Buying Options

Digital List Price:	$9.99
Kindle Price:	$9.49 Save $0.50 (5%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add Audible narration to your purchase for just $7.49

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Share <Embed>

Whiskey & Ribbons: A Novel by [Leesa Cross-Smith]

Follow the Author

Leesa Cross-Smith

Whiskey & Ribbons: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Leesa Cross-Smith (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

164 ratings

Editors' pick Best Literature & Fiction

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$9.49

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$14.79

$2.20

Paperback

"Please retry"

$14.58

$10.31

$3.05

MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$14.09

$10.61

$27.63

Set in contemporary Louisville, Leesa Cross-Smith’s mesmerizing first novel surrounding the death of a police officer is a requiem for marriage, friendship and family, from an author Roxane Gay has called “a consummate storyteller.”

Evi—a classically-trained ballerina—was nine months pregnant when her husband Eamon was killed in the line of duty on a steamy morning in July. Now, it is winter, and Eamon's adopted brother Dalton has moved in to help her raise six-month-old Noah.

Whiskey & Ribbons is told in three intertwining, melodic voices: Evi in present day, as she’s snowed in with Dalton during a freak blizzard; Eamon before his murder, as he prepares for impending fatherhood and grapples with the danger of his profession; and Dalton, as he struggles to make sense of his life next to Eamon’s, and as he decides to track down the biological father he’s never known.

In the vein of Jojo Moyes’ After You, Whiskey & Ribbons explores the life that continues beyond loss, with a complicated brotherly dynamic reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout’s The Burgess Boys. It’s a meditation on grief, hope, motherhood, brotherhood and surrogate fatherhood. Above all, it’s a novel about what it means—and whether it’s possible—to heal.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Hub City Press
Publication date

March 6, 2018
File size

1066 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Leesa Cross-Smith
1,083
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $13.99
Leesa Cross-Smith
106
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $3.99
Leesa Cross-Smith
21
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.49
Leesa Cross-Smith
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $13.99
Leesa Cross-Smith
3
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $1.25
Nancy Johnson
1,418
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99

Create your FREE Amazon Business account to save up to 10% with Business-only prices and free shipping. Register today

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Beautiful and brutal, a gut-punch and a poem--I love this book. I love its characters, their complicated tangle of desire and grief. I love its craft, the back and forth dance between memory and possibility. I found myself talking aloud to Evangeline: Let go, I whispered. Or maybe she whispered it to me. I don't know. She's inside of me now, my head and my heart. I'll tell you what: Cross-Smith is a master." ―Megan Stielstra, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life

"Cross-Smith's thrilling debut novel, Whiskey and Ribbons, is as immediate and compelling as music. Her three lovers tell their stories, each turning over what we think we know, creating a moving triptych on love, desire, and grief, and the unexpected families life makes for us." ―Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night

"Leesa Cross-Smith's Whiskey & Ribbons is an unforgettable debut. The death of a police officer is at the heart of this powerful, moving polyphonic saga, and the stunning lyricism of the style only matches the heartbreaking poetry of its substance. Cross-Smith examines lovers, brothers, mothers, fathers and sons with such mammoth empathy that this is one of those books I find essential for making sense of our world today." ―Porochista Khakpour, author of the novels Sons & Other Flammable Objects and The Last Illusion

"In Whiskey & Ribbons, Leesa Cross Smith has given us a story of decent, ardent-hearted friends thrust into an unimaginable situation, and its survivors respond with equally surprising grace to impossibly difficult circumstances. Here is a slim, elegant novel that is brilliantly defiant in what it refuses to mention, and clear-eyed in its focus on something we all need more of: a close look at good people navigating unthinkable tragedy." ―Bonnie Nadzam, author of Lion: a Novel

"Written with the emotional impact of Ayobami Adebayo's Stay with Me, this work will appeal to lovers of literary fiction." ―Library Journal

"Whiskey & Ribbons is the kind of book you cancel everything to curl up with. Don’t even try to put it down; you won’t be able to. Leesa Cross-Smith writes with an open heart and a deft touch, crafting a beautiful meditation on marriage, family, and the hope within loss. I fell in love with these characters. I joined them in their heartbreak, their lust, their yearning, and I missed them after the last page." ―Lindsay Hunter, author of Eat Only When You're Hungry

“Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller who uses her formidable talents to tell the oft-overlooked stories of people living in that great swath of place between the left and right coasts." ―Roxane Gay, author Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body and Bad Femininst --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

A PEN Open Book Award Nominee, Leesa Cross-Smith has been a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and Iowa Short Fiction Award. She is the author of the short story collection Every Kiss a War and lives in Louisville, KY.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0793LD71L
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hub City Press (March 6, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 6, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1066 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #494,448 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #649 in Black & African American Literary Fiction
- #5,292 in Black & African American Women's Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #6,363 in Black & African American Women's Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
164 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Leesa Cross-Smith

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker and writer from Kentucky. She is the author of THIS CLOSE TO OKAY, SO WE CAN GLOW, WHISKEY & RIBBONS, EVERY KISS A WAR, and the forthcoming novel HALF-BLOWN ROSE. THIS CLOSE TO OKAY was a Goodreads Choice 2021 Nominee for Best Fiction, a Book of the Month Book of the Year 2021 Nominee, a Book of the Month Early Release Pick for December 2020, the Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick for February 2021, and the Marie Claire Book Club Pick for March 2021. SO WE CAN GLOW was listed as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2020 and was longlisted for the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. WHISKEY & RIBBONS won the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) Gold Medal in Literary Fiction, was longlisted for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was one of O Magazine's 2018 Top Books of Summer. EVERY KISS A WAR was nominated for the PEN Open Book Award (2014) and was a finalist for both the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction (2012) and the Iowa Short Fiction Award (2012). Find more @ LeesaCrossSmith.com

Customer reviews

5 star		61%
4 star		16%
3 star		13%
2 star		7%
1 star		4%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Tabitha Jensen

A Modern, Marvelous Love Story

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2018

Verified Purchase

Leesa's novel WHISKEY & RIBBONS doesn't allow you to unfurl away after you've finished. Its story and characters linger, in all the best ways, in your heart and mind. The novel explores the capacities and obligations of Love--what it requires of us, what it shares with duty, and what it means to be a family. It forces us to reconcile with the overlaps of sympathy and affection, and how to allow what is "supposed" to happen in a life to move aside for what actually does. An immersive, sexy, enduring story of how we go on when our worst fears come true, and how the human heart ever moves on.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amy

Read this book!

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

I found myself wanting to read this book with a whiskey sour in my right hand, a cigarette in my left while listening to Alannah Myles sing Black Velvet.

🎼 Black velvet and that little boy smile
Black velvet and that slow southern style
A new religion that'll bring you to your knees
Black velvet if you please. 🎼
{David Tyson & Christopher Ward}

The verse flowed slow & smokey and tart & sweet. I don't think I could have loved it more. Leesa Cross-Smith takes the reader through one of the most complex dramas you can imagine. She does it so completely well, that I am still reeling.
Eamon dies in the line of duty. Evi & Dalton are in place to pick up the pieces. Loss is scattered throughout this novel. It feels deeply. The grief portrayed in this story is overwhelming. It is in everything. But so is color. And hope. And love. At the end we are reminded
"Endings were as important as beginnings." Yes they were Leesa, yes they were.

Y'all I'm going to put it out there. This will be one of my favorites of 2018. I am giving it so many stars ✨ and I am on my knees begging. Read. This. Book. My review can never do it justice. The fact that this is a debut novel is baffling to me. Cross-Smith writes like a seasoned veteran. I am in awe. I will be for a while.
🥃 & 🎀 you have my heart.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

@neeneeism

Beautiful.

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

Poetic. Melodic. Lyrical. Beautiful. Beautifully written. Brilliantly presented.

This book begins with the death of Evangeline's police officer husband, Eamon, in the line of duty. Evangeline is 9 months pregnant at the time of his death. Their story, their beginning and their ending, is told from the point of view of Evangeline, Eamon, before he died, and Eamon's, adopted brother, Dalton, in alternating chapters.

This story will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions. And they will be genuine. Real smiles, real laughter, real tears. Honestly, the title threw me off and almost deterred my purchase. I saw more posts on social media about this book and decided to see what people were talking about. I am so glad I did not let this book go unread (?)... I actually listened to it on Audible (twice, via the Kindle app) which was such a treat. The narrators brought the characters to life for me.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. I can't say enough without giving too much away. I can say this though: I can feel how much Evangeline and Dalton love and miss Eamon.

I have questions, which is a good thing. I want to know about other chatacters' stories and their relationships and interactions with one another. I want to see Kentucky, the bike shop, the church, the Royce's home. I believe this is the first book I read that was based in Kentucky.

This book is so just powerful. So many themes. So many what if situations to consider for yourself. I found myself wondering what if Penelope was my best friend, what would I have done? (Gotta read it to find out who Penelope is😊) Thank you Leesa Cross-Smith for this wonderful novel.
(Sidenote: One of the characters has the same birthday as me!)

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Claire Fullerton

Exceptional Voice

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

The title Whiskey and Ribbons is derived from a toast delivered by Eamon, one of three narrators in this psychological treatment of love spun unexpectedly and repercussively awry. “Women, you are sleek and gorgeous. You hold us together, you’re the ribbons,” Eamon says, yet we hear this speech as his brother, Dalton’s, memory, for the reader learns at the start that the toast maker is dead. Eamon and Dalton have grown up together as brothers, yet the ties that bind are unusual and not honestly revealed for what they are until well into the story. Author Leesa Cross-Smith holds the reader captive in language so creative and au currant that we identify with both well-drawn characters and readily understand why Eamon’s wife, Evangeline, weighs issues of loyalty between the two charismatic young men, though one is alive and the other is dead. That Evangeline is a new mother, having given birth to Eamon’s son after his death as an officer in the line of duty is the dilemma, for who is she to turn to in her prostrate grief but a brother-in-law who equally grieves? Three vantage points are entwined to tell this one story of familial connections, in a seamlessly crafted, roiling momentum that will have you thinking they each have a justifiable point. All praise this spell-binding debut author. Leesa Cross-Smith has penned an uncommon novel in a voice you won’t easily forget.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

S M Boren

Whiskey and Ribbons

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

I purchased this book from Amazon to read. It was book 2 on my list for #totalcoverlover readathon. To be fair the first time I saw this book @whatmeganreads had posted it and it was so pretty I had to buy it! (Only because I believe in giving credit where credit is due.) 🥂 Whiskey and Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟Evangeline and Eamon have the perfect marriage. She's a ballerina, he's a police officer. There is a baby on the way. Until one day fate had a different decision. Eamon is killed in the line of duty and a pact he made with his brother may be the key to letting go of the grief his death has caused and be the key to finding happiness for everyone involved including baby Noah. 🚨I cried more than once when I read this book. Some sad tears and some happy tears. 🚨

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

jewel

Whiskey and Ribbons

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2018

Verified Purchase

This Is the first book I have read by this author. It was a very soul searching story about love, grief and identity. The author wrote from the 3 main characters points of view which I liked as I prefer reading in that style.
The pace of the book for me was a bit slow it took a long time for me to get into it. I also struggled with the relationship between Dalton and Evi. I was waiting for the elephant in the room to be discussed in more detail but in my opinion it never was. The book skirted around it a bit. I guess i felt uncomfortable with the relationship progressing and wanted someone in the book to actually say why too. I don’t want to say too much for those who haven’t read this yet. There was more emphasis on the internal thoughts of each character rather than the actual dialogue between the characters.
An easy read for a lazy weekend but not enough wow factor for me.

One person found this helpful

See all reviews

Leesa Cross-Smith
106
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $3.99
Leesa Cross-Smith
1,083
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $13.99
Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
401
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $13.99
Leesa Cross-Smith
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $13.99
Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström
604
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $8.57
Nancy Johnson
1,418
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99

Buying Options

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the Author

Whiskey & Ribbons: A Novel Kindle Edition

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

About the author

Leesa Cross-Smith

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Customers who bought this item also bought