Category Archives: feminist fiction

Wolvers, by Taylor Brown*****

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Taylor Brown has become one of my favorite authors. He creates believable characters and memorable plots, and his recurring themes have to do with championing the poor and dispossessed, and an urgent sense of environmentalism. My great thanks go to NetGalley, RB Media, and St. Martin’s Press for the review copies. This book is for sale now.

Trace Temple hates wolves. His family has spiraled downward since losing its New Mexico ranch, a ranch that was in the family for generations, because of a massive legal penalty incurred by shooting an endangered wolf. It’s legal to kill a wolf that has preyed on one’s livestock, but the circumstances under which that can be done are very specific ones. Trace’s father thought he was shooting the wolf that had eaten his sheep, but he accidentally shot the wrong wolf, and it cost him and his family everything. The patriarch went to prison, and Trace’s mother developed an addiction that has become all consuming. So when some sketchy characters approach Trace and propose to hire him to shoot One-Eleven, the legendary alpha of a wolf pack that ranchers have long hated, he’s all in. But an experience that occurs while he’s on the hunt causes him to change his mind.

Once Trace is out of the running, the organization hires someone else, a man called Murdoch. Murdoch wants to kill the wolf, and he wouldn’t mind killing Trace, too.

The story starts a bit slow, then gathers steam as it goes. The Gila wilderness where all of this takes place is resonantly depicted, and given that nearly everything that Brown has written to this point is set in the Appalachians or some other part of the American South, this is all the more impressive.  The dialogue pops! There aren’t many characters in this story, and the two-legged characters that get the most ink are males; it’s all the more amazing, then, that Brown’s respect for women shines through, and it does so naturally. By the last quarter of this story, nobody could have kept me from finishing it.

There’s some gore here; the story could not have been told authentically without it. Humans get hurt, and some get dead, and so do wolves; but none of the damage is superfluous or titillating. And I loved the ending.

Brown explains what’s real and what’s fictional at the end of the book, and he even includes a two page bibliography for those interested in the subject matter.

I was lucky enough to have both the digital and audio versions of this story, and it’s the first time I’ve listened to one of Brown’s books. Ramiz Monsef does an outstanding job as narrator, and for that reason, I recommend this format for those that like audio books. But whatever your preference is, this novel is highly recommended.

Missing Sister, by Joshilyn Jackson****-*****

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“We all have a little monster in us.”

Missing Sister is the newest thriller by one of my favorite authors, Joshilyn Jackson. My thanks go to William Morrow and NetGalley for the review copies. This book is for sale now.

Penny Albright is a rookie cop, a vocation she chose after her twin sister, Nix, died of an overdose. Nix was raped by a group of three men that she knew; Penny wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but soon after it happened, Nix’s personality changed. She moved to the city, isolated herself. Before the rape, Nix had never used street drugs. Penny is too late to save Nix, but she hopes to be able to spare others the same horrific fate.

Then she and her trainer, who’s also her partner, are called to a murder scene. The victim turns out to be one of the three men that raped Nix, and Penny forces herself to show no reaction, to keep her cop face on, but inside, she is exultant.  Then, while canvassing the area, Penny inadvertently comes upon the killer, holding the murder weapon and covered in blood. She and the woman lock eyes, and then, rather than arresting her, Penny lets her go. After that, she becomes obsessed with learning the woman’s story; she is certain that the killer had a similar experience to Nix’s, or that the killer had a sister that did. She vows to hunt the killer down in order to find out what happened.

The first half of the book is frustrating. The story is told in the first person, and after hearing Penny’s determined plan to learn the killer’s story over and over again, on a never-ending, somewhat circular loop, I want to smack her upside the head and tell her to get on with it. Leave that dangerous woman alone! She can’t bring your sister back, and you can’t either, I want to tell her. A part of me felt let down, because Jackson doesn’t usually have a weak first half, or any weak part at all in her novels. But just as I’m beginning to think, what a shame, everything changes, and the story becomes a true, grab-you-by-the-hair thriller. The ending is a complete surprise, and what’s more, it makes sense. The second half more than makes up for the first half.

I was lucky enough to have both the digital and audio review copies, and Jackson reads her own story, which makes it even better.

