Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson

This book won't be published until March 3, 2026, but you can put the book on reserve now!

Reviewed by Kristin

Penny is a rookie cop, motivated into the career by the loss of her twin sister Nix five years earlier. At her very first murder scene in an Atlanta suburb, she not only recognizes the male victim as someone who hurt Nix and helped to create the downward spiral which led to her death, Penny then practically stumbles across a blonde woman holding a bloody box cutter.

When the woman cryptically says that the events of the night were all about sisters, Penny is taken aback and allows the woman to flee. Not exactly proper cop behavior, but Penny needs to find out how this murder is connected to Nix.

Penny discovers a slow burn trail of clues which takes the reader through many twists and turns. I didn't see the end coming, although of course I second guessed whether I should have. In this kind of domestic suspense, everyone is a suspect.

Jackson is brilliant at taking the plot in unexpected directions, while maintaining believability in the end. Every time I read one of her books, I feel that she really understands human nature in all its various possibilities. People are complex, and Jackson's characters are multi-dimensional in all the right ways.

I read this as an advanced reader copy (ARC) ebook, and I will look for the audiobook when it is available. Jackson usually narrates her own audiobooks in her distinctive but not overwhelming Southern accent, which I find wonderfully entertaining.

Thanks to Joshilyn Jackson and William Morrow for the ARC allowing me the intense excitement of reading my favorite author’s latest work months early, in exchange for an honest review!

With My Little Eye by Joshilyn Jackson

 

Reviewed by Kristin

How far would you go to escape a threat to your family? If a nefarious someone knew where you lived, where you went to the gym, even what you wore to a casual lunch with friends? If that same person—who might be called a stalker at this point—began sending you letters drawn with sickly sweet fruit scented markers? If things were oh-so-slightly rearranged in your house and your sheets suddenly smelled like unfamiliar cologne?

Actor Meribel Mills uprooted herself and her twelve-year-old daughter Honor from Los Angeles to move to Atlanta. She accepted a role filming in Georgia and left a budding romance and all her friends behind. Long gone are her younger years when she convincingly played 16-year-old Didi, a smaller breakout role on one of those iconic teenage shows. Now Meribel is pushing forty, or at least that is what IMDB and her fans believe.

Honor does not do well with surprises or change, but she is adapting to Atlanta. She might even be making a friend or two in their Midtown condo building. Honor is autistic, but usually well enough regulated due to Meribel’s strict enforcement of diet, exercise, and routines. Making new friends in a new place is hard enough for anyone on the cusp of adolescence, and sometimes harder for someone on the spectrum.

Even though Meribel and Honor have moved across the country to escape the stalker they call Marker Man, the letters and packages keep coming. Most significantly, not all of them are postmarked L.A. anymore. Marker Man is traveling eastward. Closer and closer to Atlanta and their newfound pocket of safety.

The story is told from several points of view—Meribel’s is primary, but other characters also have voices which reveal facts still unknown to Meribel. Honor’s voice is very important, so earnest and truthful, even as she conceals things from her mother since she is almost a teenager. New neighbor Cooper plays a part, as does Cam, Meribel’s recent romantic interest who she left behind in L.A. Even Marker Man tells the story from his point of view, and you can imagine how warped and obsessed it is.

As with every Joshilyn Jackson novel, not everything is as it first appears, and she does a lovely job of peeling back layers and revealing things in a way that builds tension as danger ensues. Jackson’s characters are well developed and usually give me strong feelings, whether that makes me identify with them or makes me want to shout “Bad person alert!” and protect the good people in the story.

Jackson has written several other books and I have loved (and probably reviewed) them all. Can I wait another year for her next one? I recommend books all day. Who else do you think I should be reading?

Nevermore: Sputnik Sweetheart, Excellent Women, Carter Family, Joshilyn Jackson, Homes: A Refugee Story

Reported by Kristin

Nevermore kicked off this week with a discussion of Sputnik Sweetheart by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. All about the unrequited love of a young college student for his female best friend Sumire, this novel weaves romance and mystery together as the woman disappears from a Greek island where she has travelled with a sophisticated older woman. Our reader enjoyed how the author tied together the parts of this fantastical story.

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym continued our discussion of fiction. Mildred Lathbury is a 1950s English spinster who is always there to support her community. She goes to church, takes care of those in need, and is generally taken for granted by the male of the species. Slyly comedic, the stories told express much about human nature. Our reader commented that nothing much actually happened plot-wise, but it was still a really good book.

In regional non-fiction, another reader was immersed in Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? The Carter Family & Their Legacy in American Music by Mark Zwonitzer and Charles Hirshberg. Rich with details, this biography of the Carter Family of southwest Virginia spans many events in the life and career of the musical family. The Carter Family have influenced many artists to this day, as is seen in Bristol with remembrances of the 1927 Bristol Sessions and the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion festival.

Homes: A Refugee Story by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah with Winnie Yeung describes the journey taken by the al Rabeeah family as they fled their home in Iraq in 2010, experienced terrible violence in civil war ravaged Syria, and eventually found a refuge in Canada. Our reader was overwhelmed by the sadness of this young boy as he and his family sought a safe place. Despite the difficulty of the subject matter, she strongly recommended this book.

