The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster by Shauna Robinson

 Welcome Back, Booklovers! I met Shauna at a book event back in March and decided to add The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster to my TBR and went in without really knowing much about it. So keep reading to hear my full thoughts.

The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster is about a biracial woman named Mae who is about to get married and feels out of place both in her own white family and the one she's marrying into. Her father passed years earlier and she's never had a connection to his family. When her grandmother passes she decides to take a trip to the South for the funeral and try and reconnect.  Secrets are revealed, longtime grudges are exposed and Mae must confront some harsh truths in between attempting to keep family traditions alive.

The book sets itself apart from similar books by having the harder conversations around biracial heritage and the way individuals navigate that identity that is different than someone whose parents are the same race. Which I appreciated because so often it's not discussed and it's presented as if there's no difference. Mae and her father had a habit of just shrugging off the racism of her white family over the years and she has to finally acknowledge the harm behind that and learn to stand up for herself. There were some very honest and uncomfortable conversations about race here. So many books I pick up that discuss racism and have Black and biracial characters in mostly white spaces still don't talk about the way in which those characters enable the white people around them by keeping quiet. Mae has to really reckon with the privileges she has due to her proximity to whiteness.

There's also a very good exploration here about how to navigate relationships with family after the death of the relative that was connecting you. Having firsthand experience actively navigating that I found that part of the story to be very well done. It didn't expect one of the big twists here and it was refreshing to see the conversations around it. My biggest gripe is there's no recipe for the much talked about mac & cheese!

The Thing About Home by Rhonda McKnight

Welcome Back, Booklovers! One of my goals this year was to pick up more family sagas. There's something about seeing how these big families interact with each other and share in traditions that just warms my heart. The Thing About Home being set in South Carolina's Lowcountry also interested me because there's so much rich history to explore in that area. So when I saw that it was one of Libro FM's Advanced Listening Copy picks I decided it was a sign to read it sooner rather than later.

Casey is an influencer who has planned the perfect vow renewal, but she didn't expect her husband to leave her at the altar, embarrassing her in front of millions of fans. After her meltdown goes viral, she decides to take a break from the fast life in NYC against her momagers wishes. She finally decides to track down her father's family after years of unanswered questions about them which brings her to the South Carolina countryside.

Food is such an important part of this story. Casey discovers that her 99 year old grandmother has a significant amount of farmland that she owns and operates with the help of the very charming Nigel. She and her family bond through dishes that have been passed down for generations. Spending time on the farm is the thing that helps her connect to her 99 year old grandmother.

I'm not stranger to inspirational stories. While faith is very much a part of this story I liked that the approach wasn't too heavy handed. There's no way to read a story about a Black southern family with such deep roots in their community and not have church be apart of the discussion. It's very much ingrained in the culture and the church is just as much a gathering place for their family as the local hole in the wall restaurant.

This book doesn't shy away from discussions about topics that are not spoken about enough like Casey's multiple miscarriages and how that affected her marriage and her idea of a happy family. Casey learns more about her family history through her great grandmother's journals and I like how readers get that glimpse of the past but it also reminds us that some of the issues Casey is facing aren't new. 

It's a quieter story but there's no shortage of drama between family secrets and exes looming. I enjoyed reading about Casey finding herself, connecting with her family, and being open to love again.

Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown

 Welcome Back, Booklovers! Black Candle Women was one of my most anticipated reads of 2023. I love multigenerational family stories and stories that blend the past with the present and then with the voodoo aspect this caught my eye. I received an arc from Graydon House.

In this book we follow the Montrose Women who are a family living in California with New Orleans roots. Augusta is the matriarch and she lives with her granddaughters Victoria and Willow and her great-granddaughter Nikkie. We follow each of these women on their journey through life and love over the course of a few months.

It was fitting Ava Duvernay blurred this book because it feels like something she would adapt. It has the makings of a series with just the right sized cast of characters with varying ages. And a series would be able to expand of the plots that were introduced by not fully fleshed out. I feel like there wasn't enough balance between all the ladies. We got what we needed in Augusta's story but Victoria, Willow, and Nickie had things happen off page that weren't addressed enough on page.

