Jess

On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi

August 14, 2022 2 Comments

On Rotation is as close as I’ll ever come to medical school.

This novel follows twenty-something Angie Apia as she tackles her third year of medical school, demanding residents and her parents’ high expectations. To top it all off she can’t stop pining over a charming sensitive artist… who has a girlfriend. Talk about a quarter-life crisis.

This was a fun slice-of-life with an angsty emotional romance subplot that will appeal to Kennedy Ryan fans. Medical school is not glamorized at all and I felt like I was being let into a world I will probably never experience. I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that Shirlene Obuobi is a physician. Obuobi is also a cartoonist and I believe she designed the book cover.

Angie is supported by her group of wild and successful friends. A large part of this book is about how those friendships can change and grow. The pace of the book was a tad slow for me and we probably could have dropped a few side characters.

My only other critique is that the first few pages of this book had a much different tone than the rest of the book. The book starts with Angie confidently monologuing about her body and curves…then it never comes up again. I mean the cover has ‘peach’ earrings on it so I sort of thought her relationship with her body would play more into the book. Instead, her biggest hurdle is overcoming her imposter syndrome.

Single Black Female by Tracy Brown

July 31, 2022 2 Comments

Urban fiction is a genre I’ve always wanted to explore. Going in, I was expecting this book to be about hustling and doing what it takes to make it big on the streets– but this book takes a slightly different perspective. It focuses on three women searching for stability and success decades after their lives intersected with the high-powered Brooklyn drug game.

Ivy has spent 16 years supporting her incarcerated husband Mikey and raising their sons, but she’s ready to start over in Staten Island along with Deja, who became a suburban mom instead of holding down her wrongfully convicted boyfriend. Ivy’s sister-in-law, Coco, is a top executive whose education and success are owed to Mikey but she is ready to strike out on her own.

The book is compulsively readable and you get sucked into the melodrama. The character’s backgrounds feel real and complicated. I don’t know if this is a function of the genre, but I found the book does reiterate plot points and character relationships quite often. It was a little jarring

You also never have to worry about trying to figure out what a character is thinking because this book seamlessly shifts POVs in the middle of scenes in a way I don’t think I’ve read before.

My favorite character was Deja’s sister Nikki–an Instagram model and professional party girl. She brings a lot of humor and provides plenty of unfiltered advice to the characters. She doesn’t have a storyline but is played up as a main character in the marketing for some reason ? I’m curious if she will get her own book.

The last 20% of this book focuses on police brutality and the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager. The shift was sudden but I think the plot line was well done.

I can’t wait to read more urban fiction and maybe dive into Tracy Brown’s backlist.

Brown was getting her feeling out about 2016 in this book. Tr*mp supporters get dragged (one literally) left and right in this book.

This book is also not the Lifetime movie of the same name. I’m sure the publishers must have been annoyed by that.

The Bounce Back by The Bounce Back Addie Woolridge

April 3, 2022 4 Comments

After a disastrous show, performance artist Neale Delacroix decides to trades in the stage for corporate America–where she discovers she is capable of more than she ever thought possible.

This book is basically about a twenty-eight-year-old who decides to start “Adulting” with the help of her roommate, sisters, and cute new co-worker. I would classify this book as women’s fiction with a splash of romance. I know teen me would have loved to read a book centered around an eccentric but loving family of sucessful Black artists living in Washington state.

The book is light and humorous. Woolridge notably creates a wonderfully diverse and inclusive community in a way I wish more authors (and editors) would. Neale is an easy character to root for though at times she does come off as (for lack of a better word) a bit like Mary Sue. She is always able to make things work in her favor and anyone who slightly questions her is a villain.

I gather this book is a part of a series that follows the three Delcroix sisters. While I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by starting with book two, I can see the appeal of going back to the first book.

This is from Amazon’s Montlake Imprint. I know Amazon is an evil corporation but I find that I enjoy books put out by them.

Unrelated, the art style on this book cover just doesn’t work for me. It’s a little to abstract. Also I feel like putting the love interest on the cover makes it seems like this is a romance–which it is not. On the flipside, I think if they put a sole female character on the cover it looks YA.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

March 15, 2022 3 Comments

On a wild secluded Irish island, friends and family gather for an exclusive celebrity wedding. As the big day approaches, secrets are revealed and one person won’t make it off the island alive.

