Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Sep 24

10

What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on September 10, 2024
Posted in Book Tours • Excerpt • Historical Fiction  | Tagged With: , , , | 4 Comments

What They Said About Luisa by Erika RummelWhat They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

Publisher:  Dundurn Press (June 18, 2024)
Category: Historical Fiction, African American Historical Fiction, Women’s Literature
Tour Dates September 10-October 3, 2024
ISBN: 978-1459752771
Available in Print and ebook, 306 pages

What They Said About Luisa


Description What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

An enchanting telling of the complex and fascinating life of real-life Luisa Abrego of Seville, who forges a new life after freedom from slavery in colonial Mexico and gets caught in the far-reaching Spanish Inquisition.

Luisa Abrego, a slave in Seville, is set free upon her master’s death and marries a white man. After boarding Luisa’s illegitimate child with the nuns of St. Clare, the couple sets out for Mexico. There Luisa is accused of bigamy and tried in the court of the Inquisition.

The narratives here are not Luisa’s own. They are those of witnesses who encountered her: housewives, nuns, miners, lawyers, inquisitors.  These are European voices,  in whose accounts, a fractured portrait of a fascinating and complex woman emerges, like glimpses of a figure moving past a mirror.

Based on 16th century trial records of the real Luisa, this novel is not just one woman’s life in fragments, but a carefully researched imagining, told in vivid, distinct voices, of how the Inquisition affected the Spanish colonies.


Praise For What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

Bookbub: listed among 10 best historical fiction books of 2024

“A deep dive into 16th century Spain and Mexico, during the dangerous times of the Spanish Inquisition, superbly crafted by an experienced historical novelist. A must read.”-Pam Royl, author of The Last Secret

“Rummel’s whole novel is marvellous, full of wisdom, learning, and insight.”-Jonathan Locke Hart, historian, literary scholar, and poet

“a captivating and meticulously researched historical novel that offers a vivid and compelling portrayal of the life of Luisa Abrego, an emancipated woman who forges a new future for herself in colonial Mexico. an intriguing subject and narrative approach, making it a literary masterpiece that deserves to be cherished and experienced. Rummel’s storytelling is both enchanting and thought-provoking, as she weaves a complex and fascinating tale of Luisa’s life, from her emancipation in Seville to her journey to colonial Mexico. The author’s attention to historical detail and her carefully researched imagining of Luisa’s life bring the sixteenth-century setting to life, offering readers a rich and immersive reading experience.”-Trishita Das, GluedToBook

“Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. The characters are wonderfully flushed out and realized, and the history in it is vivid and ever-present. I would highly recommend this book.”- Colleen Earle, Goodreads

“an illuminating novel of historical fiction set in Seville, Spain during the 16th century and the Spanish Inquisition. Refreshing. Brilliantly told from multiple perspectives.”-Dizzy, Goodreads

Excerpt What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

Seville, 1575, Ana Rodriguez’ house

This morning Eugenia dropped in for a visit.

“My dear Ana,” she said, grasping my hand and kissing me on both cheeks. “You won’t believe what I just heard.” She paused and looked at me expectantly as if I could read her mind.

“Well, what have you heard?”

“Luisa is back from Mexico!”

 “No! That little minx  — she is back?”

 “Yes, and she has opened a candle shop in San Bernardo.” Eugenia was breathless with excitement. “She must have struck it rich in Mexico.”

“If she’s got money, I bet she made it by selling her body,” I said, bile rising in my throat. “I hate that girl.”

“I don’t blame you,” Eugenia said. “After what she put you through. Or rather what your husband put you through– may his soul rest in peace — but that’s men for you. You give them everything, you bear them a son, and they cheat on you with a young girl, a mulatta by preference, because they say they are better at – well, I won’t say any more. All men are ingrates.”

I had known about the affair of course. Everyone did. A blind man couldn’t have missed what was going on between Diego and Luisa, but I thought: Let him have his fun with one of the house slaves. They don’t count. And they can be had for free. Better that way than spending his money in one of those houses of infamy and picking up some awful disease from a whore. Besides, God knows I had done my duty by him, and was tired of being pawed in bed when I would rather sleep. Only sometimes I think, if I had been more loving to Diego – but, no, it wasn’t my fault. Luisa knew how to rouse a man’s desire. She was only twelve or thirteen when Diego bought her, and already strutting her wares, her budding breasts and her mobile hips. A beautiful face, yes, but the devil within, and sneaky too, never said a word more than she had to, just looked at you with those large eyes full of hidden plots.

