Reviews

"With Charleston Green, Stephanie Alexander has crafted a delightfully cozy mystery that, despite not being without peril, is a fun and pleasurable read. The baddies are nicely awful, while the goodies are warm, funny, and resourceful. There’s an intriguing puzzle to be solved as well as life lessons to be learned, and it’s very entertaining to follow the escapades of the various characters, both alive and dead."

- Review of Charleston Green, Manhattan Book Review

“Impressively original and solidly entertaining from beginning to end, Charleston Green showcases author Stephanie Alexander’s genuine flair for deftly crafted fantasy fiction that will completely engage the reader’s full and appreciative attention.”

- Review of Charleston Green, Small Press Bookwatch

“Charleston Green is a charming and clever novel… colorfully peopled by eccentric individuals, both living and deceased. The ghost story element and the ensuing mystery that unravels, allows a familiar story of personal growth and rediscovery, to uniquely shine. Intriguingly, this is also a love story to Charleston and the surrounding Low Country, and the author richly establishes a distinctive sense of place… eminently readable and quietly inventive, the novel’s unusual tone casts a lingering spell.”

- Review of Charleston Green, The BookLife Prize

Offsetting the drama of Tipsy’s struggle for a new life, Alexander refreshingly interjects charming humor into Tipsy’s dealings with the dead, the mental messages from the spirit of her sassy Granna, and the crazy antics of her besties who are looking for love....This southern tale of love and loss, life and death, and intricate family dynamics is like a taste of fried green tomatoes with a side of sweet tea, while sitting on the porch’s joggling board painted a deep Charleston Green.

- Review of Charleston Green, BookTrib

Despite dealing with such heavy matters as decades’ old murder and failing marriages, Charleston Green is a delightfully cheerful novel, full of all the warmth of a South Carolina summer. Stephanie Alexander finds just the right balance between serious moments and the fun, relatable characters....Charleston Green is the perfect read for summer. It’s breezy without being vapid, spectral without being creepy, and full of all the right points for fans of fantasy and realism alike.

- Review of Charleston Green, San Francisco Book Review

"With humor, heart and a heaping helping of Southern Charm, CHARLESTON GREEN brings an entirely new meaning to the term 'unwanted house guests.' Tipsy is a lovable, flawed, complex heroine that readers will root for from the first page to the last—and pitch-perfect storytelling will leave fans begging for a sequel. This is Stephanie Alexander at her best!"

- Review of Charleston Green, Kristy Woodson Harvey, USA TODAY Bestselling Author of Feels Like Falling

"Tipsy is the driving force of the story; she is a fierce, interesting, and colorful character that you will feel empathy for immediately. The author does a masterful job of giving us a look at Tipsy’s backstory without getting off track. The plot itself is well thought out with twists and turns you do not expect, but the conclusions and links make sense all the same. I enjoyed how uplifting and warm this story felt, and the humor that was given to break up some of the more emotional scenes. Author Stephanie Alexander gives us a really fresh take on the paranormal genre, setting this novel apart from others within the genre."

- Review of Haint Blue, Readers' Favorite

"Charleston’s favorite ghost-talking divorcée returns in Alexander’s latest supernatural mystery... A well-told, deeply felt addition to a ghostly mystery series." 

- Review of Haint Blue, Kirkus Reviews

"Five Stars...Stephanie Alexander has perfected the cozy paranormal genre with the Tipsy Collins Series, and [Palmetto Rose] triumphs in every aspect....engaging and mysterious...the character development of Tipsy, her clients, and her new love interest was... superbly realistic and light-hearted." - Readers' Favorite

 

- Review of Palmetto Rose, Reader's Favorite

“An enchanting novel of a woman finding her way out of midlife (and mid-death) crisis. Alexander blends the warm humor of her characters with balmy descriptions of her Southern gothic setting. Her descriptions of Tipsy’s paintings are particularly lyrical… It’s a breezy paranormal read, and yet one with more depth than the reader might expect from the premise. In Tipsy and her ghosts, Alexander finds a story about the frustrations of love and aging, as well as the weight that history places on the living, particularly, perhaps, in the South Carolina Lowcountry.” -Kirkus Reviews

- Review of Charleston Green, Kirkus Reviews

I am always on the lookout for interesting new writers, and once I started reading Charleston Green by Stephanie Alexander, I was captivated. This novel leaves the reader entranced; the writing is skillful and clever and funny. I highly recommend this book. 

