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Backseat Saints

by Joshilyn Jackson (Goodreads Author)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 4,306 ratings · 723 reviews

Rose Mae Lolley's mother disappeared when she was eight, leaving Rose with a heap of old novels and a taste for dangerous men. Now, as demure Mrs. Ro Grandee, she's living the very life her mother abandoned. She's all but forgotten the girl she used to be-teenaged spitfire, Alabama heartbreaker, and a crack shot with a pistol-until an airport gypsy warns Rose it's time to...more

ebook, 352 pages

Published June 8th 2010 by Grand Central Publishing (first published May 20th 2010)

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Jul 07, 2010 Karla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: southern-writting, 2010

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

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Jan 25, 2013 Alexandra rated it 3 of 5 stars

I decided to read this after reading Gods in Alabama by the same author. I was surprised to see that Rose Mae Lolley was the main character in a different book. The book involved more of a connection to Gods in Alabama than I had expected. But I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had enjoyed Gods in Alabama.

I understand that Rose Mae Lolley isn't the same person when she's with her abusive husband, Thom. But reading about her talking about herself as if she's talking about a friend (using the t...more

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Sep 12, 2010 treehugger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chicklit, popular_lit, read_2010, southern, women, myfaves

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 inherent within...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Michelle added it · review of another edition

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 been adopted f...more 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 been adopted for so long that Rose Mae has no idea of her likes, dislikes, hobbies, true personality, and everything else that sets one person apart from another. In a way, one could argue that she suffers from multiple personality disorder because each persona is buried so deeply when the other is in control. From the reader’s perspective, it is an interesting dichotomy because the reader does not understand why Ro would have such difficulties in wanting to leave her abusive husband when Rose Mae is willing to do just about anything to win her freedom. That the two personalities co-exist is proof of the deep-seated damage wrought on a victim of an abusive relationship.

Backseat Saints is as much a story about mother/daughter relationships as it is about spousal/parental abuse. It is a surprise meeting with her long-lost mother that starts Ro down the path of taking her first step towards freedom. Each progressive step closer to freedom is one step closer to understanding her mother’s actions that distant childhood day when she mysteriously disappeared, never to return. For Rose Mae to discover her true nature, she must come to terms with the feelings and emotional damage brought on by her mother’s abandonment.

As the narrator and author, Joshilyn Jackson is uniquely positioned to give us Rose Mae/Ro’s true voice. She easily distinguishes between the two personas through her words and inflections. As she embodies Rose Mae, the terror, fear, confusion, and even sense of empowerment that Rose Mae feels becomes what the reader feels. The pacing of the narration is superb, and Ms. Jackson’s own Southern accent adds to the authentic feel of the entire story. Normally, authors are not the best narrators for their stories, but in this case, Ms. Jackson is more than up to the challenge.

Backseat Saints is all about a journey – a journey of one young woman as she searches for freedom, truth and understanding against a history of pain and neglect. Ms. Jackson lightens the depressing, heavy themes with humor and her trademark wit without trivializing or mocking them. Rose Mae/Ro is an endearing character, as some of her ideas are what can only be described as hare-brained. Yet, the serious scenes have the necessary gravitas that legitimizes them and gives them their emotional power. It is a bit like Rose Mae/Ro herself. Backseat Saints has an added complexity created by its multiple themes, fleshing out a story and a character that would have been horribly clichéd and one-dimensional without them. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable novel that shines a spotlight on damaging relationships and the need for one’s own personal journey of discovery.
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Mar 01, 2013 Erica rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-fiction

This book kept you wanting to read but just did not deliver. I thought the main character Ro/Rose (depending on which personality she was working with at the time) was not only unlikeable but also unrelatable with pretty much no redeeming qualities. I wanted her to have some personal growth, - which never happened - take any responsibility for her life in general, - also never happened - and grow up. She says how she was the prettiest girl in high school several times and all I could think was,...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Virginia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my first Joshilyn Jackson book, and it whetted my appetite for more. I listened to the audio version - kudos to the author for a superb presentation. As a fellow southerner, I usually cringe at an actor's attempt to find the accent (which, as any good southerner knows, is different in each part of the south); most adopt some sort of hick-sounding, flat twang that is NOT authentic in round-mouthed Alabama.

