Recent Reader Reviews

KING OF ASHES
By S. A. Cosby

Narration by Adam Lazarre-White is always spot on.

A fast-paced dark gritty southern crime thriller set in a run-down Virginia town, Jefferson Run. Roman Carruthers has been called home because his father is in a coma after a car accident. He finds his younger brother, Dante, in debt to dangerous thugs and his sister, Neveah, trying to hold the family and the family business together. When Roman learns his father’s car crash was not an accident and because Dante’s immaturity and recklessness has put the family in extreme danger, Roman knows he must now step in. Also, there is a mystery …more as to why their mother disappeared years ago. How far would you go to protect yourself and your family?

S. A. Cosby’s writing is gorgeous, raw, gritty, and brutal. This book starts out with the gas petal down and never lets up. An intense read of multifaceted, well developed characters. S. A. Cosby is an outstanding author who tells a story brilliantly. This is going to be made into a series, by Higher Ground (Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company) along with Amblin Entertainment (Steven Spielberg’s).

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio
Published June 10 2025 (less)

THE GIRLS WHO GREW BIG
By Leila Mottley

This is a raw and emotional read portraying teenage motherhood in a small town on the Florida panhandle. Centered around three young women navigating the complexities of raising children while they are basically children themselves. Young girls making decisions they shouldn’t have to be making at their age. You see the struggles and hardships they face, but also the sisterhood, bonds, and hopes they share. Each of these young mothers share their perspectives, thus making their experiences raw and authentic. A character driven story that does not shy away from the heart- …more wrenching hardships, but also shows the hopes along the way. The choices these girls and young men make are extremely frustrating and you feel for them and their children. Also frustrating is that they don’t have the parental guidance or understanding, especially from society, that they so desperately need. I didn’t relate to these girls and the circumstances of their day-to-day living, but I did care about them and their children. I felt I wanted to lecture them and also hug them. Will they mature and find their path and their way to happiness? You will be rooting for each of these young women as you read their story by this young author who skillfully writes an emotional, powerful, and painful read portraying them. Leila Mottley’s writing is vivid, poetic, lyrical, raw and authentic, and reflects on both trauma and beauty in her language. She writes with such depth and skill beyond her young age — there is no doubt she will have a remarkable future ahead. I am going to go back and read her debut, Nightcrawling; I started this and because it is about marginalized lives in Oakland, it was a difficult read. Her debut was written at 17-years-old and published at 19-years-old.


Touching upon young mothers, young fathers, family, choices, self-esteem, relationships, hardships, compassion, and hope.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor | Knopf for the ARC ebook (less)

DON’T LET HIM IN
By Lisa Jewell


Aisling (Ash) Swan’s father has suddenly died, and her mother begins to date again —Ash quickly becomes suspicious of her mother’s new companion.

This creepy psychological thriller intricately weaves the lives of three women—Nina, Ash, and Martha—who become drawn into the lives of two elusive men, Nick and Alistair. Do you ever truly know those you let into your life? How many red flags is too many? Not knowing too much about this book and going in totally blind and letting this twisted story unfold is best.


Lisa Jewell’s plot unfolds through multiple points of view, building …more suspense slowly but compellingly. There is unease and hidden danger that lurks behind the facade of normal life. Her writing is clear and approachable. It started off a bit slow for me and became more fast-paced midway through. I always look forward to Lisa Jewell’s books. Explores themes of trust, truth and deception, obsession, and the complexities of relationships. Delving into the darker aspects of human nature.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC ebook. (less)

Blake Crouch is the only science-fiction writer I will read with any regularity. That is because his plots and subject matter are never ridiculous. That is more true of UPGRADE than of any of his other books that I've read. He succeeds in making his main character and narrator sound like a scientist when he talks about genealogy and DNA.

Logan lives happily with his wife and child and never wishes for more. He is a scientist but now works as a special agent for the Gene Protection Agency. It is his job to find and arrest anyone who tries to modify genes.

On one of Logan's raids of a "dark gene lab," he is impaled …more with a virus that will upgrade his own genes and make him an almost superhuman. He discovers that this was a deliberate plan of his previously-thought-dead mother, also a scientist but far more brilliant than he is.

What follows is Logan's adventures as he attempts to prevent his mother and then his sister from infecting the world with this virus. They feel that the human species can only be saved by this upgrade. But Logan knows that he can't stand by and watch millions die from the virus's negative effects.

This all happens in the 21st century, only a few years from now. Crouch could be implying that this is something we need to worry about but warns that "it's not nice to fool Mother Nature" (which you may remember if you're old enough). He could also be saying that our intelligence doesn't need to be upgraded. Maybe his final letter to his wife and daughter explains it. (less)

One family, three alternate versions of what 35 years in their lives might be like. Cora's newborn needs a name, and her husband expects (commands) her to stroller downtown to the registrar and register the baby as Gordon, which is his name and his father's name. But Cora likes the name Julien. And their 9-year-old daughter Maia prefers Bear.

So the novel narrates between the three possible timelines that result from the consequences of Cora's three different choices of name. And since Cora's husband is a respected local physician by day and a controlling, violent monster by night, the three choices have …more very different consequences.

Domestic abuse and other rough emotional terrain gave me pause, but the novel's sliding-doors structure and its rich, layered prose had me page-turning with few stops. Highly recommend.

Thanks to Pamela Dorman Books/Viking and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book. (less)

Erased by Anna Malaika Tubbs is a bold and illuminating work that challenges the historical erasure of women—especially women of color—in America’s patriarchal narrative. Tubbs masterfully blends deep research with a compelling narrative voice to uncover the lives of those too often excluded from our collective memory.

