Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson

From the author's website: Ro Grandee is the perfect Texas housewife. She's determined to be nothing like her long-missing mother, the one who left her with only a heap of old novels and her father's fists for company, so Ro keeps quiet and takes her husband's punches like a lady. But Ro wasn't always this way. Underneath her pastel skirts and hidden bruises lies Rose Mae Lolley, teenaged spitfire, Alabama heartbreaker, and a crack shot with a pistol. Rose Mae is resurrected when a gypsy's tarot cards foretell doom for dutiful Ro: her handsome husband is going to kill her. Unless she kills him first.

Let me tell you how much I liked this book (and then she commenced to gush!), I can't, words can hardly do it. This is my new favorite. I was so lucky to win this in audio in a giveaway hosted by Teddy Rose at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time. The author, Joshilyn Jackson, narrates the book and she does an outstanding job. She has an accent that screams Southern and great timing for the comic lines. The book is not comical but she draws the humor out of the heart wrenching circumstances of abuse and abandonment and fear, lots of fear, there were so many times I was afraid for Ro's life. Isn't that the sign of a great book - when you actually physically fear for the character's well being? Knowing full well that Ro Grandee is a figment of Joshilyn Jackson's imagination, I still had my stomach in knots and my heart pounding worrying for her. I just hated for the book to end; I felt like my friend had moved away. And then I turned around and found gods in Alabama waiting for me and I started in on it right away!

Joshilyn Jackson has a blog, Faster than Kudzu and she has two other books that I haven't read yet, Between, Georgia and The Girl Who Stopped Swimming. So I guess I will have a few tidbits to feed my desire to hear her voice again.

This book counts toward the 2010 Audiobook Challenge hosted by the bloggers over at Royal Reviews. Click on the button to see my progress.

2 comments:

Gerbera Daisy Diaries said...

I loved this book too! Committed to read more of her...but haven't gotten around to it yet.

bermudaonion said...

Joshilyn Jackson has a background in theater, so I bet her reading is fantastic. As much as I loved this book, I loved Gods in Alabama even more. The fact that I lived in Alabama when I read it probably added to my enjoyment of the book.