read!

This was my first time reading a book by
Tiffanie DeBartolo and let me just say I couldn’t put it down! I’ll definitely be checking out some of her other books!

In Sorrow we follow Joe Harper a lost thirty seven year old man who never takes any chances in life and always plays it safe. This leaves Joe with a lot of regret in his life always wondering what could have happened if he did take risks. Would he have still been in the same situation he’s in now?

Joe has always ran when things have gotten tough so much so that he started pushing away his friends and family. His life seemingly going no where. Until one day he takes a job with a artist named October. October becomes curious with Joe seeing that there’s more to him than anyone would think. Seemingly hesitant Joe has trouble talking about himself and his past, but that only draws October in even more. And from there on forward Joe’s and October’s relationship only begins to grow. Joe begins to have a change of heart wanting to take more risks and be better for her.

I’m going to keep this review pretty brief since I don’t want to spoil to much now. But Overall I really liked Sorrow I think Tiffanie’s writing style was great and I liked it a lot! And I just love how she wrote Joe’s and October’s relationship and the way they interact with one another. I felt it was real and not just the typical happily ever after type of relationship where everything is just too coincidental and not realistic at all. When they ran in to problems or had to make tough decisions. I found myself thinking wow I don’t know what I would do in that situation either.

In conclusion I think Sorrow really captured the hardships of relationships whether they be with friends, family or a significant other. These things take time to mold and don’t always have a clear path. But overall I think this was a great book and I would definitely reread it any day.


“Disclaimer this ARC was given to me by Netgalley and Woodhall Press in exchange for a honest review”

Joe Harper is the kind of guy that passively lets life lead him forward. As a kid and teenager, this didn't seem all that unusual. He dealt with some tragic aspects of his life and it suspended him in certain ways and complicated the dynamics between he and his family, not to mention created some self-loathing and doubt within him. But as time goes by, he becomes best friends with Cal, who may be opposite than Joe in personality, but they still have common interests and only prefer to be in each other's company. While they both share the same dreams, Joe cannot pursue them while Cal goes on to do so. This seems to be the first major decision that Joe has essentially turned his back on due to internal pressure or feelings of inadequacy. And that's how he continues to move forward. Never getting too attached to anyone to avoid the inevitable pain of separation or abandonment. Joe is relatable and flawed, but if I met him in real life, he would seem so beta male to me because of how docile he seems in personality with not being proactive or decisive. However, Joe is a sensitive soul and his depth and connection to nature seems best understood by his new boss October. They click in a way that people seldom find with others. Here Joe has another opportunity to really seize something meaningful in his life that could bring him true joy, but when push comes to shove and he realizes the consequences, Joe bolts. Joe is far from being a manly man, but in his isolation, life doesn't fill him with contentment either if he thought he had done the right thing through avoidance. He doesn't have his best friend, the girl or the job anymore. But I liked that his journey was real and authentic because most people will opt for the path of least resistance even if it means sacrificing what will make them happy. Watching him put on his big boy pants and go after these things was definitely awkward, but also a much needed kick in his rear in order for him to realize that he can create his own future, rather than be lead by it. Once he chooses to do so and face the discomfort it might bring without expectations, Joe finally seems to have that light bulb moment epiphany and didn't worry so much about how facing the past would hurt him but rather how he could confront it and make peace to move on. The writing was fluid and showcases Joe's development well.

In Sorrow, misfortune doesn’t need to happen, but it does.

Sorrow tells a schizophrenic story that fluctuates between how despair and sorrow come to a person in a variety of degrees. One can be simply sad or one can be wretched. There is suffering and desolation, but then woe and misfortune can sail by, even if one is spineless. And then there is heartbreak. Sorrow, by Tiffanie DeBartole, runs the gamut of the kinds of sorrow a person can experience. Most likely, when you read the novel you will find a few that startle you.

The protagonist of the novel, Joe Harper, is not a Holden Caufield knock-off and readers who dislike Holden Caufield should not shy away from Sorrow on account of a dislike of A Catcher in the Rye. Joe is a variegated character, not always predictable, often self-debasing, and sometimes self-congratulatory, which makes him quite human. He introduces himself at the beginning of the story as spineless and one who goes “the wrong way at almost every turn.” At one point, he compares himself to fire, but it is a “safe kind of fire,” of course, meaning a battery-powered candle, which is “no real fire at all.” In contrast, his best friend is depicted as “combustion,” and his lover, October, as “all sparkles and warmth.”

