Review: Higher Love

HIGHER LOVE

By JOANNE KUKANZA EASLEY

Women’s Literary Fiction

Publisher: Red Boots Press

Pages: 380

Publication Date: May 12, 2025

SYNOPSIS

Higher Love - the new release from Joanne Kukanza Easley, the multi-award-winning author of Sweet Jane, Just One Look, and I’ll Be Seeing You.

In 1986 Austin, Texas, sixteen-year-old Stephanie steps into sixty-two-year-old Lauren’s life, her uncanny resemblance cracking open a buried past. Claiming to be the daughter of the child Lauren gave up for adoption forty-five years ago, Stephanie upends Lauren’s life—already complicated by her remarriage to Brett after thirty-three years apart. Stung by her adoptive grandmother’s deception, Stephanie stays, her past of tragedy and self-harm forging a fragile bond with Lauren and Brett. When Stephanie’s trust fund evaporates, crushing her college dreams, Lauren sacrifices all to give her a future—only to face a bittersweet twist that echoes the past and changes everything. This heart-wrenching family drama delves into the enduring impact of secrets, the power of unconditional love, and the strength found in facing our pasts.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joanne Kukanza Easley, a retired registered nurse with experience in both the cold, clinical operating room and the highly charged world of psychiatric hospitals, lives in the Texas Hill Country, where she writes fiction about complicated, twentieth-century women. Her multi-award-winning debut, Sweet Jane, was named the adult fiction winner at the Texas Author Project and shortlisted for the Sarton Award and Eric Hoffer Award, among others. Just One Look, Joanne’s second novel, was a May 2022 Pulpwood Queen Book Club Pick. I’ll Be Seeing You, her third novel, features characters from Sweet Jane. Look for her fourth novel, Higher Love, a sequel to her third book, in Spring 2025. Her prize-winning short stories and poetry have appeared in several anthologies.

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Joanne Kukanza Easley’s Higher Love is definitely a foray into the dynamic of family drama. In beginning Higher Love, I did feel a bit lost because I didn’t realize that there was a prequel to this story called I’ll Be Seeing You. It is during that story where we actually learn of Ruby Lauren Eaton Owens from the age of 15. In this book, we actually see Lauren at the age of 62 after her first year of re-marrying Brett Owens, when Stephanie enters their lives. Stephanie is 16 years old and claims to be the daughter of the child Lauren gave up for adoption many years ago. Talk about family drama, eh?

Stephanie is a teenager, so that would almost automatically signal the fact that she’s going to be angry or AT LEAST moody, right? Well, add to the fact that she finds herself in this situation and her unhappiness begins to weigh very heavy on the characters and, through good writing, to the reader as well.

Easley does a wonderful job in creating well-rounded characters and a true-to-life setting for this story. Each of these characters carries a background with flaws, successes, and failures; it is very easy to slip into this story because these characters could easily be someone you know. Fantastic writing does that for a reader.

I recommend this book to lovers of drama - in particular family drama. Talk about a dynamic with layers!

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