- Review of Charleston Green, New York Times Bestselling Author Elin Hilderbrand

Stephanie Alexander does an outstanding job of... outlining a mystery and the dilemma of a psychic who... has her own relationship and family dilemmas [and] finds her own psyche buffeted by too many emotional entanglements... a thoroughly engrossing saga.

- Review of Charleston Green, Midwest Book Review (D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer)

"5 Stars... [Charleston Green is] a genuinly enjoyable drama that uplifts as it unfolds...sure to keep readers turning pages from cover to cover...filled with Southern charm and realistically drawn characters... intriguing and heartfelt." 

- Review of Charleston Green, Readers' Favorite

"Stephanie captures the spirit of Charleston perfectly! This was such a fun read!"

- Review of Charleston Green, Charleston Book Girl Blog

"...alluring... Alexander writes sensitively about dreams falling short of reality... [she] does a solid job of taking a fairytale and remixing it with feminist themes and darks edges..."

- Review of The Cracked Slipper, Publisher's Weekly

"... fast-paced and believable... In this fantastical novel, Alexander has set up a strong chemistry and an unforgiving society...I appreciate the well-developed, complex, and strong female characters."

- Review of The Cracked Slipper, San Francisco Book Review

Stephanie Alexander gives happily ever after a mature dose of reality by combining magic with medieval conventions and male-dominant politics, adding a sophisticated and fantastical twist to the beloved Cinderella fairy tale. Readers who enjoy witches, wizards, unicorns, and dragons will be especially intrigued by the mythology behind the beautiful kingdom of Cartheigh.  

- Review of The Cracked Slipper, Anita Grace Howard, author of Splintered (Amulet Books)

Ms. Alexander weaves her fairytale world and modern day realities into a gripping intricately braided story that kept me coming back to the page. Hauntingly beautiful.

- Review of The Cracked Slipper, Ann Hite, author of Ghost On Black Mountain (Gallery Books/Simon and Schuster)

Stephanie Alexander has put an irresistible and compulsively-readable spin on the Cinderella story, crafting a sensuous and sumptuous tale that will captivate anyone who thinks they know what happens in happily every after. Dear reader, prepare to be enchanted.  

- Review of The Cracked Slipper, Erika Marks, author of Little Gale Gumbo (NAL/Penguin)

For the first time in a long time, I found a story I simply couldn't put down! What a fantastic find. Alexander weaves together a rich, detailed fantasy world and a complex, strong female character with the shadows of a favorite fairy tale to create a story I won't soon forget. I can't wait for the sequels!! This is an absolute must-read!

- Reader review of The Cracked Slipper, Amazon.com

Although Stephanie Alexander's novel is a re-imagining of the Cinderella fairy tale, she quickly builds a world and story of her own, so rich in characters, setting, and fantasy-mixed-with-the-perfect-amount-of-realism that reading it felt like discovering a timeless classic for the first time. No character is entirely what he or she seems, no answer as easy as yes or no, good and evil. Even the forbidden love between Eleanor and Dorian (who completely swept me off my feet, by the way) is complex, tender, and completely captivating. The Cracked Slipper is the rare gem of a fairy tale that I'd actually want to- and can- believe in.

- Reader review of The Cracked Slipper, Amazon.com

This book was an excellent story of infatuation, betrayal, magic, and love. It had a lot of realism of everyday life, but a touch of unicorns and dragons and magic and witches. I did not want to put it down. As a matter of fact, I read the book twice. Now I'm onto the next in the series...again!

- Reader review of The Cracked Slipper, Amazon.com

The continuing story of Eleanor and her not-so-princely-or charming husband and his best friend as he secret lover. This book had me turning pages and thinking of little else when I wasn't reading it. Great story with lots of twists and turns and a delight to the imagination.   

- Reader Review of The Dragon Choker, Amazon.com