Nothing to See Here

I was sent a review copy of this one a few months ago (thanks ECCO books!) and am just now getting to it. To be honest, I can’t say it sounded overly much like I’d be into it. So, I wasn’t rushing to get to it. Plus, I’ve been working hard to focus on female…

Juliet Takes a Breath

This has been on my TBR for a few years now, but no libraries near me have had it. And this past year has been a strict one, financially, so buying it wasn’t necessarily an option for me. Anyways, in an exciting turn, it was chosen for re-publication this year! Which meant a few things.…

White Teeth

Last year, around this time, I read my first Zadie Smith novel, NW. To be honest, as I said at the time, it was not my favorite…I was a little disappointed by it, after hearing so many amazing things about Smith. However, she has written so many books and I knew someday I would try…

Patsy

I read Dennis-Benn’s first novel, Here Comes the Sun, just over two years ago now. And while I’m terrible at remembering details from all the books I’ve read (which is actually part of why I started writing reviews in the first place), I do usually manage to hang onto feelings. And I know after I…

Royal Holiday

I read The Wedding Date last year, Guillory’s first novel, and it was so good! I enjoyed the heat and the focus on food and the story in general, especially how strong and ambitious the female lead was. But when her second book, The Proposal, came out, I wasn’t as interested (sports based romance isn’t…

Well Met

The second I hear about this one, I knew I needed to read it: a contemporary romance set at a Renaissance Faire?! YES PLEASE. It took me longer than I had hoped to get my hands on it, since for some reason not everyone was as excited about it as myself, so it was slow…

Trust Exercise

So, when I first started seeing the love/hate reviews for this book, my interest was peaked (you know how I love to read polarizing books, to see what my personal feels are – like The Pisces, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, etc.). But after reading the description, I just wasn’t feeling super into it,…

Sabrina & Corina

This one has been on my TBR since it came out. So. Really not that long, but many great reviews and lots of award nominations made me want to read it ASAP. In fact, it’s on the longlist for the Aspen Prize for Literature, which, after hearing about this award for the first time last…

SLAY

There are so many freaking reasons why I picked up this book: the cover (gorgeous), the title (so good), the description (so unique and, though I’m not personally a gamer, it sounded fascinating), and very importantly, Black women in STEM (phenomenally necessary YA rep). Anyways, not to give too big of a spoiler for the…

The Friend Zone

I picked this one up because I was in the mood for a contemporary romance (this has been happening a lot lately and I’m not mad about it) and one of my favorite romance bookstagrammers (whose recs have never led me wrong yet), @diaryofaclosetreader, had raved about it. The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez Kristen…