Finding Jupiter by Kelis Rowe

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I'm been anticipating Finding Jupiter since she pitched it a few years back in Pitch Wars. I loved the mood board she didwith the Black kids and roller skating even though I can't skate. Plus it's always good to see more Black teens falling in love in YA. I recieved an arc from Randomhouse Children's in exchange for an honest review.

Ray and Orion meet at the skating rink and there's an instant attraction. Orion is heading off to Howard in a few weeks while Ray is going back to boarding school in Rhode Island so they're determined to spend as much time as possible together getting to know each other.

This was a cute love story if you don't mind the characters falling hard and fast. I thought .they had great chemistry together that really carried this book. I liked that Orion was the softer one while Ray was afraid of showing her emotions. I'm seeing more of that lately and it's a nice change. I liked how she weaved in Ray's blackout poetry

I didn't like how there was this constant pushing them as old souls which I find overprevalent in YA. Pop culture is tough to include in books at at time this felt bogged down by it. Especially since so many songs were older songs the teens wouldn't even be familiar with. The most current ones I could recall were Beyonce and Drake ones that were still from like 10 years back. And Ray prefers cds to Spotify playlists and that aspect felt very dated too. Especially when she whipped out a Sade cd for them to have sex to. Do the teens even know who Sade is? That along with other pop culture references at times made this story felt written during my high school years instead of a debut published this year.

There's a mystery aspect here surrounding Ray's father which I liked but it could've been better paced because it took a backseat to them loving on each other for awhile before starting back up. But it did keep me engaged with the story and elevate it.  I also liked how the reveal and fallout was written. I liked the message about communication and healing in this book. It tackles two very different situations with grief and loss. Ray is dealing with grief over her father's death but he died the day she was born so she never got to meet him and actually form a relationship. And I haven't seen that type of relationship explored in books often.

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

Welcome Back, Booklovers. I've been trying to read more adult fantasy this year and sticking to my goal of stepping outside of my comfort zone. I've been hearing so many things about The Stardust Thief all year and was going to wait until release until Orbit offered me a copy. And I'm glad they did because I'm still playing catch up with my TBR and this was just what I needed in between contemporary reads. 

Loulie al-Nazari, infamous jinn relic seller is recruited by the Sultan to retrieve a magical lamp from the Sandsea after she saves one of his sons from being posessed by a shadow jinn. Her jinn bodyguard Qadir accompanies her alongside Mazen and Aisha. Mazen is blackmailed into pretending to be his brother Omar on the journey and unlike his brother, he's not equipped for it. Aisha is one the forty thieves trusted by the real Omar and a jinn hunter.

The Stardust Thief was an interesting read for me because there were sections where I couldn't put it down but there were also sections that I felt coasted along. The beginning took some time for me to get into but I was really vibing with this world. Someone told me this was dark fantasy but while there is some violence I didn't find the tone to be dark. It's a sweeping action and adventure fantasy with the characters journeying through the desert. 

At first I was wondering why Aisha even had a pov when we went 8 chapters without her having one only to then wait another 8 chapters to get her pov again. But she actually ended up being the most interesting character in the story for me. I found myself really enjoying her chapters. 

For Loulie and Mazen to get so many chapters I wanted a little more character development for them. While identity was a big theme in the book Mazen's journey was my least favorite. He's very gentle and at times overly idealistic which results in him getting a rough wakeup call. I enjoyed Loulie's relationship with Quadir and it was nice when they were in scenes together and she had someone who made her address her emotional turmoil. Even though the three are traveling together because they're all dealing with their own internal conflicts at times they felt a little disconnected. But I really feel that problem was solved towards the end.

This book was inspired by One Thousand and One Nights and I do like how the original source material was woven in. There were even little short stories which had there own sections as opposed to exposition dumps and I found that so unique. The world was also vibrant and I had a clear picture of it. I also like how the magic was explained with the jinn relics and the backstories of certain characters without being overly confusing.

I'm interesting in seeing were this trilogy goes in book 2. Also for the people who read fantasy looking for a big sweeping romance, there isn't one here. Though there were hints and I'm glad the author didn't force it. I think people who struggle with larger fantasies like I do sometimes will also appreciate how this story reads. 

Confessions of An Alleged Good Girl by Joya Goffney

Welcome Back, Booklovers! So I read Joya Goffney's first book Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and really enjoyed it. So when she offered me the chance to read her sophmore novel Confessions of An Alleged Good Girl, of course I said yes.

Monique is a preacher's daughter who has been dating her boyfriend, Dom for two years and has been trying to have sex with him but for some reason each time her body rejects him and they can't continue. So after the 29th time Dom decides he's tired of waiting and breaks up with her. When Monique decides to sneak to the women's clinic for a check up beyond her strict parents back's she runs into Sasha, a girl from her church to whom they constantly compare her. Sasha ends up becoming an unlikely ally to her along with Reggie, the town bad boy. With a self diagnosis of vaginimus they set out to help Monique acquire dialators and fix her issues.