“I was prepared to overlook it for the sake of keeping the peace,” I said to Eugenia. “But what a shock when the lawyer read Diego’s last will to us!”

I still run hot and cold when I think that Diego left that girl a hundred ducats and set her free. A hundred ducats! Enough to buy a pair of mulattos. I still feel choked at the thought of my helpless jealousy and the indignity I had to suffer and that girl raking in a hundred ducats. Although it’s almost ten years ago that Diego died, the memory still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. How he carried on! To see him give Luisa a radiant smile and look through me as if I didn’t exist. My heart throbbed with pain. Some nights I cried myself to sleep. I was tired of his passions, yes, but I was not tired of love, and I missed his endearments. 

Diego had been in the best of health until the day his horse shied and threw him off. He struck his head on a stone balustrade and split it open, spilling his life blood on the pavement. After the servants carried him into the house, he lived for two more days, and at the very end asked for Luisa to come and see him.

I was scandalized and had a good mind to defy him and refuse to fetch the girl, but my son said:

“Let it be, mother. Let the old man have his last bit of fun.”

So I asked the girl to go to Diego, trusting that he was too weak for any fun, although I wasn’t so sure about that, especially when I heard her singing in there.

She was with him for a good half hour, while I sat in the corridor with an aching heart, crying for shame because he preferred her to me even when he was staring death in the face. When she finally came out, I dug my fingers into her arm and gave it a yank.

“You hussy,” I said. “Singing in a dying man’s room!”

“He asked me to,” she said, looking at me in the mulish way those half-castes have.

All that went through my head when I heard Eugenia say that Luisa was back. I pulled myself together.

“That little chit!” I said. “She had a way of looking at men demurely from under her eyelashes — that’s how she trapped them.”

“Yes, there was something demure about her,” Eugenia said. “She was a very quiet girl, hardly ever said a word at all.”

“She was close-mouthed, alright. Didn’t give anything away,” I said.

“But you know what I remember about her? That her embroidery was superb, and that she made the most delicious quince preserves. I never could get my cook to produce the likes of it.”

“The quince preserve was good. I give you that,” I said.

“And, you must admit,” she went on, rubbing salt into my wounds, “Luisa was handy for entertaining your guests at a fiesta. Such a beautiful singing voice she had, and the way she danced the Zarabanda or the Chacona.  There was something charming about that girl. And although she didn’t talk much, she was always pleasant and smiling, unlike the others, who are sullen and scowl at you when you tell them to do their work.”

“She was good at wiggling her rear end, you mean, and the men couldn’t take their eyes off her,” I said, impatient with Eugenia paying compliments to a hussy who didn’t deserve them.

That’s Ana Rodriguez’ point of view, but when you read on, you discover that other witnesses to Luisa’s life have widely diverging opinions of her. Some describe Luisa as shy or mysterious or even saintly. Others say that she was upright and courageous, and a loving wife and mother. I leave it to the reader to decide who understood her best and to answer the question: Who was Luisa?

(c) Erika Rummel


About Erika Rummel
What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

Award winning author, Erika Rummel is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction books and ten novels. Her tenth novel, ‘’What They Said About Luisa’  was published on June 18, 2024..

She won the Random House Creative Writing Award (2011) for a chapter from ‘The Effects of Isolation on the Brain’ and The Colorado Independent Publishers’ Association’ Award for Best Historical Novel, in 2018. She is the recipient of a Getty Fellowship and the Killam Award.

