Thanks to Harper Collins and Avon books for the free advance copy of this book.

The latest book in the Reluctant Royals series, A PRINCE ON PAPER is the story of Nya and Johan. After years of being passing acquaintances, Johan impulsively asks Nya to pretend to be his fiancée as a PR move against his playboy image. You can probably guess how this works out for them!

I love the trope of a fake relationship, and this one is a stunner. Mix in some shades of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and A PRINCE ON PAPER stacks up nicely with the other books in this series.

This installment sees Nya reunited with previous series heroines Naledi and Portia, and it’s so wonderful to have them all together. I love that Nya turns to her friends for support and advice in a way that’s treated as equal to or more important than the support she receives from Johan. Noting that, I do think this is one of the rare romance novels where you do need to read the other books to put this one into context. Otherwise a lot of the conversations and references to secondary characters and events from the other books won’t make any sense.

I really appreciated how trauma was treated in this book - how it can be triggered in seemingly nonsensical ways. Even when the characters’ motivations for keeping secrets didn’t really make sense to me, those motivations made sense in their minds, and those lasting effects were illustrated painfully and beautifully.

I won’t spoil it, but suffice to say this story has a really lovely queer subplot (which more than makes up for Likotsi being barely present in this book, all books should have more Likotsi).

Set in 1889 Paris, THE GILDED WOLVES takes place in a fantasy version of history, where the Order of Babel oversees a network of Houses where people imbued with the power to Forge magical artifacts battle for power. A band of misfits hatches a plan to return a deposed rightful heir to his head of House.

I totally loved this book! Think SIX OF CROWS x THE BELLES and you get an idea of what we’re dealing with here.

This world has such a complex system of magic and mythology, drawing from ancient cultures and religions from around the world. And the characters! Each member of the central crew is flawed and deeply empathetic. I honestly could not pick a favorite. And best of all, it’s an effortlessly diverse group. There’s representation along race, sexuality, and neurological lines here. However, the story isn’t necessarily about their identities, not entirely, at least. It’s more of a wider angle view of colonization and the theft of culture, and how that impacts each character differently.

I did occasionally have trouble envisioning exactly how some of the fantasy elements looked and worked, though that may have just been a side effect of reading too quickly because I needed to know what happened next.

Lastly, I’ll just say I’ve never found the Fibonacci sequence to be so thrilling!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the free advance copy of this book.

First Son of the United States Alex Claremont-Diaz has hated England’s Prince Henry for as long as he can remember. But when they’re forced to fake a friendship for some PR damage control, Alex realizes Henry isn’t the uptight jerk he thought, and that he might be in love with a royal.

Is it possible for every cell in your body to squeal with glee every second you’re reading a book? Yes, because that was my experience reading RED, WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE. This book is alternately hilarious and moving, playful and heart-wrenching. It’s also so, so gay.

Everything about this book is snappy and sharp. I kept trying to read whole pages out loud to my partner through tears of laughter. If you like Rainbow Rowell, Cat Sebastian or Samantha Irby, you need this book.

This book is also the closest I’ve ever seen to my own coming out experience in a book, despite Alex being a dude. People often don’t understand how you could not know you’re attracted to the same sex, and this book nails that sense of 20/20 hindsight and how you can completely misunderstand your own feelings simply because you were never taught how to recognize them.

Finally, I think this book also gets both the American politics and the British monarchy right, both in terms of mechanics and social influence. (McQuiston, I would love to see your alternate royal family tree! 🤓)

Thanks to Random House for the free advance copy of this book.

Golden Oaks is a luxury retreat where highly paid surrogates carry babies for the world’s most powerful people. The Hosts’ every movement is monitored and connection to the outside world is limited. Jane, a Filipina immigrant, discovers her own baby at home may be ill, and must choose between her family and the promised life-changing paycheck.

THE FARM isn’t really a dystopian novel in the traditional sense - virtually everything in this book could take place right now with no changes to our existing world. In fact, I would be shocked if ideas like Golden Oaks weren’t already being pitched to venture capitalists.

