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Retreat Through Time With This Hill Country Award-Winning Author

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Tony Maples Photography

 

“A Good Girl” by Johnnie Bernhard is a stirring historical fiction novel that transports you through time across two countries and two states, Texas and Mississippi.

Family, faith, and forgiveness is the central theme of the story: spanning one family’s journey through six generations from as early as the 1840s in Ireland. Interesting historical elements date back as far as the Republic of Texas, Irish/German Settlement, The Great Depression and its effects on Texas, and history of hurricanes on the Texas Gulf Coast. “A Good Girl” also paints a picture of the historical hardship of the Irish Immigrant from the Potato famine of the 1840s and their journey to Texas.

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Photo courtesy of Johnnie Bernhard

“A Good Girl” was among the top ten finalist recognition in the 2015 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, Essay Category.

Johnnie Bernhard is a fourth generation Texan. Bernhard and her husband divide their time between their homes in the YO Ranch, west of Kerrville, and on the Mississippi Coast. Johnnie’s own family spans four generations of German Immigrants, settling in Texas. Her grandfather began a hybrid grass (known as Alicia Grass) business back in the 1960’s which was planted at LBJ ranch. Her distinctive family roots have striking similarities between her life and her novel.

Many facets of her family’s roots are deeply embedded in her work, “A Good Girl.” According to Johnnie’s website, her novel is “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.”

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Photo by Valerie Winn

This riveting novel is published by Texas Review Press, a member of the Texas A&M University Press and the Texas Book Consortium. “A Good Girl” is available on Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Brazos Bookstore, Half Price Books, and other retail bookstores as found here.