Backseat Saints
"Positively breathtaking" - Booklist, Starred review
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How far would you run to find redemption?
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.
Armed with only her wit, her pawpy's ancient .45, and her dog Fat Gretel, Rose Mae hightails it out of Texas. In a journey that is by turns harrowing and exhilarating, she uncovers long buried truths about her family and herself, running from the man who will never let her go, on a mission to find the mother who did.
Taking a minor character from her bestselling gods in Alabama, Jackson has crafted a "riveting read that simply flies off the page with prose as luscious as sweet tea and as spicy as Texas chili. ..." -Library Journal; BACKSEAT SAINTS will dazzle readers with a fresh and heartwrenching portrayal of the lengths a mother will go to right the wrongs she's created, and how far a daughter will run to escape the demands of forgiveness.
Audio Book - Sample Clip
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Link to Reviews
Addtional praise for Backseat Saints
"For me, the arrival of a Joshilyn Jackson novel feels like the first perfect day in a favorite season and BACKSEAT SAINTS is no exception. It is enthralling, heartbreaking and surprising in equal measure. I am so very glad that I got to know the girl who was born Rose Mae Lolley -- and, better yet, that she got to know herself as well."
- Laura Lippman, NYT bestselling author of Another Thing to Fall and Life Sentences
"Joshilyn Jackson dives into darker, deeper water in Backseat Saints--- with all her readers firmly in tow. As always, a riveting read."
- Lee Smith, NYT bestselling author of On Agate Hill and The Last Girls
"From the moment I began reading, I could not put this book down. Rose Mae is an enduring character with a fierce and unstoppable spirit. This is a beautifully written story about an important subject. Pass the word."
- Brunonia Barry, NYT Bestselling Author of The Lace Reader and The Map of True Places
"BACKSEAT SAINTS is an unputdownable story about love, survival, and shedding the past. Rose Mae Lolly is tough, passionate, funny, and fierce, one hell of a heroine to guide us through one hell of an adventure. Any time Joshilyn Jackson is in the driver's seat, I'm along for the ride."
- Michelle Richmond, NYT Bestselling author of The Year of Fog
"What a wonderful time I've had with Joshilyn Jackson's galley. Readers everywhere will rejoice to be back in the land of gods in Alabama. Backseat Saints is a heart-thrilling, can't-stop-reading book about the unique and unforgettable Rose Mae Lolley. I loved this novel."
- Michael Lee West , author of Mad Girls in Love and Mermaids in the Basement
"Backseat Saints will pull you in and won't let you out until the last page. Raw, tangy and funny, it is an enthralling peek into the secret sorority of mistreated women. Follow the journey of one courageous, witty woman who decides, I'm not going to take this anymore. I love reading about smart, flawed and ultimately wise women, like Rose Mae."
- Kathryn Stockett, NYT Bestselling author of The Help