For example Willow states she does not believe in the curse yet at the same time has never had a steady relationship before. Yet she meets this man named January and she's quick to start a committed relationship with him. And then most of it plays out off page without readers getting a proper recap on page. There was actually a period in the book where she makes a big decision and then there's a time jump of a few months where it seems like life was at a standstill for all the ladies. 

Victoria was very controlling and annoying for a large portion of the book and I wish her antics would've been dialed back to explore some of her other relationships with more depth. I know there was a point to be made about her being a therapist who is bad with communication but she never had one proper sit down with her family members. I feel like the healing that happened between her and Willow as well as her mother came too easily.

I think a good job was done building up Nikkie's story with her relationship with a boy from school but I feel like it could've had a better end then it did.

I really liked the flashbacks to 50s New Orleans through the memories of Augusta. I also liked that even though she is mute in her old age her family still has full on convos with her and she has her own ways to communicate with them. That being said all the pain she experience was her fault and I didn't feel sorry for her that it happened. Especially when as the book goes on her lies are revealed.

For people who are hesitant it will lean too fantasy because of the voodoo, they don't need to worry. It blurred the lines a lot about what was magic and what was just coincidences and assumptions. 

Over all despite wanting just a little bit more in some areas I did enjoy in this book.

Pre-Order Reveal: The Fraud Squad

Welcome Back, Booklovers! Today I wanted to put an upcoming book on your radar in a different way. This book intrigued me from the synopsis and I love a good women's fiction written by an author of color. So check out the trailer and synopsis below and if you like it make sure to pre-order or at the very least add on Goodreads.

For fans of CRAZY RICH ASIANS, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, and INVENTING ANNA

A working-class woman who infiltrates Singapore’s high society to fulfill her dreams risks losing everything in the process—including herself—in this propulsive millennial women’s fiction novel by debut author Kyla Zhao.

For as long as she can remember, Samantha Song has dreamed of writing for a high-society magazine—and she’d do anything to get there. But the constant struggle to help her mom make ends meet and her low social status make her dream feel like a distant fantasy. 

 Now, Sam finds herself working at a drab PR firm. The closest she’ll get to that life is living vicariously through her socialite coworker and friend, Anya Chen. Then she meets Timothy Kingston: the disillusioned son of one of Singapore’s elite families—and Sam’s one chance at infiltrating the high society world to which she desperately wants to belong.

 To Sam’s surprise, Tim and Anya both agree to help her make a name for herself on Singapore’s socialite scene. The borrowed designer clothes and plus-ones to every glamorous event can only get her so far; the rest is on Sam, and she’s determined to make an impression on the editor-in-chief of Singapore’s poshest magazine. But with a mysterious gossip columnist on the prowl for dirt, the deeper Sam wades into this fraud, the more she fears being exposed—forcing her to reconcile her pretense with who she really is before she loses it all.

Pre-order The Fraud Squad

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/707159/the-fraud-squad-by-kyla-zhao/

Add on Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58454079-the-fraud-squad

You can follow Kyla Zhao at the links below

• Author website: https://www.kylazhao.com

• Newsletter: https://www.kylazhao.com/newsletter

• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/kylazhao

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kylazingaround

Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson

Welcome Back, Booklovers! Do you know what it feels like to get to your mid to late 20s and realize you're not where you want to be in life? That the job who've had for the past five years feels stagnant with no room to grow?  That's where I was for most of 2021, which was part of the reason I decided to pick up Must Love Books. I received an arc from Sourcebooks for review. 

Nora has spent five years in publishing as an editorial assistant at Parsons Press. Her love of books led her to the job but Parsons doesn't publish the kind of books she loves. They publish repetitive business books usually from long time authors who have published with them for years. Right now they are focusing all their energy on acquiring the manuscript of a young breakout author, Andrew Santos.

