My Review
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Coming September 27th. 2022

A brighter flame.
By Christine Nolfi.

This is a well written story..
Highly recommend it to others.

Vale,

Living with her father CO Owning the crafty cocktail Bar, Until it goes up in flames one night. And then everything changes for vale and her father.

Iris,

Vales grandmother has news and requires vale
To come to Philadelphia, for a visit.
Says she's having some test done. So concerned about her grandmother. She hits the road.
Vale Has a surprise when she arrives at her grandmother's home.

Vale,
Learns things about her Parents.
Things that she probably didn't want to know but found out.. Sometimes over hearing things aren't always fun... Sometimes knowing your parents and the things From their past should stay in the past..

I honestly enjoyed this story it was a great read.
Thank you Christine Nolfi..
Thank you for this Early Read.
All Thoughts are my own in this review.

Christine Nolfi
Thank you.

This is a heartwarming family drama about two sisters who struggle to overcome their past issues and develop a relationship as adults. Vale is living in Philadelphia, running a successful bar with her father. The bar goes up in smoke and she discovers her father stopped making the insurance payments. Oof. She is estranged from her mom and half sister, but returns to her hometown of Pittsburgh to seek solace with her beloved grandmother. Unfortunately her half-sister Blythe is staying with her grandmother. Blythe was the “favored” child, and is floundering after her seemingly-perfect marriage has gone belly up. Vale and Blythe are complex, well-drawn characters and I was rooting for them to find their way back to building a strong relationship.

It was a great story. It took me a while to get into it but overall a great story. A story about family and healing.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Half-sisters who always struggled with their relationship come together and discover long-held family secrets.

A Brighter Flame is a true testament to the fact that you can always come home. Blythe and Vale are half sisters who grew up in the same house but couldn't be more different. Life has driven a wedge between them sending them scattered physically and their relationship estranged. Their relationship has been marred by the memories they share between them. There is only one person who can bring them together, Nana. This is a book that will make you question if your memories can always be trusted.

A Brighter Flame by Christine Nolfi is an easy to read, interesting and engaging story about misconceptions, sibling’s rivalry, family and forgiveness.

Following the destruction of the bar she owns in Pittsburgh; Vale returns to her hometown of Philadelphia to stay with her grandmother Iris for a while. Iris is the only person who she feels loved her unconditionally, especially during her tumultuous childhood and teenage years. Vale arrives home to find her half-sister Blythe is staying with her grandmother as well, seeking space to sort out her marital problems.
Their proximity forces Vale to face her past and a history of hurt and jealousy between the siblings, rooted in family secrets that unravel slowly and provide a much-needed clarity to both sisters, as well as a path to mend their relationship.
The author does a magnificent job in capturing the troubled dynamic of the family, especially between Vale and Blythe, as well as their journey seeking a better and brighter future. The characters bloom throughout the story under the watchful eye of Iris, who shows up in every feasible way for both her granddaughters. She is the invisible cord that tethers the family and provides the clarity they need to come together, without offering false expectations. The story is relatable, the characters honest, realistic, and well developed. Although I thought the end was predictable, I genuinely enjoyed this novel and look forward to reading more books by this author. Highly recommend.

This book was a great read!! Grabbed my attention right away. So much detail in the book making you feel like you were there. I will definitely recommend this book to read!

A Brighter Flame is the newest book from author Christine Nolfi. The characters are very well developed and you immediately get a strong feeling of the family dynamics that are going on. So much pain exists from a lack of communication and poor choices that it just breaks your heart.
Ms. Nolfi deals very well with several very serious and emotional issues that you just want to keep turning the page in hopes that forgiveness will find its away into this family. This is a story well worth reading and I highly recommend it.

A Brighter Flame

Author Christine Nolfi masterfully takes you on a journey of a family who is in turmoil and the grandmother has set a plan in motion to hopefully bring them back together. I couldn’t put this book down. I love reading stories that are set in places that I’m familiar with, I live 30 mn from Pittsburgh & even worked downtown.
This is an amazing story that has you feeling so many emotions and a little girl Natty has all the adults on their toes & she will have you laughing out loud. Vale has been living in Pittsburgh Running a Bar with Bo her Business Partner/Father until a Fire took it all away. Not knowing what to do next; finally a call from her Grandmother Iris has her coming back to Philadelphia. Vale did not have a great relationship with her mom, Grant & her half sister Blythe. This dysfunctional family path was caused by adults bad decisions, keeping secrets & not stoping or clarifying misunderstandings which made a little Vale feel she wasn’t worthy of love, & thinking she was the cause of all the problems. Iris has a plan to force the girls together & hopefully start a new sisterly relationship ship. Vale gets some good advice you can’t change the past, but you can look it from another perception & you might find you both had it wrong & need to start mending fences. Find out if Vale can leave the past behind & restart a relationship with her little sister Blythe & will it lead to Vale staying in Philly with her grandmother; & will she give her self permission to be loved by Emmett. This story is filled with heart ache, angsts & redemption. Come on Vale’s Journey to find out if she can forgive, be forgiven & see if this family can come together & heal. Also will Vale finally feel that she belongs. You will not be able to put this story down. There are so many great moments.

