Bless Your Heart (Crooked Lane Books 2025) by Leigh Dunlap is a luscious, wickedly entertaining novel set in Atlanta’s rich Buckhead enclave that leads its readers on a merry chase to the finish. And what a finish: the book has one of the most satisfying resolutions of any murder-mystery novel readers are likely to have […]
“Lying In” by Barbara G. Tucker
October 13, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Barbara G. Tucker is proof that exquisite storytelling can and does happen far from the massive New York City publishing houses with their army of gatekeepers and yes-men and women whose focus is less on craft and more on fickle trends in the market. Her brilliantly-written novel, Lying In, (Colorful Crow Publishing 2024) explores the […]
“Otherwise I’m Fine: A Memoir” by Barbara Presnell
October 12, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Otherwise I’m Fine: A Memoir is an elegant and alluring story written by Barbara Presnell and published in 2025 by The University of South Carolina Press. In this 252-page memoir, Presnell seamlessly weaves together events, place-based information, historical details, and personal memories to depict a difficult story of three siblings who at a young age […]
“Naked Thoughts” by Marina Brown
October 12, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Well-named and powerful, Naked Thoughts (Gilberte Publishing, 2025) by multi-award-winning writer Marina Brown contains 58 poems that invite readers into beauty and soul-searching along with her poetic syntax. These poems will haunt you long after the final line as Brown’s artistry conjures images both unforgettable and of the deepest beauty. In what is perhaps her […]
“The Tears of Things” by Catherine Hamrick
October 9, 2025 by Leave a Comment
The Tears of Things (Madville Publishing 2025) by Catherine Hamrick is an exquisite, sensory-rich and sensitive body of poems that vividly capture with what it means to love, lose, fall, get up, and do it all again. Hamrick’s language is consistently vibrant, and often unique—for example, “slick-tripped” in a poem about winter ice entitled “Fat […]
“Devil’s Hand” by Lori B. Duff
October 7, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Lawyer Jessica Fischer returns in Devil’s Hand (She Writes Press 2025), the second installment in Lori B. Duff’s legal thriller series following Devil’s Defense (reviewed here). This time, Jessica represents Susan Wolan in what initially appears to be a straightforward divorce case. Compared to defending a coach who didn’t want to meet the daughter he […]