What I found most impactful about this book is its clarity and urgency. Tubbs doesn’t just present facts; she frames them within a larger system of inequality that continues to affect society today. Each chapter builds a compelling case for why reclaiming these forgotten voices is not only a …more historical correction—but also a cultural necessity.

Her writing is accessible yet intellectually rich, making the book valuable to both academic and general readers. Tubbs’ tone is confident but never alienating, and her arguments are backed by solid evidence and personal conviction.

This is not a dry historical account. It is a powerful statement about memory, injustice, and resistance. Reading Erased made me reflect on how much of our shared history has been shaped by exclusion—and how reclaiming erased narratives can shift not only what we know, but how we act moving forward.

I would highly recommend this book for readers interested in women’s history, race and identity, or systemic power structures. It's also an excellent resource for high school or university discussion groups. (less)

"No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era" by Jacqueline Jones tells stories of people who succeeded with the deck stacked against them. Boston did the most to combat slavery but also the least to improve the quality of life after emancipation. Jones does a ridiculous amount of research to demonstrate this inequality.

The Black residents of Boston suffered from prejudice, for sure, but some of the bad luck that they experienced would make you cry. The odds were not in their favor. Characters from other historically significant stories, like John Brown and William …more Craft, make appearances to fight against these injustices and show why they happen to otherwise good people.

A fun game here in Maryland is to debate what caused the Civil War, and Jones demonstrates why it was such a dramatic debate. Abe Lincoln made it seem like the slavery question was over after the Emancipation Proclamation, but the struggle had just begun. As usual, the Black community in Boston tried to immerse themselves in more culture but found that it did not matter to most whites.

The three parts (pre-Civil War, Civil War, and Reconstruction) have three different stories to tell, and they are all engaging and relevant. The only advantage to the last section is that people start finding a wider range of job opportunities and education; thankfully, teaching is one of the more popular.

Jones illustrates how political mumbo jumbo and odd prejudice impeded progress. She does exhaustive research to do so. Historians, more than most, indicate why nonfiction qualifies as the hardest genre to write well. She takes something that few of us knew about and shows how it connects to modern society and the xenophobia that still exists today. It deserved the Pulitzer. (less)

Room On The Sea is a novella by Egyptian-born American author, Andre Aciman. On a warm summer Monday, Paul Wadsworth and Catherine Shukoff encounter one another in a Manhattan central jury room. Paul is a retired lawyer, reading the Wall Street Journal while they wait to be sent to a courtroom for jury selection; Catherine is a psychologist who reveals she’s reading Wuthering Heights when she notices Paul’s interest in her reading matter.

While they wait in unairconditioned discomfort (the aircon is not working) they share: Paul offers his foolproof way out of being selected; they chat and enjoy each other’s …more company; during the lunch break, Paul’s recommendation for a Chinese lunch; whatever the topic, they seem to agree; they like each other’s sense of humour; they arrange to meet for coffee the next morning; they exchange phone numbers; details of their lives; career paths not taken.

They discover a “ships-in-the-night” moment from their youth, and discuss their marriages quite frankly, as each inwardly compares the other to their spouse. They do all they can to ensure they can enjoy each other’s company each day, and they discuss the gloomy prospect that they might not see one another again after their week of juror obligation is up.

As their feelings for each other intensify, they describe the effect of their daily encounters: “I’ve felt young and hopeful again– only to realize that I’d stopped being young and hopeful for so long.” They admit to their unsatisfactory marriages: “… the tiny joke time plays on us: it robs the memory of who we were and what we were able to feel once. As you said, we live with people but totally forget why we’ve chosen to live with them.”

And they consider what might happen if they decide to take it a step further: “There are so many things at stake, all of them possibly quite meagre and frail by now, some downright insignificant. But we’ve built our lives with them and they are who we are, who we’ve been made to be, sometimes even against our will. Where would we be without them?” and they wonder if their relationship would still have the texture of “the casual, improvised meeting that allowed them to feel perfectly natural each time they were thrown together by the court system.” Do they, or don’t they? A thought-provoking tale filled with gorgeous prose.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Faber & Faber (less)

Lisa Jewell has outdone herself with THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN. Although I normally prefer thrillers, which Jewell excels at writing and which I mistakenly thought this was, THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN is riveting and had me glued to the pages as much as any thriller.

The house is beautiful in a beautiful neighborhood with other beautiful houses. But Lorelei loves things: bright things, colorful things, potentially useful things, things in bulk, all sorts of things. And all are things she just can't throw out.

Lorelei and Colin have four kids who grow up in this house of more and more things that their mother can't …more throw out. Each of their lives is examined over the years, and we see how the house they grew up in and their mother's madness affected them and their decisions.

I highly recommend this book. (less)

4.0

Status, lies, headstrong…

Evelyn and her mother Cecilia are ejected from their home in York in 1899. The family WAS aristocratic but lost their wealth and status due to reasons I won’t reveal. Without her mother’s knowledge , Evelyn applies for & accepts a job as an assistant at Morton’s Emporium (Bookshop).

A tale of secrets, 2nd chances, miscommunication, trust, success , and family drama.



THOUGHTS:

This book is advertised as historical and romance. I saw some historical as in wardrobe, transportation, cultural norms, and business mentions. I didn’t deem it as totally romance either. (Which is good for me …more because I don’t intentionally read romance!) I regard this as more of a character-driven fiction book about family drama with a touch of history and romance added to the mix.

My gut reaction to characters:

Evelyn - frank, outspoken / determined
William - mysterious / good intentions?
Cecilia - image-conscious / pushover where husband is concerned

Aunt Clara - crusty / testy
Lady Violet - snooty / hoity - toity / self-important

Supporting cast had a mix of personalities.

Debut book!

Beautiful cover (less)