This story smacks of a possible series, and if that’s the plan, it explains why readers have Penny’s motivation beaten into us. That motivation may be the basis for who knows how many books to come; many, I hope! For those that are able to wade through the first half to find the reward in the second, this book is highly recommended.

The Hired Man, by Sandra Dallas*****

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The Hired Man is the newest novel by badass writer Sandra Dallas. This work of historical fiction is set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl, and our protagonist is Martha Helen, a teenager whose family decides to take in a drifter after he saves a local boy during a dust storm.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the review copy.  This book is for sale now.

Martha Helen’s tiny rural community is hard pressed. The year is 1937, and even without the dust storms that cause crop failures across the prairie, times would be lean. Small luxuries that were once taken for granted are now saved for special occasions, at least for the fortunate, and have disappeared for many unlucky families. Domestic abuse is on the rise, as is alcoholism. And so, when Otis Hobbs, a drifter searching for work, saves a small child that went missing during a terrible storm, Martha Helen’s grateful mother insists that he be allowed to stay. Local law says that newcomers must move on if not employed, so Martha Helen’s family hires Otis to help on the farm in exchange for room and meals; he lives in a dugout on their property and eats with the family.

Their neighbors don’t like it! Though there are a handful of supportive townspeople, most have deep seated fear and loathing toward “tramps,” as men that wander in search of work were known. Rumors abound. Any small thing that goes wrong is immediately chalked up to Otis. And when Martha Helen’s best friend Frankie is found raped, murdered, and dumped, out come the pitchforks, the tar, the feathers.

Author Sandra Dallas is an established writer, but I had only read one of her novels prior to this one, which is impressive. Every stereotype and trope is deftly avoided, and the result is a highly engaging narrative, told in the first person, with characters that are nearly corporeal. I thought I knew how this story would end; I did not. Oftentimes when an author decides to end a book with an unexpected twist, they have to contort the plot in awkward ways in order to shoehorn in their surprise ending. That’s not so here. The ending is a complete surprise to me, and the twist at the end leaves me with my mouth hanging open with astonishment. What…? But, how could….oh. Yeah. It totally works!

This is one of the rare times I have only the audio galley, and since I am primarily text oriented, that’s often a dicey proposition, but for once, it worked out beautifully. The plot is linear, and between that and the great skill of narrator Jesse Vilinsky, I always understand what’s happening.

Highly recommended to those that love the genre, particularly women.

The Creek, the Crone, and the Crow, by Leah Weiss****-*****

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The Creek, the Crone, and the Crow is the newest novel by Leah Weiss, author of If the Creek Don’t Rise and All the Little Hopes. It’s her best one yet. My thanks go to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the review copy; this book is for sale now.

Kate is a teacher, and she’s spent ten years as the sole instructor in one of the last one room schoolhouses, located in the tiny Appalachian hamlet of Baines Creek. But they say bad things come in threes, and that is certainly true for the people of Baines Creek, and for Kate as well. First, people from the state sweep in and declare that the schoolhouse must close and its pupils be bussed to a larger school. This is devastating, because locals use a folk dialect that will get them teased by more worldly children that are integrated into the larger society. These kids learn differently, and most parents are so afraid of what will happen that they resolve not to send their children anywhere at all. School’s out…period.

Next, Birdie, the elderly healer and wise woman of Baines Creek dies, leaving all of the homemade books she’s created for decades to Kate. Kate is bewildered. Why her? What to do with them? And Birdie was such a key part of the village that her loss is felt keenly.

And then little Loretty, a child that was being instructed by Birdie, and who is believed to have the same second sight that Birdie had, goes missing. She’s so young, and no one has any idea where she may have gone. Search parties are organized almost continuously, but there’s not even a clue where she may be.

Our second main character, Lydia, is a psychic whose gift vanished when her parents died. She travels to Baines Creek in search of Birdie, who she believes may be able to help her regain her gift. But first Birdie refuses to see her, merely saying that it isn’t time yet; then Birdie dies! However, Lydia’s presence is fortuitous, because she has ideas about all of those handmade books, and so she and Kate work together.

This is a wonderful story, the sort to sink into and lose oneself. For me, the only distraction has to do with setting. For the longest time I am unable to understand what time period we’re In here. Cell phones and personal computers, no; microwave ovens, yes. And Lydia’s niece comes to visit, and she’s described as a Goth, so that makes me think of the late 1980’s or early 1990’s. But then it’s revealed about halfway in that it’s 1978. What? There were no Goths in 1978. Fearing that perhaps my memory is betraying me, I look it up, and nope. Goth culture began in the UK in the early 80s, and it spread to the U.S. a bit later. I harrumph and move on.

