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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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sara J. Maas

October 26, 2020 2 Comments

16 hours 7 minutes| Bloomsbury | Fantasy| Release Date: 5/15/2020

I’m really good at reading super hyped YA releases several years after they come out. Like, I pre-ordered The Fault In Our Stars and then didn’t read it until the movie trailer came out three years later. I can’t believe it’s been five years since ACOTAR debuted and I finally decided to see what all the hype (and controversy) was about and read my first Sara J Maas.

Our protagonist is Feyre, a 19-year-old human girl and sole provider for her destitute family. She accidentally kills a faerie and as punishment is whisked away to a faerie court ruled by handsome kindhearted high fae lord and his loyal emissary. The faerie lord allows her to live her life in court as she chooses but there is something sinister lurking underneath the court and she may be central to it all.

The beginning felt plotless and meandered along as Feyre finds her groove in the court. Nothing much happens and I couldn’t believe this was the book I’d been hearing about but then the twist happens. I’m not sure I even knew there was a twist in this book.The twist had some interesting aspects but it sort of muddled all that was established in the beginning and I was never fully captivated.

The one thing I knew for sure about this series is that there is a character named Rhysand and I was just WAITING for him to show up. Look, I am not one for the brooding anti-hero Draco in Leather Pants characters (Cardan, the Darking etc.) but I think he really livened up the story up a bit.

I hybrid read this on audio, which was helpful with the pronunciations. Narrator Jennifer Ikeda has a great range of voices but her style is very one note and she’d sometimes ignore the dialogue tags.

This series famously inspired Soap Gate so I was also expecting it to be a lot steamier. I thought it was about to get wild when we got to the faerie orgy ritual but that fizzled out quickly. I can sort of see how the one sex scene in this book would have been a lot at the time this book came out but from what I was seeing on Twitter I was expecting a lot more. Maybe it’s in the other books ?

I can’t really say I’m intrigued enough to finish the series. The other books are long AF and just too much of a time commitment for the speed I read but I’m glad I got a taste!

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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Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley

January 1, 2020 Leave a Comment

414 pages | Simon & Schuster | Historical Fiction| Release Date: 04/24/18

It’s sort of fitting that I read this book at the end of the year because the end of this book was such a letdown. Bellwether is a blend of historical and contemporary fiction revolving around the Wilde Family and their lasting legacy in small-town Millbank, NY …

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Serpent & Dove Shelby Mahurin

December 31, 2019 Leave a Comment

HarperTeen | Fantasy | Release Date: 09/03/2019

Okay, is it just me or is this one of those books in the YA book world that people either really love or really don’t like? I feel like the other books series that fall into this category are Daughter of Smoke and Bone and The Raven Cycle. I like a polarizing book so I had to check this one out.

I started this having no idea what it was about, I just knew it was a YA fantasy and was stirring up some controversy. As I was reading (listening on audio) my interested was piqued as we enter Cesarine, an opulent city forged in a land once ruled by witches—who have been ruthlessly conquered by the religious and devout Le Blanc royal family.

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Jackpot by Nic Stone

December 28, 2019 Leave a Comment

I forgot to write a review for this book and I read it so long ago; so please check out the audiobook review I wrote forAudioFile magazine! This was narrated by Nic Stone and I was blown away by her performance.

Listeners will find winning humor in this audiobook as narrator and author Nic Stone provides a flawless, upbeat performance. She gives voice to Rico and Zan–teenagers on a mission to find an unclaimed winning lottery ticket that could help Rico’s struggling family. Stone taps into Rico’s perseverance and strength as she tries to keep her family financially afloat. To track down the winning ticket, she reluctantly ropes in Zan, whose breezy laid-back tone reflects his privileged upbringing–opposites quickly attract! Listeners get the bonus of hearing the flirtatious back-and-forth between the teens, including Zan’s capricious way of mispronouncing Rico’s surname. Stone also brings a delightfully over-the-top performance to the inanimate objects that act as a Greek chorus.

Psst. Don’t forget to check out AudioFile Magazine’s website and podcast for more audiobook content.