When I read John Larison’s Whiskey When We’re Dry, I called it Lonesome Dove meets Calamity Jane. I loved everything about it. When I saw he’d blurbed Sandra Dallas’s Tough Luck (St. Martin’s Press 2025), which is marketed as a homage to True Grit, the new release was immediately placed on my radar. (A hugeContinue reading “TOUGH LUCK – Sandra Dallas”
Tag Archives: St. Martin's
THE LOVE ELIXIR OF AUGUSTA STERN – Lynda Cohen Loigman
“For a moment, Augusta could remember what it felt like to believe – not in the magic of witches or fairies, but in the magic of women who knew how to heal; the magic of women in the quiet of their kitchens, who could sweeten a bitter woman’ s heart or soothe a man’s temperContinue reading “THE LOVE ELIXIR OF AUGUSTA STERN – Lynda Cohen Loigman”
MAAME – Jessica George
“I love you, Dad. Very much, okay?” Without meaning to, I’ve been on a reading journey of books about young women in the UK “growing up;” Cassandra in Reverse, The Rachel Incident, and my most recent read, Maame are all “later in life” bildungsromans that make comparisons to Bridget Jones’s Diary a no-brainer – especiallyContinue reading “MAAME – Jessica George”
BEASTS OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE – Ruth Emmie Lang
“Only rain, not tears, ran down his cheeks. He wasn’t a real boy after all. He was a wolf, and he cried like one.” Ruth Emmie Lang’s Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance (St. Martin’s Press, 2017) is one of my favorite reads of the year so far, and I almost didn’t read it. You may rememberContinue reading “BEASTS OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE – Ruth Emmie Lang”
THE WILDERWOMEN – Ruth Emmie Lang
I’ve heard such good things about Ruth Emmie Lang, and I recently picked up both Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance and The Wilderwomen. I love magical realism, found families, and broken familial relationships. I was certain I would love The Wilderwomen (St. Martin’s Press 2022). And I tried. Oh, how I tried. But I wanted toContinue reading “THE WILDERWOMEN – Ruth Emmie Lang”
OTHER BIRDS – Sarah Addison Allen
“Maybe I thought that if I just collected enough words, I could totally rewrite myself one day.” “Stories aren’t fiction. Stories are fabric. They’re the white sheets we drape over our ghosts so we can see them.” Sarah Addison Allen’s Other Birds (St. Martin’s Press 2022) is full of whimsy and the best kind ofContinue reading “OTHER BIRDS – Sarah Addison Allen”
BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN – Diane Chamberlain
Diane Chamberlain’s Big Lies in a Small Town (St. Martin’s 2020) is fantastic, page-turning thriller of a candy book. Chamberlain is a North Carolina author, and the novel is set in sleepy Edenton, which is not far from where I grew up. One of the characters is even from Cary, which is where I currentlyContinue reading “BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN – Diane Chamberlain”
A Girl Named Tommi 