Erika grew up in Vienna, emigrated to Canada and obtained a PhD from the University of Toronto. She taught at Wilfrid Laurier and U of Toronto.  She divides her time between Toronto and Los Angeles and has lived in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Erika’s Website: http://www.erikarummel.com/
Erika’s Blog: http://rummelsincrediblestories.blogspot.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/historycracks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erikarummelauthor

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Giveaway What They Said About Luisa by Erika Rummel

This giveaway is for 1 print copy or 1 pdf copy. Print is open to the U.S. only. eBook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on October 3, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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What They Said About Luisa

Sep 24

9

That Day and What Came After by Rebecca Daniels

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on September 9, 2024
Posted in Book Tours • Memoir • My Current Giveaways  | Tagged With: , , , , , , | 4 Comments

That Day and What Came After by Rebecca DanielsThat Day and What Came After:  Finding and Losing the Love of My Life in Six Short Years by Rebecca Daniels

Publisher: Sunbury Press (June 4, 2024)
Category: Non Fiction, Memoir, Death, Grief, Bereavement , Life Stages
Tour dates: September 9-October 8, 2024
ISBN: 979-8888192047
Available in Print and ebook, 182 pages

That Day and What Came After

Description That Day and What Came After by Rebecca Daniels

 

What if you came home one day and found your husband dead in his favorite chair? This grief memoir explores the author’s experience of the unexpected death of her husband from sudden cardiac arrest a mere three months after his doctors had pronounced him hale and healthy. The author shares her experiences in the immediate aftermath of the abrupt shock of discovery, reminisces about the details of the couple’s late-in-life courtship and marriage, and imparts other experiences she has had along the grieving road in the years since becoming a widow.

In our society, we often don’t want to talk or even think about death, so stereotypes about widows exist. However, each person’s grief journey is unique, and sharing tales of those experiences can be helpful and useful for those who find themselves in a similar situation. Though not a self-help book, this memoir is the story of a widow who defied the stereotype that widows are expected to “get over it” and move on with their quiet lives. Instead, this widow “got through it” and is now sharing her journey in hopes of helping others in comparable circumstances.

 

Excerpt That Day and What Came After by Rebecca Daniels

 

Excerpt From Chapter One – That Day

When I came in through our side door to the sunroom with my groceries, the image I encountered seemed normal at first glance. Skip was in his usual recliner, bathed in prismatic sunlight from the nearby beveled glass window. The Cartoon Network was playing but muted on the TV, and it looked like he must have snoozed out after his lunch, which was not unusual. There was a partial glass of seltzer on the table beside him and an apple with one big bite taken lying in his lap, where he must have dropped it as he dozed off. But when I called his name, he didn’t wake as usual, and there was something peculiar about the angle of his jaw, like it had unhinged at one corner, showing a section of back teeth I hadn’t seen before when he slept, even if his mouth was ajar while snoring. I pushed this image from my consciousness as one might push away a nightmare upon waking, but I was too late: it was burned onto the back of my eyelids for a very long time afterward. “Honey, wake up,” I called again, sharper and louder, but still he didn’t rouse, so I dropped the groceries on a chair and tried to shake him awake to no avail. He’d had a couple of alarming low sugar moments in the past couple of years due to his type 2 diabetes, so the cool clamminess of his neck when I touched it hinted this might be the problem today, but his face and arms were warm from the sun, so I didn’t know what to think or do next. But I knew I needed to call for help.

The 911 operator was calming and helpful. After dispatching the EMTs to my house, she directed me to get him out of the chair and onto the floor in case his airways were blocked from his position in the chair, but I wasn’t strong enough to move him. I must have started to sound panicked because the next thing she asked me was whether there was a friend or neighbor she could call for me. My next-door neighbor’s number was one of the very few I had memorized because we called each other so often. I rattled off the number, and the 911 dispatcher kept talking to me until my friend Diane arrived in just a matter of minutes. The ambulance and the EMTs were only a couple of minutes behind her. They got Skip out of the recliner and onto the floor, then went to work to figure out why he was unresponsive. Diane drew me into the nearby living room and onto a small couch where we were out of their way but could still see what was happening. One of the EMTs pulled out a manual device that looked like a soft football with a mouthpiece at one end (I later learned this was called an Ambu bag) and tried to help him breathe while the second EMT performed CPR. I remember hearing Diane whispering, “Did you see that? His chest is moving; he must be breathing,” but I couldn’t tell whether he was breathing, or the bag was breathing for him. The EMTs got Skip on a stretcher and had him out the door very quickly, and Diane ran next door to get her car while I sat in a daze, trying to grasp what was happening.

