Here we are, book three in the Lexington, Alabama series, Love, Honor, Betray by Mary Monroe and it was something else, ya’ll.

Once read, reread, and zoomed out, this book of poetry reads as a mashup of the author’s biography and passions. In 13 poems, Javier describes his concerns and love for Harlem.

Coughing, congestion and Christmas cooties got me in a chokehold. Reading is literally the least I can do next to mandatory napping. When I’m awake and not reading, I’m watching shows with ‘demon’ in the title. I wonder what that says about me.

I recommend Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms to readers who like their middle-grade fantasy, fast-paced, full of adventure, combat, history, and West African-inspired mythology.

The tweet in this facebook post recently came across my feed, so I decided to pick up the author’s book. Luckily, the audiobook was available at my library and you all….it’s REALLY good so far. It’s been such a long time since I’ve reached for a middle grade series.

For June 2023 I will be reading and discussing the following books: Empty Vows by Mary Monroe, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, and ‘Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma. If you are interested in any of the titles, please consider joining me. I don’t want to read alone. 🙂 So join me this month in reading!

A. M. Shine’s ‘The Creeper’ is negligibly unnerving. The Creeper and its rules played with my mind and dredged up fear of suffering from the consequences of not believing in the unexplained.

Imbued with emotion and reflection, Call and Response will supply readers with a front-row seat into Botswanan life. In 9 beautifully written, self-revelatory stories, we experience the inner turmoil and contradictions of embracing cultural traditions in post-colonial Botswana, inevitable shifts and changes in shared bonds between people, coming of age, navigating familial expectations, and the all too familiar event and memories of homecoming. Be prepared to traverse around cities of Botswana, and witness the characters’ revelations of themselves as they answer their call.

We will be reading beyond Waiting to Exhale and delving into Terry McMillan’s catalog for our September 2023 Buddy Read.

Burn Down, Rise Up is a thrill of a book. The writing is informational, tense, and easy to digest. Set in the Bronx, New York, it’s observed that people are steadily disappearing without a trace. The disappearances command the attention of our main character Raquel, her best friend Aaron, his brother, Mario, and a friend ‘not a friend’, Charlize. Charlize’s cousin, Cisco is the most recent disappearance, and finding him requires Raquel and the others to play a dangerous game that could result in them disappearing too.

The Devil Won’t Keep Us Apart by Shane T. Clark is a suspense novel and revenge story crafted around a father-son relationship between an elderly man, Elmer Ray, and his next-door neighbor, Adrian Franklin. I received a gifted copy of the book in exchange for an honest review from the author via Booktasters, and here it is. 🙂

Our Love Will Devour Us follows a married couple whose testy relationship is further bowed under pressure once their two children go missing during a snowstorm. As time passes, decision-making becomes increasingly difficult, temperatures sharply decrease, and tempers and toxic memories kick up. Can Emma and Claire work past their differences to find their children and mend their family?