Joe has his good moments. Ironically, most of these are brought on playing his guitar after his best friend, Cal, shows up as a nemesis. Cal is the successful musician Joe didn’t become on account of his defeatism. After playing soft chords and lullaby notes for October Joe feels “electric.” It was a “good kind of loneliness” he observed, which is about as positive a feeling as Joe ever has, until, that is, Cal elicits from him, after they write a song together, a realization that his heart is flowing, more than just beating.

There are brilliant parts of the story, where Joe’s morose thinking is put in perspective by October and Cal. Since the novel is written from Joe’s first person point of view, these alternative observation are present in dialogue, which is very skillfully written. In fact, the dialogue offers a clever counterbalance to Joe’s interior, gloomy monologues. A significant aspect of the story’s plot involves Joe’s falling in love with October with whom his best friend is also in love. Joe believes he has to make a mordant choice of which one he will hurt. It’s an example of Joe’s defeated thinking, his immediate conclusion that no matter what the outcome he will be the one hurt, that he will be exposed for what he really is and his lover and his friend will “crush” him. October tells him that he lives “like someone who doesn’t understand how fast the sand moves through the hourglass.” Joe has a glimpse of the validity of October’s observations, but in the end he ignores them, retreating into his moroseness like a wheel spider, doing frantic cartwheels away from danger. October’s exasperation to the many times Joe retreats is reminiscent of a W.H. Auden poem: “Time will say nothing but I told you so, Time only knows the price we have to pay; If I could tell you I would let you know.”

I had but one disappointment with Sorrow, but upon reflection I came to understand that it was not a criticism but a praise for Ms. DeBartolo’s writing. Joe, through his many travails, is at times consumed with what seems to be a shallow millennial angst, something that fills so many new movie dramas, the ones you wish you’d not watched afterwards. But, ironically, that angst makes the story real, and that makes Joe’s character believable. In other words, it is a part of the novel’s carefully constructed plot. There are too many boring novels that are full of protagonists whose monologues include complex philosophical passages. One puts them down thinking at the end that a lecture is over. Not so with Sorrow. The reader can feel Joe’s sorrow in Sorrow beyond the words on the page, the same as October felt when she touched the lobsterman’s hand in the coffee shop in Willits. And, as the lobsterman did with Joe, the reader can feel Joe’s rage over the sorrows in his life. One cannot help but think of Leonard Cohen’s observation in Anthem, “every heart to love will come but like a refugee.”

Mark Zvonkovic is the author of A Lion in the Grass.

This is my first experience reading the work of Tiffanie DeBartolo and I have become a fan. Her depth of emotion, the crafting of her characters and her prose shine on every page.
Joe Harper is a thirty seven year old multi-talented man and a loner. Throughout his life he always took the easy road, making the safest decisions and avoiding conflict at all costs. Those costs often resulted in loss and grief. Living a life of isolation from his friends and his family, he decides to take the job of an assistant to artist October Danko. October is attracted to him and Joe, perhaps for the very first time, imagines what his life would be like with her. A thought, an emotion that was never a part of his world. Yes, this is part love story between a man and a woman but also a love story of finding and believing in oneself.
This is a novel to be savored and one that is hard to forget.
Thank you NetGalley and Woodhall Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

I didn’t realize how much I had missed reading a Tiffanie DeBartolo book. I just love her writing, it blows me away. Every. Single. Time. Her writing has depth and meaning and I love feeling the emotions when a read.

Sorrow was a beautifully written love story. There were moments of heartbreak and sadness though, but I think I’ve experienced this in every book I’ve read by Tiffanie, she blends the two emotions perfectly.

I would highly recommend Sorrow to any DeBartolo fans, you won’t be disappointed! I can’t wait to have this beauty in print once it’s released

AS ALWAYS Tiffanie has blown me away with her eloquent and ever flowing writing. It's such a refreshing moment in my life when I read an author's work who actually takes care of their words and means what they write. I loved that about Sorrow. It was meaningful. And sometimes we all need that in our lives.

I have been waiting for Tiffanie DeBartolo's next book for YEARS. When I saw Sorrow under "Read Now" on NetGalley, I screamed, downloaded it ASAP, and then left it sit for days because I was so afraid to start it for fear that it wouldn't live up to the masterpieces that are HTKARS and God-Shaped Hole. Spoiler alert: I didn't need to be worried.

