RaveLos Angeles Review of BooksHalley Sutton’s resident knowledge of SoCal shines through in her debut novel ... Sutton knows the city and captures its glitz and grime with a knowing wink ... Among references to the Santa Ana winds, gridlock traffic, and heat, Sutton captures a devilish side to the City of Angels. Reading The Lady Upstairs is like entering a new world where legality is thrown to the wind, where anyone is a target or a victim or both, and everyone has a dark side. Sutton turns up the heat until the very end, making for a sweltering, sexy read ... The Lady Upstairs...[will] entice fans with the classic surprising plot, quick pace, and a California flair, while also offering engaging female protagonists who are in charge and who aren’t afraid to go after what they want ... delicious ... you’ll want to burn through.
Jorge G. Castañeda
PositiveLos Angeles Review of BooksIn this personal, analytical, and intuitive consideration of the United States, Castañeda argues that the special isolated position of America is changing—and with that change comes a necessary attention to the rest of the world ... Castañeda challenges readers, especially conservatives, to reconcile a changing American identity of economic inequality and greater diversity ... I appreciate Castañeda’s questioning of the deeply rooted American conservatism that has kept this country in gridlock, from systems such as gerrymandered districts to the Electoral College, to the \'pragmatism and hypocrisy\' of immigration and mass incarceration for drug crimes. There are lighter observations here, too, on musical theater as a uniquely American advent, and a surprising question: is self-depreciating humor distinctly American? ... Castañeda charges us to engage in mindful reinvention and make change[.]
