Showing results by author "Janet Sierzant" in All Categories

A deeply nuanced look at the criminal justice system in America and the unequal treatment of women offenders within it. Justine Morgan had made some bad decisions in her young life but by far the worst of those was to fall in love with a charming man who would ultimately lead her into a world of trouble and crime. A law student at university, Justine was heading toward her desired goal of becoming a lawyer when Carl sat down beside her one day in her statistics class. Love and naiveté allowed Justine to meekly surrender her dreams, drop out, and blindly follow Carl wherever he commanded. ...

A story about an Italian-American family, a clash of cultures, forbidden love, and the ensuing consequences. Jeanette and Sonny grew up within a tight-knit Sicilian community in the heart of Brooklyn during the 1940s. Only one year apart, they were inseparable. By the time they were teenagers, their puppy love had fully matured. They kissed under the stars on rooftops and declared their undying love and devotion. However, their families objected to the union. Forced to separate, they found new love interests. Jeanette travels to Sicily and falls in love again. Her life is about to take ...

While sitting at a restaurant with two of my fellow authors, one asked me about my Sicilian background. I laughed and said, “All I know is, we always have sauce on Sunday.” My friends joined in the laughter, but I realized that I didn’t really know too much about the maternal part of my heritage. Something awoke inside of me and I had the desire to find out exactly from where I came. I began the quest for my roots by taking an ancestry DNA test. Within a few months, I had the surprise of my life. I discovered that my grandfather had a second sister, whom he left behind in Sicily. Who ...

Some people hear the word sociopath and conjure up the image of a psychopathic killer, but while all psychopaths have sociopathic characteristics, sociopaths do not kill the body. They are killers of souls. Driven by narcissism, they lack a sense of moral responsibility and have no conscience. The definition doesn’t come close to what lurks beneath the surface. I know because I was entangled with one. It started with “love-bombing”. Daniel came on strong.

Against the turmoil and horror of World War II, Domenico and Antoinette, a young Italian couple of diverse backgrounds, fall in love and marry in Milan. Their marriage is blessed with the birth of twin sons. Their bliss is short-lived when Mussolini aligns with Hitler and declares that all boys five years and older must train in a youth military camp called the Sons of the Wolf. Domenico refuses to have his sons be part of the Fascist regime. He sends Antoinette and the twins to her family in Florence and joins the Resistance. Janet Sierzant’s Asunder is a heart-wrenching love story set ...

The runt of the litter, Gemini Joe is no stranger to tears. His life is a story; following the Great Depression and his parents' struggle to provide for his family. Survival in his powerful, sometimes cruel family was not easy. Although he remembers with affection and occasional humor the holidays, his childhood friends, his mother and grandmother, his tough, bullying brothers and indifferent sister, his family was too much for him. He found acceptance in a bottle of scotch. In the end, he managed to conquer his addictions, but was it too late?

Dona Pearson is abducted by an unknown man and held captive in a room painted green in an unknown location. The last thing she remembers is walking to her car in the underground parking lot at work. Her only contact with the outside world is through a ski-masked man who asks her questions about her life. Thinking it must be someone she knows, she conducts an internal review of her personal history with men. We must fit together clues to her abductor that we gather from Dona’s intense reminiscences. Could her abductor be Angelo, her first lover as a teen in New York City? Or Richard whom ...