And that’s what this book is about, in the end - capitalism. Capitalism and it’s different effects on people based on their race and class. For Jane, an immigrant, woman of color, and single mother, being a Host is a path to a better future for her daughter. For Reagan, a white Host from a wealthy family, it’s a path to finding herself. •
Capitalism affects the older women in this story to. Mae, director of the center, and Ate, Jane’s cousin, will both do anything for a bigger payout, but their different social starting points bring them to drastically different outcomes.

There are a few things I would consider plot holes, but the story can’t move along without them so I don’t want to get bogged down in that here.

All that said, this book doesn’t feel like you’re learning a lesson. It’s a certified page-turner and I couldn’t put it down. I’m definitely looking forward to future books by Joanne Ramos.

WIDE SARGASSO SEA is written as a response and prequel to JANE EYRE, providing a possible backstory for Mr. Rochester’s first wife. Known as Bertha in JANE EYRE, here, Antoinette is a white Creole woman who finds herself trapped in both a marriage and in a history she cannot escape.

At just barely 200 pages, this dreamlike novel covers so much ground - a complex family history based in painful racial politics, a marriage where both parties are confused by the other, and most of all, loneliness. Antoinette’s sense of being adrift in the world and belonging nowhere drives this book and her eventual breakdown. She feels stuck between cultures, estranged from her relatives, and married to a man who does not understand her at all.

I loved how Rhys mirrored Jane’s life in Antoinette’s. Two similar stories, yet Rochester’s reactions to them take the women down drastically different paths.

I do wish it was a bit longer - I wanted more toward the end when the story overlapped with the events of JANE EYRE. I also found it interesting that a large portion of the middle of the book is from Rochester’s point of view. I am not sure how much that added to the story. I did realize upon reading this that I have virtually no understanding of racial politics or the history of slavery in the Caribbean and I would like to read more about that. If you’ve got any recommendations, please let me know.

Honestly, the plot of UNMASKED BY THE MARQUESS is too complicated to explain here. Just know it involves secret identities, families chasing advantageous marriages, and a marquess falling in love with someone he shouldn’t.

Now, let’s talk about what’s more interesting than the plot details - the queer representation in this book! Charity Church begins the book pretending to be a man named Robert Selby, but it quickly becomes apparent more is going on there. She (I use she/her as that’s what Charity uses) is extremely uncomfortable in dresses and in being treated like a woman, yet she has no desire to fully live life as a man. In modern terms, Charity is nonbinary.

Of course, this being set in the Regency era, no one has the vocabulary for that. However, it’s alternately joyous and frustrating to watch her try to navigate this world she does not fit into, and, in Lord Pembroke, find a queer man who (eventually) accepts her and finds ways to let her live fully as herself.

Also, this being a Cat Sebastian novel, the, ahem, other aspects of the plot are quite excellent as well.

Thanks to W.W. Norton for the free advance copy of this book.

When Patsy finally obtains a visa to visit America, she leaves her daughter Tru behind in Jamaica and chases her best friend and former lover Cicely to New York. When Patsy arrives, though, she finds Cicely is a different person than the girl she loved, and Patsy must make her own way in New York as an undocumented immigrant while Tru similarly struggles to find her place in the world.

Oh, my heart. This book broke it a hundred times. Patsy, Tru, and even Cicely are all fighting to be themselves in a world that wants them to conform. They are fighting against overlapping oppressions and decades-old abuses. Each is trying to play the hand they’ve been dealt, with no one to guide them.

Despite all the trials Patsy and Tru endure in this book, it does end on a hopeful note, albeit in a way the still indicates the road won’t always be smooth. But knowing you have someone to lean on who shares at least some portion of your experience can make the future more bearable.

HEADS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE is a collection of short stories exploring Black identity and modern life. I can’t even begin to explain it beyond that, in the best way possible.

This is one of the most unique collections I’ve ever read. I hesitate to compare the writing to anything, but if you could imagine Zadie Smith mashed up with Paul Beatty, you might get an idea of how inventive and sharp these stories are.

A few of the stories are connected by characters, and we get to see different sides of stories, sometimes across the span of the characters’ lives. All of the stories are connected by themes and imagery in a subtle enough way that I didn’t realize it until I was near the end of the book.

It’s taken me several attempts to write this review, and even then you can see I still can’t find the right words. Honestly, if you’ve been considering this book, just jump in and read it. You can come yell at me later if you don’t like it!