Returning to fiction, two readers raved about two different novels by Joshilyn Jackson. First, The Almost Sisters was keeping one reader enthralled. Leah is a graphic novelist who found passion at a Comic Con, and brought more away from that night than expected. The thirty-eight year old is pregnant, and breaking the news to her southern family might be more than she can handle. Jackson adds layers upon layers to her novels, and the twists and turns here were keeping our reader on the edge of her seat.

Jackson’s latest novel being enjoyed by another book club member is Never Have I Ever. Amy is a happy suburban mother with some deep dark secrets, and new neighbor Roux is intent upon using them for her own purposes. Our reader claimed that this new thriller is very well written and the story will take you on a roller coaster ride.

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

Reviewed by Kristin

Amy Whey has the kind of life that looks a little boring from the outside; she’s a wife and mother who hosts the neighborhood book club and carefully guards her little circle of friends and family. Amy may look like a comfortable suburbanite but hers is a life she has intentionally created, and a life which she desperately desires to maintain. With husband Davis, stepdaughter Madison, and baby Oliver, Amy has found the comfort and love she never had in her early years.

Then comes Roux.

Angelica Roux breezes into Amy’s neighborhood, rents a house for herself and her sixteen-year-old son Luca, and shows up on Amy’s doorstep for book club. With her bold personality, Roux captivates the group. The wine is flowing freely as the atmosphere turns edgy, exhilarating, and just a little bit dangerous. Observing the other women keenly, Roux seems to see right into their souls, and maybe she also sees their deepest secrets. And oh, Amy does have a secret. And Roux knows it. How far will Amy go to keep her marriage, her family, and her friends? Questions of integrity and justice collide as Roux plays a daring game with the very fabric of Amy’s life.

Never Have I Ever is Joshilyn Jackson’s ninth published novel, and is a dramatic departure from her previous works. Jackson has never been one to shy away from a plot twist or three, but this story takes twists and turns which might make you feel as if you’re on a roller coaster holding your breath and then letting it out with a scream as your stomach drops out from under you.

Jackson’s earlier novels tend to have fierce and flawed female characters with dynamic family relationships. Her women are not just weak little ladies reacting to things happening –to- them, but they create their own action. Both Roux and Amy fit into the fierce and flawed character motif as individuals who have grabbed control of their own futures, even though the choices of one or both are shocking and morally questionable.

This bold new novel departs from Jackson’s slightly gentler Southern family sagas, possibly attracting a different readership who might prefer their stories with more thrills and suspense. I have to admit that I will read anything Jackson writes because I enjoy her literary voice. She seems to pull her stories out from deep within her soul and I get the feeling the characters have been bouncing around in her head for a decade or so before they manage to emerge on the page. I have heard Jackson speak at the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia and she said that her books are always about redemption. People live their lives, inevitably take wrong turns, then try to get back on the best path for them.  Although this is a messy process, it is the very essence of life and relationships. Jackson writes vivid, relatable characters, and that is why I enjoy her books so much.

A Grown Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

Reviewed by Jeanne

Ginny Slocumb—aka “Big”-- isn’t usually superstitious, but she does have a fear of the number fifteen.  She was fifteen when she gave birth to her daughter Liza, and Liza was fifteen when she gave birth to her own daughter.  Now Mosey is reaching that dangerous age, and Big is watching her like a hawk, determined to stop the cycle. 

But it’s not as if Mosey is all she has to worry about:  Liza suffered a stroke before she was 30 and is struggling to learn to talk and move again.  Big thinks that water therapy was helping Liza, so she is determined to build a pool in their yard, despite having to take down Liza’s beloved willow tree.

When the tree comes down, a box is uncovered.  Big recognizes it immediately:  it belonged to Liza.

Inside are the bones of a baby.

The revelation shakes the family to their core, as Big and Mosey alternately try to unravel the mystery and keep it hidden, while Liza remains trapped in inside her head, struggling to communicate the truth.

A co-worker is a Joshilyn Jackson fan and always recommends her books, but I had not picked one up until Book Bingo.  The square was “Read a book by a Southern author,” so I decided this was my  chance.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I found myself captivated by A Grown Up Kind of Pretty.  The family is not quite respectable in the eyes of the eyes of the town; Liza, especially, is considered a “wild child,” not only for getting pregnant at 14 but for taking the baby and running off who knows where for several years.  Women in town regard her suspiciously, sure she is about to make off with their husbands—or at the very least have a fling.  Mosey is considered suspect because of her mother, and Big—well, Big is a force of nature, trying to protect her family.  The book alternates points of view between the three women, giving each a distinct and memorable voice.

Jackson’s stories have been described as having an “earthy” quality, and I would certainly agree to that; while there’s no explicit sex scenes, things are discussed frankly.  What impressed me the most, though, is the bonds of love between the three generations.  The book is also very, very funny, and there are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep a reader glued to the book.  Characterization is one of Jackson’s strong suits: she creates people we care for and want to know more about even after the book comes to an end.

In a way, Jackson’s writing reminds me of another author I love, Sarah Addison Allen. Although Allen’s books are sweeter and lack Jackson’s grit, the emotions evoked are similar.  

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with the Slocumbs, and I’ll probably pick up another Joshilyn Jackson book in the future.