I’ve just been forwarded an advanced copy of Booklist’s review of STILTSVILLE. It’s great! I’m so pleased. Here it is:
Frances Ellerby travels from Georgia to Miami for a wedding and meets the two people who will change her life. One is the glamorous, sexy Marse, a native of Miami, who introduces her to the two great loves of her life: her husband, Dennis, and the sun-drenched landscape of Biscayne Bay. The author’s organization of the story into seven sections, each of which recounts a seminal year in Miami history and Frances’ life, is a surprisingly successful technique for creating suspense in a book characterized by lushly descriptive and complex writing. The first-person narration provides a vivid look at the characters important to Frances as she becomes a deeply involved wife, mother, and friend. Perhaps the most important character in the story is the city of Miami, which always looms large in Frances’ consciousness until the bittersweet ending of her story—an ending that could have been melodramatic and maudlin but is written with great delicacy and discretion. This promising first novel will appeal to readers of family stories, literary fiction, and southern writing.