The setting of Baines Creek is gloriously resonant, and indeed, all of Weiss’s books have been set in Appalachia. There are underground tunnels and moonshiners’ caves, and I won’t give details that would spoil, but there are a couple of caves in particular that are important to the story and tremendously memorable. The ending, which is always important, but more so in a story like this one, is pitch perfect. Highly recommended.

The Astral Library, by Kate Quinn*****

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“Here there be dragons.”

The Astral Library by Kate Quinn is not to be missed. My thanks go to NetGalley and William Morrow for the review copy; this book is for sale now.

Kate Quinn is a well-established author, but I didn’t encounter her work until 2024, when I read and reviewed The Briar Club. I loved that novel so hard that I was dismayed to see that this new one was not historical fiction. Fantasy? (Heavy sigh!) Oh, all right. Fine. I’ll read it anyway.

My initial impression was that this was a lazy way to build a plot. Place 1, place 2, place 3 and so on. Ho hum. But like Quinn’s version of Boston Public Library, this book is not what it seems to be on the surface. There’s also an important social message about censorship and book burning that’s built into the plot, and I don’t care how much others may hate seeing “politics” in a novel; this is a message thoughtful readers can get behind. The librarian in charge of the special section is a magnificent character, as is the fashion designer that befriends Alix. As for Alix, I love that she is plus-size!

It was a good decision.

Our protagonist is Alix Watson, a young woman that’s recently aged out of the foster care system. Her mother abandoned her when she was still small because her new boyfriend “wasn’t into the whole kid thing.” She left Alix with a couple of frozen meals and went to California.

Foster kids tend to be shuffled from place to place, seldom bonding or sticking, and so the Boston Public Library became Alix’s happy place. Now here she is, a grown woman—barely—and the library has become one of her parttime employers. She is nonplussed one day when she receives a written invitation to visit a little-known part of the library, a secret place where the books are alive and patrons may step into them—literally! Choose a story whose time and place appeals to you, and off you go.

Those looking for a coming of age story with feminist roots could hardly do better; those just looking for a darn good story will find it here. The outstanding ending pushed this one out of four-star territory and into five.  Highly recommended.

More Than Enough, by Anna Quindlen*****

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More Than Enough, the new novel by Anna Quindlen, packs a great deal of intimacy into a relatively short book. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the review copy. This book will be available to the public February 24, 2026.

The story arc here is not a traditional one in that there are several threads relating to the protagonist, and it’s hard to identify one as central. Instead, all of them are interwoven around a theme of knowing how to let go and move forward. Our protagonist, Polly Goodman, wants a baby desperately. She and her husband, a zoo veterinarian, have been trying for years. They’ve done blood tests, fertility treatments, and even in vitro procedures, but in the end, she comes away with an empty womb and no baby. The hardest thing is when she feeling vulnerable and someone is gentle with her: “I was one kind impulse from a kidnapping or a crying jag.”

In the midst of it all, she is momentarily distracted by the results of a gag gift given to her by her book club buddies. They present her with an ancestry kit, and the results are surprising. At the same time, she struggles with her parents. Her mother, a judge, is wedded to her career, and Polly has never been able to connect with her emotionally. Her father, whom she loves more than nearly anyone, suffers from dementia and lives in a facility. She visits him nearly every day.

And the best friend she has—one of the book club pals—has cancer, and it’s not going well.

All of these threads blend seamlessly within the narrative; Quindlen has such an engaging writing style that I’m not thinking about a central storyline because I feel as if I’m hearing from a friend. Usually I don’t enjoy reading stories about people that might be called upper middle class, because I cannot relate to them at all, but Quindlen magically bridges that gap.

I could go on, but I’m not sure I should, because I love this story enough that I want to tell you every single thing that happens, and that’s not a good idea. The one additional thing you should know, if you don’t already, is that Quindlen has a great heart for teachers and for teens, and so she portrays both in a way that is authentic and immediate. Again, I should not relate well to the private school where Polly teaches girls that come from well to do families, but Quindlen reminds me that all children have needs, and all children deserve not only an education, but an adult sensitive enough to understand them.

