Joshilyn Jackson Books In Order

Gods in Alabama

For 10 years Arlene has kept her promises, and God has kept His end of the bargain. Until now.
When an old schoolmate from Possett turns up at Arlene’s door in Chicago asking questions about Jim Beverly, former quarterback and god of Possett High, Arlene’s break with her former hometown is forced to an end. At the same time, Burr, her long time boyfriend, has raised an ultimatum: introduce him to her family or consider him gone. Arlene loves him dearly but knows her lily white not to mention deeply racistSouthern Baptist family will not understand her relationship with an African American boyfriend. Reluctantly, Arlene bows to the pressure, and she and Burr embark on the long avoided road trip back home.
As Arlene digs through guilt and deception, her patched together alibi begins to unravel, and she discovers how far she will go for love and a chance at redemption.

Between, Georgia

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.
Ironically, it might be just what the town needs…
if only
Nonny weren’t stuck in between.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she’s helping her mother make sure the literal family skeleton stays in the closet or turning scraps of fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister Thalia, an impoverished Actress with a capital A, is her polar opposite, priding herself on exposing the lurid truth lurking behind middle class niceties. While Laurel’s life seems neatly on track a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in suburban Victorianna everything she holds dear is suddenly thrown into question the night she is visited by the ghost of a her 13 year old neighbor Molly Dufresne. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne’s backyard pool. Molly’s death is inexplicable an unseemly mystery Laurel knows no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Only her wayward, unpredictable sister is right for the task, but calling in a favor from Thalia is like walking straight into a frying pan protected only by Crisco. Enlisting Thalia’s help, Laurel sets out on a life altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family’s guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and The Girl Who Stopped Swimming.

Richer and more rewarding than any story Joshilyn Jackson has yet written, yet still packed with Jackson’s trademarked outrageous characters, sparkling dialogue, and defiantly twisting plotting, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is destined both to delight Jackson’s loyal fans and capture a whole new audience.

Backseat Saints

Rose Mae Lolley is a fierce and dirty girl, long suppressed under flowery skirts and bow trimmed ballet flats. As ‘Mrs. Ro Grandee’ she’s trapped in a marriage that’s thick with love and sick with abuse. Her true self has been bound in the chains of marital bliss in rural Texas, letting ‘Ro’ make eggs, iron shirts, and take her punches. She seems doomed to spend the rest of her life battered outside by her husband and inside by her former self, until fate throws her in the path of an airport gypsy one who shares her past and knows her future. The tarot cards foretell that Rose’s beautiful, abusive husband is going to kill her. Unless she kills him first. Hot blooded Rose Mae escapes from under Ro’s perky compliance and emerges with a gun and a plan to beat the hand she’s been dealt. Following messages that her long missing mother has left hidden for her in graffiti and behind paintings, Rose and her dog Gretel set out from Amarillo, TX back to her hometown of Fruiton, AL, and then on to California, unearthing a host of family secrets as she goes. Running for her life, she realizes that she must face her past in order to overcome her fate death by marriage and become a girl who is strong enough to save herself from the one who loves her best. Backseat Saints will dazzle listeners 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 go to escape the demands of forgiveness. With the seed of a minor character from her popular best seller, GODS IN ALABAMA, Jackson has built a whole new story full of her trademark sly wit, endearingly off kilter characters, and utterly riveting plot twists.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty

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.