2025 Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal Winner – Fiction – Drama
2026 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist
For more than eighty years, Stella carried secrets she could never tell.
In 1920, four-year-old Stella’s seemingly ordinary childhood in Columbus, Ohio, is shattered when her mother abruptly abandons the family. Her desperate father moves his four children into a boarding house on Southwood Avenue, where Stella encounters dangers no child should have to face.
As fear and loss reshape her childhood, Stella finds refuge in her imagination and the fierce bond she shares with her siblings—especially her brother, Bob. But Southwood Avenue is only the beginning of her story.
Over the decades, Stella grows into a determined woman, wife, mother, and grandmother, navigating love, heartbreak, and the lasting shadows of her past.
Inspired by the extraordinary life of the author’s grandmother, Surviving Southwood Avenue is an award-winning historical family saga about family secrets, sibling bonds, resilience, and the courage to move beyond the past.
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“Simonye dramatizes her grandmother’s harrowing childhood in this debut historical novel. At its best, the author’s observant prose contains brilliant, psychologically revealing details … An admirable if upsetting account of childhood abuse and resilience.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Fleshing out a family story with imagination and admiration for its heroine, Surviving Southwood Avenue is an inspiring historical novel. . . . Indeed, this story is about persistence and grit. . . . A plucky survivor finds happiness after a childhood of trauma.”
—Foreword Reviews
“Surviving Southwood Avenue is an inspiring story of strength, perseverance, and courage. . . . Simonye’s novel is intended as a tribute to the indomitable spirit of a remarkable woman.”
—BlueInk Review
“A powerful story of adaptation and change. . . . Libraries seeking discussion points about family secrets, survival, and how these decisions ripple across generations of values and ideals will find much to recommend and appreciate in how Melissa Simonye spins Surviving Southwood Avenue.”
—D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“Prepare for a raw emotional experience. Surviving Southwood Avenue stuns the senses with its pure honesty. . . . This is a fast-paced, can’t-put-it-down book. . . . Fans of memoirs, historical fiction, and drama will not want to miss Surviving Southwood Avenue.”
—P. Rosenthal, Readers’ Favorite (Five-Star Review)
“Surviving Southwood Avenue . . . is beautifully written. . . . It also shows the strength of the human spirit. . . . Inspirational.”
—Lucinda E. Clarke, Readers’ Favorite (Five-Star Review)
Melissa (McEndree) Simonye is the award-winning author of Surviving Southwood Avenue, a historical family saga inspired by her grandmother’s life. Her debut novel earned a Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal and was named a National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist.
A retired elementary school teacher of twenty-five years, Melissa holds a master’s degree in education. Her love of writing began with poetry in high school, and her teaching career deepened her appreciation for literature that inspires empathy and celebrates individuality. She is especially drawn to stories of strong women.
Raised in Ohio, Melissa has lived in Colorado since 2003. She and her husband run their family-owned business. A wife and mother of two sons, she enjoys traveling, reading, and exercising. She writes at her kitchen table, surrounded by her two cats and two dogs.
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