Johnnie Come Lately is one of those stories that is so rich with character development and relatable plot, that when I got to the final pages, all I was hoping for was one sentence telling me when I could expect the next excerpt of Johnnie Kitchen’s life.

Kathleen M. Rodgers does a fantastic job of putting the readers directly in anxiety-driven situations along with the main character, Johnnie. Rodgers puts the reader in the frantic mind of a recovering bulimic who fights to keep a grip on her self-destructive nature as her life begins to fall apart around her.  Between the slip of a marriage-altering secret, a neighborhood kid returning from war forever changed on the heels of her son deciding to join the service, and the intertwined mystery of her uncle’s death and her mother’s absence, Johnnie Come Lately is packed with page-turning panic that will keep you guessing to the end and eager for more.

• Lisa Van Wormer