On the drive to the hospital, I remember calling my stepdaughter, Kensey, to tell her what had happened and that I’d call her again when I got to the hospital. She and I were no strangers to her dad being in the hospital, since he had a minor stroke followed by an emergency carotid endarterectomy three years before, and he’d had surgery for thyroid cancer two years ago, but this was his first medical emergency in a long time. In fact, his diabetes was well controlled with meds, he was now considered cancer-free, and all his doctors had pronounced him in tip-top shape at his annual exams within the past three months. Diane had been my driver on one of those other occasions, and she tried to lighten my apprehension by reminding me how well things had turned out the last time we took this drive to the hospital. When we got to the ER entrance, a nurse bustled us into a side waiting room instead of bringing us right into the patient area. “Your husband was just brought in, but I need to check with the doctor before bringing you inside.” Those words gave me a bad feeling, but I tried to keep my thoughts upbeat. After all, he’d been in this situation before and all had been well, but in the previous incident, he had been awake and joking by the time we got to the ER.

After just a few minutes, the nurse returned and asked us to follow her. She walked very close beside me, with Diane behind us, and as we entered the patient area, she whispered in my ear, “Sorry, honey, he didn’t make it.”

©Rebecca Daniels

Praise That Day and What Came After by Rebecca Daniels

 

“Author Rebecca Daniels and I have a lot in common, We both found and married our husbands a bit later in life. We both had our marriage stories cut short in an instant by death, and we were both widowed by cardiac arrest.
I needed the soothing and validating words that Daniels provides as she gently and lovingly walks us through what it’s like to be suddenly widowed.
In addition to her grief story, Rebecca gives us a beautiful glimpse into the love story between her and Skip, and as readers, we almost feel as if we are losing him too. As a writer, Rebecca has a way of making the words flow, so that reading them feels less like an effort and more like floating or being guided along.”- Kelley Lynn, Certified Grief Counselor, viral TED talk speaker, and author of My Husband Is Not a Rainbow: the brutally awful, hilarious truth about Life, Love, Grief, and Loss.

“That Day And What Came After is a moving story of a love found later in life and lost too soon. In this memoir, Rebecca contemplates deeper questions and chronicles navigating the minutiae of day-to-day life after losing her beloved partner. Heartbreak and loneliness are tempered by found family and precious memories. By turns sorrowful, hopeful, and reflective.”- Natalie Pinter, author of The Fragile Keepers

 

Praise Finding Sisters by Rebecca Daniels

 

“I was intrigued how the author was able to use DNA and other investigative measures to find what she could about her biological family. I admired her courage and persistence in continuing her search. It was fascinating to see what she discovered, who she met along the way, and how she was able to deal with the information. I enjoyed reading how it all unfolded. I loved it.”-Amy, Locks, Hooks, and Books 

“Finding your roots can be a tricky subject, but for the author, Rebecca Daniels, it became a life mission of finding her roots.  Her entire journey is neatly documented, giving others who have the same desire to follow through on their journey. Every detail blends well with her story, which gave me a genuine appreciation of her experiences.”-Lynelle, Inspire To Read

“Finding Sisters is an excellent example of what it takes to solve a family mystery. Yet it’s also a captivating story of human relationships in the age of secrecy-revealing DNA databases. As Rebecca Daniels so skillfully illustrates. By sharing her thoughts and insights throughout this journey, Rebecca makes the story refreshingly honest and personal. Like no other DNA success story, Finding Sisters uses footnotes and family tree diagrams to show exactly how the search unfolds. This makes the book a clever hybrid of a memoir and a case study.”-Richard Hill, Author of “Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA”

“In Rebecca Daniels’ memoir Finding Sisters, she takes us on her personal journey for answers surrounding her adoption, birth family, and ancestral heritage and introduces us to genealogy research and the increasingly popular genealogy websites that make familial matches from DNA databases. Of all the encounters and relationships, she chronicles during her search. This book is not just ideal for those interested in genealogy research and ancestry websites, but also those wanting to uncover more of what makes them who they are. And isn’t that all of us to some degree?”–Maia Williamson, author of Where the Tree Frogs Took Me

 

About Rebecca Daniels

That Day and What Came After by Rebecca Daniels

Award winning Author, Rebecca Daniels (MFA, PhD) taught performance, writing, and speaking in liberal arts universities for over 25 years, including St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, from 1992-2015. She was the founding producing director of Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, OR, directed with many professional Portland theatre companies in the 1980s, and is the author of the groundbreaking Women Stage Directors Speak: Exploring the Effects of Gender on Their Work (McFarland, 1996, 2000) and has been published in multiple professional theatre journals.

