A Proposal They Can't Refuse by Natalie Caña

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I was in a romance reading mood this past weekend so I decided to read A Proposal They Can't Refuse. This book promised me fun. flirty, and plenty of Puerto Rican food. I recieved an arc from Harper Audio in exchange for an honest review.

This was another fake dating or rather fake engagement one where the reason for faking seemed a little forced. But definitely not as bad as some others I read recently. I wasn't quite clear on the grandfathers and their living situation. But I was able to suspend my belief regarding the fake dating because our main characters Kamilah and Liam have chemistry.

I was actually really enjoying the book for most of it. The audiobook narration is great. I've listened to the narrator, Valetina Ortiz  a few times in other stories I loved and she captured Kamilah's voice perfectly. There's whiskey and Puerto Rican food? What's not the love? And we get to see our main characters in action doing what they love. I even liked how Irish culture was portrayed here.

I don't want to call our hero grumpy because his cynical attitude is a product of family trauma he never got therapy for. Plus Kamilah wasn't exactly a ball of sunshine. It also wasn't enemies to lovers since they weren't really enemies. They just had a falling out and barely talked to each other.

And I really don't mind my romance handling real issues but I hate when the book is marketed as a rom-com and then one of the mc's is dealing with deep trauma. Hearing Liam talk about his dad and nana's deaths was hard. It was very reminiscent of a celebrity death that happened in the past few years. It also was a drastic shift in tone from the other parts of the story, which made the last third feel uneven along with other family drama. The Vega family at the end completely overreacted to the situation..

So I found myself kind of zoning out at the end of what I originally thought would've been a 5 star read. I wanted to get a clear understanding of why Liam and Kamilah stopped being friends and instead that was glossed over. I was a little dissapointed in the sex scene because we got all this hot build up and then it was flat. I actually would check out the next book in the series as long as it's more rom-com.

Wild Survival: Swimming with Sharks by Melissa Cristina Marquez

Welcome Back, Booklovers! Remember when we were kids and all dreamed of becoming marine biologists when we grow up? Well Melissa Cristina Marquez actually did that. And she wrote a series inspired by her career with the hope of inspiring young readers. Wild Survival is a series about the Villalobos family who have their own nature show where they travel around the world rescuing animals. And the good news is that each book can be read like a standalone.

The Villalobos family is off the Sri Lanka to investigate a rare shark sighting. Pondicherry sharks are critically endangered and a local restaurant is keeping one in it's aquarium. This is also a good opportunity for them to educate the locals about sharks since there's so much fear of them.

Adrianna recieved a new camera from her abuela and she can't wait to take pictures of everything. And she wants to show everyone that you don't have to fear sharks. So she comes up with a plan for a festival to celebrate the sharks where people can swim with them. The family also faces close encounters in the ocean and some threatening poachers.

Who doesn't love nature shows? This book is a lot of fun for that reason. Kids will enjoy reading about Adrianna's adventures while also learning fascinating facts about animals. They also get to learn a little about the culture in Sri Lanka and even pick up some phrases. I listened to the audiobook which had great narration. And I know the physical book has illustrations in it. If any adults want to pick this one up it's reminiscent of watching Discovery Kids. 

I also liked that this series is centered around a Latinx family. Very rarely do we get to see images of Latinx scientists in media. I think this book can be very inspirational for young Latinx kids who are interested in nature and animals. Nicknamed the "Mother of Sharks" Melissa Cristina Marquez uses her real life experience as inspiration for this fun fast-paced read. 

Zyla and Kai by Kristina Forest

Welcome Back, Booklovers! It's summer which means it's time for new YA romance releases. I read and enjoyed Kristina Forest's previous books so of course I had to check out Zyla and Kai. Thank you Penguin Teen for providing me an arc.

Zyla and Kai are both working at Sailor Joe's Amusement Park for the summer. After a blow up with his ex girlfriend, Kai is assigned to the games section with Zyla. Kai has a reputation for being a player because he's had a lot of girlfriends, and Zyla isn't interested in becoming anyone's girlfriend any time soon. But the mutual attraction is there and the more time they spend with each other the more the closer they get.