But I digress...This was not an easy book. The subject of domestic violence is unpl...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Eleni rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yet another book picked up in a hotel where a previous reader loved and left it (yes, I'm a very promiscuous reader, always picking up others' sloppy seconds). And I totally got sucked in and was even glad to have a cold in order to lie around reading this. It opens with a bang (almost literally) and you really want to see how this very atypical battered wife is going to get herself out of her fix.

As a folklorist, I was especially intrigued by the fact that the protagonist's long-lost mama is no...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I picked this off the new book shelf at work, having never heard of the author. Well, now I am a fan. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, sometimes turning the engine off, and leaving the CD on to finish a section before getting out at my destination. This is a very "Southern" novel, from the reader's voice to the content. Ro Grandee is a young married housewife in Amarillo, Texas, occasionally helping out in her father-in-law's gun store, where her husband Tom works. His father controls Tom by prom...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Shannon Arehart rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So, here's the deal. I had just a few minutes to grab a book from the library before a flight. I checked the shelves for nearly everything from my goodreads list, and nothing was there. I do have another J Jackson book marked to read, so I just randomly grabbed this book off the shelf for my flight read. until just a moment ago, when I saw it on my "read" list, I completely forgot that I have already read a Joshilyn Jackson novel - and hadn't really cared for it. I wasn't big into this one eithe...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Sheila DeChantal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rose Mae Lolley knew the power she had over men... they looked at her and they liked what they seen. As a teenager and as a young woman Rose Mae knew how to get what she wanted with a bat of an eye...

But now, that wild flirty girl Rose Mae is buried down deep, and Ro, as she now goes by, is quiet, patronizing, shy, and trapped in a marriage to Tom Grandee filled with both love and abuse. No longer does Rose wear the frilly sleeveless shirts of her youth, traded instead for Ro's wardrobe of long...more

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May 27, 2012 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Abused mother, abused daughter.

Saint Expedite is the patron of those who hope for rapid solutions to problems, who wish to avoid or put an end to delays, and who want general financial aid. Saint Expedite is well-known in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Latin America. In the United States, he is greatly revered in New Orleans, whence he came by way of Spain. (Most people think of New Orleans as French, but for forty years, from 1763 to 1803, it was a Spanish colony.)

Infant of Atocha. This infant wa...more Abused mother, abused daughter.

Saint Expedite is the patron of those who hope for rapid solutions to problems, who wish to avoid or put an end to delays, and who want general financial aid. Saint Expedite is well-known in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Latin America. In the United States, he is greatly revered in New Orleans, whence he came by way of Spain. (Most people think of New Orleans as French, but for forty years, from 1763 to 1803, it was a Spanish colony.)

Infant of Atocha. This infant was said to have appeared with food and water to feed starving Christians who had been imprisoned by the Moors

Tradition says devotion to Our Lady of Atocha and her wonderworking child originated in Antioch, and that St. Luke the Evangelist was the sculptor of the first mother-and-child image. Thus the word Atocha could be a corruption of Antiochia
In Atocha, a suburb of Madrid, many men were imprisoned because of their faith. The prisoners were not fed by their jailors, so food was taken to them by their families. At one time the caliph issued an order that no one except children twelve years old and younger would be permitted to bring food to the prisoners. Those with young children would manage to keep their relatives alive, but what of the others? The women of the town appealed to Our Lady, begging her to help them find a way to feed their husbands, sons, and brothers. Soon the children came home from the prison with a strange story. Those prisoners who had no young children to feed them were being visited and fed by a young boy. None of the children knew who he was, but the little water gourd he carried was never empty, and there was always plenty of bread in his basket to feed all the hapless prisoners without children of their own to bring them their food. He came at night, slipping past the sleeping guards or smiling politely at those who were alert. Those who had asked the Virgin of Atocha for a miracle began to suspect the identity of the little boy. As if in confirmation, the shoes on the statue of the child Jesus were worn down. When they replaced the shoes with new ones, those too were worn out. After Ferdinand and Isabella drove the Moors from Spain in 1492, the people continued to invoke the aid of Our Lady of the Atocha and her Holy Child.

