Regina Toffolo
Welcome to the site! If you are here, I hope you have had a chance to read my book, The Second Child, and if you haven't, I hope something here will pique your interest. Full editorial review is below.
It has been a great honor to write this book. While I don't subscribe to any particular religion, I do consider the book to be divinely inspired, and anything that comes from God is an honor.
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While this book covers many difficult chapters in my life, I don't consider it a tragedy. A friend who was one of the first people who read the book said, "I couldn't stop reading it despite the unending tragedy." But, I protested, it has a happy ending!
That's what's important to me, the happy ending. In fact, in the first version of the book, I skimmed over a lot of things because I wanted to get to the ending. I got busted on that by a reviewer who said, "If you're going to write a memoir, write a memoir." This triggered a rewrite of the book, or more accurately, the addition of 15,000 words to it.
Nevertheless, the ending is worth it. May it bring readers hope and inspiration!
My blog here covers many topics. Some relate to the book, most don't. Many of them are random musings of ideas formed from a lifetime of experiences that didn't fit in the book. Some relate to my ongoing struggles with my children or my depression. Sample some of them and see what you think. If you don't know where to start, my personal favorite is "Faith is Quiet".
Come back and visit anytime, the site is a work in progress. Hopefully, you will find it of some benefit to you. Also feel free to contact me anytime, I am always happy to chat.
Aloha!
Author Regina Toffolo excavates the darkest corners of her life in The Second Child, a memoir spanning decades of childhood instability, familial uncertainty, alcoholism, mental illness, and the unexpected challenges of parenting.
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Told in a deeply personal yet accessible way, this book explores the warning signs and roots of addiction, as well as the repercussions of grief and loss that can only be unpacked from the distance of age or experience. The recollections are told in a matter-of-fact way, akin to journal entries, but there are also gut-punch moments that feel both voyeuristic and surprisingly relatable. Navigating wide-ranging subjects of addiction, suicide, social anxiety, depression, abuse, heartbreak, recovery and reconciliation, every reader will find some point of powerful connection. The book reads something like a mystery in reverse; readers are told that the culprit is generational mental illness and addiction, but how those factors emerge and spread throughout Toffolo’s life is the beating heart of this well-written chronicle....
...The writing is straightforward and intimate, with a natural ease of someone who has told stories all their life. All in all, this is a gripping, multi-generational tale of silent struggles and unspoken needs, poured out with vulnerable honesty from an impressive voice.
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Self Publishing Review