I hope Quindlen lives—and writes—forever, but when she goes, as we all must, she should be made the patron saint of high school teachers.

Highly recommended.

King Sorrow, by Joe Hill*****

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Arthur Oakes is in a jam. He is a student at Rackham College in Maine, and to make ends meet, he has a work-study position in the library’s rare books collection. But he finds himself unexpectedly being blackmailed into stealing books from that very place, a nightmare of epic proportions; the solution proves to be an even greater nightmare. He and his friends summon a dragon to get rid of the blackmailers, but now the dragon won’t go away.

My thanks go to NetGalley and William Morrow for the review copy. This outstanding tome is for sale now.

This author has no doubt learned to take comparisons between his writing and that of his mega-famous father, Stephen King, in stride. My own impression from reading both is reaffirmed here: he’s every bit as good and perhaps, at times, better. His father has mellowed in his old age, and he’s become reluctant to kill his most sympathetic characters. Hill, however, has no such compunctions. It increases the suspense to know, while reading, that he actually might do that.

Arthur has become involved with a townie, Gwen Underfoot, whose family has cleaned for the family of his friend, student Colin Wren, for generations. Add in some other friends, Alison Shiner and the twins, Donna and Donovan—clever of Hill to insert some D&D into a dragon story—and we have a cabal.

One of the earliest points of interest for me is that nobody in this circle of friends seems to doubt for a moment that the effort to summon a dragon will be successful. I had expected self-conscious eyerolling, but their approach is well researched and oddly businesslike. King Sorrow arrives with a vengeance, and he does not disappoint! The saga that unspools from there is an epic one, over 800 pages, so those that like to hurry through short novels will need to steer clear or adjust their thinking. As for me, never at any point did I see anything that resembled padding. There is never a slow moment, and while at the outset I made a point not to read this story too close to bedtime, lest it affect my dreams, once I reached the story’s climax there could be no stopping till the journey was completed.

I don’t read a lot of horror these days; most grandmas don’t. But when I make an exception, I want it to be damn good, and this book qualifies. Highly recommended to those that appreciate things that go bump in the night, and especially dragons.

My Name is Emilia del Valle, by Isabel Allende****

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“Aren’t you afraid, Angelita?’ I asked her. ‘All the time, but I don’t think about it. I want to die with my boots on my feet,’ she answered…

“I did not know who I truly was until circumstances put me to the test.”

My Name is Emilia del Valle is the newest novel published by feminist icon and author Isabel Allende. The story is a fictionalized account of a journalist that travels from California to Chile, where war has broken out. Because she is a woman, her editor resists sending her, and then, under pressure, agrees that she may go, but only to cover human interest stories in the city. Those that have read any book ever by Allende will know instantly that this is not what our journalist does.

My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the invitation to read and review. This book is available for sale now.

Like all of Allende’s protagonists, Emilia is a woman that refuses to be constrained by the expectations of the time regarding gender. She is possessed of feverish curiosity, and once she finds herself in the thick of the conflict, she has no interest whatsoever in finding and maintaining a safe, distant place from which to report. She assists the “canteen girls,” who provide water to fallen soldiers, along with minor first aid. Emilia learns first hand about the horrors of war, and she is forever changed by it.

This conflict is one that isn’t widely reported, and Allende writes about it so that it may not be forgotten. Ten thousand died here, mostly men from poor families, killed for no good reason. Emilia’s experiences highlight the disparity in treatment according to social class and wealth, as well as gender.

The writing is first rate as always. However, in most of her earlier novels, the author found a way to intersperse shocking or horrific passages with some that were uplifting, and often very funny. I would bark with sudden laughter at some witticism that I had not seen coming. I wish she had done that here. When there’s too much horror and bloodshed, it is tempting, natural even, for readers to tune out, let the words wash over us. And while there is romance here that provides some relief, I would have liked more.

Nevertheless, those that love historical fiction, social justice, feminism, and especially those that love Allende’s writing will want to read this book.

