Reviews for Tessa’s Heart

Reviews

Medallion for the IndieReader Discovery Awards

2024 IndieReader Discovery Awards: Tessa’s Heart: A Texas Story

… an engaging story that speaks volumes…

2024 IndieReader Discovery Awards: Tessa’s Heart: A Texas Story

… characters are both realistic and well-developed…

TESSA’S HEART: A Texas Story by Jackie Lewis will engross readers with its heartrending depiction of a young girl’s passage through family dynamics and personal identity. The author tells a captivating story using well-developed characters to explore themes like survival, the desire to belong elsewhere, and courage under difficult circumstances (including communicating with ghost relatives). An engaging story that speaks volumes in terms of empathy, feeling and sensitivity.

Interview with Jackie Lewis

Eric Hoffer Honorable Mention – Tessa’s Heart: A Texas Story

… characters are both realistic and well-developed…

Eric Hoffer Honorable Mention – Tessa’s Heart: A Texas Story

… characters are both realistic and well-developed…

Funny, poignant, sad, and exhilarating, this book tells the story of Tessa, a gifted, imaginative, strong child who transcends her often frightening and unsupportive environment, while developing both through fantasy and reality.

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US Review of Books – Tessa’s Heart: A Texas Story

Lewis has created a memorable protagonist in Tessa. She is outspoken, courageous, smart, and more than a little quirky.

US Review of Books – Tessa’s Heart: A Texas Story

Lewis has created a memorable protagonist in Tessa. She is outspoken, courageous, smart, and more than a little quirky.

The elements of Southern Gothic literature embedded in this novel are delightful, particularly in the story’s religious aspects … with the type of eccentric humor known from writers such as Larry Brown, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor … Furthermore, the author touches on societal and racial issues and attitudes of the period, which are staple subjects with Southern Gothic writers.

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Kirkus Reviews – Tessa’s Heart: A Texas Story

A compelling, unpredictable, and poignant story . . .

Kirkus Reviews – Tessa’s Heart: A Texas Story

A compelling, unpredictable, and poignant story . . .

A disturbed Texas girl struggles with a difficult family and uncontrollable impulses in Lewis’ debut novel … the book is haunting in its presentation of the protagonist’s primal, raw emotions, such as her longing for a loving father, her deep need to be seen and heard, and her complicated feelings surrounding sexuality.

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An oral review by Laurel Pinkey on her website: A Book for Every Season

A debut novel featuring Texas in the fifties in a small town. A combination of To Kill a Mocking Bird and Flannery O’Connor!

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