After receiving a pay cut that has her barely able to pay her bills, Nora decides she needs another job. So she lies to her former manager, Lynn about leaving Parsons and takes a freelance job at publishing company Weber. Weber sees Parsons as direct competition so there's definitely conflict of interest there. Nora just has to do a good job for the next six months and keep the arrangement a secret until Weber offers her a full time position. In the meantime Parsons puts a promotion on the table if Nora can convince Andrew to sign the contract for his next book. Nora does start to develop a closer relationship with Andrew but feels conflicted over steering him towards one publisher over another based on what's best for her interests.

It was a little slow as we go through the day to day in Nora's office. And as the conversations all center around work it can become a little repetitive but it was the relatability that kept me reading. Once Nora's coworkers who she's close with start to leave it makes it even harder for her. As someone who has been in that situation it's so relatable. It's easier to suffer through a bad job when you have people surrounding you who make the job better. A popular saying is that people don't leave the job they leave the manager. Nora was very close with her old manager Lynn but doesn't have the same relationship with her new manager Rita. 

Nora's mental health has all taken a toll the longer she's been working at the job and she at times has suicidal thoughts. While some readers may be disappointed that she doesn't go down the path to therapy I appreciate that she does actual that her mental health is important and that she needs to find a job that's better for her. It's okay to not be completely in love with the job you went to school for or to stick with your first job or field forever. 

This book really takes away the glamour of publishing showing it as a job much like any other job. Publishing is a business first and foremost and her company conducts itself like every other big business. They make decisions without factoring their employees mental health into the equation, there's plans for growth that leave one person doing the job of several, and the lowest level employees are experiencing pay cuts.

The Girl With Stars in Her Eyes by Xio Axelrod

 

Welcome Back, Booklovers!  I'm back with another book review. And this one was an audiobook I was given a chance to listen to in advance courtesy of Dreamscape Media. I'd seen the cover around but I really didn't know what this book was about. And then upon doing a Google search I found out that there's a Spotify playlist to accompany the book. 

Indie rock artist Antonia "Toni B" Bennett gets a chance to fill in as the guitarist in a hot new girl band signed to a major label when there's problems with their main guitarist. This might finally be her ticket out of PA to chase her dreams. Sebastian Quick aka Seb is managing The Lilly's and tired of playing babysitter to the train wreck that is Candy. Things are further complicated when the girl that got away is back in his life. 

At first I wasn't really sure what to make of this book. It's labelled a romance and there is a romance in it that's like a second chance friends to lovers type. But for a chunk of the book it didn't feel like a priority. So it took me longer to get behind them and root for them to be together. Plus much of their relationship relied on flashbacks to their childhood. 

It felt like not much happened in this story. Toni has a complicated relationship dynamic with her parents that was interesting but not enough to sustain this story. It was an easy listen but overall it wasn't a particularly memorable one. 

Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim

Welcome Back, booklovers!

I decided to read this because it was for Download on Edelweiss and the premise sounded cute. And how cute it was. I would definitely describe it more as women's fiction vs rom-com though because while there was a romance this was more about the journey of discovery. If you like light-hearted stories with a touch of magical realism then this is the book for you.

This book is great if you ever dream of going to Paris and having the art loving and culinary adventure of a lifetime. Vanessa Yu and her aunt love to eat. In fact her whole family loves to eat and this book had me craving everything from Peking duck to sweet crepes and prosciutto pizza. They eat so don't go into this book without a snack ready.

But Vanessa has a special ability she was born with that allows her to see other people's futures and it sometimes causes problems. When Vanessa sees a fortune she can't help but blurt it out like when she ruins her cousin's wedding after foreseeing her divorced within a year. Ashamed and struggling to deal with this gift that she's convinced is ruining her life she and her family decide she needs a vacation. So she's spending time in Paris with the other family fortune teller her tea selling aunt Evelyn. 

From there her adventure begins which includes eating her way through Paris, wearing fashionable clothes, and sketching at historic sites. Not to mention a cute expat willing to show her around the city.

