Portrait of a Thief

I, like many (I am sure), do love a heist movie. There is something so satisfyingly escapist about them and I revisit classics like Ocean's 11 and The Italian Job any time I'm looking for a comfort watch. Plus, I am a *huge* fan of the entire Fast and Furious franchise, #sorrynotsorry. (Which, after reading the Acknowledgements, it seems I have that…

Magic for Liars

Another home-shelf backlist read - go me! Honestly, the synopsis for this one, a sort of detective story in a magic school setting, felt absolutely up my alley, so I was psyched to find this is the used section at a local bookstore. I grabbed it so fast...and then got around to reading it a bit…

The Spy and the Traitor

Friends, you may notice that this book is incredibly unlike anything I've read before. I mean I did read that spy novel that was one of Obama's fav's one year, American Spy, but mostly because Obama recommended it. (And really I don't see that many spy novels by Black women from major imprints..so I was all about supporting that).…

Wahala

Thanks to Libro.fm for the ALC of this book. It is one that I would definitely not have picked up as fast, if ever, without that push. And while there are quite a few ALCs I've gotten from them that remain unread (I'm just one person and there are so many great books and just too many things other than reading on…

The Verifiers

Thanks to the publisher (Vintage Anchor) for reaching out to send me a review copy of this debut novel. I am not usually a mystery reader, so I was initially hesitant, but something about this one sounded different enough that it might be worth a try. Perhaps the fact that the MC likes girls and wrote…

When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky

Choosing to read this one was a unique process for me. I had never heard of it, not seen any reviews of it, but had the option to get an ALC from Libro.fm a few months ago. The title caught my attention, so I decided to go for it. And for the first time in…

Firekeeper’s Daughter

This was a "last day I worked at the library before the Holidays" impulse grab. Someone had returned it and, instead of sending it back to be shelved, I checked it right out to myself. I had seen a number of positive reviews for it and, while it isn't my normal reading genre (mystery/thriller isn't…

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

The title is what first caught my attention about this book. For real, what a great title! I feel like you can't tell me that you wouldn't at least be interested in reading a blurb to find out more about it. Which is exactly what happened to me. I held off for a minute after…

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

I have sort of been passively trying to meet some of the Reading Women prompts for 2021 – not as intensely as last year, but just for fun. And one of the prompts that I figured I just wouldn’t meet was to read a "Crime Novel or Thriller in Translation" …mostly because I just don’t…

Elatsoe

The title is what originally drew me to this book. And then the cover, which is gorgeous...and I originally thought it was a girl wandering through snow drifts (which made me think of Little Red Riding Hood, for some reason) and actually is a girl walking with/through a crowd of ghost dogs. So I was way…