Joy Jordan-Lake Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Children's Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Joy Jordan-Lake is an American author of fiction. She lives with her husband and their three children a little south of Nashville, Tennessee. They also share their life with their sweet Golden Retriever dog as well as two cats.

She is the author of fiction as well as nonfiction books. Her debut book was in the nonfiction genre and was titled Grit and Grace. It was released in 1997. It was followed by the 2005 release eight years later of Whitewashing Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

The novel focused on the impact on the history of the United States by the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by famed author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Joy-Jordan goes over how it was the first novel in America to sell over a million copies and took over the mind of the public to examine, discuss, extol, and debate it. She discusses how slavery apologists published their own fictional novels as a direct reaction to her work (a portion written by women). Jordan-Lake puts a microscope up to literary tradition, patriarchal games, and ethical disasters ripped from history.

Joy Jordan-Lake didn’t stop there and moved on to other interesting topics. As a result, she had two nonfiction books released in 2007 titled Working Families and the humorous Why Jesus Makes Me Nervous.

Working Families, as the title might suggest, is a book that shows parents how to juggle and balance having kids and family life with professional life and parenthood as well as keeping the fridge full of food. It comes with a discussion guide for groups or individuals and comes with real-life examples from everyday and famous people that detail how they navigate life together and not only survive but thrive.

Her first fictional novel was published in 2008. It was called Blue Hole Back Home. She followed that up nine years later with the 2017 release of her book, A Tangled Mercy, which got rave reviews from critics. Patti Callahan Henry praised the author’s depth of emotion as well as the ‘veracity’ of the story, which puts the reader in Charleston in a vivid way, making them part of the scene.

Blue Hole Back Home is Jordan-Lake’s first fiction book. The main character in this story is a girl called Shelby, who is nicknamed Turtle. She is a girl that never really had any friends the same age as her when she is growing up. But that all changes with a new arrival to her area in the summer of 1979.

Turtle meets a young girl from Sri Lanka when she comes to her town. Could this be her first friend? Shelby invites her to Shelby’s most favorite and most secret haven in the world. It is called The Blue Hole, and Shelby knows that even though the word sacred is not one she’s ever really liked, some things and places might be– and Blue Hole would fit into that category or word of description.

Shelby has never had anyone to share her haven with before. Little does she know that inviting this girl from Sri Lanka there will have ripple effects that would affect not only her life but the lives of those around her. This book in set in a time when America was technically past the era of Civil Rights but where old prejudices and patterns die out slowly or not at all, despite the “progress” being made around the nation and on the legal books.

Can this Appalachian town accept the presence of people that are different from them? Or will the arrival of this family just bring out the true nature of most of the people that live in that town? The innocence of childhood collides with the complicated emotions and realities of the times in America and the small towns that make it up as well as the big progressive cities.

This summer could be the best of Shelby’s life– or the worst. Will the heat of the hot summer months get everyone carried away with hate and jealousy, or will the magic of her sacred place be enough to shelter them and keep them safe? Pick up this incredible work of fiction from Joy Jordan-Lake and find out!

A Tangled Mercy is Joy Jordan-Lake’s second book in the fictional genre. This quintessential American epic is inspired by tragic true events. It dives into examining the dark side of the human heart and how deep the depth of our brutality can go and the capacity and impact of betrayal. Focusing on the constant hope for not only freedom but forgiveness for what we have done in a story that is both touching, haunting, and full of redemption.

The main character in this story is Kate Drayton. Even though she is successful in the sense that she graduated from Harvard and survived life at the Ivy League and is currently working in the university circuit, not even she can affect how the passing of her mother will affect her. It was a sudden death and her mother was troubled. One day shortly after, Kate walks out on not only the lecture she is supposed to be giving but her entire life in New England.

She cannot get some questions off of her mind. Her uncertain future is giving her anxiety. The only thing she knows to do is to make her way to Charleston in South Carolina. It is the place where her parents first met. Kate thinks that if she can just get there, Charleston will hold the key to her finally understanding her family and also maybe buoy up her spirits enough so that she can salvage her career working in the academic world.

It’s not just a random bolt of inspiration that is driving Kate to South Carolina. This is the place where her mother did her research on a famed slave revolt. The slave revolt of 1822 failed, but the story remains. Tom Russell was a slave who was also a gifted blacksmith. He was faced with a Catch-22: join an uprising that was forming or avoid the risk and stay alive. The rebellion is being run by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which has always been independent.

Relentless, Kate is driven to find out the secrets of what happened here and also why her mother was so obsessed with the history of tumultuous and complicated Charleston. But history may not be done repeating, and when an event at the landmark church occurs, Kate might just be caught up in it– and discover a family she never knew in the process. Pick up A Tangled Mercy to take in this vivid story set in the South for yourself!