I had spoken recently about wanting to see more books that do feature religion in some capacity even if it's small. Religion is a central part of many of our lives but suprisingly I only come across it a few times a year in books. Monique is at that age where you question your unbringing and feelings towards religion. She's not sure how she feels about Christianity and part of the reason is her family's fear mongering. Even though she wants to have sex she doesn't realize the damager her parent's feelings toward pre-martial sex and being the perfect Christian girl have caused her.  While Sasha loves church she's still able to be open about her sexuality and enjoy secular music. And her relationship with her mother is more open and honest. 

I also thought the family dynamics in were well explored with multiple examples of different dynamics. You have Monique's traditional two parent household where her parents though well meaning display toxic parenting styles. Throughout the book as Monique grows you also seem them change a little but it's not an instant change and the changes are realistic.  Monique's Aunt Dee is the cool auntie who teaches Monique how to understand some things from her parent's perspective. And we meet Reggie and Sasha's mothers who are more relaxed in parenting styles and have more open relationships with their children.

I loved the theme of taking control of your body. I never heard of vaginimus so it was a learning experience for me too. And so many of us are not properly educated about women's bodies and this book made what can sometimes be an uncomfortable conversation easy to digest. Joya Goffney does a great job tying religion, family, and sexuality together in such a seamless way while also infusing plenty of humor. 

Flood City by Daniel Jose Older

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I recently read my first Daniel Jose Older book and now I'm on to my second. Flood City's premise sounded interesting to me last year but I don't usually read sci-fi because I struggle with understanding the genre. But I figured since I gel with his writing style and since this is MG it would be a litter easier for me to process.

Flood City is the last city left on Earth after floods covered the planet. It's protected by the totalitarian Starguard who keep everyone fed though the food tastes like wet towels.  Meanwhile the Chemical Barons, who once ruled earth and are looking to reclaim city without it's pesky inhabitants getting in the way.

Interesting that he wrote this back in 2011 when dystopian books were all the rage and he wanted to write an adventure story with monsters and fighting. And while white stories dominated the shelves and these stories barely if at all have brown people in them Flood City is full of brown people of various shades. The barons are a group of white people who escaped to space because they knew the flood was coming.

We see Flood City through the eyes of different characters. Max was born in Flood City and can navigate it better than anyone else.  Max has music skills but is bored of the sameness of the music allowed by the Star Guard. Yala joins the Star Guard even though she doesn't agree with them and is in space trying to survive their hostile training environment made only worse by being one of the few human recruits. Ato is a baron in training who ends up in Flood City after a mission doesn't go as planned and finds himself questioning everything he's been taught.

The audiobook was narrated by his wife Brittany N Williams and her narration was so good. I've been struggling with audiobooks lately but her voice brought this story to life. This is a fast-paced and fun story that mixes sci-fi along with fantasy elements. There's cool technology and strange creatures like the iguana-gulls that can tear you apart with their beaks and cut through metal with their claws. And I don't know if this was intentional but in my mind I was picturing a dystopian style New Orleans. 

My favorite part was the daily announcement through the Flood City Gazette. It's a Star Guard published newspaper that adds some comic relief while annoying the citizens.

Interview with Sabrina Flemming

Welcome Back, Booklovers! Today I'm back with an interview. Earlier this year I said I wanted to do more interviews not just with authors but people in various roles within publishing. Sabrina is currently working as an assistant editor at Grand Central Publishing.

What do you do in your role as an assistant editor?

It might just be easier to list what I don’t do in my role as an assistant editor! In present-day publishing, I’m pretty sure every job position has absorbed extinct supporting roles that used to exist. The number of books published in the U.S. has grown rapidly, yet the number of professionals in the book industry has not seen anywhere near that same growth—if any. So as much as I’d love to say that I read and give feedback on manuscripts all day, that’s honestly a small fraction of my role. Just like an editorial assistant, my primary responsibility is still assisting editors and ensuring their titles are published—creating profit and loss reports for potential acquisitions, assembling deal memos, providing additional edits, transmitting manuscripts to production after assembling the front and back matter, acting as a liaison (between production, editorial, authors, etc.), creating fact sheets for sales conferences, running sales reports, inputting all the book information feeding out to online retailers, the list goes on… But if you’re lucky enough to get the team support (and enough money) for a book you’re championing, you can acquire too.

What drew you to publishing as a career?

Books have always been my safe space. I’d grown up a shy and anxious kid that felt much more at peace reading a book than hanging out with others. (Also why I’m not often on Romancelandia watching the latest dumpster fire.) Naturally, that carried over into college where I dreaded putting down my books or closing out of Literotica. There were way too many all-nighters pulled reading fiction rather than studying. It was then that I knew life’s too short to struggle through a lousy workday in order to get back to your favorite imaginary world. I wanted to read romance as much as I could, so I’d go straight to the source. I smile whenever I look back on my naivete—actually thinking I’d get to read books all day!

What is your favorite part of the job?

