Korede’s sister Ayoola is the favorite child, the beautiful one, And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola’s knife. Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the best way to move a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit. Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.

Girly pop book club February read! This was a super quick read for me and I couldn’t put this book down. The chapters were short but also propulsive so I wanted to know what would happen throughout. The novel was dark but also incredibly witty and thought-provoking. The novel raises the question of how far is too far when it comes to protecting one’s family. Abi’s character was interesting in how she abetted but also enabled Ayoola, and the reader is forced to question whether Abi as a repeat accomplice is a result of her guilt, or duty as an older sister. The book was also a bit of a satirical and sardonic take on men and what they want and social media. A clever and quick read, I’d definitely recommend picking this up.

After chess led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory Greenleaf’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess. Nolan’s loss to an unknown rookie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist...

February is always the perfect month to read cute romance stories, and Ali Hazelwood always delivers! I don’t know too much about chess, but I love competitive sports and logic/strategy, so the chess plot in this book was so fun! I really liked how Mallory was ultimately able to come back to a sport that she loved while also strengthening her relationships with her family and friends. I really liked the rivals to lovers trope and thought it was so well developed throughout the book. Sometimes Mallory was overly stubborn and self-depreciating, but I loved how her character grew throughout the book. The story was also very empowering for women in traditionally male sports, and also had good LBGTQ+ representation. My only qualm with this story is that it’s represented as a YA novel, but I found some aspects to be a bit mature for a lot of YA readers. But overall I enjoyed this! 

Saba is just a child when he flees fighting in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with his older brother, Sandro, and father, Irakli, for asylum in England. Two decades later, all three men are struggling to make peace with the past, haunted by the places and people they left behind. When Irakli decides to return to Georgia, pulled back by memories of a lost wife and a decaying but beautiful homeland, Saba and Sandro wait eagerly for news. But within weeks of his arrival, Irakli disappears, and the final message they receive from him causes a mystery to unfold before them: “I left a trail I can’t erase. Do not follow it.” In a journey that will lead him to the very heart of a conflict that has marred generations and fractured his own family, Saba must retrace his father’s footsteps to discover what remains of their homeland and its people.

I was immediately drawn to this book from its description, and it was an incredible journey of family, belonging, love, loss, grief, and homeland. I could tell early on that this book was going to be excellent, and it didn’t disappoint. The book was full of humor, which greatly balanced out the more difficult moments of loss and Georgia’s tumultuous times in the early days of post-Soviet rule. All of the characters were delightful, with their own flaws and haunted pasts to grapple with that played out so beautifully. The novel’s title is derived from the opening lines of Hansel and Gretel, which helps set the tone for the thrill, adventure, and folklore that unfolds. Saba sets off on a scavenger hunt for his brother and father throughout Georgia, and I loved the nostalgic descriptions of all of the different places in Georgia that Saba’s journey takes him. The book also doesn’t shy away from the brutality of war and its impacts on humanity, including children, so sensitive readers may want to tread lightly. The entire book was so beautifully written. The ending was gut wrenching and I will definitely be thinking about this book for a long time. A stunning debut, I highly recommend picking up Hard by a Great Forest!

In 1990, seventeen-year-old Marley West moves to the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. The three Joseph brothers become Marley’s whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. As their own mother fades away and their roofing business crumbles under the weight of their unwieldy father’s inflated ego, Marley steps in to shepherd these unruly men. Years later, an eerie discovery in the church attic causes old wounds to resurface and suddenly the family’s survival hangs in the balance. With Marley as their light, the Joseph brothers must decide whether they can save the family they’ve always known―or whether together they can build something stronger in its place.

Thank you @netgalley, @burnsamyjo, and @celadonbooks for this ARC! I love a good family drama, and this book definitely delivered! The book starts off with a body being discovered in the attic of the town’s church, and then goes back in time to build up to who the body belongs to, and how it got there. The first 40% or so was a little slow as the background was laid and the characters established leading up to the ultimate reveal. I was a little annoyed at this at first because I wanted to know what was happened to the person on the attic, but the character development and eventual reveal played out so well and I loved all of the drama as it unfolded. I really loved Marley’s character growth and her relationships with each of the three brothers, especially Shay. The characters were so well developed all around, and I loved how the story really dove into the complexities of the relationships of the Joseph family. If you like family dramas, pick up Mercury!

