The ASHTRAYS are FULL

August 21, 2025August 21, 2025 by onemoreexclamation

Welcome to The ASHTRAYS are FULL and the GLASSES are EMPTY by Kirsten Mickelwait book tour hosted by Suzy Approved Book Tours.

About The ASHTRAYS are FULL

Title: The ASHTRAYS are FULL

Author: Kirsten Mickelwait

Released: May 27, 2025

Find it: Amazon

Raised in New York’s Gilded Age, pampered heiress Sara Wiborg dreams of a more creative life than the rigid future prescribed for her. It’s only when she meets Gerald Murphy that she finds a man who shares her creative, aesthetic ideal and, after a friendship of eleven years, they marry despite the strong disapproval of her family.

Against the sizzling Jazz Age backdrop of 1920s Paris and Antibes, Sara’s innate style and gift for friendship attract the bohemian elite of the new century-including Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso, and Dorothy Parker. But by the 1930s, her fortune is lost and tragedy strikes-not once, but twice. Sara’s strength and resilience allow her to find a new equilibrium over time, long after the parties have ended. A heartbreaking story of love and loss, The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty follows Sara through her very modern life to reveal how tragedy can be healed by faith, unconditional love, and a creative mind.

Book Blurbs

Micklewait provides a jewel box of a book illustrating that none of us invented the fight for a singularly creative life.” – Randy Susan Meyers, internationally bestselling author of The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone

“Mickelwait’s prose feels both personal and historically rich, moving between sensual details and cultural snapshots . . . At its core, this debut is about choosing a life deliberately and with devotion. . . Mickelwait champions this with a soft lyricism that never shies from sorrow.”-BookLife Reviews

“Fans of Paula McLain and Marie Benedict will enjoy this insightful novel.”-Kirkus Reviews

“What if you accidentally married your worst enemy? With unflinching honesty and hard-earned grace, Kirsten Mickelwait peels the shiny façade off her catastrophic marriage to reveal how she not only survived the lies, betrayals, and lawsuits, but also found her way to compassion. If you don’t think on your ex fondly, The GhostMarriage will teach you why you should.”—Meredith May, author of The Honey Bus and Loving Edie

Review for The ASHTRAYS are FULL

Is this not the best title? And yes—I fully admit I’m a cover snob, and this one had me at hello. What’s inside is just as dazzling: a sweeping debut that dives into the glitz, grit, and gossip of the 1920s through the complicated marriage of heiress Sara Murphy and her artist husband, Gerald. On the surface, it’s all sun-soaked beaches, endless cocktails, and name-dropping friends like Hemingway, Picasso, and the Fitzgeralds. But beneath the sparkle lurks secrets, tragedy, and the quiet resilience of a couple who somehow held each other up through it all.

Told from Sara’s perspective, the story is glamorous, heartbreaking, and surprisingly tender—Gerald’s affairs (with men, including Cole Porter) and Sara’s fling with Picasso included. Yet, their bond endured decades of shifting times, even into the Beatles era, with their daughter ultimately summing it up: “She’d do it all over again.”

If you love the Roaring Twenties, messy but loyal love stories, or peeking into the lives of famous artists and writers, this book is one heck of a party invite you won’t want to turn down.

About The Author

Kirsten Mickelwait is a longtime resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a copywriter by day and a writer of fiction and creative nonfiction by night. Kristen received a degree in English from UC Berkeley, where she expanded her love of James Joyce and the expatriate creatives of 1920s Paris—including Sara and Gerald Murphy. She is a repeat alumna of the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference as well as the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, the Kauai Writers Conference, and the Paris Writers’ Conference. Her memoir, The Ghost Marriage, was published in 2021; The Ashtrays are Full and the Glasses are Empty is her debut novel.

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