Saint Cecelia--patron saint of music.In this book the order rescues abused women and re-locates them.

It was long supposed that she was a noble lady of Rome who, with her husband Valerian, his brother Tiburtius, and a Roman soldier Maximus, suffered martyrdom.

Saint Cecilia was the first martyr whose body remains incorruptible. She has been regarded as patroness of church music. No one is able to ascertain Saint Cecilia's actual birthday, but it is believed that she died in the year 177 A.D. According to church history, Cecilia was a maiden of noble birth. At an early age, she dedicated her life to God with a vow of chastity. But her family made her marry a young noble named Valerian.
Valerian was willing to take her as his wife without forcing her to break her vow. Not only did he accept her vow of chastity, he and his brother Tiburtius both converted to Christianity and were baptized by Pope Urban I.

At that time, Christianity was still illegal in Rome. Both Valerian and his brother Tiburtius were soon discovered to be Christians and were martyred. Cecilia was discovered soon after that and met a similar fate. It required two attempts before her executioners could kill her. They first locked her inside the bathroom of her own home and tried to suffocate her by steam. When she emerged from the bath unharmed, she was then beheaded. The stroke of the axe failed to sever her head completely from her body, however, and she lingered on for three excruciating days. During that time, she saw to the disbursement of her assets to help the poor, and she donated her home to the ecclesiastical authorities to be used as a church.

The body of the martyr, draped in expensive gold brocade and with the cloths soaked in her blood at her feet, was actually found in the Catacomb of Prætextatus instead. Her relics, with those of Valerian (her husband), Tiburtius, and Maximus (a Rome officer), and Popes Urbanus and Lucius, were taken up by Pope Paschal I, and reburied under the high altar of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, in Rome.

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Jun 29, 2011 Danielle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: wow-that-is-a-bargain, early-review, own, betrayal, childhood, murder, marriage, jealousy, family, escape, power, revenge, weapon-sales, southern-lit, small-town

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 have...more

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Mar 09, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

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 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, psychological-thriller, abuse

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 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks-read

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 summary here o...more 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 summary here of what the story is about because you will find it in most other reviews and of course on the book jacket. My opinion of this book is this...if you've gotten this far, I'll assume that you have enough interest in the type of story told here. Don't delay, now you must just read (or listen!) to it!
I really hate to compare authors/books, but...I must. While I was reading this, I came upon a part of the book that sounded queerly familiar. So much so that it really gnawed at me. I looked back in my Goodreads history and realized that it was Nicholas Sparks' "Safe Haven" that was ringing a bell. The entire 'escape' portion was the exact same thing as how I read it in Sparks' book. Hmmmmm.... These books were published only months apart, so I don't know that one copied another, so I guess I'll just have to make the conclusion that great minds think alike; and they were doing so simultanously in these two books. As for a comparison of which book in it's entirety was I most entertained by - hands down, this was by far the better version! This was not just another retelling of the abused woman's sob story, there were so many little additions...a constant something interesting was popping up all the time.
I think I have found a new favorite author here! I am so taken by her storytelling - one, that she kicked the b--- of the famous Nicholas Sparks; and two because her talent is not in just the writing but the TELLING as well! That to me is the sign of a TRUE storyweaver. Were publishing and mass production nonexistant, Joshlyn Jackson would be telling her tales in verbal form. She would be the 'town storyteller', the one we're all begging to 'please...please could you tell us a story!'.
So, this is easily a five star book, particularly because the reading made it even better! I'll be looking for more Joshilyn Jackson right away! (less)

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Sep 07, 2010 Callie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 Casto rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 people ar...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more

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Jul 16, 2010 Ramona rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 leav...more

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Jul 04, 2010 Alisha rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, drama, southern-fiction

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 California or New York or England, etc....more 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 California or New York or England, etc., etc. I really just want to settle down in some state in the South. So, I guess that I'm just living vicariously through these books (only in terms of destination, though). So, that was a big reason why I was so interested in Backseat Saints. I expected a book that was mildly dark (it is about domestic abuse, after all), but with it's share of lightness (as most novels about the South that I've read tend to be full of light), but it wasn't. Don't get me wrong. There was a bit of humor in this book (one part in particular was when Rose wanted to talk to Arlene and Arlene climbed a tree to avoid her; that part just had me in stitches due to the absurdity of it all), but most of the book was way darker than I expected. But there seemed to be just enough balance to it that I didn't feel utterly depressed, yet I also didn't feel like the author was making light of a terrible situation.