I do wish the book would've gotten more into how people react to Vanessa blurting out their futures. We got to see her reactions but not there's. Of course her family was used to her and would accept it but she would have encounters with strangers like the man who was planning to propose to his girlfriend and no one really questioned her.  People were coming in for a cup of tea and getting told their family member would die!

I also didn't like how she was pushing her aunt to rekindle a romance with a man who she knew nothing about who also had a friend who launched a racist/xenophobic campaign against the tea shop. 

Overall this was a cute romance that would be good for a rainy day read curled up under a blanket with a cup of hot tea.

Read Caribbean During June Pt 2

Welcome Back Booklovers!

Despite the chaos going on in the world right now I am truly enjoying getting to spread my love of books and have great discussions with other readers. Reading books, interviewing authors, chatting with readers are all the little things keeping me sane during this time.

Putting together these lists has introduced me to some new author's I'm excited to read while also having me reflect on the ones I have read. It's also a reminder of how resilient my people are. This time I'm highlighting some books by the children of Caribbean immigrants.

'Til the Well Runs Dry: A Novel

A glorious and moving multigenerational, multicultural saga that sweeps from the 1940s through the 1960s in Trinidad and the United States.

In a seaside village in the north of Trinidad, young Marcia Garcia, a gifted and smart-mouthed sixteen-year-old seamstress, lives alone, raising two small boys and guarding a family secret. When she meets Farouk Karam, an ambitious young policeman (so taken with Marcia that he elicits help from a tea-brewing obeah woman to guarantee her ardor), the rewards and risks in Marcia's life amplify forever.

'Til the Well Runs Dry sees Marcia and Farouk from their sassy and passionate courtship through personal and historical events that threaten Marcia's secret, entangle the couple and their children in a tumultuous scandal, and put the future in doubt for all of them.

With this deeply human novel, Lauren Francis-Sharma gives us an unforgettable story about a woman's love for a man, a mother's love for her children, and a people's love for an island rich with calypso and Carnival, cricket and salty air, sweet fruits and spicy stews-a story of grit, imperfection, steadfast love and of Trinidad that has never been told before.

The Haunting of Tram Car 015

Cairo, 1912: The case started as a simple one for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities ― handling a possessed tram car.

Soon, however, Agent Hamed Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi Youssef are exposed to a new side of Cairo stirring with suffragettes, secret societies, and sentient automatons in a race against time to protect the city from an encroaching danger that crosses the line between the magical and the mundane.

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

Alaine Beauparlant has heard about Haiti all her life…

But the stories were always passed down from her dad―and her mom, when she wasn’t too busy with her high-profile newscaster gig. But when Alaine’s life goes a bit sideways, it’s time to finally visit Haiti herself.

What she learns about Haiti’s proud history as the world’s first black republic (with its even prouder people) is one thing, but what she learns about her own family is another. Suddenly, the secrets Alaine’s mom has been keeping, including a family curse that has spanned generations, can no longer be avoided.

It’s a lot to handle, without even mentioning that Alaine is also working for her aunt’s nonprofit, which sends underprivileged kids to school and boasts one annoyingly charming intern.

 

 

Frying Plantain

Kara Davis is a girl caught in the middle — of her North American identity and her desire to be a “true” Jamaican, of her mother and grandmother’s rages and life lessons, of having to avoid being thought of as too “faas” or too “quiet” or too “bold” or too “soft.” Set in a neighbourhood known as “Little Jamaica,” Kara moves from girlhood to the threshold of adulthood, from elementary school to high school graduation, in these twelve interconnected stories. We see her on a visit to Jamaica, startled by the sight of a severed pig’s head in her great-aunt’s freezer; in junior high, the victim of a devastating prank by her closest friends; and as a teenager in and out of her grandmother’s house, trying to cope with the ongoing battles between her unyielding grandparents.

A rich and unforgettable portrait of growing up between worlds, Frying Plantain shows how, in one charged moment, friendship and love can turn to enmity and hate, well-meaning protection can become control, and teasing play can turn to something much darker.

