Backseat Saints By Joshilyn Jackson

Synopsis from Goodreads.com

Rose Mae Lolley is a fierce and dirty girl, long-suppressed under flowery skirts and bow-trimmed ballet flats. As "Mrs. Ro Grandee" she's trapped in a marriage that's thick with love and sick with abuse. Her true self has been bound in the chains of marital bliss in rural Texas, letting "Ro" make eggs, iron shirts, and take her punches. She seems doomed to spend the rest of her life battered outside by her husband and inside by her former self, until fate throws her in the path of an airport gypsy---one who shares her past and knows her future. The tarot cards foretell that Rose's beautiful, abusive husband is going to kill her. Unless she kills him first.
Hot-blooded Rose Mae escapes from under Ro's perky compliance and emerges with a gun and a plan to beat the hand she's been dealt. Following messages that her long-missing mother has left hidden for her in graffiti and behind paintings, Rose and her dog Gretel set out from Amarillo, TX back to her hometown of Fruiton, AL, and then on to California, unearthing a host of family secrets as she goes. Running for her life, she realizes that she must face her past in order to overcome her fate---death by marriage---and become a girl who is strong enough to save herself from the one who loves her best.
My Take On This Audio Book:
Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson grabs your attention from the get go and doesn't turn you loose till the very end, I became obsessed with needing to know how Rose May/ Ivey Rose would wrap up her miserable marriage.
This book is about three people Rose Mae Lolley, a young girl who leaves Alabama. She  is suppressed by Ms. Ro Grandee, a Texas housewife that had the unfortunate misfortune to marry a wife beater, and Ivey Rose Wheeler, the person who finally decides to leave. These three people are the same person, the different personas of one woman who has been abused in some form or other for most of her life.
This story gives us a hard look at domestic violence. Ro Grandee did what she needed to survive. She is witty charming very smart and funny. There were several laugh out loud moments in this book. I found myself rooting for her and urging her on when she shot at her husband and then finally left him. Rose Mae and Gretel ( her three legged dog) has a way of getting into  your heart and head, even after finishing this book I still find myself thinking about them.
This book was very pleasant to listen to, the dialect was very homey and really added to the story, I felt like I was listening to an old friend tell me her story.
I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.
I would caution that there are  some vivid domestic violence scenes described as well as a few sexual descriptions.
Even though I was provided a complementary copy of this audio book for review from Hachette Publishing (Thanks Anna), in no way does it alter my opinion of this book.