Now, the main character, Ro Grandee (or Rose Mae Lolley or Ivy Rose), was written in an utterly amazing way. Right from the beginning, I could sense the distinction between each of these personalities within this one woman. And I was charmed by them all. While Ro is deliciously flawed, Rose Mae was all types of badass, and Ivy Rose had all of these characteristics with a dash of bitterness as well. Yet, every single facet of this woman rang true. I never once thought that one of them was an act.

Anyway, I thought Backseat Saints was a tremendous novel. It starts up and it never lets up even when you reach the shocking conclusion. It had a bit of that Southern charm that I love, a sprinkling of that sort of "coming of age" mentality, and it was also a whole lot of thriller. But most of all, it was just plain amazing! I highly recommend it and can't wait to read Gods in Alabama by the same author, especially considering that that one deals with Arlene and she had me intrigued in the cameo she had in Backseat Saints.(less)

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Jun 14, 2010 Denise rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 tries so hard...more

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May 25, 2010 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 dramas, rich wi...more

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Mar 27, 2010 Kasa Cotugno added it · review of another edition

Shelves: vine, disappointed

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 both e...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Wanda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-books, loaned-out

Rose Mae Lolley is the victim of spousal abuse and, like many victims, believes it is deserved.

“I was a good wife most times, but I was made like nesting dolls. I had something bad, some other girl, buried way down in the meat of me. That inside girl was the thing that needed to be hit, that deserved it, and I called it to her.”

Though Rose learns to hide her bruises and avoid friendships, others are aware of her plight and offer to help her. However, it is an encounter with a fortuneteller who p...more

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Sep 23, 2010 Rosanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 directive is for Ro to...more

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Aug 07, 2010 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 heart-w...more

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Jul 18, 2010 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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.

Rose (Ro) was a crafty youn...more 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.

Rose (Ro) was a crafty young girl, the "prettiest girl in high school"; she knew how to get who and what is wanted. As soon as she was old enough she left home, headed for Texas and set her sights on Thom Grandee, who she ends up marrying. Rose goes from the good girl, dutifully performing her housewife duties, to the not so good girl who knows just what to say and do to push her "hot-head" husband's buttons. This of course, usually results in her being beaten by Thom.

One day when Rose brings a neighbor to the airport, she meets a gypsy who reads her tarot cards and tells he "kill or be killed", referring to her relationship with with her husband Thom. So the not - so - good girl begins to plan her escape now that the seed has been planted by the gypsy (her long lost mother).

This is a novel is full of emotionally damaged characters: Rose, her mother, her father, her husband, all who are dealing with the consequences of a life of bad choices. Despite this, it was a story that held my interest all the way. I do believe, pitiful Rose, and her (3-legged dog Fat Gretel) will win a place in your heart, as they did in mine. They had me thinking about the two of them even after the final page was turned. RECOMMENDED - 4.5/5 stars (review Copy)

a few touching quotes

"My mother had been counting off the days literally behind my father's back. Marking time. Like any prisoner might. She hadn't begun at the start of their marriage, though. She'd begun at the start of me. The first line counted the days after my birth until the New Year. There were eighteen lines, each standing for a year she'd have to serve me to get to adulthood......................................She'd planned to stay another ten years, looked like, but she'd let herself out early. Time off for good behavior?"

"I wanted to be done with the violent, angry girl my mother had created with her leaving, and I'd long been done with Ro."
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Jan 11, 2013 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, chick-lit

My second take of a Joshilyn Jackson audiobook wasn't as great as the first. The author is a wonderful narrator (how often does that happen?) but the subject got to me.