Halsey Street

Penelope Grand has scrapped her failed career as an artist in Pittsburgh and moved back to Brooklyn to keep an eye on her ailing father. She’s accepted that her future won’t be what she’d dreamed, but now, as gentrification has completely reshaped her old neighborhood, even her past is unrecognizable. Old haunts have been razed, and wealthy white strangers have replaced every familiar face in Bed-Stuy. Even her mother, Mirella, has abandoned the family to reclaim her roots in the Dominican Republic. That took courage. It’s also unforgivable.

When Penelope moves into the attic apartment of the affluent Harpers, she thinks she’s found a semblance of family—and maybe even love. But her world is upended again when she receives a postcard from Mirella asking for reconciliation. As old wounds are reopened, and secrets revealed, a journey across an ocean of sacrifice and self-discovery begins.

An engrossing debut, Halsey Street shifts between the perspectives of these two captivating, troubled women. Mirella has one last chance to win back the heart of the daughter she’d lost long before leaving New York, and for Penelope, it’s time to break free of the hold of the past and start navigating her own life.

Unconditionally Mine

Event planner Sofia Silva is hiding a big secret. No one can know that her engagement to her lying, cheating fiancé is over. Until she meets gorgeous, wealthy newcomer Jonathan Gunther. Jon moved to Miami for a legally sinful life of waterfront property, convertibles and no emotional entanglements. When he invites Sofia to lie low at his house, their undeniable attraction explodes…but will her dilemma ruin their chance at forever?

Oh My Gods

She's just moved in with her dorky dad and self-absorbed older siblings - who happen to be the ancient Greek gods, living incognito in London!

Between keeping her family's true identities secret, trying to impress her new friends, and meeting an actually cute boy, Helen's stress levels are higher than Mount Olympus.

She needs to rein in her chaotic family before they blow their cover AND her chances at a half-normal social life.

Allegedly 

Orange Is the New Black meets Walter Dean Myer’s Monster in this gritty, twisty, and haunting debut by Tiffany D. Jackson about a girl convicted of murder seeking the truth while surviving life in a group home.

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it?

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?

Read Caribbean During June

Welcome Back, Booklovers!

I challenge you to read more stories by Caribbean writers. And since June is Caribbean Heritage Month and so many people on Bookstagram will be hashtagging #ReadCaribbean I suggest you join in. I wanted to have this post feature a mix of stories by people born and at least partially raised in the Caribbean. I will also do a separate recommendation post for authors born in the US/UK/Canada raised by Caribbean parents.

Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson

It's Carnival time, and the Carribean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance and pageantry. Masked "Midnight Robbers" waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. But to young Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favourite costume to wear at the festival--until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgivable crime.

Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Here Tan-Tan must reach into the heart of myth--and become the Robber Queen herself. For only the Robber Queen's legendary powers can save her life...and set her free.

How to Love a Jamaican

Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.

In “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In “Mash Up Love,” a twin’s chance sighting of his estranged brother—the prodigal son of the family—stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In “Bad Behavior,” a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In “Mermaid River,” a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In “The Ghost of Jia Yi,” a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in “Shirley from a Small Place,” a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother’s big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital.

Home Home

Moving from Trinidad to Canada wasn't her idea. But after being hospitalized for depression, her mother sees it as the only option. Now, living with an estranged aunt she barely remembers and dealing with her "troubles" in a foreign country, she feels more lost than ever.

Everything in Canada is cold and confusing. No one says hello, no one walks anywhere, and bus trips are never-ending and loud. She just wants to be home home, in Trinidad, where her only friend is going to school and Sunday church service like she used to do.

But this new home also brings unexpected surprises: the chance at a family that loves unconditionally, the possibility of new friends, and the promise of a hopeful future. Though she doesn't see it yet, Canada is a place where she can feel at home--if she can only find the courage to be honest with herself.

A Tall History of Sugar

A Tall History of Sugar tells the story of Moshe Fisher, a man who was "born without skin," so that no one is able to tell what race he belongs to; and Arrienne Christie, his quixotic soul mate who makes it her duty in life to protect Moshe from the social and emotional consequences of his strange appearance.

