Adult Fiction

Book Review: Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West

November 24, 2020 Leave a Comment

Unrated | 352 pages | Park Row | Contemporary | 6/16/2020

Trigger Warning: sexual assault, incest and domestic violence

Saving Ruby King examines the past and present of Southside Chicago’s Calagary Baptist congregation after the murder of Alice King. I feel like this could be a read-a-like to The Mothers by Brit Bennett because it’s the story of a specific Black community told through multiple POVs that moves through time.

Alice’s daughter Ruby is left to contend with her abusive father Lebanon–an ex-con who is holding a dark secret over Calgary’s hard-working preacher.

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Audiobook Review: The House In The Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

November 21, 2020 Leave a Comment

12 hours 12 minutes | Macmillian Audio | Fantasy | Release Date: 3/17/2020

I heard about this book on an episode of RomBkPod last year and ever since then I have seen it EVERYWHERE. Klune is prolific in the m/m indie romance space; his traditional publishing debut tells the story of Linus Baker, a middle-aged social worker for magical children who is given a special assignment at an unusual orphanage where he eventually falls for the orphanage’s master. This book has one of the highest Goodreads ratings I’ve ever seen and charmed both fantasy and romance readers alike. It’s ultimately a warm tale about acceptance, found family and finding home but…it didn’t work for me.

Pages: 1 2

Harrow The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

November 17, 2020 Leave a Comment

512 pages | Tor | Sci-Fi/Fantasy | Release Date: 08/04/2020

Harrow The Ninth dives back into the dark futuristic world of Gideon The Ninth as Harrow begins her journey to Lyctorhood. Not all is what it seems and Harrow learns some secrets refuse to die. Muir brings her signature blend of cerebral horror, fantasy, and gore with a side of (purposefully) obnoxious humor that will keep dedicated readers wondering …what’s going on? How? Who is that? Wait…what?

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Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh

November 7, 2020 Leave a Comment

331 Pages| Montlake | Mystery/Thriller | Release Date: 03/17/2020

This chilling new mystery/thriller series from Melinda Leigh follows Bree Taggert, a Philadelphia homicide detective, as she returns to the small town where decades ago her father killed her mother. Tragedy has struck again and now Bree is on the hunt for her sister’s killer. In a strange twist of fate her sister’s estranged husband is the main suspect– but his best friend, former deputy Matt Flynn, thinks otherwise. On opposing sides, Matt and Bree decide to team up and investigate under the watchful eye of a possibly corrupt police force.

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Audiobook Review: Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

October 21, 2020 Leave a Comment

7 hours 50 min. | Penguin Audio | Mystery| Release Date: 7/30/2019

An idyllic upstate New York neighborhood is shaken when a flirtatious young wife is found brutally murdered in the trunk of her car. Her shady husband is the number one subject but in this neighborhood, everyone has a secret worth killing for

And by secret I mean cheating. Like, there is a lot of mentions of cheating in this book.

This my first foray into domestic mystery/thriller after Big Little Lies--which was one of my favorite reading experiences–and this one just didn’t work for me. I didn’t get the racing to the end feeling I wanted and it may have had something to do with the fact that I figured out the killer at 60%.

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Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

March 16, 2020 Leave a Comment

9 hours 58 min. | G.P. Putnam’s Son | Adult Fiction | Release Date: 12/31/19

2020 has been kind of a meh reading year for me so I decided to switch it up with some upmarket book club-y fiction. This is one of those books where it’s better to go in with as little information as possible. Such a Fun Age starts with 25-year-old Emira, a Black girl living in Philadelphia, being racially profiled while babysitting a white child. The book then follows Emira as she tries to figure out how to become a “real adult” and her boss, Alix Chamberlain, who starts noticing Emira in a new way after the incident.

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