After her retirement from teaching, she turned her focus to creative non-fiction and began her association with Sunbury Press with Keeping the Lights on for Ike: Daily Life of a Utilities Engineer at AFHQ in Europe During WWII; or, What to Say in Letters Home When You’re Not Allowed to Write about the War (Sunbury Press, 2019), a book based on her father’s letter home from Europe during WWII.

Her second book with Sunbury, Finding Sisters: How One Adoptee Used DNA Testing and Determination to Uncover Family Secrets and Find Her Birth Family explores how DNA testing, combined with traditional genealogical research, helped her find her genetic parents, two half-sisters, and other relatives in spite of being given up for a closed adoption at birth.

Her newest book with Sunbury (2024) is a memoir about her late-in-life second marriage and sudden widowhood called That Day and What Came After: Finding and Losing the Love of My Life in Six Short Years.

Website: https://rebecca-daniels.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.daniels.9

 

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Giveaway That Day and What Came After by Rebecca Daniels

 

This giveaway is for 1 print copy or 2 pdf copies. Print is open to the U.S. only. eBook is open worldwide.   This giveaway ends on October 8, 2024 midnight, pacific time.  Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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That Day and What Came Next

 

Aug 24

5

Sunny Gale by Jamie Lisa Forbes

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on August 5, 2024
Posted in Book Tours • Excerpt  | Tagged With: , , | 3 Comments

Sunny Gale by Jamie Lisa ForbesSunny Gale by Jamie Lisa Forbes

Publisher:  Pronghorn Press, (May, 2024)
Category: Historical Fiction, Western Fiction
Tour dates: August 5-Sept 20, 2024
ISBN: 978-1-941052-72-3
Available in Print and ebook, 340 pages

Sunny Gale

Description Sunny Gale by Jamie Lisa Forbes

 

When Hannah Brandt, who comes from a hardscrabble background in Ohio and Nebraska, first gets to ride a horse in 1895 at the age of 14, she realizes that there is no going back. . .  Her destiny is to be a rodeo star and break new ground as a female bronco rider. She wins first place in a race at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo at 18, and soon she’s known by a new name: Sunny Gale.

Her marriage to her first husband, Luke Mangum, ends in divorce and
she’s taken in by the Pickering clan, who are rodeo royalty. After she marries Tad Pickering, her star continues to rise as she and her spouse amaze crowds with “Roman Riding,” each of them standing astride two galloping horses.

When tragedy occurs, Sunny quits the clan and moves on. . .  She finds a refuge in New Mexico with one-legged rancher Angus Laroche, who dispenses tough love. . . But her love life continues to be complicated, and the novel’s resolution sees her life come full circle, after a fashion.

This is a story of rodeos, marriages, sexism, and social mores—all churned together. . . A moving, memorable, and fully realized rodeo saga. Kirkus Reviews (starred)

 

Excerpt Sunny Gale by Jamie Lisa Forbes

Zephira. That was the name she’d chosen

for her filly. In her book, one story told of how

Zephyr, the spring wind, had fallen in love with a

dancing white mare and, in time, their offspring

became the foundation of all the great and fast

horses that roamed the globe. In the illustration,

Zephyr and his mare watched as their plump colts

galloped away in all directions.

Here was one of the lost daughters: Zephira.

A demigoddess.

Hannah didn’t dare move, though she was

turning numb from cold. Blown sand collected

around the feed bucket. The filly’s mane lifted and

fell. She wouldn’t budge. Too many unfamiliar sounds

around the house and barn, the banging of loose

boards, the blades rattling on the windmill. She

stamped and whinnied.

Hannah understood.

Bring the bucket out here, where it’s safe.

That’s what Zephira demanded.