The narrative begins with Moshe's birth in the late 1950s, four years before Jamaica's independence from colonial rule, and ends in the era of what Forbes calls "the fall of empire," the era of Brexit and Donald Trump. The historical trajectory layers but never overwhelms the scintillating love story as the pair fight to establish their own view of loving, against the moral force of the colonial "plantation" and its legacies that continue to affect their lives and the lives of those around them.

Written in lyrical, luminous prose that spans the range of Jamaican Englishes, this remarkable story follows the couple's mysterious love affair from childhood to adulthood, from the haunted environs of rural Jamaica to the city of Kingston, and then to England--another haunted locale in Forbes's rendition.

Land of Love and Drowning: A Novel 

In the early 1900s, the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule, and an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea. Orphaned by the shipwreck are two sisters and their half brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them.

Chronicling three generations of an island family from 1916 to the 1970s, Land of Love and Drowning is a novel of love and magic, set against the emergence of Saint Thomas into the modern world. Uniquely imagined, with echoes of Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, and the author’s own Caribbean family history, the story is told in a language and rhythm that evoke an entire world and way of life and love. Following the Bradshaw family through sixty years of fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, love affairs, curses, magical gifts, loyalties, births, deaths, and triumphs, Land of Love and Drowning is a gorgeous, vibrant debut by an exciting, prizewinning young writer.

The Girl with the Hazel Eyes

Almost fifty years after Susan Taylor was exiled from Barbados for her famous whistle-blowing novel, ‘The Unspeakable Truth’, she contacts a young writer to pen her biography. Susan is crotchety and unpleasant but Lia Davis is broke so she has no choice but to stay after giving up her job to write Susan's biography. She has no idea why Susan would choose her, but there's more to Susan's story than meets the eye.

As Lia starts to unravel the reclusive author's life, she realizes that some things just don't add up. Susan has been hiding a massive secret for decades and Lia is determined to find out what it is. The Girl with the Hazel Eyes is an endearing novel that tugs at your heart with its examination of love, lies, and loyalty.

Angel's Grace

Grace has always had wild red hair like no one else in her family and a birthmark on her shoulder that her mother told her was the mark of an angel. When Grace is sent from New York to spend the summer with her grandmother in Trinidad, she looks through the family album and discovers a blurred photograph of a stranger with a birthmark -- her birthmark -- and Grace is full of questions. No one is able to identify the man in the photo, and Grace is left with no choice but to find out who he is and what he might mean to her. What Grace does not know is that her search will lead to a discovery about herself and her family that she never could have imagined.

Tracey Baptiste's first novel is a tender coming-of-age story set on the island of Trinidad. Angel's Grace explores the meaning of identity and truth, and the unbreakable ties of a family bound by love.

    

Mouths Don't Speak

No one was prepared for the massive earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, taking over a quarter-million lives, and leaving millions of others homeless. Three thousand miles away, Jacqueline Florestant mourns the presumed death of her parents, while her husband, a former US Marine and combat veteran, cares for their three-year-old daughter as he fights his own battles with acute PTSD.

Horrified and guilt-ridden, Jacqueline returns to Haiti in search of the proverbial "closure." Unfortunately, the Haiti she left as a child twenty-five years earlier has disappeared. Her quest turns into a tornado of deception, desperation, and more death. So Jacqueline holds tightly to her daughter--the only one who must not die.

Black Beach

Sixteen-year-old Tamera lives in La Cresta, a rural fishing community on a Caribbean island. Despite having the support of relatives, including her dad, Earl, her elder sister, Mary and her best friend and first cousin, Jan, she struggles to deal with her mom's mental health issues and the absence of her boyfriend, Dalton who moves out of the village to work. Tamera's life is further complicated after one of her classmates disappears, and weeks turn to months without any word of the missing girl's whereabouts. Life gets even more challenging after Tamera suffers a personal loss. This difficulty draws her and Dalton closer, but his long absences remain a test the young couple must contend with. Tamera doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, but she feels as if her closest friends are moving ahead and leaving her behind. After an environmental disaster wreaks havoc in Tamera's hometown, she longs to help, but doesn't have any of the required skills to make an impact. With time on her hands to soul search, she makes a life changing decision that leads her in the path of potential danger. Tamera finds herself at the centre of the mystery of her classmate's disappearance, the resolution of which shocks the people of La Cresta.

