Jolán Edmunds, an accomplished and well-respected classical violinist, dies suddenly and Myla, her daughter, is convinced she had killed her because she had wished her dead during an argument.
Fiery and charismatic Jolán has many guarded secrets, particularly Rachel Cole, her lost true love. Rachel unexpectedly crosses Jolán’s path and turns her life upside down as they rekindle their romance. Rachel tries to convince Myla she didn’t cause Jolán’s death but Myla doesn’t believe her and wants to know everything. With Rachel’s help, Myla pieces together her mother’s startling past, all of which leads to the most devastating secret of all—herself.
GCLS Awards
Winner
2015 Dramatic/General Fiction
Tee Corinne Outstanding Cover Design Award
Rainbow Awards
Runner Up
2015 Best Lesbian Contemporary General Fiction
2015 Best Lesbian Book
Heart-breaking, poignant, and moving – a magnificent story of self-destruction and redemption . . . Hats off to Ms Wolf for a creation that had me enthralled. Despite the obvious ‘decline of a rock and roll band’ plot, it had so many twists and turns, unexpected bumps, and intriguing plays, to absorb me completely. It has left me churning with emotions from compassion for those whose lives were so severely impacted to joy for a love that survived everything and admiration for the mind of the woman who created it and her skill to deliver such work." — The Velvet Lounger, LOTL
Rainbow Award Jurors notes:
Took a while to finish this one but what an awesome, intense, complex story with very well written characters. This book has it all, and it will stay with the reader for a long time. I know it will stay with me.
The wonderful writing and sexy, evolving characters pulled me in from the very first page and held my attention to the last.
Bink Books
482 pp. ● 6×9
$22.95 (pb) ● $9.95 (eb)
ISBN 978-1-939562-56-2 (pb)
FICTION – Literary
FICTION – Lesbian
Everything by Carole Wolf is an outstanding piece of fiction. Beautifully written, telling a sad but honest story about a daughter getting to know a deeper understanding of her mother after her passing, through the eyes of her mother’s journals, video footage and those who loved her. An excellent departure from the usual coming of age or coming out stories, told from the young person’s eyes, without judgement and with plenty of emotion and feeling.
Wolf tackles a difficult subject, heroin addiction, with the sensitive touch of judicious empathy. The characters and the settings are the Technicolor drawings you would expect for a story that largely takes place in California. Set against the backdrop of the music industry, the story follows a classical violinist’s descent into the murky backwaters of drugs and rock ‘n roll in a thundering crash to the bottom while her lover must make choices the addict cannot.
"Woven throughout Everything's beautiful journey was music (rock and roll and classical - go figure!), cursing, irreverence, witty dialogue and (you guessed?) sex and drugs. It would be a mistake to assume this path was simple or typical. It was not. More like magical, until the curtain was pulled back . . . I loved every minute of it! I don't know what that says about me, but I do know what it says about Carole Wolf: she is one cool chica and definitely an author to watch. With great style, she is fearless in delivering a story that will engulf you and twist you up inside." — Goodreads Review
"I recommend Everything to anyone who likes their romance a bit rough, their music tough and their fiction page-turning hot. The travels around Los Angeles alone are worth the price of admission, and Wolf nails it beautifully when describing the landscape and the people who live life in that very fast lane in full view of the long shadows cast by the Hollywood sign up on the hill." — Goodreads Review
Carole Wolf is from Allentown, PA and currently lives in Columbus, GA with her partner Yoko Hirose. She has a B.A. in English Literature from Columbus State University, and she has been writing for twenty-five years. Her goal as an author is to write novels that address sensitive social issues, which not only affect lesbian women but all women, and she hopes this will help open up lesbian fiction to mainstream readers. Carole’s other passion is music; she is a music producer and has been playing the drums since she was eleven years old. She has played with three local bands and has produced music for several aspiring singers. She has two four-legged children—a Bloodhound/Boxer mix named Bo and a Tabby cat named Jewel. Carole is currently working on her certification to be a Drug and Alcohol Addiction Counselor.