Reviewed by Lisa McCombs for Readers' Favorite

In Sally St. Johns by Denise Heinze, Sally is an all-star national women’s basketball player, hooker, and victim of Marfan-Syndrome trying to walk the straight and narrow, but trouble just keeps finding her. Living with abnormal height, Sally already figured out that life should not be this difficult even when it is. But when she finds herself calling her mother from jail, Sally cannot help but ponder on the irony of her situation. While Sally works on maintaining green space and an environmentally sound existence, her company comes under attack for having terrorist connections. As CEO, Sally is willing to take the bullet for the good of the environment, but not for a crime she did not commit.

Denise Heinze creates a raucous story full of animated dialogue and humorous character interaction in this action packed novel. Throw in her eccentric mother, an unexpected chance for romance, and the huge question mark casting its shadow over Sally’s true ethnicity, and the reader realizes that a one-way ticket to excitement has landed. Denise Heinze proves her ability to create engaging banter between characters while balancing a convincing tale of irregular circumstances. As she alternates between present day and the nostalgic memories of Sally’s colorful past, Heinze successfully intertwines several decades in time to build story development and plot. As the character of Sally evolves, so does the reality of her real life counterpart. It is not standard for a story’s heroine to be an example of physical deformity, yet Sally St. Johns is the perfect example.