Family relationship were a big part of this book. Zyla has a complicated relationship with her parents. They get caught up in new relationships and usually neglect her when that happens. Her mother is at least around day to day but her father is living out of state and she's been doging his check in calls. Her Aunt Ida is still bitter about the way her relationship with her husband turned out and is constantly warning her about how men are good for nothing. So it's no suprise Zyla pushes back on the idea of being happy and in love. She can't wait to just graduate so she can move as far away as possible for fashion school.

Kai lost his parents at a young age and lives with his Aunt Brenda and Uncle Steve. He's been regularly seeing a therapist for years and he has standards of perfection he wants to live up to. His dream is to attend Morehouse like his parents. 

I thought Zyla and Kai were fully fleshed out characters and I enjoyed their chemistry together. This is the first YA I've read in awhile that also focused on the school life of the teens which made it feel more realistic. Though I did think we got a little too much of Kai's day to day it was nice to see how he was involved so much at school rather than just hearing about it.

I thought this book was a little too long. It felt like it was dragging too much which wasn't an issue with Forest's previous novels. While I saw the vision with the mystery aspect it just didn't live up to the build up. I felt the side povs didn't add much and made other sections somewhat repetetive. And when we finally got to the climax everything was resolved entirely too fast. This book also takes place over the entire summer and school year so the monthly check in added to the length. 

I still highly recommend checking this one out. Kristina Forest always writes these cute and fluffy stories that make you a believer.

Interview with Author Lachelle Seville

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I'm back with another interview and this time it's with author  Lachelle Seville. They recently published Darknesses, a sapphic dracula inspired gothic romance. If you do a lot of reading on KU it's included.

What was your inspiration behind Darknesses? And why Dracula?

I’ve always been obsessed with the Victorian, the gothic, the Romantic movement, and so on. Between stylistic conventions and sociopolitical contexts, there’s something about nineteenth century literature that fascinated me long before I gained the academic understanding that I do now. I’d been trying to generate a spin on Dracula since 2014 before Darknesses took shape in late 2019. I had fewer inhibitions back then and felt like trying to put a new spin on a figure as iconic as Dracula would literally be like reaching for the stars. An epiphany preceded the first draft, and I realized that my error was conceptualizing a retelling where he was still the star. As I was revising another project, I had a very distinct visual of Vlad the Impaler picking up Dracula in a bookstore and being like, “Uh? Wtf??” From there, it was a matter of crafting a protagonist with a backstory that could resonate with that new “what if”.

How would you describe your brand of storytelling?

Succinctly, fucked up but funny. I love exploring trauma in a way where the reader isn’t sure if they should be laughing, but they’re laughing anyway. I write for myself first and foremost, and it’s so rare to come across media that does justice to survivors/neurodivergents, let alone gives them the breadth to find whimsy in the darkness.

How did your writing journey start?  What made you decide to self-publish?

My writing journey, or at least my initial foray into professional publication, started in 2015/2016. I started querying a relatively personal book about two teenagers in post-apocalyptic Detroit. I queried another 3-4 projects from then until 2019/2020 (pandemic has jacked my sense of time so I really can’t say) before I said F it and decided to self-publish. I had built rapport with several prominent agents who kept insisting that they wanted to see more from me in the future, and every time I provided more, I was rejected. Not only is Darknesses the book of my heart, but it’s the most well-crafted story I’ve ever written.

I considered diving into the querying trenches with it, but then when I thought about the chain of production, I was like, “Do I really want to find an agent and have them tell me to do x, y, z to go on sub? Am I really gonna let some editor tell me to do x, y, z for publication? Am I really gonna wait 2-10 years for this whole process? Am I really gonna get paid dirt and be treated like dirt just to suffer the way my tradpubbed friends do when I can suffer in a way where I at least have control over pretty much everything?” It was like looking down a tunnel with no light at the end, and I realized that at least for this story, I would prefer to micro-manage and put out the book I want than sanitize the material and strive towards the exposure that traditional publishing provides.

Are there any books or guides you used that really helped you while crafting?

