Blog Tour: The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson

Author: Joshilyn Jackson

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Date of publication: Reissue May 2018

Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs’ weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.

It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She’s having a baby boy—an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old’s life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel’s marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she’s been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.

Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother’s affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she’s pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she’s got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie’s been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family’s freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.

The Almost Sisters was recently reissued in paperback..  At its heart, it's a beautifully written story about family secrets and how they can bring families together and tear a community apart..  For the most part, I enjoyed the book.  I will admit to almost DNFing it because I didn't care for Leia at first, but once Birchie and Wattie came into the story, I was hooked.  

The mystery part was the best part of the book.  I loved the relationship between Wattie and Birchie and how it related to the mystery. Leia had to grow on me.  I thought she was a bit flighty in the beginning.  I did like her loyalty to her family though and she eventually grew on me.    There were two things I had the hardest time with regarding Leia.  I couldn't get behind her not wanting  to find the father of her child to let him she was pregnant.  I also didn't understand how race relations in the town kept being a surprise to her.  She spent most of her summers there, yet she kept being shocked. Despite those, This two things, this is a story you can get lost in and one I definitely recommend.

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Joshilyn Jackson

Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, including gods in Alabama and A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages. A former actor, Jackson is also an award-winning audiobook narrator. She lives in Decatur, Georgia, with her husband and their two children.

Connect with her through her website, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Instagram Stops

Tuesday, May 29th: Instagram: @jackiereadsbooks

Wednesday, May 30th: Instagram: @katereadsbooks_

Thursday, May 31st: Instagram: @jessicamap

Friday, June 1st: Instagram: @hollyslittlebookreviews

Saturday, June 2nd: Instagram: @thepagesinbetween

Sunday, June 3rd: Instagram: @readforevermore

Monday, June 4th: Instagram: @willbakeforbooks

Review Stops

Tuesday, May 29th: Instagram: @worldswithinpages

Wednesday, May 30th: 5 Minutes For Books

Thursday, May 31st: Instagram: @onceupon_a_bookdream

Monday, June 4th: Instagram: @absorbedinpages

Friday, June 1st: Literary Quicksand

Wednesday, June 6th: Kahakai Kitchen

Monday, June 11th: Broken Teepee

Tuesday, June 12th: Instagram: @writersdream

Wednesday, June 13th: Instagram: @Novelmombooks

Thursday, June 14th: From the TBR Pile

Autumn's Most Anticipated Reads for 2016

My Own Miraculous by Joshilyn Jackson

by:  Joshilyn Jackson
published by:  William Morrow Impulse
publish date:  October 29, 2013

My Own Miraculous is a short story based on the characters from Joshilyn Jackson's book Someone Else's Love Story.  Shandi was 17 when she got pregnant, as far as she's concerned it was a virgin birth.  She's had her son and she desperately loves him, but she still hasn't grown up.  It isn't until the specialness of Shandi's son Natty attracts the attention of mentally ill teenage girl that the protective mother instinct wakes up in Shandi and she starts doing some growing up of her own.

I'm sure y'all know by now that it Joshilyn Jackson wrote a cereal box I would read it and love it.  So I'm sure it's not really a surprise that I liked this short story.  I adored Someone Else's Love Story, so I was glad to get some more time with the characters.  I definitely recommend both stories.  Probably Someone Else's Love Story first, then the short story...I'm not sure it would make sense the other way around.  Anyway, keep up the good work J.J.!

Review: Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

by:  Joshilyn Jackson
published by:  William Morrow
publish date:  November 19, 2013

At twenty-one Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Nathan, aka Natty Bumppo, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced Christian mother and Jewish father. She's got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up in a gas station mini-mart and falling in love with a great wall of a man named William Ashe, who willingly steps between the armed robber and her son.

There's a long time between now and when this book actually comes out, but once I got a copy in my hands I just couldn't wait.  Joshilyn Jackson is one of my all time favorite writers.  

Someone Else's Love Story had a little bit different feel to it than JJ's other books.  It had more serious undertones.  The book dealt with topics like rape and the lengths some women will go to deny that violence has been done against them.  Another topic in this book was Asperger's Syndrome.  I wondered if Joshilyn was inspired by her friend Lydia Netzer and her book Shine, Shine, Shine.  Another great book btw.

While this book leaned a bit more towards the serious, it still had all the quirky language that makes Joshilyn Jackson books so fun to read.  Her books just keep getting better and better.  If you haven't read one yet, I so highly recommend all of them.

Review: Between Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson

by:  Joshilyn Jackson
published by:  Grand Central Publishing
publish date:  May 2, 2007

Nonny Frett understands the meaning of the phrase "in
between a rock and a hard place" better than any woman
alive. She's got two mothers, "one deaf-blind and the
other four baby steps from flat crazy." She's got two
men: a husband who's easing out the back door; and a
best friend, who's laying siege to her heart in her front
yard. And she has two families: the Fretts, who stole her
and raised her right; and the Crabtrees, who won't forget
how they were done wrong. Now, in Between,
Georgia, a feud that began the night Nonny was born
is escalating and threatening to expose family secrets.

