The Roofer is an extremely grim look at one woman’s life in the Irish mafia of Hell’s Kitchen. If reading about tragedy after tragedy is your preference, this may be the book for you, but much of the book’s bleakness felt gratuitous to me. Ava O’Neil is the daughter of Frank O’Neil, otherwise known as…
Raney is a Southern novel, but don’t look for gracious antebellum mansions surrounded by magnolias and populated by society matrons and belles. This is the Appalachian South, the South of pine trees and Baptist churches, where accents twang instead of drawl. And Clyde Edgerton nails the voice of the region exactly. I should know; I…
Wealthy, successful, 30-something John Sebastian appears to have it all – millions of dollars in the bank, a highly successful business, and a young girlfriend whom he can afford to set up in a townhouse. He even gives generously to charities, albeit for tax write-off purposes. So why does his life feel so empty? It…
On an autumn day in 1977, six year old Clare Abshire goes outside to the meadow behind her house to practice her penmanship. There she finds a very naked 36-year-old Henry DeTamble. Clare knows she shouldn’t talk to strangers, but this stranger knows her name and he seems to know her. He tells a fantastical…
To put it simply, reading Babyville was a revelation to me. I experienced it like a completely unexpected sock to the gut – it knocked the wind out of me and left me gasping for air. Reading this novel was an emotional journey I didn’t expect to take. It rose above stereotyped characters and you-can-see-them-coming…
Marne Davis Kellogg specializes in female protagonists who are not what you’d consider warm and fuzzy. Edgy and decadent, yes. Cute and cuddly? Uh, no. Back in the mid/late 90s she wrote an enjoyable mystery series featuring Lilly, a female Marshal in Wyoming who runs her own security firm. Lilly is always well dressed, travels…
When I was in high school, I poured over the fiction section at my local B. Dalton. I’d look at it so often, I knew where every book went and when something new had been added. Pretty much everything I read came from that part of the store, and I never really wandered into the…
Denene Miller and her husband Nick Chiles are known for their What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know series of non-fiction relationship books. They make their fiction debut with Love Don’t Live Here Anymore, which tells the story of Randy Murphy and Mikki Chance-Murphy in chapters with alternate points of view between husband and wife. Married…
Savannah Blues is a book that I’ve been meaning to read for awhile. Last summer, Mary Kay Andrews name cropped up as someone to try if you liked Jennifer Crusie. I made a note of it. Unfortunately, time passed and the note got stuffed somewhere, and I didn’t actually pick Andrews up until her book…
Carole Bellacera is an author I’ve been wanting to try for some time. Her first three novels met with a great deal of acclaim, including positive reviews from several of my AAR colleagues. I can only assume Understudy was the wrong place to start and that her earlier books were better than this slick, shallow…
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