Hannah knew the filly had no fondness

for her; the bucket was their only connection. As

unendurable as these moments were, she knew

time was running out. If she didn’t catch that filly

within the next few days before the grass came up,

she’d never see her again. Zephira would drift off

beyond this homeplace in search of her brothers

and sisters and never return.

Hunger. Hunger was Hannah’s helper.

Hunger called to the filly better than Hannah

could. Zephira took two steps to the gate, then

stopped. Hannah’s pulse pounded in her ears.

Five paces more. The wind gusted, again. The filly

listened. And just like that she walked far enough

into the enclosure where the gate could be swung

shut behind her. She sniffed at Hannah. Hannah

nodded back. Yes, you know me, you can come in.

The filly snorted once before plunging her

muzzle into the bucket. Hannah slipped the blanket

off, crept around to the gate, and latched it.

Now what will you do, Hannah?

All her energies had been channeled into

this one moment. She hadn’t thought of what

would come next.

Tremain would come and she wouldn’t be

able to hide the filly from him. Another mouth to

feed, he would say.

Howling, pleading, throwing herself on the

ground—that would do the trick. Please let her

stay. I will care for her, then you can sell her and

get your money back for the feed. Surely, he would

agree when he saw how much it meant to her. For

all his rants, she still believed he loved her.

The bucket overturned. The filly was done.

She wheeled, walked back to the gate and found

her way barred. She nosed along the corral, probing

for the way out, every step quicker, more panicked.

She broke into a dead run and slammed into the

corner so hard she nearly fell over backwards. She

wheeled and tore the other way, slamming into

the next corner. Then she was running blindly, all

the while blasting her alarm, a racket heard over

the wind.

Hannah didn’t know what to do. Something

had to be done before the horse hurt herself. She

tried walking toward her. Please, please stop.

Zephira was too terrified by the enclosure to even

know that Hannah was there. Already, the skin

on her chest was bloody where she’d hit the rails.

Another slam and her injuries could get even worse.

With tears burning her eyes, Hannah

unlatched the gate, and the wind swung it wide

open. The filly found the open space and was gone.

“What in the hell?”

Hannah heard Tremain’s voice behind her.

She turned. Tremain had the Winchester with him.

“You heard me. What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“You’ve been feeding that mustang, haven’t

you? I see the bucket there.”

“I thought I could tame her. I thought I’d

have a horse to ride.”

“You don’t even know how to ride, and that’s

not any kind of horse. All that is is a wild animal.”

“I’ve seen people ride. I can learn.”

“We don’t need you to ride. Better you tend

to your mother and see to her needs. This winter is

about to kill her, too.” He nodded to where the filly

had stopped to look back at them. “That animal is

starving. It’s kinder to end its misery.”

“No!”

“You’ve been teaching her to eat our feed,

feed for our cattle and horse. They don’t have

enough as it is. We could all die out here if this

weather doesn’t break. Don’t you see that? Your

foolish mind is still lost in some fairyland. When

will you grow up?”

Hannah dropped to her knees. “I won’t feed

her again, Tremain, I promise.”

“It’s too late. She already knows to come

here for food. She’ll come back, maybe even break

into the barn. Look, she’s not leaving now.”

And it was true. The filly hadn’t moved.

Praise Sunny Gale by Jamie Lisa Forbes

 

“is a captivating rodeo saga bound to leave a lasting impression..filled with unforgettable characters and compelling narratives. Prepare to embark on an exhilarating journey as you dive into the captivating world of rodeo, filled with heart-pounding excitement and profound emotions. Get ready for the gripping narrative to sweep you off your feet and be prepared to fully immerse yourself in the magic of Sunny Gale.”-Suzie Housley, Midwest Book Reviews

“Though some of Hannah’s issues are specific to her time period, her saga serves as a poignant, timeless reminder of the complexities that lie beneath the surface of seemingly glamorous pursuits. Those who have an interest in historical fiction and historic women’s rights will find this book enlightening. It’s an eye-opening read and an evocative mixture of fact and fiction.”-Michaela Gordoni, City Review

“The transition of Hannah Brandt into Sunny Gale is a key component of the well-structured plot. Horseback riding is not just transportation so much as an escape.

