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Jul 07, 2010

Karla rated it:

We have all heard stories of abuse and how it ends. This may start to come across as a quirky read because of the humor but Backseat Saints brings abuse, abandonment, alcoholisum, and absolution together with a pragmatic understanding through a realistic yet unpredictable, spitfire of a southern Alabaman woman on the edge. I had several moments where I thought this could all tick into a explosive time bomb ready to blow into one hot mess and scatter like cheep tacky lawn art. But I really found More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 12, 2010

treehugger rated it:

Joshilyn Jackson's novels are like extra helpings of mashed potatoes and turkey gravy on thanksgiving - so, incredibly, satisfying!! Her characters are so well drawn, her language so crisp and imagery so alive...

This book is about Rose May Lolley, who makes her encore appearance from gods in Alabama and her disastrous history with men, her father and husband especially. A great book about love, redemption, the mother/daughter bond, battered women, and the meanness and violence so i More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2011

Michelle added it

Does anyone ever know who we truly are? Do we even know? It is into this theme the reader descends as s/he is immersed in Joshilyn Jackson’s Backseat Saints. As Rose Mae/Ro flees her marriage and attempts to set out on her own, she must ultimately uncover who she is and why she keeps hiding before she can ever hope to be free.

Rose Mae and Ro are two facets of the same person, born out of necessity as a coping mechanism to survive abusive relationships. However, these personas have be More...

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Jun 29, 2011

Danielle rated it:

It theoretically possible that someday, Joshilyn Jackson will write a book with a female protagonist that I don't latch onto. However, this is not that book. We have met Rose Mae Lolley before, as a secondary character in gods in Alabama, but now her story is brought glaringly to the forefront.[return][return]Jackson tells the story of three women, living inside one body: the deferential and abused Ro Grandee, the spunky and dangerous Rose Mae Lolley, and the glimmer of a person that might hav More...

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Mar 09, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

Brief Description: Ro Grandee is the sweet-looking, dutiful wife of Tom Grandee, living in Amarillo, Texas in a tiny house the color of toothpaste. If you met her, you might think it odd that Ro wears long sleeves in summer. But how else can a wife hide the bruises that her husband’s been giving her? So when Ro is told by a gypsy that she must choose between her life or Tom’s life, her long-buried “true” self (Rose Mae Lolley) surfaces and attempts to shoot Tom dead. But things don’t quite go as More...

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Mar 03, 2011

Clarissa rated it:

Jackson has woven a tale so thick with twists and turns it makes my 5 year old daughter's hair look smooth. Ro Grandee is stuck in an abusive marriage to man she is desperately in love with. How can a woman love a man who hits her? This novel does a nice job of letting us begin to understand. Jackson has done her homework. Ro Grandee suffers much the same way that other abused women suffer. She has limited access to money, her husband has closed off her circle of friends. She only has one secret More...

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Feb 19, 2011

Kim rated it:

Joshilyn Jackson is a TRUE storyteller! Not only does she weave a wonderful tale on paper, but she is also extremely entertaining as the reader of her own story. I read this via audiobook & her reading was an experience all in itself. She was perfect! She did a great southern accent and voices for various characters. I loved the book, but having her read it to me made it another experience entirely! I highly recommend this on audio, you cannot be disappointed!
I won't go into a summar More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 07, 2010

Callie rated it:

A Southern woman stuck in an abusive marriage. The first ten or so chapters were riveting. For most of this time, she is still in her marriage and working through making the decision to get out. Dealing with the parts of herself she has created to enable to live like this, trying to understand them and shed them. Once she lives her husband and begins a set of forays out into different parts of the country for different reasons, I lost some interest. Her husband and marriage were more interesting More...

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Jul 30, 2010

Brenda rated it:

Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson grabs your attention from the get go and doesn't turn you loose till the very end, I became obsessed with needing to know how Rose May/ Ivey Rose would wrap up her miserable marriage.
This book is about three people Rose Mae Lolley, a young girl who leaves Alabama she is suppressed by Ms. Ro Grandee, a Texas housewife that had the unfortunate misfortune to marry a wife beater, and Ivey Rose Wheeler, the person who finally decides to leave. These three pe More...

