Today’s featured title is A Grownup Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson, the New York Times Bestselling author of five novels. Jackson lives with her husband, kids and dogs in Decatur, Georgia. Look for her sixth novel, Someone Else’s Love Story, in 2014. You can visit Jackson online at joshilynjackson.com.

Back cover copy: 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 Ginny, 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.

Genre: Women’s Fiction, Southern Lit

Judge this book by its cover? Kinda. I love the cover and would read it for its looks alone, but the contents aren’t as sweet as the cover suggests.

Reminds me of… Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. Sarah Addison Allen novels, only edgier

Buy or borrow?: Buy it if you like Southern lit with grit

Why did I get this book? From the author to review

Rating: 4.5/5 stars. A most memorable Southern voice

My take: I’ll admit it took me a while to get into this story. There are three narrative characters, none of whom I easily related to. There’s Big (who’s tiny), who was pregnant at 15, is now 45, a grandmother made of equal parts sugar and steel. Her beautiful daughter–willful, promiscuous Liza–was struck nearly mute by a stroke at 30. And 15-year-old Mosey, who wants so badly to be her own person that she routinely pees on pregnancy sticks (even though she’s a staunch virgin) just to see the consistent negative results that prove she’s nothing like her mother and grandmother.

Jackson imbues each character (even the minors–really, it’s very impressive) with their own original, highly distinctive voices–superbly crafted, but so unique that I had to really pay attention. So the reading at first felt a little like work. But then–right about the swimming pool scene–I got hooked and everything changed. By the time Mosey came upon Bogo, I could hardly put the book down. I had to know the solution to the mystery of what happened to Liza and what would become of Mosey. And I ignored clamoring children and reasonable bedtimes to do it.

Joshilyn Jackson has said about her writing: “I write because story is how I explain the world to myself; for me, a novel is a way to examine–not answer–the questions that have shaped my life and my choices: What is home? … How does motherhood define you? How far away can you wander in the black and still stagger into a moment of redemption? How can grace find you? How does faith define you? Does love win?”

Perhaps this is, in the end, what I found so enormously appealing about Pretty. It asks questions, it doesn’t necessarily give the answers. And yet…beneath the grit of this story, lurk the answers we always hope to find: Beauty. Redemption. And, yes, most definitely, love.

What do you think of this new book review format? Thumbs up or thumbs down? I’d love your feedback. Feel free to drop me a line. Thank you!