This was the last book by Joshilyn Jackson I had to read.  I was kinda almost sad to read it.  I've become such a fangirl of J.J. over the last couple of years.  Now, I have to wait for something new to come out.  I haven't heard of anything on the horizon, so I'm hoping it won't be a too terribly long wait.

Between, Georgia is about a town in Georgia.  It's the town that Nonny was born in.  She was an unwanted, illegitimate Crabtree child that was adopted by Stacia Frett.  The feud between these two families had started before this had happened, but this adoption definitely turned up the heat. 

Stacia is blind and deaf, but she is a gifted artist.  She, along with her sister Genny, makes dolls.  Genny lives with Stacia and helps her with her artwork, but Genny has severe anxiety issues and needs the comfort Stacia provides.  Bernese lives next door and she is a force to be reckoned with.  She delivered Nonny on her living room floor and she takes care of Stacia's museum and makes sure she has the entire town in her pocket.

The feud reaches a fevered pitch when a Crabtree dog attacks Genny and Stacia.  Nonny must come home to take care of her mother.  Doing so puts her looming divorce at risk.  Nonny is at her wits end trying to please everyone. 

Once again Joshilyn Jackson read the audiobook.  She does awesome audiobooks.  They are really some of my favorites.  I definitely recommend any and all of them, especially to fans of southern literature.

Review: Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer

by:  Lydia Netzer
published by:  St. Martin's Press
publish date:  July 17, 2012

Sunny Mann has masterminded a perfect life for herself and her family in a quiet Virginia town. Even her genius husband, Maxon, an astronaut on his way to the moon, has been trained to pass for normal. But when a fender bender sends her blonde wig flying, her secret is exposed. Not only is she bald, but she's nothing like the Stepford wife she appears to be. As her facade begins to unravel, we discover the singular world of Sunny and Maxon, two outcasts who found unlikely love in one another. Theirs is a wondrous, strange relationship formed of dark secrets, long-forgotten murders and the urgent desire for connection.

I had an ARC of this book to read, but then I was at the library and saw the audiobook.  I always prefer audiobooks when I can get them.  Then I saw it was narrated by Joshilyn Jackson.  What??  I stopped everything and popped that baby in.  Joshilyn is not only an awesome writer, but she does an amazing job with audiobooks.

I've been giving out 5 stars on Goodreads very sparingly this year, but Shine Shine Shine got the coveted 5 stars from me.   This had to be one of the best books I've read this year and I've read some really good ones.  I loved everything about it, from the story to the characters to how the book was laid out.   This was one of the first books that I read that portrayed a person with autism/Asperger's as a normal functional person.  It was a refreshing change.

A lot of women will see themselves in Sunny in some aspect.  While some of her actions are bizarre and frustrating, it makes her instantly identifiable and lovable.  Everybody has something they're hiding like Sunny's baldness and I'm sure most of us wonder if we're brave enough to show it like she does when she stops wearing her wig. 

I can't wait for everyone else to read this book.  I want to hear other people talking about it!  Shine Shine Shine would make such a great book club book.  Have you read it?  Did you love it as much as I did?

Want to read more reviews?
Back to Books
Book Chatter

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

by:  Joshilyn Jackson
published by:  Grand Central Publishing
publish date:  May 26, 2009

While Laurel's life seems neatly on track-- a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, a lovely suburban home-- everything she holds dear is threatened the night she is visited by the ghost of her 13-year-old neighbor Molly. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly, floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is an unseemly mystery that no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Laurel enlists her sister, Thalia's help, even though she knows it comes with a high price tag. 

Together, they set out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about their family's haunted past, the true state of Laurel's marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

I haven't made any secret of being a Joshilyn Jackson fangirl.  I've read recent releases so when I found this older book for audio download at the library, I was pretty happy.   A bonus surprise was that it was read by Joshilyn Jackson.  She does a fantastic job. 

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming was just as fantastic as her newer books.  I listened to the author interview at the end and I was really surprised to learn that it took 15 years to write from idea to finish.  That gives me hope that all the story ideas kicking around in my head might actually get down on paper some day.

In the beginning of this book I was really frustrated with both Thalia and Laurel for assuming each other's life was less than perfect.  Thalia was making me mad because she kept belittling Laurel for being a housewife like that made her less than a whole person.  These differences do eventually resolve themselves to some degree, but I was an interesting dynamic in the book.

Quilters take note: Laurel is a quilter and she makes some really bizarre quilts.  I would be very interested to see what some of them actually look like in real life.  I was curious to know what her inspiration was for them.  I could see Thalia making quilts described in the book, but it seemed strange for Laurel.

