Kathryn Magendie's TENDER GRACES leaves a ghostly trail of broken hearts from by-God West Virginia to Texas to the shimmering seasons of Louisiana where real love and an unexpected home is found for a lost child. Reminiscent of early Lee Smith and Silas House, Magendie's Virginia Kate Carey is the steady beating pulse of this beautiful narrative that sweeps through a lifetime of loss, grief, and ultimately redemption and what it means to go home again. – Kerry Madden, author of the Maggie Valley Trilogy

Kathryn Magendie's TENDER GRACES is a powerful, moving and beautifully written debut. With rich detail, vivid imagery and finely drawn characters who leap off the page, drag you into their lives and make you root for them, this book will command your attention all the way to the final page...and leave you wishing for more.--Danielle Younge-Ullman, author of Falling Under


Kat Magendie's TENDER GRACES is a thoroughly enjoyable, big, family saga. Filled with rich language, and down-home wisdom, Kat's tale will leave you charmed, seduced, and fully satisfied by a cast of offbeat, lovable characters. Don't miss this one! Barbara Quinn, author of 36C, Slings and Arrows, The Speed of Dark, and Publisher/Managing Editor, The Rose & Thorn Ezine

It was my wonderfully good fortune to meet fellow writer Kathryn Magendie. She has what it takes and reminds me of a Barbara Kingsolver or Anne Tyler. The way Kathryn Magendie writes is the way writing is supposed to be done - it pulls out everything - feelings, emotions, laughter, tears, and truths. Her work made me laugh, cry, think, and marvel at her choice of wording and description. Susan Reinhardt, Author of Not Tonight Honey--Wait 'til I'm a size 6, Don't Sleep With A Bubba: Unless Your Eggs Are In Wheelchairs, and Dishing With the Kitchen Virgin

Every so often, if you're fortunate enough, you'll find a book that not only captures your attention and imagination, it captures your heart. Kathryn Magendie's characters are so vivid and memorable, and the story so poignant, one hates for TENDER GRACES to end. The voice of the West Virginia mountains holds true in every aspect of Magendie's work, which leaves one begging for more and wondering where this gifted writer has been hiding all these years! Deborah LeBlanc, Author of Family Inheritance, Grave Intent, A House Divided, Morbid Curiosity, and Water Witch

Kathryn Magendie has a magical way with words. They bubble out unchecked onto the page to cascade over readers like a cool mountain waterfall. But those words in "TENDER GRACES" don't just flow prettily; there are scenes and chapters so poignant or devastating, readers will be swept away and left wanting for oxygen. Besides the absorbing plot and characters, Magendie's unique fresh voice and lyrical turns of phrase are gifts she gives to readers, and which last long after the last page is read. Powerful stuff for a debut novel. Angie Ledbetter, Author of Seeds of Faith

Kathryn Magendie’s style—and for me style is everything, character, setting the fictive experience—is immediately arresting, engaging, and flows with the reader in its embrace through all the episodes, moving from humor, to lyricism, to melancholy, to pathos. Readers will hear about the voice in TENDER GRACES and rush out to buy and listen to that voice, familiar and yet with tonalities not yeat heard, igniting delight never before quite felt. David Madden, Novelist, Playwright, Teacher

TENDER GRACES is a novel that reads like a poem to childhood and growing up. -Ed Cullen, author of Letter in a Woodpile, features writer for the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate and a frequent contributor to All Things Considered on National Public Radio

Kathryn’s prose is poignant, tangy, sweet, loving, wanting, needing and so satisfying! -Diane Buccheri, Publisher, OCEAN Magazine

In her debut novel, TENDER GRACES, Kathryn Magendie stitches together the story of a family, which, like a quilt, is worn in places and frayed at the edges, but is so true and warm you'll want to wrap yourself up in its pages and be pulled into its comfort. This is a book you'll want to read slowly and savor. -Judy Merrill Larsen, author of All the Numbers.

Poignant, heart wrenching, heartwarming, haunting. When I finished the book, I dreamed of it; TENDER GRACES stays with you. The cover of the review copy uses the phrase “gentle yet unflinching. A perfect phrase for this coming of age Southern novel. I can see, feel, smell the settings in West Virginia…they are wonderful. Since I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Kathryn Magendie captures the “southernness” of Baton Rouge. [Tender Graces] makes my heart weep with sorrow and joy. --Mary Laird, MLIS, Library Consortium Analyst, LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network