It’s been a long, long time since I read any craft books, and whenever I read craft books, I tend not to read them all the way through because I’m so impatient, BUT! One that I read a long time ago that has stuck with me for years and years is Martha Alderson’s The Plot Whisperer. Her four act plot planner is pretty much embedded in my mind, and I can’t start writing any story without making one on a big piece of paper.

And I’m being 100% serious when I say that reading Dracula while drafting Darknesses really helped shape the prose and structure. On one hand, it was technically a fact-checking source, but diving that deep into a work that’s culturally and time-wise so far removed from my own helped me to reject conventions that are entrenched in mainstream storytelling. People were doing ridiculous but effective things with their writing before publishing became the industry that it is.

What advice do you have for writers starting their publishing journey?

Do not put all of your eggs in one basket. And do not treat self-publishing as a last resort. I’m incredibly pessimistic about the state of publishing, but even an objective bystander can see how unsustainable, socially destructive, and static the current system is, not to mention the big question mark over who’s getting paid if neither editors nor authors are seeing the money. I wasted years of my life hoping someone would see the same value in my work as I do, and I deeply regret not taking more of that time to explore options for self-publishing. I gave up on stories that I had no business giving up on because I didn’t think they were marketable or that an agent would ever pick them up, and I regret that, too. I’ve met some incredible, empathetic, like-minded people while self-publishing, and I’ve gotten a lot of support from all directions. So yeah, if you’re writing, don’t pigeonhole yourself into thinking one route is easier or more fulfilling than the other.

If you could write any IP what would you write?

Batman.

How has living on different coasts affected your worldview?

I’m from Detroit. I’ve lived in the Bay Area, LA, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and have been back in my home town for almost four years now. My worldview is that despite the infrastructural problems that plague many deindustrialized cities, the thought of not living in a majority Black city like Detroit makes my spirit hurt.

If you were to plan a writing retreat where would it be held?

Cologny, Switzerland. It’s where Mary Shelley and the lads had their ghost story writing competition.

Outside of writing and drawing, do you have any hobbies you enjoy?

I make music. I put out an album for Darknesses, but I don’t have anything in the works right now. But for the most part, if I’m awake and doing something, I’m either writing or drawing.

Do you have any other projects you’re working on at the moment?

Many! Seven standalone projects, a sequel for Darknesses, a series set in the same universe as Darknesses but starring a different character, and a separate series are all vying for my attention right now. The project I’m feeling most tuned into right now involves vampires, Greek mythology, and Islamic mythology. I have a World War Z-esque Frankenstein retelling that’s been in the drafting stage for months and months while Darknesses pulled itself together. And then I have Moonblink, which is an adult SF/F about a family being targeted by a pharmaceutical company that manufactures lucid dream drugs. I tend to work on 2-3 projects at once until one of them starts to demand the most attention, so I’m excited to work with this lineup.

Follow Lachelle at @L4CH3LL3 on Twitter.

Batter Royale by Leisl Adams

Welcome Back, Booklovers! June is a busy month with so many books coming out for the summer. Batter Royale is a new graphic novel for teens who love baking competitions. I recieved an arc from Abrams Books in exchange for an honest review.

Rose is a waitress working in a small town restaurant. She has big dreams of attending culinary school and becoming a pastry chef. But her parents are seperating and they don't have the money to send her to her dream school. When a critic is impressed by a bold dessert choice she sneaks to her at the restaurant, she gets the opportunity of a lifetime to participate in a reality baking show.

Rose flies to London with her best friend, Fred to compete against teams from around the world. The challanges are a little crazy, one of the constestants is trying to sabatogue teams, and their friendship gets tested. During the competition Rose and Fred also have to acknowledge the feelings they have for each other.

This was a cute story with great artwork. I loved how little recipes for various desserts were included. I thought that was a unique touch. I did want some more drama though. Rose's parents announce that they're seperating and she doesn't even get to really deal with any of that before she flies to London for the competition. Fred's mother is in danger of losing her restaurant but we only see that a little bit. The reality tv show filming goes by so fast the other contestants aren't that developed. So I would've loved to see a little more time spent on the behind the scenes of the competition. 