Buxton Spice

Told in the voice of a girl as she moves from childhood into adolescence, Buxton Spice is the story the town of Tamarind Grove: its eccentric families, its sweeping joys, and its sudden tragedies. The novel brings to life 1970s Guyana-a world at a cultural and political crossroads-and perfectly captures a child's keen observations, sense of wonder, and the growing complexity of consciousness that marks the passage from innocence to experience.

10 Books in 2020 by Black British Books

Welcome Back, Booklovers!

Even though I live in the US I'm all for continuing to support Black and biracial authors across the pond.  I'm seeing more British authors getting more visibility this year.  For my British readers I'm glad you're getting more books accessible to you. Everyone deserves proper representation. And for my American readers many of these books are available on Amazon and Book Depository if they have not also been published in the US.

This Lovely City by Louise Hare 

The drinks are flowing. The music’s playing. But the party can’t last.

London, 1950. With the Blitz over and London still rebuilding after the war, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for help. Arriving from Jamaica aboard the Empire Windrush, he’s taken a tiny room in south London lodgings, and has fallen in love with the girl next door.

All My Lies Are True by Dorothy Koomson

Verity is telling lies...

And that's why she's about to be arrested for attempted murder.

Serena has been lying for years. . .

And that may have driven her daughter, Verity, to do something unthinkable...

Poppy's lies have come back to haunt her . . .

So will her quest for the truth hurt everyone she loves?

Everyone lies.

But whose lies are going to end in tragedy?

Imperfect Arrangements by Frances Mensah Williams

There are two sides to every story…

In the sun-soaked capital of Ghana, best friends Theresa, Maku and Lyla struggle with the arrangements that define their relationships.

Ambitious, single-minded Theresa has gambled everything to move with her loving husband Tyler from London to cosmopolitan Accra. But when shocking developments threaten their plans, they also expose the hidden cracks in their fairytale marriage.

Feisty Maku is desperate for professional recognition – and her dream white wedding. But how long can she wait for her laid-back partner Nortey to stop dreaming up pointless projects from the comfort of his local bar and stand up to his family?

Churchgoing Lyla married Kwesi in haste, and six years later she is desperate for a child. 

But while she battles a vicious mother-in-law, and her growing attraction to the mysterious Reuben, her husband has bitten off more than he can chew with his latest mistress.

Facing lies, betrayal, and shattered illusions, each couple must confront the truth of who they have become and the arrangements they have enabled. Against the backdrop of a shifting culture, each woman must decide what – and who – she is willing to sacrifice for the perfect marriage.

Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World by Bolu Babalola

Love stories inspired by tales of the past...

Join debut author Bolu Babalola as she retells the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology with new incredible detail and vivacity. Focusing on the magical folktales of West Africa, Babalola also reimagines iconic Greek myths, ancient legends from South Asia, and stories from countries that no longer exist in our world. Babalola is inspired by tales that truly show the variety and colours of love around the globe.

A high-born Nigerian goddess feels beaten down and unappreciated by her gregarious lover and longs to be truly seen.

A young businesswoman attempts to make a great leap in her company, and an even greater one in her love life.

A powerful Ghanaian spokeswoman is forced to decide whether to uphold her family's politics, or to be true to her heart.

Whether captured in the passion of love at first sight, or realising that self-love takes precedent over the latter, the characters in these vibrant stories try to navigate this most complex human emotion and understand why it holds them hostage.

Bolu takes a step in decolonising tropes of love by forming new stories from the wildly beautiful tales that already exist in so many communities and cultures. Moving exhilaratingly across perspectives, continents and genres, from the historic to the vividly current, Love in Colour is a celebration of romance in all of its forms.

Get lost in these mystical worlds and see that love, like humanity, comes in technicolor.

