SWEET JANE, JUST ONE LOOK,
&
I’LL BE SEEING YOU
by
Joanne Kukanza Easley
SCROLL DOWN FOR GIVEAWAY!
Sweet Jane
Joanne Kukanza Easley’s debut novel
2019 Wisdom-Faulkner Award finalist
2020 Adult Fiction winner Texas Author Project
2020 Sarton Award Finalist
2020 Eric Hoffer Award Short List
A drunken mother makes childhood ugly. Jane runs away at sixteen, determined to leave her fraught upbringing in the rearview. Vowing never to return, she hitchhikes to California, right on time for the Summer of Love. Seventeen years later, she looks good on paper: married, grad school, sober, but her carefully constructed life is crumbling. When Mama dies, Jane returns for the funeral, leaving her husband in the dark about her history. Seeing her childhood home and significant people from her youth catapults Jane back to the events that made her the woman she is. She faces down her past and the ghosts that shaped her family. A stunning discovery helps Jane see her problems through a new lens.
Family Saga / Women’s Fiction / Historical Fiction
Publisher: Red Boots Press
Pages: 279 pages
Publication Date: September 17, 2022
May 2022 Pulpwood Queen Book Club Pick
Shelf Unbound 2021 Notable 100 Best Indie Books
Recommended by the US Review of Books
In 1965 Chicago, thirteen-year-old Dani Marek declares she’s in love, and you best believe it. This is no crush, and for six blissful years she fills her hope chest with linens, dinnerware, and dreams of an idyllic future with John. When he is killed in action in Viet Nam, Dani’s world shatters. She launches a one-woman vendetta against the men she seeks out in Rush Street’s singles bars. Her goal: break as many hearts as she can. Dani’s ill-conceived vengeance leads her to a loveless marriage that ends in tragedy. At twenty-four, she’s left a widow with a baby, a small fortune, and a ghost—make that two. Set in the turbulent Sixties and Seventies, Just One Look explores one woman’s tumultuous journey through grief, denial, and letting go.
Family Saga / Women’s Fiction / Historical Fiction
Publisher: Red Boots Press
Pages: 293 pages
Publication Date: September 17, 2022
I'll Be Seeing You
The new release from Joanne Kukanza Easley, the multi-award-winning author of Sweet Jane and Just One Look
A saga spanning five decades, I’ll Be Seeing You, explores one woman’s life, with and without alcohol to numb the pain.
Young Lauren knows she doesn’t want to be a ranch wife in Palo Pinto County, Texas. After she’s discovered by a modeling scout at the 1940 Fort Worth Stock Show Parade, she moves to Manhattan to begin her glamourous career. A setback ends her dream, and she drifts into alcohol dependence and promiscuity. By twenty-four, she’s been widowed and divorced, and has developed a pattern of fleeing her problems with geographical cures. Lauren’s last escape lands her in Austin, where, after ten chaotic years, she achieves lasting sobriety and starts a successful business, but happiness eludes her.
Fast forward to 1985. With a history of burning bridges and never looking back, Lauren is stunned when Brett, her third husband, resurfaces, wanting to reconcile after thirty-three years. The losses and regrets of the past engulf her, and she seeks the counsel of Jane, a long-time friend from AA. In the end, the choice is Lauren’s. What will she decide?
Family Saga / Women’s Fiction / Addiction & Recovery / Historical Fiction
Publisher: Red Boots Press
Pages: 227 pages
Publication Date: August 28, 2022
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I'll Be Seeing You
Lauren is a small-town
Texas girl with big city ambitions. At the age of sixteen, she is whisked away from her parent’s
ranch for a modeling career in New York City. It’s the 1940s and the Powers
Girls are micromanaged but Lauren is lucky. She’s allowed to live with her
wealthy and flamboyant aunt. When Lauren falls in love with her photographer, a
much older Frenchman, she throws caution and her career to the wind. Before
long, she’s pregnant, and he’s returned to France to fight. Lauren’s life
spirals out of control and she drowns her sorrows in alcohol.
Lauren’s troubled
life is laid bare on the page. She makes poor choices, repeats mistakes,
alienates her family and runs from her troubles. Finally, she decides to put
her life back together and seeks help for her drinking problem. When she thinks
she has everything, a man from her past returns, but is it a good thing?
This is the
third book I’ve read by Joanne Easley. I enjoy her writing style and her eye
for period detail. Joanna’s characters are vulnerable but strong, flawed, but
able to recognize their imperfections and battle their demons. Happily-ever-after
is not guaranteed and at times seems far out of reach. I like that she is
willing to make her characters suffer for their redemption and is not afraid to
tackle tough topics like alcoholism and miscarriage.
I would
recommend I’ll Be Seeing You to readers of Women’s
Fiction, recent historical fiction and those who enjoy a good story.
I rate this book: 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A retired registered nurse with experience in both the cold, clinical operating room and the emotionally fraught world of psychiatric hospitals, Joanne lives on a small ranch in the Texas Hill Country, where she writes fiction about complicated, twentieth-century women.
Her multi-award-winning debut, Sweet Jane, was named the adult fiction winner at the Texas Author Project and shortlisted for the Sarton Award and Eric Hoffer Award, among others. Just One Look, Joanne’s second novel was a May 2022 Pulpwood Queen Book Club Pick. I’ll Be Seeing You, her third novel, features characters from Sweet Jane. Her prize-winning short stories and poetry have appeared in several anthologies.
***
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THREE WINNERS!
Each receives an eBook of
SWEET JANE or
JUST ONE LOOK or
I'LL BE SEEING YOU
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I'd say it speaks highly of this author that you've read three of her novels. Great review of the latest. Thanks for sharing.
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