TITLE INFORMATION

Smoky Blue Sunrise

Lucille Guarino

Black Rose Writing, 277 pages

9781685137519, 5.21.2026

Overall Rating = 4.5

Storyline & Concept = 4

Writing & Delivery = 4.5

Editorial = 5

Jolie-Mae Buckley, once a brilliant student bound for medical school, finds her life put on hold when tragedy strikes her family, and her guilt and remorse paralyses her. Needing a change of scenery, she takes a job as a live-in nanny in North Carolina, on Elizabeth’s Mountain. Her employers, Amanda and Jesse Taylor, and a young man named Brody work together to learn the truth about her earlier tragedy and to free Jolie from her past. Meanwhile, Hurricane Helene bears down upon them, wreaking physical havoc to accompany their emotional upheaval.

This is an emotionally charged novel steeped with sorrow and an aching desire for redemption. The author layers the core story of Jolie’s past and her guilt arising from it with secondary plot lines involving Jesse, Amanda, and Brody, with everything coming to a head amid the drama, danger, and tension of the massive hurricane. Told from multiple points of view, the reader is treated to in-depth character development along with the compelling setting of the mountains of Western North Carolina, the location of the author’s previous novel in this series, Elizabeth’s Mountain. This is women’s fiction with a slow-burn psychological intensity and a strong romantic overtone. Readers who appreciate character-driven novels with emotional depth and a powerful sense of place will find this a truly satisfying read.

Sublime Line: “Haunting, atmospheric, and deeply emotional, this novel explores the fragile boundary between guilt and forgiveness, fear and hope.”

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