Introduction: Carol Baldwin spent eighteen years researching and writing her latest book, Half-Truths (Monarch Educational Services 2025). I can’t even imagine. I spent about six years on my first novel, and that felt like an eternity. But Baldwin seems to love research, an important quality for someone taking on a historical fiction novel set at […]
“In the Fullness of Time” by Terry Roberts
September 3, 2025 by Leave a Comment
More than just a compelling mystery or a well-executed police procedural—though it is both—In the Fullness of Time (Turner Publishing, 2025) offers profound reflections on the nature of time itself. Roberts masterfully weaves together past, present, and future in ways that feel almost magical. His lyrical descriptions of the mountains and valleys of North Carolina […]
“Break My Fall” by Lynn H. Blackburn
May 4, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Alana Pate Break My Fall (Revell 2025) by Lynn H. Blackburn is an exceptional read about Meredith Quinn, a dentist who moves back to her small hometown Gossamer Falls, North Carolina. This story is about love and an investigation of the drug world of Neeson County, which neighbors Gossamer Falls. It hooked me […]
“Distant Relations” by Cheryl Whitehead
April 2, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Cheryl Whitehead is both a gifted poet and a gifted storyteller—and these can be two distinct, albeit complimentary talents. In Distant Relations (Loblolly Press 2025), Whitehead weaves these dual talents together into an always engaging, often uncanny collection of poetry rich with family, nature, culture, and transcendency. Her verses reverberate with turmoil and grace, all […]
December Read of the Month: “Wofford’s Blood” by Donna Coffey Little
December 4, 2024 by 1 Comment
Wofford’s Blood (Mercer University Press 2024) is a stunning work of historical fiction based on the life of James Daugherty (J. D.) Wofford, a half White, half Cherokee, who became a conductor and interpreter on the Trail of Tears. Author Donna Coffey Little tells readers in an “Author’s Note” at the beginning that the interviews […]
“All We Have Loved” by Julia Nunnally Duncan
August 6, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Julia Nunnally Duncan’s latest collection of essays, All We Have Loved (Finishing Line Press 2023) tells stories of her childhood, growing up the daughter of textile workers in the mountains of western North Carolina, as well as the childhoods of her loved ones. In these short vignettes, Duncan describes holidays in her rural neighborhood in […]