This insightful book, Grab the Queen Power, explains women's struggles in a new light, in ways I never thought of before. Allyn Evans shows the indirect paths we follow when we seek to find out who we truly are. Although we are all on "divinely different" paths, all of us seek worth, purpose and fulfillment. She has eloquently expressed this journey in her own life, laying out steps for the rest of us.
Excellent advice and a great book!

Mirror, mirror on the wall: Who's the fairest of them all? "You are!" claims Allyn Evans in Grab the Queen Power. Evans takes a soul-searching look in the mirror and shares her experiences and journey to discovering her personal power and creating her destiny. She faces the beasts of her misbeliefs to recognize and acknowledges the beauty she is and the power she possesses. Evans helps each of us look beyond the shadows and fears in our personal mirror to claim our personal queen power.

Grab the Queen Power has been a great gift for the special women in my life! Thank you, Allyn, for your soul-reaching and soul-touching words to teach and encourage us!

What a wonderful, insightful look into how we as women may have lost our voice due to cultural and other external influences. But, there is also hope in reclaiming our power and walking through the rest of our lives as "Queen" of our own destiny. Through personal reflection and sharing, as well as examples from "Olivia's" life, Ms. Evans clearly shows us how our own sense of knowing is the key to transformation and ultimately wearing our own tiara.

It can be a lonely journey for a woman who feels something is missing in her life, especially if that something is her identity. Perhaps she harbors a desire to discover her authentic self, if she thinks she has one. This search can generate a painful and isolated experience, but it needn't be that way.

Allyn Evans has written the companion traveler for women on this path. In her book, Grab the Queen Power, Live Your Best Life! she reveals inspiring accounts from her own life as she maps out a cultural trail from girlhood to adulthood. Along the way, she unveils reasons that many girls and women have learned to subjugate their personal power to the needs of others. Interviews with other women are interspersed throughout and underscore her stories. Spell binding and highly personal, the stories captivate, as they may easily belong to me or you, or one our sisters or best friends.

Through the stories, we learn that our confidence and high self-esteem, those gifts from girlhood, may erode in time from an onslaught of cultural messages that instruct girls and women about our role in society. By the time we reach our teen years, our dreams may merely echo the vitality we once enjoyed. Evans takes the reader from there to her college experience, and then on to marriage and later years, navigating the testy waters with an uncommon blend of honesty, sensitivity and caring.

Evans then offers an alternative awareness. She dedicates the final third of the book to a new way of thinking. She outlines the attributes of, in her words, an "Authentic Queen," and paints a vivid image of a woman who understands and accepts herself fully, who loves herself enough to give to others, who is truthful as well as merciful. It's a heart-warming list, and leads seamlessly into the last section, where readers learn the steps toward actualizing their true selves. My favorite among the nine steps: Declare your intent. Be prepared to listen and act on inner promptings. Taken together, these nine steps create a rich menu that I know I will want to visit repeatedly. A highly recommended read.

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, columnist and reviewer author of This is the Place and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered and The Frugal Book Promoter

No doubt the Cinderella story is a captivating one but our culture seems to be trading on the insecurities of little girls--whether they are still small or grown. We also tend love Underdog (remember him from the 70s?) and Horatio Alger. The sad thing is that women still identify with the delicate, overworked keeper-of-the-hearth who has unrealized potential hidden beneath her apron and behind her gray eyes.

Enter Allyn Evans. She uses the word Queen in to attract readers who might otherwise not read a serious book or who would not understand the confident persona the author is trying to reach. This Queen is a combination memoir and guide. Scholarly interviews with women of all ages evoke memories and understanding from the reader. It is not light reading but it is inspirational.

Author Allyn Evans, born as a southern belle, draws from cultural icons from literature and film (Scarlett O'Hara, The Sleeping Princess) and serious feminist writers like Sue Monk Kidd. That she also reveals herself--right down to the core--is effective because her courage is an example to all, that willingness to bare raw bones in the cause of helping others.
----------------

(Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards. Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remember has won three. Her new book, The Frugal Book Promoter is USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004." She is also the author of TRACINGS, a chapbook of nostalgic poetry.)