This is a sweet story, and it ties together a stunning set of pictures showing a day in Harlem. A quick read, but would love to flip through again to just look at the pictures!

I received an ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review.  I love this series and I was so looking forward to this next book.  It did not disappoint!  I think this one felt like a slow burn more than any other book in the series but I really enjoyed it.  Calan and Allisaid are both loveable, and their romance is so sweet.  I wish that the ending didn't feel so rushed though.  I feel like the climax or resolution to the conflict could have been drawn out a bit more and I still would have loved it!  I will most likely check back once the final is out to see if there's an epilogue or maybe an additional chapter.  As the book is currently it feels like a very abrupt end.  Also if I was sad that book 10 was not about Alick Buchanan, book 11 only teased me even more!!!  I knew it wasn't Alick's story but seeing a beloved character pop up in these books over and over again has me desperate for his story!  Content warnings for rape, and physical abuse. Also a spoiler in the beginning of the book that relates to book 10.

In hindsight, I’m not sure what I expected to get out of reading this book. It’s short and I thought it would be interesting to read about a woman journalist from a century ago. I already knew about the poor treatment of women in these institutions so I didn’t get much out of reading a first hand undercover account. It’s mostly dragged and was depressing to read. I wish it had included a foreword or something that expanded more on Nellie Bly, her career, and the impact of the investigation. 

The first half of this book was much better than the second.  The best parts of the book were where it actually drew parallels between present day and the Holocaust.  The second half of the book lost that component and turned towards self help/inspirational content.  This book would have been better off as five lessons, and going into better detail for those five comparisons/lessons.  Even the suggested readings seem vague, when instead there could have been a suggested book for each of the lessons for further nuance.  One other item I noticed is that this book was published in 2017, but it looks like it was updated since it includes some stats related to 2020, however I don't see any updated version listed, and I would be curious to know what other changes/edits were made.  Overall, I think this book had a lot of potential but missed the mark.

I received a copy of this book a while back from the publisher or marketer in exchange for an honest review.  I was looking forward to reading it as voter suppression is a serious issue and something I care about.  However, I think the first of the three sections in this book, while adding historical background and laying the foundation for the source of the issue, should have been really informative but mostly came across as very emotional and one sided.  I don't disagree that some parties play a larger role than others but the tone came across almost conspiracy theory like, and I think it would likely deter the people who need to understand the issue the most from continuing on with the book.  If you can get past the first section, the second section is better.  The third section, solutions, was the most impactful.  There were solutions that I feel have been on the table for so long and the US just needs to commit, as well as ones I hadn't considered before, so I felt like I read and learned something new.  Overall, I think this book is informative but could use some fine tuning in terms of who the target audience is and getting that message across in the right way for that audience.

I think this book is a good primer to how long the misogyny women face has persisted, and does a great job of showing how those ideas of how Western society views power as inherently male continues to exist in the modern day.

This is a really cute book. I love that Kalamata thinks back to a time when she was brave and adventurous with food to help her feel brave and adventurous about doing something else new. Overall the story felt a little disjointed but I’m looking forward to the rest of the series since this was just an introduction. I think it’ll be great to introduce kids to new foods and encourage them to try new things! 

This is a great collection. Incredible prose. Some of the pieces were pretty long, in comparison to poems I’ve read in other collections but those were some of the ones that stuck with me the most. 

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This book felt very all over the place. I wish the author and picked one way of organizing the information and then stuck with it. It also came across as very "name droppy," but the majority of people mentioned were people I don't think most of us would care about. And after a while, even the drink recipes started to feel repetitive. It also just ended sort of abruptly with a short chapter on bitters. 

I think I just couldn't get behind the two MCs having grown up as cousins.  I know technically Grace is Jamie's uncle's adopted daughter, but it just seemed weird to me.  Especially that he didn't seem to realize that he wants to be with her until she decides she wants to get married and starts getting proposals.  Overall not one of my favorites in this series, and it felt kind of like the author combined one of the Grant kids with one of the adopted Grant kids in order to save time or write one less book.