booktribe's Reviews (603)

Nova Albright was the first Black homecoming queen at her high school, but now she’s been murdered on coronation night. It’s now up to her best friend, Duchess, and the girl who has been accused of her murder, Tinsley, to find out who really killed her.

I have very mixed feelings about this novel. On one hand, I loved the mystery aspect. I haven’t been interested in a mystery this much in a long time. The mystery was engaging with a satisfying reveal and conclusion. In the few chapters before she died, I got to know Nova and really liked her, so her death was hard for me as a reader. But that added to the mystery aspect because I HAD to know who killed her and why!

On the other hand, we have to stop centering, and in this case victimizing, white people in our works! This book was dual POV. One of the POV’s was from Nova’s bestfriend Duchess who wanted justice for her. And the other POV was from the prime suspect in the murder investigation, Tinsley, who only wanted to find the real killer to keep herself from going to jail. And Tinsley was a racist, which is not a POV I want to read from. I feel like the author’s intent was to show that Tinsley was a product of her environment, she comes from racist parents, but that she tries to be better. (Her “better” is still racist by the way) Which, okay I guess I can try to understand why someone might want to write a character like that, but, why was she the MAIN character?? We got more POV chapters from her than we did from Duchess. I think the point of her being so important was to A. Get us to empathize with those raised in racist households, and B. Teach white people about racism. That doesn’t mean that this book shouldn’t be written, but it wasn’t for me, a Black woman who is not trying to hear all that. I assumed Black people would be centered in this story and not just used as a plot point to get white people to understand the error of their ways.

One other thing that bothered me is that when the author, who is Black, wrote the dialogue of the white characters, he had them talking like they were Black. Not talking in AAVE particularly, because that would’ve been very insulting, but just saying terms that only we say. I don’t think it was purposeful, I think it was just the way he probably talks coming through in writing dialogue for them. It’s not a huge deal, but it did give me pause lol.

I loved the mystery aspect of this book, but the centering of a racist really dampened my enjoyment. Also, this story can be very triggering, so check my trigger warnings below.

Thank you to Random House Children’s and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: racism, micro aggressions, child molestation & rape mentioned, Covid & cancer related deaths in the family, adult/minor relationship, infidelity

There just wasn’t a wow factor. It was kinda boring and the characters weren’t particularly interesting.

Enemies to lovers is not my trope and all their banter was getting on my nerves. Real bad.

This was such a sweet story! The characters had great chemistry! I don’t think I’ve read many slow burn romances, but this was slow burn done right! I also appreciated that there was anxiety and chronic illness representation. And just look at this cover!😍 

There was a decision that the main character made  at the end that really upset me, even though it was understandable, but I see why it was necessary for the story. I would’ve enjoyed the ending more if that decision was handled differently though. But, overall I enjoyed this a lot and will be reading more from Tanzania Glover in the future!

On Lindsay Murray’s first day opening up her Caribbean bakery, a rude fellow bakery owner comes into her establishment causing problems. Lyndsay and he get into a big argument in front of lots of customers. The next day, he’s dead. And Lyndsay is the chief suspect. Now she must work to prove her innocence, and potentially find the real killer!

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery! It had interesting characters, I really enjoyed Lyndsay and her whole family! The mystery kept me guessing. And I loved the infusion of Grenadian culture!

The only thing I didn’t like about the story was that I couldn’t keep up with all the side characters & suspects. I got names and backstories mixed up frequently. While I’m writing this review, even though I just finished the book a few minutes ago, I couldn’t tell you half of the side characters’ names. Maybe having a character list in the book would help. Or just making the characters names different enough to where I can’t get them confused.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I can’t wait till more books in the series come out!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this arc! All opinions are my own.

TW: bullying and suicide mentioned

A little confusing, but good!

The Tiger’s Tongue is an African inspired fantasy graphic novel about two sisters who must compete to become Queen.

I enjoyed parts of this book, but it was mostly disappointing. I really enjoyed the artwork. For some reason, even though the art styles aren’t that similar, it still gave me Proud Family vibes. Something about the art style must’ve been similar because it kept reminding me of that show! The story took me a minute to get into because I was so confused! Especially in the beginning. I eventually started to get the gist of things, but I never fully understood a lot of this book. But I enjoyed the middle of the book regardless. I enjoyed the action and I did find one of the characters to be interesting even though I don’t appreciate the fact that everyone in the story manipulated them. And I hated the way this book ended. This book had some good things about it, but more bad.

I might try this author again in the future because I did enjoy some of this book and the idea of it. But the execution was lacking for me.

Thank you Mad Cave Studios and NetGalley for this arc. All opinions are my own.