Bittersweet Brooklyn rips open the raw emotions of a Brooklyn family during WWII that deals with death, poverty, estrangement, lack of love. When the father dies, the Jewish family is left to fend for themselves, distraught and bone-poor. The mother descends into abject misery, leaving the oldest daughter to raise the family. While the children face the orphanage, and complete rejection, they grow older, looking for the very aspects they missed in their demeaning upbringing. Four children, four stories, not one of them predictable. The author, Thelma Adams reached inside my gut and twisted it until I couldn't stand it a moment longer. A meaningful read about the people who matter in your life and how to treat them. Read it and change.

Bittersweet Brooklyn is a very well written story of an immigrant Jewish family living in Brooklyn from the early 1910’s through the 1930’s. The main character in the story, Thelma Lorber, is someone that you will continually find yourself pulling for as she experiences tragedy, abuse, heartache and love to only go through all these things again as she gets older.

Thelma Adams is an excellent author as she was able to tell a very difficult story and in the end leave you wanting for more.

This book was difficult for me to read, but I believe it was supposed to be that way. I do plan on reading more books by this author as she does write in such away you feel everything she writes.

A gorgeously written and gritty American immigrant tale about broken homes and broken hearts, and how the sins within a family can reverberate across generations. Riveting!

This pretty cover caught my eye on NetGalley.
Then I read the accompanying blurb {in description above}.

I don't want to give away details, but there is so much more to Bittersweet Brooklyn than what the blurb mentioned. In my opinion, this wasn't a mob story but one of a family.
Granted, a family in the early 1900's and things were far different back then.

Bittersweet Brooklyn centers around the Lorber family.
What a hard knock life each of them endured, especially Thelma, Abie and Louis.
This mama's heart ached for those children and smiled when they each experienced a bit of good in their lives.

There were, occasional, narratives from Annie and the mother {whose name slipped my mind},
but the majority of this story focused on Thelma. I felt for her from the first chapter until the last.

The final few chapters circled around to the way the book began, which I found interesting.
We learned more details on what happened at Abie's “club” that night and how Thelma became involved. Honestly, I began to fear what might happen next.

The ending left me wanting a little more... maybe, an epilogue or follow up. This curious mind wanted to know how everything worked out... what happened with Annie's kids?
Did they live up to the high hopes she had for them? What came next for Abie?
More about Thelma and Larry? Another book perhaps? : )

This was the first book I've read by Thelma Adams and I enjoyed it.
Especially the historical aspects sprinkled throughout the pages.
Have a feeling I will be keeping an eye out and look into her previous works.


I received this electronic book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for this opportunity!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This story follows the lives of the Lorber children into their adulthood. I was initially interested in the mob plot, but this story is more than that. This story covers everything from first loves, yentas, Italian festas, to the more depressing and grisly factors of life (mental illness, child abuse and death). Overall a good read that makes you feel like you stepped back in time and want to go to Coney Island for a knish.

Author Thelma Adams does a superb job of placing the reader into old Brooklyn, during a time that mobsters ran the city. Thelma is down on her luck. She finds herself embroiled in the drama of a mob hit, literally cleaning up the mess. She usually leans on her brother, but he cannot help her now. Now that she knows too much. This is a great story that transports the reader into the setting. Fans of Fanny Newcomb and the Irish Channel Ripper will enjoy this one!

Bittersweet Brooklyn by Thelma Adams is a heart-wrenching historical fiction novel that was not at all what I expected.

What it's about: Thelma is the youngest of a family of 4 children, fatherless, and has a mom that prefers her oldest Annie while struggling with life as a Jewish widow. Annie is left in charge of the 3 younger siblings, including Thelma, and isn't exactly the picture of love and affection when she is just a kid herself. Told from 1905 through 1935, this is a family saga focusing on the family mostly through Thelma's eyes; and what happens when a child (who isn't all that nice) is left to act like the mother to her younger siblings. Ending with 1935 where mobsters are prominent and Thelma's brother Abie has gone too far.

Honestly I expected this book to focus a lot more on the mob than it actually did. At a young age Thelma's brother Abie is into things he shouldn't be, but the main focus of this novel is Thelma as she grows up in a home where the only family that acts like they love her are her 2 brothers (and they aren't really around). There is a lot of tough material in this novel, and I definitely teared up more than once. I loved Thelma and felt for her, but I was also a little frustrated with her as well.