I picked up The Guest List because all the marketing described Foley as a modern-day Agatha Christie. I went in expecting a parlor room whodunit mystery but that wasn’t what I got. Instead, it plays out more like a modern-day grip-lit thriller.

I was kind of annoyed that all the women’s stories are rooted in motherhood or their relationship with men. Meanwhile, the men’s stories focused on their ambitions and careers.

The setting is key to this story and Foley nails the ominous and desolate setting of the island. It’s very foreboding.

This book is character-driven and therefore lends itself well to audio. Each of the narrators embodies their characters. Narrator Olivia Dowd in particular nailed Jules–the cold, determined, and successful bride–who accounted for everything when planning her perfect wedding except murder.

Overall a gripping slow-burn mystery with a twist I didn’t see coming.

Redemptor by Jordan Ifeuko

March 13, 2022 2 Comments

Redemptor continues Tarisai story as she takes her place as Aritsar’s Empress. Before she can build a better country she will need to build her own Council of Eleven and survive her upcoming journey through the underworld.

Again I was taken in by Ifukeo’s imagination and her ability to build big elaborate mythologies. I usually believe in Death of The Author when I read a book, but I’ve watched a few of Ifueko’s TikToks about this book, so I knew going in that aspects of this book were metaphors for living with depression and mental illness. I think Ifeuko pull tshis off really well.

Unfortunately, this book has a few weaknesses that brought it down to me. The most glaring one is that this book really should have been a trilogy. There was way too much to cram into this one book.

To me, Tarisa’s journey through the underworld should have been its own book, instead of the last ~20% of this book. . This journey is built up as this big harrowing experience and I was shocked at how short this section was. That said, these were some of my favorite chapters. Ifeuko’s version of the underworld was bleak and haunting. She built out this very detailed realm that could have absolutely been explored in one book

A majority of the book is spent with Tarisai gathering her own Council of Eleven which means we are introduced to 11 new characters in addition to spending time with Tarisai’s original Council of Eleven. The original council gets a ton more page time and I think we are supposed to feel attached to them… but it’s hard because there were so many other people to meet.

Out of all the fifty-eleven characters we are introduced to my favorite was King Zuri, the lofty young royal who isn’t all he seems. I thought he was the breakout of all the side characters. *Slight spoiler* I think there was sequel bait hinted about this character. We shall see.

I listened to this on audio and there was a name mentioned in the acknowledgment that makes me think that there is a second narrator doing the singing?

If you enjoy the first book and want to live in the world of Raybearer again then I would recommend Redemptor, if you are more there for the characters and relationships this might not work for you.

The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda

March 6, 2022 Leave a Comment

One of my favorite book settings is small New England beach town (bonus points if it’s an island) brimming with secrets, class anxiety, community, and melancholic unease. Littleport, Massachusetts fits this to a tee. Littleport is a tourist town run by the hard-working residents but it’s the wealthy Lowman family–and their real estate empire–that truly runs things. When The Lowman’s daughter, Sadie, is found dead on the bluffs it’s up to her best friend Avery to unravel the Lowman family’s darkest secrets.

Through flashbacks, we learn how Avery, the former town screw-up, was pulled into the Lowman’s orbit. The way this book moved through time and played with class reminded me of one of my favorite procedural TV shows Cold Case–which handles the subject of class quite often. This book was filled with cliffhangers and thrilling moments but the mystery is rather predictable for avid mystery/thriller readers.

I feel like this book could easily be categorized as New Adult. The main characters are all under 25 and are just starting out in their careers while figuring out adulthood and relationships. I think Miranda nailed writing from this point-of-view.

I listened to a portion of this on audio and narrator Rebekkah Ross is a good fit for Avery and did a great job crafting voices for all the townsfolk.

The Last House Guest was my introduction to Megan Miranda and I can’t wait to check out more of her work.

Side Note

There is sort of an “I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE” moment when you realize why this book is called this. Very clever.