Bottom line, definitely recommend for the chick lit fans, Southern fiction fans, and the mystery lovers.  I have one JJ book to go and I almost don't want to read it so my journey won't be over.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

by:  Joshilyn Jackson
published by:  Grand Central Publishing
publish date:  January 25, 2012

A GROWN-UP KIND OF PRETTY is a powerful saga of three generations of women, plagued by hardships and torn by a devastating secret, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of family. Fifteen-year-old Mosey Slocumb-spirited, sassy, and on the cusp of womanhood-is shaken when a small grave is unearthed in the backyard, and determined to figure out why it's there. Liza, her stroke-ravaged mother, is haunted by choices she made as a teenager. But it is Jenny, Mosey's strong and big-hearted grandmother, whose maternal love braids together the strands of the women's shared past--and who will stop at nothing to defend their future.

I discovered Joshilyn Jackson last year and quickly read most of her books.  They are some best Southern fiction you'll find.  When I first heard about this book coming out it went straight to the top of my wish list.  I was not disappointed.

I listened to the audiobook.  Joshilyn Jackson herself narrated this one.  This is a treat because unlike some writers (*cough cough Stephen King cough*) that can't narrate audiobooks, Joshilyn Jackson is awesome at it.  She's got a sweet little voice that's perfect for the story that she's telling and she knows how she wants her characters to act and speak so it makes for fantastic audiobook.

My favorite character in this book was a surprise to me.  I loved Liza.  She was a stroke victim and was mostly paralyzed throughout the book, but she was a little spitfire.  Her original personality wasn't destroyed by the stroke and it still showed with the little tricks she played.  Liza was a fun character throughout the whole book.

This is one of those books that I think has potential to have wide appeal.  Even though this is primarily marketed towards the adult fiction crowd I think the characters are youthful enough to draw in some of the YA crowd.  If you haven't given Joshilyn Jackson a shot yet, this is a great book to start with.

Backseat Saints

By:  Joshilyn Jackson

Summary:  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.

My first Joshilyn Jackson was Gods in Alabama and I think that was a good place to start.  This book took a minor character from that book and told her story.  Between the two of these books Joshilyn Jackson has quickly become one of my favorite writers. 

This book deals with the very serious issue of spousal abuse and it pulls no punches.  It's dark and violent, but wonderfully crafted and told in such a way that you can help but want to know what's going to happen next.  Ro is a wonderful character and I loved learning her story, even though it was terrible and tragic. 

I got a big kick out of the book mentioning how nutty Southern Catholics are.  As a Southern Catholic, I could identify with it and laugh along.  The way the humor was deftly inserted in even the darkest places is a Southern characteristic that is wonderful and Jackson is a master!

**Edit to add** I got the audiobook for this at the library.  This was read by Joshilyn Jackson herself and she did a fabulous job!  Not all author read audiobooks turn out so well (I'm looking at YOU Stephen King).

If you're fan of Southern Lit, check out the 2010 Okra Picks.  Looks like they have some good choices on there!

Gods in Alabama

By:  Joshilyn Jackson

Summary:  When Arlene Fleet headed off to college in Chicago, she made three promises to God: She would never again lie, she would stop fornicating with every boy who crossed her path, and she'd never, ever go back to her tiny hometown of Possett, Alabama (the "fourth rack of Hell"). All God had to do in exchange was to make sure the body of high school quarterback Jim Beverly was never found.

Ten years later, Arlene has kept her promises, but an old school-mate has recently turned up asking questions. And now Arlene's African American beau has given her a tough ultimatum: introduce him to her family, or he's gone. As she prepares to confront guilt, discrimination, and a decade of deception, Arlene is about to discover just how far she will go to find redemption - and love.

 I listened to the audiobook for Gods in Alabama and I loved it!  I found myself cracking up laughing about so much of it.  The story itself isn't funny, its sad and tragic, but Joshilyn Jackson has a way of writing and describing things that's just hilarious.  My favorite part was when her boyfriend, Burr, met her family for the first time and her mother is marvelling over how he doesn't talk like a black man and his reaction to that.  I was howling laughing.

All the characters were wonderful and believeable.  I really liked Arlene.  She was a crazy good time.  I would have liked to have gotten a little background on how she and Burr got together, but that's not really a huge deal.  I know it was through his mother, but it wasn't really explained further than that. 

The audiobook reader was really good.  I think she had the whole Alabama thing down really well.  The only thing I didn't like about it was it had random background music for dramatic effect that I thought was really distracting and kinda cheesy.  The first time I heard it I was looking around my car like "what the hell is that??"  I didn't like it!

I will most definitely be going back and reading everything Joshilyn Jackson has written.  Backseat Saints is up next because it's kinda like a spin off of Gods in Alabama.