prose before bros

Protagonist Eva Mercy is a writer, as is her friend Belinda, and their other friend Cece is a publisher, so "prose before bros" is real. The 15th installment of Eva's erotic fantasy Cursed series about vampires and witches is due, but she can't get herself to write it. She's consumed instead, and as always, with her seventh-grade daughter Audre and her devastating migraines. Seven Days is a book with a disabled main character, with her pain in an almost "supporting" role. (I say that not to make light of migraines. I'm a sufferer, too, though not nearly to the extent as Eva or her creator, Tia Williams. I'm trying to figure out how to say this is a book with a disabled character without being a book about disability, but I'm concerned I'm not getting it right and being insensitive.)

Eva is mostly raising her talented tween and getting by, when she is rocked by a demon (vampire?) from her past. Eva's love story goes as you might expect, getting help from precocious tweenage Audre, who I'd like to see a novel from Williams about. The love story encompasses a lot more though--race, sex, generational pain, childhood trauma, all of which give it more depth. I'm not doing the novel justice. Like my sister Danna, who recommended Seven Days to me, I loved it, but unlike Danna am failing at capturing what makes the book so great. Find out for yourself!