Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine

Callie Collins transports us to the hazy Rush Creek Saloon in 1970s Austin. We get three distinct POVs - a front man and guitar player, a female bartender and partial bar owner, and a young fan who lives for the music. There is drama and loudness to the book but there is a lot of subtlety as well -......more

First, a big thank you 🙏 to @doubledaybooks and @netgalley for the advanced reader copy of Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine by Callie Collins! 👉 Actual pub date is 3/18/2025 Set against the gritty, soulful backdrop of 1970s Austin, this debut novel sweeps you into a world of blues, longing, and lives......more

Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine, the debut novel by Callie Collins, is a yearning, a hunger, a cry of silent tears for human connection. Set in an off-the-beaten-path honky tonk bar somewhere outside Austin, Texas in the early 1970s, the novel is a three-hander exploring the lonely inner lives of......more

In Callie Collins' debut novel, "Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine," the air is thick with cigarette smoke, spilled beer, and the hypnotic pull of blues guitar. Set against the backdrop of Austin's evolving music scene in the 1970s, Collins captures a time when the city was still finding its rhythm—......more

3.5 rounding up for debut/ Really intriguing premise that didn't fully deliver for me. It's good - well written and original, but I wanted a bit more from the characters and overall story. Collins does a great job writing place -- both the region and the up-close life on the property are shown and f......more