Just a girl and her books
WHITE IVY | Susie Yang 11.3.2020 | Simon & Schuster Rating: 4/5 stars Ivy Lin is a thief and a liar, but you would never know that by looking at her. She was raised outside of Boston, where she learned to pilfer items from yard sales and second-hand shops by her grandmother. Thieving is Ivy’s … Continue reading Book Review: White Ivy
SAVING RUBY KING | Catherine Adel West 06.16.2020 | Park Row Rating: 5/5 stars The world always finds a way of coming full circle. When Ruby King’s mother is found murdered in their home on Chicago’s South Side, the police brush the case aside and file it away as another act of violence in a … Continue reading Book Review: Saving Ruby King
BELOVED| Toni Morrison 06.08.04 (First published 09.1987) | Vintage Rating: 5/5 stars Sethe was born a slave. Born into a life where her own mother did not nurse her. Born into a life she knew one day she would need to escape. Eighteen years have passed since the day she decided to run away from … Continue reading Book Review: Beloved
THE VANISHING HALF | Brit Bennett 06.02.2020 | Riverhead Books Rating: 5/5 stars Stella and Desiree Vignes are identical twins who grew up in a small town known as Mallard, a Black community that prides themselves on having a lighter skinned population. These two women will always look the same, but the paths that their … Continue reading Book Review: The Vanishing Half
ASH MOUNTAIN | Helen Fitzgerald05.14.2020 | Orenda BooksRating: 4/5 stars Fran thought she escaped her hometown of Ash Mountain years ago. After her father finds himself ill, she is forced to return to the place she hates and care for him. Fran’s relationship is over and she hates her dead end job in the city, … Continue reading Blog Tour: Ash Mountain
MY DARK VANESSA | Kate Elizabeth Russell 03.10.2020 | William Morrow Rating: 5/5 stars 2000: Fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye has been accepted to an elite boarding school. While trying to find her place in this new school, Vanessa becomes entranced by her forty-two-year-old English teacher, Jacob Strane. They begin to have an affair. 2017: Allegations around … Continue reading Book Review: My Dark Vanessa
SAINT X | Alexis Schaitkin 02.18.2020 | Celadon Books Rating: 2.5/5 stars Claire is just seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears while on family vacation. The Caribbean Island of Saint X is supposed to be an escape from reality for wealthy tourists, not a place of nightmares. Several days pass until the … Continue reading Book Review: Saint X
IN THE ABSENCE OF MIRACLES | Michael J. Malone 09.19.2019 | Orenda Books Rating: 4/5 stars John Docherty’s mother has just suffered a stroke and is facing a future where she will never be able to live independently again. In order to care for his mother, John is forced to sell his childhood home. While … Continue reading Blog Tour: In the Absence of Miracles
A MODERN FAMILY | Helga Flatland 06.13.2019 | Orenda Books Rating: 4/5 stars Liv, Ellen, and Hakon are setting off, along with their families, partners, and parents, on a holiday in Rome they soon won’t forget. The trip is to celebrate their father’s seventieth birthday, but nothing goes as planned. From the start things don’t … Continue reading Book Review: A Modern Family
WE LOVE ANDERSON COOPER | R.L. Maizes 07.23.2019 | Celadon Books Rating: 4/5 stars WE LOVE ANDERSON COOPER is a short story collection bringing together tales about characters that have experienced being treated as outsiders for a variety of reasons, such as sexual orientation, religious identity, socioeconomic status, and their appearance. Each story focuses on … Continue reading Book Review: We Love Anderson Cooper