I absolutely LOVED this book. So beautifully written as only Christine Nolfi can. Unfortunate circumstances have the main character going back home. the last place she wants to go. She is estranged from her mother, stepfather and sister. But she needs to go home to help her grandmother. Old wounds rise to the surface. It is emotional in so many ways. Can the damage be repaired ? Can they start over ? I can't recommend this book enough. It is beautiful, heartfelt and supremely written.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this feel good story was the perfect way to recover from COVID.
When the bar that Vale and her father co-own burns down, she travels to Philadelphia and ends up unraveling years of tension with her family. The characters are well written, and the story is compelling.

This is a nice, satisfying easy read, I will look for other books by Christine Nolti in the future.

I really liked this book. It took me a little bit to get into it but once I did I couldn’t put it down! It was a little predictable but overall a great story about family and self discovery!

Oh, this book! I didn’t do a single thing yesterday except read this wonderful book! The characters are so real I dreamed about them. I just love a book that welcomes me in from the first page. This is one of those books. As I read about sisters Vale and Blythe, I just shook my head. Their relationship was as bad as it could get, and even their Nana seems unable to break through their walls. A Brighter Flame was impossible to put down, I highly recommend it. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are mine.

In a Brighter Flame we meet Vale who has tumultuous relationships with most of her family members. The one exception is her Nana, Iris. When her life goes up in flames, quite literally, Vale is compelled to visit Iris. The visit leads her back in the path of her sister, Blythe, who is contemplating her own struggles.
Nolfi has a gift for writing authentic and layered female characters. The story examines the complexities of sibling relationships and the lengths we will go for the ones we love. I enjoyed these characters and their growth throughout this compelling tale. Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sometimes you have to kick the rocks out of the road you have chosen.

No one captures the passion and the pain of families like Ms. Nolfi. Each time I read one of her books I learn a little more about myself through her characters. She gently but consistently challenges her readers to look at life and families from both sides. This book was no different. Her characters are complex and beautifully developed; they blossom bigger and better as the story goes on. They span all walks and generations. She even has a precocious nine-year-old who is a heart stealer. Mothers and daughters, blended families, anyone who has ever overcome a major crisis, this book has something that will touch every reader. I would relish a sequel to this book to check back in with the main characters as well as to see how supporting characters are doing. This is a definite must read.

A story of family, healing, and promise. Vale, Blythe, and Iris were such wonderfully real characters that I cared about. Their story was one I could relate to and Christine Nolfi masterfully crafted a beautiful novel that I couldn't put down. If you haven't read a book by Christine Nolfi, pick up A Brighter Flame, you will enjoy it.

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of this book. This is my honest opinion.

A Brighter Flame By: Christine Nolfi

5 Stars


Vale watches her dreams go up in smoke as she watches the bar burn down. The bar she owned with her father. The bar she put her everything into. After even more devastating news, she knows things will never be the same. So Vale decides to head home to Philadelphia to stay with her grandmother. The home she tried a long to avoid.

Vale knows going home will mean facing her past. It will mean facing Blythe, the little sister who she hasn't gotten along with in years. It will also mean facing her mother Audrey and step- father, Grant. Vale always felt like they had shoved her to the side for Blythe while they were growing up. She knows she will have to face her past and ALL her demons. Even the ones she never sees coming. A fire and a trip home. Both things that Vale did not want, but after both, her life will never be the same. Just like she knew.

I absolutely loved this story. It started with such bad news, but it soon turned into such a wonderful story full of heartwarming moments and forgiveness. The characters really made this story. Vale and Blythe, sisters with little more than animosity towards each, really shine in this story. The relationship they fight so hard for (and sometimes against) is one to love. Blythe has her own demons to face and it is a battle that brings this story such character and depth. Their reunion is definitely one for the sister books. If you don't already fall in love with the sisters (which I did) then you will love Iris, the little grandmother that could. Ha! I had to come up with something for her. She cracked me up so many times.

This story really had it all. It was written beautifully and with heart. It has family and forgiveness. Love and loss. It has an amazing set of characters and an awesome story line. It was another great book by Mrs. Nolfi.


* I was given this book by the author/ publisher in return for an honest review.*

~Stormi Ellis~

“ Every unhappy family is unhappy and its own way.”

Vale and Blythe are estranged (step) sisters. Each going through huge changes in their life,
When they both seek solace at the grandmothers house this forces them to dig deeper into their past, they are estrangement, and the future.
This is such a complex family with fantastically written characters. Not only did I love it, I wanted more !!!

This is a fabulous book!
In fact it is so good that I read 90% in a day and then realized I was almost finished, so waited until today to complete the last 10%.
I needed to slowly say so-long to everyone.
I am positive that anyone who opens "A Brighter Flame" will love it as I did!

Two sisters, Vale and Blythe both have spent so many years feeling angry, jealous,and hurt.
They have not spoken to each other in many years. Who is to blame? Can they ever salvage their relationship?
Their loving Grandma who adores them both will do anything to bring them back home and try to work her magic to make them realize that family is everything. "Choose to live in the present."
This story has love, family heartbreak, grit and hope!


Thanks you to Christine Nolfi for allowing me to preview her novel and provide my own review.