Read our latest staff reviews and recommendations featured in The Southern Bookseller Review.
Theresa Shea writes quite the stirring tale along with establishing her beliefs about environmental hazards with crop dusting and strong convictions about animal testing. Trevor Westmore is just a great guy who was a former veterinarian released from prison after serving twenty-five years for murder. When I say he is a great guy, I want to clarify that he tried to save his best friend’s girlfriend when she threatened suicide. Readers will continue to root for Trevor when he is released from prison and is gifted a puppy named Libby and ready to begin a new life away from prison life. He meets and falls in love with a local veterinarian, Laura Fenway. With his strong loves and beliefs, will he be able to continue with his new start in life with his new kennel and new love?
Dog Days of Planet Earth by Theresa Shea, (List Price: $19.95, ECW Press, 9781770418622, September 2026)
Reviewed by Nancy, Bookmiser in Marietta, GA
Connect with your inner wildflower in this richly textured, inspirational new novel by Terah Shelton Harris. The novel’s vivid imagery will transport you to a hidden refuge where flowers and people grow wild. Drawing on the healing power of nature, Harris explores how strength and hope can bloom even after intense tragedy. Leigh Wilde is a survivor. Running from her tragic past, she finds herself an escaped fugitive on a flower farm in rural Gee’s Bend, Alabama. On the farm, she meets others who, like her, are survivors of past trauma. As she gradually learns to trust those around her and, most importantly, herself, she realizes that to live, she must do more than merely survive. Like the Cahaba Lily that blooms fearlessly along the riverbank, Leigh too begins to flourish despite the fears that have held her back. Yet as the secrets of her past rush in to reclaim her, what will it take to stay true to herself? Freedom may be as simple as letting go. Leigh’s story will break your heart and rebuild it petal by fragrant petal. At the end, Leigh’s love reveals the most radiant flower. Like the gift of a rare lily, this is a novel you will cherish.
Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris, (List Price: $29.99, Sourcebooks Landmark, 9781464229220, February 2026)
Reviewed by Laura, Bookmiser in Marietta, GA
If you think it would be fun to own a bookshop, this book is for you. If you also think books are good for your health and the right book can clear up a case of boredom, this book is for you. Katie Clapham has recorded a month by month view of the weather outside her bookshop and all the people who entered or didn’t enter her store. She owns the bookstore with her mother who stops by often as well as he grandmother, her husband and her daughter who she has called The Bookwormlet. Selling enough books is always a concern and the author is delighted when she can make the perfect recommendation and make a sale. She obviously loves reading and enjoys seeing and talking with the customers. Receipts from the Bookshop will call to all readers to visit and buy many beloved books and long to visit the one that Katie Clapham owns.
Receipts from the Bookshop by Katie Clapham, (List Price: $28, William Morrow, 9780063516625, September 2026)
Reviewed by Nancy, Bookmiser in Marietta, GA
This is indeed a ghost story, but truly a very eerie tale even for a spooky ghost story. The haunting begins with a realtor showing an empty house that includes an apparition of a young boy who lived in the house. The next time she enters the house, which seems to have a hold on her, the realtor also sees herself as a ghost. The haunting gets even stranger…..hold on….with suspended time and eternal recurrences with the boy and his family. Dear reader, you have not happened upon a more bizarre and lonely tale than Last Day of a Prior Life.
Last Day of a Prior Life by Andrés Barba, (List Price: $26, HarperVia, 9780063352056, August 2026)
Reviewed by Nancy, Bookmiser in Marietta, GA
Richard Russo has written many memorable novels, and Under the Falls is again a study into the minds of characters as they exist with the people they know best. Tyler Sinclair, at 36, is a successful frontman for the band Stone Mountain, and he is returning to his hometown after leaving abruptly eighteen years earlier. The band is coming to Stone Mountain for a benefit for Doc, who is in a wheelchair because of an accident that Tyler may have caused. Tyler also sees his childhood best friend Curt, who is married to Tyler’s former lover Freddi. The concert is interrupted by jeering audience members, and the night ends with a tragic incident causing deaths. Many questions are raised… why did Curt leave Stone Mountain at age 18? What caused the deaths on the mountain after the concert? And what is happening with drug running under the nose of the Chief of Police? The secrets and betrayals will keep the pages turning as readers get a glimpse into life in this small town.
Under the Falls by Richard Russo, (List Price: $30, Knopf, 9780593805107, August 2026)
Reviewed by Nancy, Bookmiser in Marietta, GA
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