Ro Grandee is a difficult character to listen to. She's in an abusive marriage, was abused by her father, and can't figure out how to escape...or even if she wants to. Her mother ran away when Ro was 8, and now the mother appears as a card reader in an airport. Ro's fortune? Either she or her husband will die.

After a failed murd...more

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Jul 14, 2012 marg rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I guess, if pushed, I could give this a 1.5 for having SOME redeeming qualities, but in truth those redeeming qualities only reinforced how much better this book could have been, and wasn't. Reading this felt like when I read my students' papers and cross out whole paragraphs only to then come to one sentence and circle it saying, YES! YES! MORE LIKE THIS!!
I don't do well with stories of battered women, and this one was not only hard to read for all the usual reasons, but it was baffling and dis...more

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Joshilyn Jackson speaks about Backseat Saints

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About Joshilyn Jackson

SHORT VERSION:

Jackson's latest novel, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY, pubs on November 19, 2013!

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of six novels: gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, and most recently, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s nove...more SHORT VERSION:

Jackson's latest novel, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY, pubs on November 19, 2013!

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of six novels: gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, and most recently, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s novel of the year, twice been a #1 Book Sense Pick, and twice been shortlisted for the Townsend prize. A former actor, Jackson reads the audio versions of her novels; her work in this field has been nominated for the Audie Award, was selected by AudioFile Magazine for their best of the year list, and garnered two Listen Up Awards from Publisher’s Weekly.

She is hard at work on a new novel expected in 2015.

She lives in Decatur, Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. She

LONG VERSION:

Joshilyn Jackson was born by the sugar white beaches of Florida’s Redneck Riviera and raised by a tribe of wild fundamentalists who taught her to be virtuous and upright. Unfortunately, it didn’t take, and Ms. Jackson dropped out of college to pursue a career as an actor. She worked in regional repertoire, wrote plays, and traveled the southern third of the country with a dinner theatre troupe.

She decided both virtue and an education were worth the work, so she went back to college to study English literature, focusing on Modern and Medieval Theater. She graduated with honors from Georgia State. She fell for the hometown guy who’d been her best friend since she was a teenager and followed him north, braving Chicago’s winters to marry him. She recovered from a near-terminal case of culture shock in time to earn her MA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Jackson spent seven years in as a southern ex-pat in Illinois, working with various theatre groups as an actor and playwright and selling short fiction to literary magazines and anthologies such as Calyx and TriQuarterly. She also taught English at UIC, trying to explain the function of the gerund and why Waiting for Godot is a great play to crowds of hung-over 18 year olds. In her first year of teaching, she won the Student’s Choice Award for Best English Instructor.

Motherhood made her homesick, and in 1998 she moved back to the South to teach part time, raise kids full time, and try her hand at writing novels in her copious spare time (read: every day from 4 am ‘til the baby woke up.) She’s been a full time novelist since gods in Alabama sold at auction in 2005, but Jackson’s teaching experience and theatre background have both come in handy. She enjoys reading the audio versions of her novels, and she’s been on faculty of writing workshops all over the country and enjoys speaking at book festivals, libraries and literary events. She occasionally teaches a creative writing class, most recently at Vermont College of Fine Arts and Emory University.

She currently lives in Decatur with her husband Scott and their two kids, Sam and Maisy Jane. They share space with Bagel the hound dog, Ansley the small auxiliary dog, and Mango, a huge yellow tom. Their outsize aquarium has, over the years, hosted a pair of brother gerbils who turned out to be an incestuous brother-sister baby factory, tadpoles who turned out to be mosquito larvae, more tadpoles who turned out to be newt larvae, caterpillars who turned out to be verminous hairy tent worms, and an egg sack that recently hatched out several zillion cannibalizing mantises who are now living in the back garden. This crew is often supplemented by stray beasts of all stripes seeking permanent homes.(less)

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Quotes from Backseat Saints

“I was looking for my ex-lover to break the Sixth Commandment.” — 4 people liked it

“...blind and naked as an unearthed mole, uncomprehending.” — 2 people liked it

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