The Girl with the Louding Voice: A Novel by Abi Dare 

Adunni is a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a “louding voice”—the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni's father sells her to be the third wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir.

When Adunni runs away to the city, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. As a yielding daughter, a subservient wife, and a powerless slave, Adunni is told, by words and deeds, that she is nothing.

But while misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself, but for other girls, for the ones who came before her and were lost, and for the next girls, who will inevitably follow; she finds the resolve to speak, however she can—in a whisper, in song, in broken English—until she is heard.

The Book Of Echoes by Rosanna Amaka

1981: England looks forward to a new decade. But on the streets of Brixton, it’s hard to hold onto your dreams, especially if you are a young black man. Racial tensions rumble, and now Michael Watson might land in jail for a crime he did not commit.

Thousands of miles away, village girl Ngozi abandons her orange stall for the opportunity to work as a housemaid for a middle-class family.

From dusty tracks to gritty pavements, Ngozi and Michael’s journey towards a better life is strewn with heartache. When they finally collide, their lives will be transformed for ever.

With irresistible joy and grace, Rosanna Amaka writes of people moving between worlds, and asks how we can heal and help each other. Humming with beauty and horror, tragedy and triumph, THE BOOK OF ECHOES is a powerful debut from an authentic new voice in British fiction

Eight Pieces of Silva by Patrice Lawrence

Becks is into girls but didn't come out because she was never in. She lives with her mum, stepdad and eighteen-year-old Silva, her stepdad's daughter. Becks and Silva are opposites, but bond over their mutual obsession with K-pop.

When Becks' mum and stepdad go on honeymoon to Japan, Becks and Silva are left alone. Except, Silva disappears. Becks ventures into the forbidden territory of Silva's room and finds the first of eight clues that help her discover her sister's secret life.

Meanwhile, Silva is on a journey. A journey to make someone love her. He says he doesn't, but he's just joking. All she has to do is persuade him otherwise

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU MANGOS by Kereen Getten

Twelve-year-old Clara lives on an island that visitors call exotic. But there's nothing exotic about it to Clara. She loves eating ripe mangos off the ground, running outside in the rain with her Papa during rainy season, and going to her secret hideout with Gaynah—even though lately she's not acting like a best friend. 

The only thing out of the ordinary for Clara is that something happened to her memory that made her forget everything that happened last summer after a hurricane hit. Sometimes things come back to her in drips like a tap that hasn't been turned off properly. Other times her Mama fills in the blanks...only she knows those aren't her memories and it is hard feeling like she is not like everybody else. 

But this summer is going to be different for Clara. Everyone is buzzing with excitement over a new girl in the village who is not like other visitors. She is about to make big waves on the island—and give Clara a summer she won't forget.

The Infinite by Patience Agbabi

FIGHT CRIME, ACROSS TIME!

Leaplings, children born on the 29th of February, are very rare. Rarer still are Leaplings with The Gift – the ability to leap through time. Elle Bíbi-Imbelé Ifíè has The Gift, but she’s never used it. Until now.

On her twelfth birthday, Elle and her best friend Big Ben travel to the Time Squad Centre in 2048. Elle has received a mysterious warning from the future. Other Leaplings are disappearing in time – and not everyone at the centre can be trusted.

Soon Elle’s adventure becomes more than a race through time. It’s a race against time. She must fight to save the world as she knows it – before it ceases to exist 

And the Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando

When fifteen-year-old Nathan discovers that his older brother Al, has taken his own life, his whole world is torn apart. Al was special. Al was talented. Al was full of passion and light ... so why did he do it? Convinced that his brother was in trouble, Nathan decides to retrace Al's footsteps. As he does, he meets Megan, Al's former classmate, who is as determined as Nathan to keep Al's memory alive. Together they start seeking answers, but will either of them be able to handle the truth about Al's death when they eventually discover what happened? An extraordinary novel about loss, understanding and the importance of speaking up when all you want to do is shut down, from an incredible new talent, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Gayle Foreman, Jennifer Niven and Nikesh Shukla