In the Time of Five Pumpkins, by Alexander McCall Smith*****

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In the Time of Five Pumpkins is the 26th installment of the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency mysteries by Alexander McCall Smith. This is hands down my favorite cozy series, and it may very well be my favorite series, period. Precious Ramotswe is our chief protagonist and owner of the business, and her easy-going manner with others and her capacity to smooth over a difficult situation are a breath of fresh air. Of course, Precious is fictional, but she feels real to me. I feel as if I have known her for decades, which in the literary sense, I have. My thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

As with all of my best loved, long-running mystery series, the joy of reading is only partly to do with the mystery. In fact, I almost think Smith could forget to include a mystery and I might take a good long while to notice; I enjoy greeting the continuing characters that I haven’t seen in some time. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, who is married to Precious and runs a garage in the same building where Precious has her office; Mma Potokwane, Precious’s “traditionally built” best friend, who runs an orphanage and always has fruitcake ready when Precious visits; Charlie, the formerly bumbling mechanic who is shaping up nicely as a part time detective trainee; and of course, Mma Makutsi:

Employees who leave it to their employers to promote them may have a long time to wait, but this was not the fate of Mma Makutsi. She had somehow managed to promote herself, first to the role of senior secretary, then without discussing the matter with Mma Ramotswe, to assistant detective, associate detective, associate director, co-director and so on, to the position she had most recently chosen for herself—executive president for development. This was a novel description and had rather puzzled Mma Ramotswe.

Passages such as this one leave me gasping! How many of us, in a similar situation, would allow someone that we had hired to give herself such exalted titles? It’s both bizarre and preposterous. But there’s never a question of salary; no matter what she calls herself, Mma Makutsi makes the same money as before, and no one here is making very much.

The stories usually have more than one thread, and so it is with this one. A woman arrives from the States to meet someone that turned up in her ancestry search, and the agency is hired to help her find them. At the same time, another case involving marital problems, though not the usual sort, is presented. And a third thread has to do with a shady character that has befriended Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. Before all is said and done, Charlie has a “Clovis Anderson moment,” which has been a long time coming, and J.L.B. Matekoni saves his creepy new friend from a “government crocodile.”

This is a series that never gets old, and perhaps because the excitement is ramped up just a tick in this one—not too much, we do want to keep it cozy, after all—it may be my favorite so far. Highly recommended to all that love the genre.

Over Yonder, by Sean Dietrich*****

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Sean Dietrich has written another fine novel, Over Yonder, one full of quirky characters, weird yet oddly credible situations, and a whole lot of heart. My thanks go to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Books for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

Dietrich has been writing for a long while, but this is just the third of his books that I’ve read. As I begin this one, I develop a niggling suspicion, wondering whether this author uses a formula. This would be a sad discovery, because till this point, I have greatly loved his work. And so the question I have to answer before I can do much else is whether that’s true, or whether he is writing unique stories using a signature style. Here is what I am seeing: each story focuses on a girl—teen or child—who’s down on her luck, possibly facing a crisis, with no adult that will help her or advocate for her; an older man dealing with misfortune of his own such as a fatal or serious illness, and who is otherwise isolated and in need of redemption; and a chance meeting of the two in a small town in the deep South.

I suppose, after reading this third one I am inclined—as you can see from my rating—to say this is a signature style rather than a formula. I hate to be played. If I felt this was a formula, I would feel annoyed and my review would not be generous, but that’s not what happens.

Caroline is 17 and pregnant. Her boyfriend, Tater Bunson, is at the wheel of his ’93 Honda.

“Caroline stared out the lace-like cracks of the passenger window’s single bullet hole at downtown Knoxville…her hair was the color of a carrot. She was ninety-four percent freckles. Her small, upturned nose, full cheeks, and cherub face brought to mind a character from the highly successful Cabbage Patch Kids product line…Tater spun the wheel right. The car made a sound not unlike a Folgers can of rocks falling down a public stairwell. The spiderweb crack on the passenger window came from a .22 caliber bullet that had passed through the glass during Tater’s last heated disagreement with his mom.”

Woody Barker used to be a priest. He has a houseboat and a bad heart, and not much else. He can qualify for a heart transplant, but only after he quits smoking, and it’s not going well. He’s lonely; he had hoped to pick up with his ex-wife once he got out of prison, but now that he’s out, he sees that she has a boyfriend, and it looks like he’s out of luck. Then an old girlfriend summons him to her deathbed. She wants him to meet his 17-year-old daughter. Who? What??

Dietrich’s wry humor and visceral figurative language are out in force here. Highly recommended to those that enjoy strong Southern fiction with deeply developed characters.