Hannah(Sunny) is an extremely interesting character as she lives by her own rules and aspires to be the best. Yet her desire to push herself to the limit comes at the cost of more than a few relationships. Sunny Gale is a story about a woman who bucked social conventions, asserted her independence, and sacrificed much to satisfy her dreams. Author Jamie Lisa Forbes has written a truly engaging novel.”-Philip Zozzaro, City Book Reviews Tulsa

:”Sunny Gale is a wonderfully written story that is filled with action and
wonderful family moments along the way as well as historical accuracy of the
time period. Sunny is a very strong and interesting protagonist and shows that
strength throughout the story.

Sunny Gale is exciting, well-written and developed, and will make the reader
laugh and cry throughout. While this is the first book that I have read by this
author, it will definitely not be the last. I was extremely impressed with the
whole story and cannot wait to see what else is out there for my reading
pleasure. I would highly recommend the story to all.

Quill says: Sunny Gale is a wonderful example of a story that will pull readers
into a new world, in this case, one of rodeo riding and the entrance of women
into the sport. With its wonderfully descriptive writing and historical
accuracy, I am sure that it will be a great success and of interest to many.”-Kathy Stickles, Feathered Quill Book Reviews

 

Praise Jamie Lisa Forbes

 

“Unbroken is a powerful, absorbing book from the first page to the last. Forbes’ Wyoming ranch background adds rich flavors to the story. The author draws realistic, complex characters. Unbroken is an unvarnished testimonial to a way of life that few of us know.”– Mary E. Trimble, author of ‘ TUBOB: Two Years in West Africa with the Peace Corps’

“Eden gets kicked out of her house by her mother and shows up at Rowen’s house asking for a place to stay. They take her in and she becomes one of the likable characters in this book. I would recommend this book if your like to read about the deep south during the 50’s and later.”- Detweilermom, A Room Without Books Is Empty

“I suggest picking up Eden because it brings light to the past and in someways helps you understand the present. Every sentence had me clinging to each word as I read. Every word had me wanting to continue reading. I believe this author has done a beautiful job and look forward to reading more work in the near future. It is brilliantly sad.”- Amber, Imaginative Mama’s

About Jamie Lisa Forbes

Sunny Gale by Jamie Lisa Forbes

Award winning author, Jamie Lisa Forbes was raised on a ranch in the Little Laramie Valley near Laramie, Wyoming.  She attended the University of Colorado where she obtained degrees in English and philosophy. After fourteen months living in Israel, she returned to her family’s ranch where she lived for another fifteen years.

In 1994, she moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. In 2001, she graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law and began her North Carolina law practice.

Her first novel, Unbroken, won the WILLA Literary Award for Contemporary Fiction in 2011.  Her collection of short stories, The Widow Smalls and Other Stories, won the High Plains Book Awards for a short story collection in 2015.

Her novel about life in rural North Carolina entitled Eden was published in 2020.

Ms. Forbes continues to live—and write—in North Carolina

Website: https://www.jamielisaforbes.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jamielisaforbes
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JamieLisaForbes
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jamielisaforbes/

 

Buy Sunny Gale by Jamie Lisa Forbes

 

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Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus Aug 6 Excerpt

Gracie Net Galley & Goodreads Aug 7 Review

Kathleen Celticlady’s Reviews Aug 8 Guest Review-Laura & Interview

GudReader Goodreads & Net Galley Aug 12 Review

Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus Aug 13  Guest Review-Mark

Linda Lu Goodreads & Net Galley Aug 14 Review

Leslie StoreyBook Reviews Aug15 Guest Review-Nora & Excerpt

Denise Amazon & Goodreads Aug16 Review

Bookgirl Goodreads & Amazon Aug 21 Review

Mike M. Net Galley & Goodreads Aug 22 Review

Suzie My Tangled Skeins Book Reviews Aug 27 Review

Sal Goodreads & Net Galley Aug 28 Review

Ellen S. Goodreads & Net Galley Aug 29 Review

Bee Book Pleasures.com Sept 3  Review & Interview

Smitty Bookshop.org & Goodreads Sept 5 Review

Sunny Gale by Jamie Lisa Forbes.

 

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