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Jul 27, 2010

Jen rated it:

Can't say enough good stuff about this author, so I will just copy & paste the same thing for each book*...I don't think it's ever taken me longer than two days to finish a Joshilyn book! She weaves the most entertaining tales that have just the right mixture of happy, sad, hope, fear, normalcy, and dysfunction and nails it every single time! Thus far, they have always centered around a strong-willed female character from the South who is on some sort of personal journey that requires her to rev More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 16, 2010

Ramona rated it:

Ro Grandee (Rose Mae Lolley from Alabama) meets a woman at the airport who reads tarot cards & tells her that it is her or Thom. Thom is the very abusive husband that she loves, but can't get away from & fears for her life. As a teenager Ro escaped the abusive hands of her drunk father, but couldn't seem to get away from abuse no matter where she went. She contemplates killing her husband, but her beloved dog, Fat Gretel, gets hurt instead. Mrs. Fancy, her neighbor, encourages Ro to leave he More...

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Jul 04, 2010

Alisha rated it:

I picked up Backseat Saints because I saw an ad about it on Goodreads which had a line that went something like "A gypsy told me I had to kill me husband or he'd kill me." Immediately, I thought "Wow! This seems like it could have a lot of potential..." And I was not mistaken. Backseat Saints was an amazing and gripping novel. It wasn't what I expected in the most wonderful way.

I tend to love novels about the South. While most people I know want to live in C More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2010

Denise rated it:

Joshilyn Jackson has turned out another gripping, page-turner, stay-up-all-night kind of book. She starts by giving you a character you can love. Rose Mae Lolley aka Ro Grandee, is so flawed and scarred yet tough and sassy that you can't help but cheer her on. Then, she puts them in a scary, impossible situaion. For Rose its when an airport gypsy tells her to kill her abusive husband before he can kill her it seems like a reasonable solution. But things go wrong and soon Ro is running, from her More...

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May 16, 2010

Laura rated it:

I fell in love with Rose, Ro and Ivey Rose. These are all the same person but each name goes with each part of Rose's life. This book tugs at your heart as you want Rose to find love and peace in her life so badly. Rose has had a hard life beginning with being abandoned by her mother at 8, only to be raised by an alcoholic father. Like most children of Domestic Violence, she goes on to choose a husband who also believes in DV (Domestic Violence) as a way to "keep her in line". Rose tri More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 25, 2010

Chelsea rated it:

Ro Grandee is going to kill her husband. If she doesn't, he will surely kill her first. After living with a father that beat her, she has married a man equally, if not more, abusive. All it took was a fateful meeting with a tarot-reading gypsy in the airport, and Ro is finally ready to get herself out of her violent life. She begins to channel her younger, stronger self, Rose Mae, and sets out to get some closure and safety.

I am such a fan of Jackson's books. They are deep family dra More...

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Mar 27, 2010

Kasa added it

On the surface, this book, which is a companion piece to the author's Gods in Alabama, is another rehashing of poor southern womanhood gathering scars from parental abuse and marrying a man who will dish out more of the same so she can rise about all victorious. But there is a twist. Rose Mae Lolley sees herself as a nesting doll, nested inside a another persona she calls Ro Grandee (her married name). Her husband Thom is also damaged by his overbearing father, and the facts that they are b More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2010

Rosanne rated it:

Rose Mae Lolly first appears in Joshilyn Jackson’s, Gods in Alabama as she searches for her long lost love Jim Beverly. Now, in Backseat Saints, she tells the story of her life as she deals with an abusive father followed by an even more abusive husband. The more we learn about Ro Grandee, the married Rose May Lolly, we come to understand what victims of physical abuse endure to survive.

As Ro helps a neighbor get to the airport; she comes upon a gypsy fortune teller whose directiv More...

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Aug 07, 2010

Anna rated it:

Immediately after finishing this book, I was impressed - having been left both crying and laughing in public with the final words. It was intense, captivating and ultimately hopeful and at first, it seemed like a perfect and honest book.
However, after reading other similar books with similar storylines, I've come to the conclusion that Backseat Saints was more than a little forced plot-wise. It seemed as though Jackson was trying a tad too hard for NYT bestseller - incorporating as many h More...

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Jul 18, 2010

Diane rated it:

Did you ever read a book where all the characters were unlikable, yet you could not stop turning the pages? This was the case for for me with Joshilyn Jackson's, Backseat Saints.

Rose Mae Lolley grew up in Fruition, Alabama. She was abandoned by her mother at the age of eight, when she escaped her violent husband, leaving little Rose behind with her alcoholic father. He was a man who used booze to drown his sorrows, and when that did not work, he physically abused Rose.

Ros More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Due to the brutality in this book (plus there are some mildly explicit sex scenes) I give this an R rating.

This book took me a few chapters to really get into. I'm not used to reading the Alabama way of speaking, so it was a little slow going. That being said, the way the main character thinks and speaks is like its own kind of poetry. It had me wishing I could phrase things the way she does.

I thought this book did a good job showing what domestic violence is like. The main c More...