Joe Harper is a perpetual floater through life. He doesn't take chances. When things get too tough, he runs. After isolating himself from his family and friends, he takes a job with eccentric artist October Danko. As an empath, October immediately senses that Joe is holding back. She is inexplicably drawn to him and for the first time in his life, Joe wants to be brave and sees the possibility of a full life with October. Enter plot twist, which leaves Joe with a tough choice to make.

Sorrow is not your typical love story wrapped in pretty paper with a bow on top. Love often hurts and Tiffanie doesn't shy away from that in this book. What I also enjoyed about this story and about Tiffanie DeBartolo in general is that her books focus on so much more than just romantic love. Sorrow touches on the love of self, love between friends, the love of music and art and nature.

I always come away from a Tiffanie DeBartolo book feeling restored, like I just had a great chat with a friend I haven't seen in a while. I waited so long for Sorrow and now that I've read it, I can't wait to read it again.

Sorrow is a very unique and difficult love story. I have been very excited to read Sorrow, since I heard Tiffanie DeBartolo was writing another book. I have read and loved all of her books and Sorrow did not disappoint. Sorrow was one of those books where I couldn’t wait to find out how it ended but also didn’t want it to end. I cannot decide between Sorrow and How to Kill a Rockstar which Tiffanie DeBartolo book is my favorite.

I won’t say too much about the story because I don’t want to ruin anything. Joe Harper is a coward and always avoids conflict. He makes what he thinks is the easier decision. This causes him to lose everyone and everything he cares about. Then he moves back to his hometown to work as an assistant to an artist. October is another unique character. Will he let October get close to him? Will he find the courage to do what makes him happy?

Sorrow is filled with emotion, heartbreak, music, and art. Sorrow is one of those unique stories where I didn’t like any of the characters, but loved the story and cannot think of any way it could’ve been better.

What do you do when the girl you fall in love with is dating the most important person to you?

A must read for Tiffanie DeBartolo fans. Sorrow is a great read for people that like emotions and atypical love stories that aren’t always happy. I highly recommend Sorrow and her other books to anyone that hasn’t read Tiffanie DeBartolo’s books. She has such a unique writing style and always writes unique stories.

Thank you NetGalley and Woodhall Press for Sorrow.

In an incredible coincidence, a passive man becomes the third side in a love triangle with his boss and his best friend.

Themes of redemption, second chances, and action v. inaction are nicely handled. The novel shines in its descriptions of music and nature, particularly Mill Valley and the Redwood trees.

I found the female lead unconvincing. She seemed unreal and unrelatable, down to the way she tasted, about which we are repeatedly informed: tangerines, mint, wild fennel and . . . cake batter. The male lead's frequent fifty-cent words may be partially justified by his childhood trauma (two years mute, when he wrote to communicate), but become increasingly diverting, especially when he seems to be using the word incorrectly or unnecessarily.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. Just wow. I started this book last night at bedtime and finished it this morning. I haven’t been this moved by a story in quite a while. This book was speaking to me with its story of the multi-talented, thirty-seven-year-old Joe Harper, and his misdirected life. This is a story of the loss, grief, fear, and self-doubt that thwarted one man’s destiny, crippling him to be unable to make the right choices for a rewarding life.

“Everyone is always one decision away from a completely different life.” Cal Callahan

I get it. Haven’t we all struggled in some way with thinking, what if I had made that particular choice; to go to that school, marry that person, break up with that person, take that job, quit that job, travel the world? I think you get the idea. Unfortunately, Joe always made the safe choices and in the end, he was left with nothing and no one.

“Art and love.” October Danko

This is also a love story. Yes, a love story between a man and a woman, and although a large part of the book it is not the main focus. This is about the love that Joe finds for himself, for the belief that he finds in himself. For “art and love.” Joe also loves trees; he loves the majestic redwoods which play a major part in the book. The parallel of these mighty trees taking so long to reach their enormous heights to Joe taking so long to come into his own was a beautiful comparison. The author has woven a story I will not be able to forget, the mark of an excellent book. I am so happy I had the opportunity to read this remarkable coming-of-age, later-in-life story. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. I recommend this book to everyone and I gave it five fabulous stars!