The characters were well fleshed out, and besides Thelma we do also get the occasional viewpoint of other members of her family, including her mom and Annie. There are a lot of people I hated in this novel, and unfortunately only a few I liked, but I'm pretty sure that was how it was supposed to be. Thelma and her family had it pretty rough, but Thelma made me so sad. She was treated terribly and it made my heart break for her. You could argue that none of her family had it all that easy, considering everything that happens, but I connected the most with Thelma.

Final Thought: If you are looking for a historical fiction novel about the mob, this isn't it. But if you are looking for a historical fiction, family saga set in New York in the early 1900s then this is your book! Sad for sure, but the end leaves you hopeful... at least for Thelma. I also liked that even though the end catches up with the beginning, it wasn't word for word like some novels. Definitely recommend for lovers of family sagas, just beware Bittersweet Brooklyn will leave your heart in pieces!

The book starts with a murder and works it way into how it happened and how two characters came to be there.
Thelma is born into a family that suffers great loss and she seems to be the catalyst for the 2 other women in the family to take out their pain and frustration. Her mother Rebecca checks out of mothering for lack of better phrasing and her older sister Annie is forced to parent her and her 2 brothers, Abie and Louis when she should be being a teenager and learning about life not forced into it. The resentment runs deep and divide becomes even wider after the brothers are brought to a home/orphanage.
The years go by and Abie's life choices impact them all. Thelma is still desperate to be LOVED and chooses not to see how some choices can cause ripples for years unless it is her resentment towards her mother and her sister.
I went back and forth on how I felt about Thelma which made it hard in some parts of the book to relate as I felt the writing was a bit off as if even the author was unsure.of how she felt about her character. I would say it is a 3.5 star book. Definitely better than a 3 star so I am giving it 4.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

An emotional read from start to finish, there were so many times I felt like crying in heartbreak. The saga of an immigrant Jewish family in early Twentieth Century New York, we see how circumstances shape the path of various family members and the lengths they go to in order to survive. A well-written historical novel, the story is so realistic in its depictions; I felt every emotion under the sun. For the most part, none of the characters were likeable, but some were down-right despicable in their behavior and treatment of people they should love. It’s a tribute to the author’s ability to craft complex characters and a compelling story that keeps the reader turning pages from the beginning, racing through to the bittersweet conclusion. This was an intense read with an unvarnished historical look at immigrant life in the early 1900’s that will resonate for a long time to come.
#LakeUnion #BittersweetBrooklyn #ThelmaAdams

This is a gritty story set at the turn of the century and focusing on the loyalty of a sister to her mobster brother. The author did a great job of capturing the struggles of Thelma to love her brother as he rises further up the ladder in the mob.

Amazing book. Loved it from beginning to end.
Well written which kept me captivated throughout.
I will definitely be reading other books by this author

This book is so well written and has a great story. The characters are fantastic. The story just left me so depressed. The main character has nothing but bad luck. She basically loses everything important to her. There’s death, tragedy, loss - just so much sadness. Story wise, it is amazing though!

Through childhood, the Great War, the Roaring Twenties, sliding through the Great Depression all Temmy wanted was to be loved. In the end, will she stand as a strong woman and give to her son the mother love that she never had? This novel is hard and gritty, giving the feel for the neighborhood and the Mobster. An excellent must read for lovers of historical fiction!

A very intense look at the life of the women and their family in the mob of NYC during the 30s. The author artfully connects you to these characters which you will love and hate at the same time. You will feel immersed in the drama of their lives. This is a wild ride from page one to the end.

Bittersweet Brooklyn....is a good name for a book that had me feeling bittersweet reading it. It felt dark, heavy and tragic through most of it. Painful event after painful event. But there were also parts that gave me hope, too. It's the story of Thelma Lorber and the extremely dysfunctional Jewish family she grows up in. Her mother is left a resentful widow when Thelma is very little. Thelma's sister, Annie, has to pick up the pieces and she is resentful she has to hold the family together. This resentfulness is taken out on the three younger siblings, Abie, Louis and Thelma. "...….the realization that what they'd needed protection from was her and Annie, that awful two-headed beast they became together, born out of Jonas's death and her subsequent collapse.
The story starts out in the present tense (1930's) and captured my attention in the first pages. It then skips back to how the characters ended up in the first scene of the book and fills that time frame in. I felt terrible for Thelma. All she wanted in life was to feel loved and accepted. All she got was mistreated for the most part and never felt worthy of being loved. She wanted so much for her mom to love her and even her sister. It broke my heart that she was rejected by them.