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May 22, 2011

Jess rated it:

Another wonderful read from Joshilyn Jackson. Ro Grandee is living a life that she's very familiar with, since she's living the life of her mother. Why, though, is she still with her abusive husband -- unlike her mother who left when she was only eight? And when did the feisty Rose Mae Lolley, her previous self, start hiding beneath bruises and long-sleeved shirts without fighting back, simply content to remain Ro Grandee? Ro isn't sure how it happened, but she realizes that she needs to find Ro More...

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Aug 01, 2010

Debby rated it:

This is the 4th book of Joshilyn Jacdson. I've listened to every one and I am in awe of her writing and her fantstic characters. She has also narrated each of her books and that adds such a phenomenal dimension to the stories too.

Backseat Saints carries on with one of the characters from Jackson's 1st book, Gods in Alabama. Remember Rose Mae Lolley? The high school beauty and heart's desire of every guy in town? Well, now Rose is nearing 30 years old and she's been married to a h More...

2 comments like

Jul 23, 2010

Melissa rated it:

Rose Mae Lolley has been abandoned, physically beaten and left for dead. Now, trying to save her soul and herself, she blasts out of her father in law’s gun shop prior to what would have been the final thrashing by her husband, Thom, to embark on a journey to reconnect with her past that includes ghosts from her hometown of Fruiton, Alabama and her alcoholic father. Her destination: her mother, who left Rose Mae at the age of 8. Along for the ride – Rose Mae’s dog, “fat Gretel” and a host of More...

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Oct 13, 2011

Mike rated it:

I bought this book because the opening line hooked me: “It was an airport gypsy who told me that I had to kill my husband. She may have been the firt to say the words out loud, but she was only giving voice to a thing that I’d been trying not to know for a long, long timel.”

The first paragraph displayed a fresh, direct, authentic voice combined with compelling story telling craft and a willingness to tackle the most difficult emotions – the ones that bring us shame but also show is t More...

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Mar 03, 2010

Mike rated it:

Joshilyn Jackson consistently tells a good story. However, this novel carries a message about a compelling problem in our society--domestic violence, in all its variations, verbal, emotional, physical and sexual. Rose Mae Lolley is an Alabama girl, left by her mother with her father when she was only eight. Rose remembers hiding under her bed at nights when she would hear the screams coming from her parents' room. And when Rose is left alone with her father, she takes her mother's place as her More...

1 comment like

Jan 21, 2011

Maicie rated it:

I could not put this book down this morning; the breakfast dishes are still in the sink and the dog is looking at her empty food bowl with frustration.

I love chick lit. Not ‘woman meets the man of her dreams’ romance but ‘woman kicks the man to the curb and gets a life’ drama. This novel fit the bill nicely. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Ro Grandee crosses paths with a tarot reader and is told her future contains death: it’s either her or her abusive husband More...

6 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2010

Stacy rated it:

6/22/10
Top 5 Reasons Why Consulting an Airport Gypsy Could be Hazardous to Your Health
5. Could result in expensive cross-country road trips;
4. Can lead to criminal activity, like stealing an elderly lady's car;
3. You may just know the airport gypsy;
2. She could give you such sage advice as "Sometimes, Mrs. Professionally Pretty, those ornaments men hang on your branches get so heavy they can crush you dead, and in this configuration, death is what I see. I'd sa More...

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Jun 08, 2011

Lynnie rated it:

I wanted to love this book- I really did. I really enjoyed BETWEEN, GA- one of Joshilyn Jackson's previous books- so I was looking forward to her writing style again. This book though, didn't really pick up until the second half. The first half, in fact, rather dragged on. Without giving away too much plot, it wasn't until Rose got moving, that the story got moving. Mostly though, I felt that the title was unfortunate. While the saints were part of the story, they were so little of the sto More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 02, 2010

Teresa (Read All Over Reviews) rated it:

( Originally posted on RAO Reviews )

I have long avoided general contemporary fiction because I've never really met one I liked—save perhaps Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones' Diary. I tried again last year to broaden my reading palate with Julia Leigh's Disquiet, only to yet again be thoroughly disappointed and slip back into my comfortable world of historical dramas and fantasy/sci-fi.

When I was offered the chance to read and review Backseat Saints, I thought to myself " More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2012

Robin rated it:

My first-ever kindle library book! I've been wanting to read this one since it came out a couple of years ago as I have enjoyed every Joshilyn Jackson book I've picked up. She has such a wonderful voice-- a Southern flavor, a nuanced humor, a way of description that feels full while still leaving so much to the imagination, a touch of magical realism, characters that breathe-- one that just speaks to me as a reader. That voice was in full evidence here and I also really enjoyed this story of a w More...

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