I think younger teens will enjoy this one because it's a quick and easy read. The little romance between two best friends is cute. And the recipes are easy enough to inspire any young baker. 

What a Match by Mimi Grace

Welcome Back, Booklovers! If fall vibes is your jam then look no further than What a Match. It was my first Mimi Grace romance but definitely not my last. Shout out to Mimi for sending me a review copy.

Gwen just got out of a long term relationship and she's been struggling on her search for Mr. Right. She decides to sign up for a matchmaking service and let them find her perfect man for her. And Gwen goes hard! Every night she's on a different date but despite the unique activities she hasn't met a man who she has that spark with yet. She decides signing up for a match making service will help her find her perfect man.

Anthony is a former boxer who now co-owns a gym. When he has to evacute his apartment because of a heating issue he turns to his best friend and co-owner Duncan for a place to stay. Since Duncan is renovating his place he asks his sister, Gwen to take in Anthony instead.

Anthony has had a crush on Gwen for awhile and he's not sure how he'll survive living with her. At first he tried to avoid her but they can't avoid each other for long. And soon they realize just how good they could be for each other. 

This book takes place during the fall. So of course we get a Fall Harvest Festival scene complete with a runaway pumpkin. As someone who loves fall and is looking for more fall romances I was really happy for that.

What a Match is light and fluffy but definitely not devoid of heat. For those who like "spicy" scenes Mimi Grace brings just enough heat to keep you wanting more but also keeps the cute vibes of the book. The chemistry between Anthony and Gwen leaps off the page. 

And I also liked how she incoporated Gwen's family in the mix with her mother learning to move on after seeing her ex husband moving on.

All in all this was fun, funny, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Juneteenth Book Recs!!!

Welcome Back, Booklovers! Juneteenth is officially a federal holiday and white coporations like Walmart and Lane Bryant have already started trying to capitalize. So I wanted to make my own rec list before people trot out their lists of Black books that have absolutely nothing to do with Juneteenth or being Black in America full of books they never read. So often I hear talk of Black joy books vs Black trauma books. And it's important to realize that being Black in America isn't one long extended suffering even though sometimes in the hardest times it can feel that way. And I urge people to not shy away from the history of Black people in America even though some parts are painful because there are parts that are beautiful.

The first book I'm including is The Juneteenth Story: Celebrating the End of Slavery in the United States by Alliah L. Agostini. It's a recently released picture book full of history but presented in an approachable way.

Ruby's Reunion Day Dinner by Angela Dalton is a fun picture book celebrating family and good food. Ruby sees all her family members prepping a signature dish for the reunion and wants to make her own but she's not sure what to contribute. 

Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas is another recent release and perfect read for the summer when school's out and the pool is out. It's a graphic novel that follows a girl who has moved from Brooklyn to small town Florida. Her new school makes her take swim class for the quarter and she's terrified of swimming because she's never been in a pool. It shows her journey to becoming a swimmer while also touching on the history of Black people and lack of access to swimming pools in the US.

Just South of Home by Karen Strong is a story of family, friendship and a little mystery. Cousins spending the summer together have to learn to get along while also dealing with haints and the dark history of their small town.

For All Time by Shanna Miles is a cute story about Tamar, Fayard and their love across the ages and timelines. We follow versions of them from Ancient Mali to 1920s Philly through present day South Carolina.

I always mention Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron but it's just such a great book that deserves more attention. It's a powerful story with just the right amount of magic about family, resilence, and love. Set in the Jim Crow South we follow Evvie as she comes of age and deals with a big threat while navigating new love.

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge is set in a free Black community during the Reconstruction era and follows the daughter of a doctor with a vision to have her daughter follow in her footsteps. But Libertie is ready for something else and feels stifled by the path her mother has set out for her. 

The Conductors by Nicole Glover follows Hettie and her husband Benjy who are conductors on the Underground Railroad and use magic to help people escape to freedom. When an old friend is murdered they take on the investigation. 

Sallie Ann Robinson's Kitchen: Food and Family Lore from the Lowcountry by Sallie Ann Robinson brings the Sea Islands to your dinner table with regional staples and recipes passed down for generations.