My favorite part of the job is working with other book people. I’m not saying that everyone in the industry is pleasant to work with. It’s far from that. But the people who you connect with—and even those you don’t—all have an origin story that began their love of books and brought us here. No one is in this industry for money, fame, etc. We’re simply enamored with books. And we’ve all found ourselves in the same (or similar) situation. This realization that the book industry isn’t what we expected. So I’ve become quite close to some of my colleagues through our various struggles in and with this industry. Though my agenda to join book publishing was to socialize less and read more, I’ve found amazing people who want to make this industry the place everyone was searching for. Maybe that’s a bittersweet answer, but it’s the most real one I have.  

 

What’s a common misconception about your job that you want to set straight?

The misconception that editors can just acquire whatever books they want. I don’t think there’s anyone in this industry who can just acquire books without the support from other editorial members, publicists, etc., and substantial proof that the content sells. Time and time again, we’ve seen those (of all levels) disheartened over letting go of or losing a book that they wanted. Plenty of editors have written rejection letters for books they loved.

 

What types of stories do you enjoy working on?

Stories with characters that bring forth all of my sympathy—imperfect characters who live in a harsh world and are finally finding their fairytale. My taste in fiction covers a wide range. As long as the story is arresting, it doesn’t matter if it’s literary, historical, romance, women’s fiction, or erotica. I want characters so fleshed out that you begin wondering if your emotions pouring out are truly from the words on the page or because you’ve become the character in your mind.

 

What do you consider the biggest challenge right now when it comes to publishing?

The lack of diversity on the shelves and among publishing professionals. I know this may be a topic that people are exhausted of seeing, but marginalized people—in whatever capacity—can’t just decide they’re tired of it and move on with their lives. That is their life. This industry has a bigger responsibility than just being profitable. We all know how much power books hold when it comes to shaping a child’s mind. It’s going to take more than a few years of diversity being seen as a trend for it to really become the force that it can and should be to help move society forward.

 

Is there a book, movie, or tv show that makes you laugh over its unrealistic portrayal of the publishing industry?

The popular K-drama, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay, follows the unorthodox love story between an antisocial children's picture book author and a sweet, ridiculously cute caretaker at a mental health clinic. In the show, the author’s agent is also her editor and the publisher and CEO of the company that publishes her books. Not only did that seem like a wild conflict of interest, but her agent/editor/publisher/CEO somehow had time to follow her to a small town just to hound her for an overdue manuscript! I’ve seen editors stress about late manuscripts as on-sale dates steadily creep forward, but that truly took it to a new level!

 

What’s your advice for anyone trying to break into the industry?

If you can get your hands on an internship for a book publisher (big or small) and book industry connections, they’ll make a serious difference. I had two internships before graduating from college, but it would still take getting an internship with a book publisher and doing informational interviews with book professionals to get my foot in the door. Be confident in asking for referrals!

If anyone would like to follow my Sabrina or connect, you can find her here:

Instagram @SabrinaFayeBooks

Twitter @BySabrinaFaye

Ballad and Dagger by Daniel Jose Older

Welcome Back, Booklovers! So this is my first book by Daniel Jose Older. I've heard so much about his work with Star Wars and the Shadowshaper series as well as Bone Street Rumba. My interest in reading more urban fantasy drew me to Ballad and Dagger. 

This story takes place in Little Madrigal, which is a community in Brooklyn made up of former residents and descendants of San Madrigal. 15 years ago San Madrigal sunk beneath the waves of the Caribbean Sea. Caribbean culture blends with pirate culture, sephardic judaism and santeria in this tight knit community.

Mateo learns that he was initiated as a child of the Galanika and possesses special healing abilities during a popular holiday celebration in his community. This also means his destiny is to help raise the island from the sea.  On the same night he witnesses a murder and monsters start threatening the community. 

There's a lot of world building and it's slower paced at times as you take it all in. I prefer a faster pace in my fantasies usually. But there was something about Mateo and his community that kept me reading. I loved his relationship with his Tia Lucia. With his parents off traveling the world as doctors she's his guardian and main supporter. 

I liked that Mateo was awkward and unsure. So often we read these stories where people discover they have great power and they talk about being unsure but we don't really see and feel it. Mateo finds out he has these powers and he freaks out! He just wants to play his music. The sight of blood makes him squeamish and he's just not built for this! He's also experiencing his first big crush on Chela who also has powers she doesn't know how to control. They were so cute together and I hope in the next book we get to know her more.

This is a definitely conversation starter for diaspora Caribbean children. Many people don't necessarily want to reflect on the after effects of colonialism and colorism especially with so many island nations pushing this idea of "We're all XYZ nation" while ignoring that the darkest in society still stays at the bottom years after slavery ended. The island of San Madrigal boasts about having never been conquered however it's racial dynamics closely resemble it's Caribbean cousin's that were. The children are trying to balance their identity in the US along with their feelings for the island they don't remember or never visited. 

Not sure how many books are supposed to be in this series but it definitely has potential to build on the foundation set here. And it made me want to check out some of this author's other work.