In her novel Measure of Devotion (Regal House 2025) Nell Joslin takes readers on an intensely personal, first-person journey of rescue during the American Civil War. With blunt-force realism and eloquent descriptive prose, she brings to life the pervasive brutality and sporadic heroism, as well as deprivations, of the nation’s darkest time: “Their eyes crawled […]
“Deep and Wild – On Mountains, Opossums & Finding Your Way in West Virginia”
November 2, 2025 by 1 Comment
By M. Lynne Squires To read a book about your home state is a bit like playing the lottery. You hope you hit big instead of suffering buyer’s remorse. Reading Deep and Wild – On Mountains, Opossums & Finding Your Way in West Virginia is like having the winning ticket, plus the multiplier. Author Laura […]
“Shelter Me” by Daren Dean
November 1, 2025 by Leave a Comment
In Shelter Me, Daren Dean brings to life the residents of a struggling neighborhood in central Louisiana. Though the town of Satsuma Grove is fictional, the catastrophic flood at the heart of this novel is based on the real and unnamed 2016 disaster, during which twenty to thirty inches of rain fell over just three […]
“Haircuts for the Dead,” by William Walsh
October 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment
To say that William Walsh is a deliberate writer who knows the value and timing of language is an understatement. His first novel Lakewood, published in 2022, is a coming-of-age story that explores family, secrets, lost love, and forgiveness. A project begun in the 1970s, it was set aside, and worked on over 39 years. […]
“Junie” by Erin Crosby Eckstine
October 14, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Junie (Ballantine 2025) by Erin Crosby Eckstine is a vividly drawn work of historical fiction, set in the antebellum South, which features a complex, fully realized 16-year-old enslaved teen named Junie. While the title character is the heart and soul of the novel, other characters—good, bad, and hovering in between—fill the pages in this haunting, […]
“Bless Your Heart” by Leigh Dunlap
October 14, 2025 by 1 Comment
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 […]