Touched by Carolyn Haines

Touched by Carolyn Haines

The Jexville Chronicles #2

This book involves members of the same family as in SUMMER OF THE REDEEMERS, the McVay family. But it’s set in 1926 in the same community of Jexville.

Conflicts in a small Southern town bubble to the surface in this tale of repression and prophecy, the second book in The Jexville Chronicles trilogy. Sixteenyear-old Mattie comes to Mississippi in the summer of 1926 as a mail-order bride and finds a quiet, deeply religious community wrapped in rigid views of a woman’s proper role. When Duncan McVay, the nine-year-old daughter of Jexville’s most controversial woman, is struck by lightning while dancing, the townspeople are horrified when she doesn’t die but survives—and is given the gift of prophecy. Abused and mistreated by her handsome husband, Mattie defends Duncan. She finds comfort in her friendship with JoHanna and the McVay family, but defying the town has consequences. When a hurricane lashes the area, the townspeople blame Duncan. Action leads to tragedy. For both Mattie and Johanna, the future holds heartache, but ultimately a long-awaited and stunningly executed revenge.

"Like the heat of a Deep South summer, Ms. Haines's novel has undeniable intensity; it's impossible to shake its brooding atmosphere." —The New York Times Book Review

"So vivid, so energetic, so poignant that it seems to move on reels rather than pages." —Chicago Tribune

"Haines's fresh and suspenseful second novel (after Summer of the Redeemers) is set in 1926, in the "bleakly ugly" Bible-belt town of Jexville, Miss., where dancing is looked upon as a sin and women are expected to be docile and religious. Written with a languid sensuality, this rich and complex work features quirky, fully developed characters involved in an unpredictable story, with Mattie's long-awaited revenge providing a bittersweet but satisfying coda." —Publishers Weekly

"Absolutely riveting as it pulses forward with mounting tension...brilliant!" —Rocky Mountain News

"Action overload as Mattie and friends more than prove their credentials as cool, modern, and independent women able to cope with everything." -Kirkus Review