Johnnie Bernhard’s historic fiction novel, A Good Girl, a top ten finalist in the 2015 Faulkner- Wisdom Literary Competition, has been acquired by Texas Review Press!

Learning who you are is accepting where you’ve been.

Have you ever wondered why you are the way you are?

In order to forgive her dying father, Gracey Mueller Reiter immerses herself into the chaotic gene pool of the Walsh-Mueller clan, only to find herself and the family she spent years running from.

Her great-great-grandmother, Patricia Walsh, came over from Ireland in 1847, starving, on a coffin ship, and ended up in Houston, Texas married to Emil Mueller, a first generation German immigrant. Six sons and a legacy…

Facing a catalyst—a past confronted, the present slipping away and the unknown, intimidating future—she can’t do a thing about the past, except accept it for what it was…her father’s alcoholism, her mother’s infidelity and soul-searching, and her siblings “realities.”

Imminent death lurks. And yet, in the midst of it all, histories come full-circle, revealing both lies and truths. What once was, will be again, repeating itself…or does the buck stop here?

An all-encompassing novel that penetrates the core beings of all who read it, A Good Girl pulls back the skin to reveal the raw actualities of life, love, and relationships, told with candor and honesty.

A former high school English teacher and professional journalist, now an agent and an author, Johnnie Bernhard life’s work has been reading and writing. Her work has appeared in newspapers and magazines, both nationally and internationally. She is a graduate of the University of Houston with graduate work at Nicholls State University.  Her articles and columns have appeared in the Suburban Reporter, Houston; World Oil Magazine, Houston; The MS Press, Ocean Springs Record, and Word Among Us.   She was also published in two anthologies for the Gulf Coast Writers Association MS Profiles “Portrait of a MS Artist” and Katrina Memories “Maureen and the Hurricane.” She has edited the Houston Writers Guild/Inklings Publishing anthologies, Eclectically Criminal and Twisted Reveries. She is a member of the Cursillo Movement of South Mississippi, an international Catholic religious retreat. Bernhard’s goal is to reach out to the education and faith-based communities as a lecturer and speaker.   A Good Girl book trailer 

The mock cover, created by international artist Grady Byrd, is being considered by Texas University Press.

A Good Girl will be a sought-after book club discussion book, as well as for anyone who has ever lost a parent or had siblings. Who hasn’t? A guaranteed best seller, it may even encourage readers to research their own heritage.

Texas Review Press, founded in 1979, is a member of the Texas Book Consortium: Texas State Historical Association Press, Texas Christian University Press, University of North Texas Press, State House/McWhiney Press, Stephen F. Austin State University Press, and Southern Methodist University Press. It is under the direction of Dr. Paul Ruffin, Texas Sate University system Regents’ Professor, Distinguished Professor of English.  Dr. Ruffin is the 2009 Texas Sate Poet Laureate. Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency