When I was waiting for reviews, I nursed a secret little hope that Hand Me Down would receive at least one starred review. Hundreds of books release each year, and they can’t all get a star, but HMD did, and I was thrilled. It was a bit of a surprise that it came from Kirkus Reviews which is known in the industry for being, shall we say, harsh. But the reviewer at Kirkus understood Hand Me Down, and I was so grateful for the positive words and a glowing endorsement: the blue star next to the title.

Never did I expect that my debut novel would make it onto a best of the year list! It was not something I even hoped for but now that it has happened, I couldn’t be happier. How cool is it to be included on Kirkus Reviews’ best fiction of 2012 list with names like Ron Rash, Gillian Flynn, Michael Chabon, Richard Ford, Lauren Groff, Sherman Alexie, Alice Munroe, Dave Eggers, Junot Diaz, Elie Wiesel, fellow Book Pregnant members Wiley Cash and Stephen Dau, and so many more talented and deserving authors, many of whom are famed literary greats.

Seriously, did you see that list of names?! It is amazing to have my labor of love appear alongside these established, award-winning, crazy famous authors’ books. It’s not just my debut up there next to the works of literary masters, but other first-time novelists made the cut and I’m thankful to Kirkus Reviews for giving the newbies equal weight. And, on Hand Me Down‘s review page, they’ve added a gold medal that says “Best of 2012.” I wish you could see how much I’m smiling. It’s so exciting!

This, among many other things, is something to be thankful for this year. I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend!