Brenda Bevan Remmes

The Quaker Café

Mama Sadie

Mama Sadie book coverSadie Baker, retired owner of the local grocery store, goes ballistic when the elected officials of Cedar Branch approve a project to build a hazardous waste incinerator within the town limits. Concerned for the health of her grandchildren, Mama Sadie becomes an outspoken opponent of the proposal. She is greeted with an unexpected backlash. Even her grown boys profess to see new industry as a potential gain for the local economy.

 

With wit, conviction, and audacity, she refuses to back down. Her two sons regard her with growing concern as each effort to block the siting becomes more outrageous. What will Mama do next?

 

 

 

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Home to Cedar Branch

Home to Cedar Branch - A Quaker Cafe Novel by Brenda RemmesAfter a betrayal ends in tragedy, Katy seeks refuge from her abusive husband, Hank, in her quiet hometown of Cedar Branch, North Carolina. Taking up residence on the old family farm and landing a job at the local Quaker Café, she hopes to leave her troubled past behind.

 

At the café, Katy finds allies, kind people willing to protect her and offer advice. There’s the gracious owner who insists that manners prevail, the no-nonsense cook who tackles life with a cast iron frying pan, a Yankee transplant who doesn’t bow to convention, and a shrewd Southern lawyer who sees a chance for Katy to profit from her predicament. But when Hank discovers her whereabouts, Katy’s newfound peace is broken.

 

As a heated standoff involving Hank, local and federal law enforcement, and the media ensues, how far will the Cedar Branch community go to avert violence and save lives?

 

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The Quaker Café

The Quaker Cafe - A NovelA debut novel brimming with Southern heart about a small town where, regardless of what happens behind closed doors, the neighbors awake each morning and meet at the Quaker Café.

 

When Liz Hoole, a free-spirited liberal from the Midwest, marries into a conservative Quaker family in a small rural town in North Carolina, she knew it would be a delicate task to negotiate the raising of her four boys in compliance with Quaker values…but as much as she tries, she always seems to fall short of expectations.

 

After Judge Corbett Kendall, the politically powerful father of her best friend, dies, Liz stumbles upon secrets from the past that threaten to unravel the delicate fabric of racial harmony in an easily-divided town. Whether examining the history of Cottonwoods Plantation or eavesdropping on the latest gossip at the local Quaker Café, she finds herself burdened with the truth of an injustice that she cannot reveal, even to her own husband.

 

The Quaker Café dances with rich Southern characters: Miss Ellie, the elderly owner and gracious hostess of the café knows more than she admits; Debbie Bradshaw, Liz’s dynamic and colorful secretary, knows more than she should; and Frogbelly thinks he knows it all. As Liz delves deeper into the history of Cedar Branch, she learns that even good people can make bad choices and that bad choices can have lasting consequences…

 

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