Review: "Backseat Saints" by Joshilyn Jackson

Published: June 8, 2010 
Pages: 336 
Genre: Woman's Literature

Rating: 4 stars

Goodreads Blurb: 
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 readers 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.

Darcy's Review:
I liked this book, but found that the main character to be a contrast, there were times that I really liked and admired her, felt sorry for her, and wanted her to do what she wouldn't do, but then at other times I found that I hated her, thought she was selfish, and just plain self centered and unlikable.

While we watch Rose Mae through the story, learn her background we see why she is the way she is. She really didn't have a chance, my only hope is that the second chance she was given at the end is one that she was able to take and run with.

Whether you agree or disagree with what happens to Rose Mae along the way, this book will get you talking about what is right, what is wrong, what you would do, what you would put up with, and what is your price for freedom. 

Review by Darcy at Goodreads