The Opposite of Everyone: A Novelby Joshilyn Jackson

From the Publisher.

A fiercely independent divorce lawyer learns the power of family and connection when she receives a cryptic message from her estranged mother in this bittersweet, witty novel from the nationally bestselling author of Someone Else’s Love Story andgods in Alabama—an emotionally resonant tale about the endurance of love and the power of stories to shape and transform our lives.

Born in Alabama, Paula Vauss spent the first decade of her life on the road with her free-spirited young mother, Kai, an itinerant storyteller who blended Hindu mythology with southern oral tradition to re-invent their history as they roved. But everything, including Paula’s birth name Kali Jai, changed when she told a story of her own—one that landed Kai in prison and Paula in foster care. Separated, each holding secrets of her own, the intense bond they once shared was fractured.

These days, Paula has reincarnated herself as a tough-as-nails divorce attorney with a successful practice in Atlanta. While she hasn’t seen Kai in fifteen years, she’s still making payments on that Karmic debt—until the day her last check is returned in the mail, along with a mysterious note: “I am going on a journey, Kali. I am going back to my beginning; death is not the end. You will be the end. We will meet again, and there will be new stories. You know how Karma works.”

Then Kai’s most treasured secret literally lands on Paula’s doorstep, throwing her life into chaos and transforming her from only child to older sister. Desperate to find her mother before it’s too late, Paula sets off on a journey of discovery that will take her back to the past and into the deepest recesses of her heart. With the help of her ex-lover Birdwine, an intrepid and emotionally volatile private eye who still carries a torch for her, this brilliant woman, an expert at wrecking families, now has to figure out how to put one back together—her own.

The Opposite of Everyone is a story about story itself, how the tales we tell connect us, break us, and define us, and how the endings and beginnings we choose can destroy us . . . and make us whole. Laced with sharp humor and poignant insight, it is beloved New York Times bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson at her very best.

Worth Getting in Bed For? Yes. I love this book. The mixing of Hindu storytelling and Southern Oral tradition works and produces a magical mystery tour, minus any drugs, for our heroine Paula Vauss. Jackson has created characters that accompany Vauss on her journey who are flawed in such lovable ways. There is so much here if as the reader, you want to find it. There is identity grappling as our main character reveals in flashbacks how she grew up in a group home and her fragile relationship with her whimsical mother. And there are some feminist tones as well with the multi-armed Goddess images Kai teaches Paula and Paula’s own carefully cultivated image of an independent, multi-tasking successful woman. Will Vauss find what her mother left her? And what exactly has her mother left her? You will keep reading because you want to know. But you also keep reading because you can’t leave this Southern charmer. An excellent read, a best of 2016 for me.

Copy provided by TLC BOOK TOURS

About the Author.

Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times Bestselling author of seen novels.
She lives in Decatur, Georgia with her husband and their two kids. She loves Bourbon and Hot Yoga (not together) and she has more dogs than you. Unless you have three.
She’s also an award winning audiobook narrator.