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The Queen of Broken Things details the relationships and heartbreak of a family of women. Mina and Sophie are cousins, raised as sisters by their eccentric Grandmother Maura O'Malley (former star of the stage and screen). Their story is told by Mina as she tries to make sense of their lives and why her dear Sophie has decided she feels life is no longer worth living.
Mina believes the telling of their real lives shall break her completely and it almost does. Instead, the details of two Irish Catholic girls growing up in a small neighborhood in Chicago, brings Mina to an epiphany. Mina discovers her dear Sophie has not been at all who she has seemed to be for all so many years.
As Mina weaves the tale of each cousin growing up, falling in love, having children and even losing a child, she relives each heartbreak clearly. She has spent her life caring for others, striving to do the "right thing" and ignoring what she needed to make her life bearable. After Mina finally chooses something of her own, something for herself, something to save her from the miserable numbness of a cold and distant husband, she is reborn, as if she has never known living. As Sophie seems to begin self-destructing, Mina discovers new awakenings of love for an old friend.
About the author
Monika M. Basile, author of Quietly Crazy, and now The Queen of Broken Things, has been a writer for Yahoo Shine in the US and Canada for more than five years, is a regular contributor to Ragged Edge Online, Static Movement Online, and the Caregiver Space. She has several short stories in print and online and continues to write Confessions of a Bleeding Heart. Monika is the mother of four children and a cat named Sam. She has a background in health and human services. In addition to an affinity for stars in the sky, she loves anything "Elvis." Monika hails from the Midwest.