The book is very well written in that I felt the desperation, the yearning, the horror of what a "mob" hit was like, the bitterness of jealousy, the faithfulness of loyalty no matter what, and even the desires of loving a person through depression and loss. The author took me back to the streets of Brooklyn in the 1920's and 1030's era. It was like taking a trip back in time and experiencing the hardships in a rough time just scraping to get by. Doing what ever it took to survive. Kill or be killed. I was on the streets with the characters, in the tenements, on Coney Island tasting a bagel, in the awful orphanage, watching a movie in the Kinema......so many descriptive passages that put me in the story.
Overall it's a great read....it was just a bit, or a lot, of family disfunction that was hard for me to overcome in the end.
I want to thank Lake Union, Netgalley and Thelma Adams for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Thank you NetGalley, Lake Union and Thelma Adams.

This was a hard book for me to read. It touched on so many things that happened to the youngest daughter in a much unloving family. Thelma was a baby who needed love as do all children. Her mother and sister didn’t know the meaning of the word love, caring or empathy. They are cruel and so mean. Very unlovable people. Abie and Louis were the boys that were just in the way. Annie, the oldest girl, was given complete control over everything, including the younger children. She treated them like they were less than human. The mother was so awful that I had a hard time with her. I hated her so much. She put Annie in the position she was in but there is no excuse for her being so full of hate for her younger siblings.

This book is full of so much emotion. From the abuse that Annie and their mother thrusted on them to the pain of growing up in a broken family. No one goes through as much as Thelma. From the abuse as a baby to the stepdad that the mother chooses over her, mentally if not physically. Blame a child for the actions of an adult. That is such an awful thing. Thelma struggles through her whole life and at one point I got very angry with her. She should have been a better mother her own self. I have to admit that Annie was a very good mother though not a good sister.

This book is so well written that you feel like you are there. You feel the pain and deplorable things done. The heartache of Thelma, Abie and Louis. The losses in their lives and the few good times. It was easy to see why Thelma never truly trusted anyone or felt loved. You can’t go through what she did and have trusting, loving, feelings. I could relate to some of the things that happened in her life. I felt bad for her. She as a child and an adult. She lost a lot and I believe she deserved so much more than she got.

I loved how this book started then went back to let us know what lead up to what happened. Getting to know each character whether I hated them or really liked them. It was well written and the characters were well developed. I gave it 5 stars and it’s worth every one of them.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

In turn-of-the century New York, a mobster rises—and his favorite sister struggles between loyalty and life itself. How far will she go when he commits murder?

Great story, good read! A few great things going for this historical fiction book set in New York. There were many iconic images and how city living is described made me feel like I was right there in the tenements. The writing is good and moves the story along at a good pace. I liked how the saga is played out over the years involving several family members.

4☆

Bittersweet Brooklyn is gripping from Page one. An intimate look at the dynamics of a broken family in gangster-riddled New York, it will have you rooting for protagonist and antagonist alike as wounds are open, healed, scarred, and exposed. With some of the finest dialogue I've ever come across, this is one I will not soon forget.

A interesting novel that looks at an unexplored aspect of 1930s gangsters- the Jewish women who love them. Abie Lorber is ruthless but he does love his sister Thelma, who was basically thrown away by her mother and older sister Annie. Thelma has to deal with the impact of Abie's actions in the community. Adams has done a good job in creating an atmospheric character driven historical novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. You might not like all the characters but this is a good read.

If you love big family sagas, Bittersweet Brooklyn fits the bill! Thelma Adams beautiful writing made me feel as thought I had taken a step back in time to 1920’s Brooklyn. At times, I didn’t like the main character, Thelma, because of her selfishness. But the author did a wonderful job of creating a sympathetic, hard as nails character who fought her way through the adversities of her life and circumstances. Excellent!!