Book Reviews / C- Reviews#ownvoices / 1920s / colorism / Dancer / dancer heroine / dual-timeline / First-Person / Historical fiction / Jazz Age / organized crime / POC / POC author / racism3 Comments
1925: Chicago is the jazz capital of the world, and the Dreamland Café is the ritziest black-and-tan club in town. Honoree Dalcour is a sharecropper’s daughter, willing to work hard and dance every night on her way to the top. Dreamland offers a path to the good life, socializing with ... more >
A Reviews / A- Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Reads#ownvoices / bestsellers / bigotry / black MC / colorism / family / Literary fiction / Los Angeles / mothers and daughters / New York City / passing / POC / POC author / racism / Small-Town / twins4 Comments
Trigger warnings: Content warnings: Dear Brit Bennett, I can’t name any one reason why I picked up your novel, The Vanishing Half. Part of it was surely its omnipresence on my Goodreads stream. Part of it was all the praise it’s garnered, which includes appearing on the National Book Award’s ... more >
B- Reviews / Book Reviewsbiracial heroine / Code Name Verity / Historical / Jamaica / pilot / POC / racism / Scotland / Traveler / Gypsy / War / Military / World War II / young adult fiction9 Comments
1940. Facing a seemingly endless war, fifteen-year-old Louisa Adair wants to fight back, make a difference, do something-anything to escape the Blitz and the ghosts of her parents, who were killed by enemy action. But when she accepts a position caring for an elderly German woman in the small village ... more >
A- Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended ReadsArranged Marriages / California / Chef / Contemporary / family relationships / First-Person / high-school / Islam / Muslim / opposites attract / POC / POC author / racism / revenge porn / self discovery / South-Asian / Young-Adult6 Comments
Danyal Jilani doesn’t lack confidence. He may not be the smartest guy in the room, but he’s funny, gorgeous, and going to make a great chef one day. His father doesn’t approve of his career choice, but that hardly matters. What does matter is the opinion of Danyal’s longtime crush, ... more >
B Reviews / Book ReviewsAsian Americans / Chinese-American MCs / coming-of-age / family relationships / First-Person / high-school / immigrant / New-Jersey / parents / POC / POC author / racism / Young-Adult8 Comments
David Tung is a Chinese American high-school student in an upscale, Asian-majority, New Jersey suburb who works every day at his family’s restaurant and strategizes every homeroom about how to improve his class rank so he can get into an Ivy League college. His only release? Hanging with his “real” ... more >
C- Reviews / D Reviewsanimals / bigotry / children / children's book / classic / Edwardian-era / England / gardening / India / racism / secret28 Comments
Dear Readers, As a child, I loved Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. It’s considered a classic novel and is the story of children beginning to blossom as they bring a locked, abandoned garden to life. I was introduced to Burnett via a serialized reading of Little Lord Fauntleroy that ... more >