After the unexpected death of her only brother, Nelly Sawyer becomes the premier debutante overnight. But Nelly has aspirations beyond society influence and marriage; for the past year, she has worked undercover as an investigative journalist. Her latest assignment thrusts her into the den of a dangerous vice lord: the so-called Mayor of Maxwell Street. Born in rural Alabama to a murdered biracial couple, Jay Shorey washed up on Chicago’s storied shores and forged his own way to the top of the city’s underworld, running Chicago’s swankiest speakeasy. When Nelly’s and Jay’s paths cross, she recruits him to help expose the Mayor and bring about lasting change in a corrupt city. Trapped between the monolith of Jim Crow, the inflexible world of the Black upper class, and the violence of Prohibition-era Chicago, Jay and Nelly work together to uncover the Mayor while stoking the flames of a love worth fighting for.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC! This was an enjoyable book that had a little bit of everything—feminism, mystery, characters fighting back against racism and societal norms, 1920s Prohibition speakeasies, daring heroics, and great friendships. I was really interested in figuring out who the infamous Mayor was. However, sometimes the narrative felt a bit jumpy and it felt as thought there were often unexplained gaps in events that took place between chapters. The prologue of the book was very gripping, but then the following chapters took a while to loop in the content from the prologue and I thus became slightly disinterested. I really liked Nelly’s tenacity, and overall the characters were multilayered and well developed. I think I would’ve liked this better if the plot was less jumpy and more succinct. The romance plot line also wasn’t my favorite, Jay just wasn’t a great love interest for Nelly and I found him really shady and difficult to like. The prologue helps establish some of his motivations and intentions, which mitigated his negative character attribute slightly, but overall I just didn’t like him. The Mayor of Maxwell Street is out now!

"Recitatif" is a story about two girls named Roberta and Twyla who are roommates at a shelter for children. Though they spent only four months together at the shelter, Roberta and Twyla encounter each other throughout their lives. Each time they meet, the women realize that how different they are from one another even though they shared a traumatic childhood experience with each other. Though the reader is told that one of the girls is Black and of the girls is white, which girl is which race is never disclosed. The reader is thus left to decipher which character is Black and which is character is white, or to decide whether or not it matters.

I think the last time I read a short story was in high school! This book had been in my radar for a while, and I’m excited to say it was my first @libby.app ebook! While concise, this story managed to be super thought provoking and tackled themes of inherited biases, the complexity of female friendships over the years, and being an outcast. Not knowing which character is Black and which character is white also challenges the reader to confront their own inherent biases and prejudices, and to perhaps conclude that perhaps we are all not so different from one of. The introduction by Zadie Smith was so well written and offered a great analysis of this short story, so I highly recommend this edition. A quick and smart read that will definitely leave you thinking afterwards, I recommend the short story!

The book is a gothic fairytale about a family curse that plagues women. But it is also an exploration into women’s oppression, particularly in a 1950s patriarchal society that expected nothing more of women than to get married, have babies, and keep house. The symbolism of the six sisters’ names, all coming from different flowers, perfectly played in to this, as they were (all except for Iris) portrayed as fragile and delicate beings on display for the fleeting enjoyment of the opposite sex. And I found it interesting that, although this narrative takes place over seventy years ago, some of its themes and more poignant plot points are still relatable for many women today. The book was super thought-provoking, and also very well paced. I kept turning the pages because I wanted to know what was going to happen. Some questions were unanswered at the end, but overall this was a very deep and dark book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Synopsis:

Life in their palatial Victorian house seems splendid from the outside, but the six daughters of the Chapel family firearms dynasty live in the shadow of a curse that touches all of their family’s women. Marriage seems to be the only thing that can save the Chapel girls from the fate of languishing in their suffocating wedding cake home; and the irony is that it will also cause their deaths. When their haunted mother has premonitions that her eldest daughter’s wedding will result in something terrible, second youngest Iris can’t ignore her mother’s warnings; she, too, begins to be visited by spirits in the night, and she slowly comes to learn that her mother may be right. After her eldest sister dies the day after her wedding—a series of events that will repeat—Iris tries to understand the curse that befalls her family while grieving for her sisters and planning an escape—but can she outrun the Chapel curse?

Hannah Tate can hardly believe her sleep-deprived eyes when she finds an engagement ring hidden in her closet. Killian, her super responsible boyfriend—and the father of her new baby, Bowie—is FINALLY going to propose. But a romantic night out goes horribly wrong when Killian reveals he’s dumping Hannah, not proposing. Furious and heartbroken, Hannah takes Bowie and moves in with her mom and stepdad in the mountains of Blue Ridge, Georgia. Hannah realizes that her parents’ cabin has vacation property gold written all over it—and could save her mama from going broke. Only problem? The cabin is in desperate need of renovation. Hannah hires the hot carpenter, River, living in the treehouse next door to fix up the place. Not only does River respect Hannah’s business acumen, he looks at her like she’s a woman, not a hot mess. And Hannah can’t deny that River awakens something new inside her. Can Hannah embrace a future that looks different from the picture-perfect family she once dreamed of and maybe start living life on her own terms?

Thank you @netgalley, @laurapiperlee, and @dreamscape_media for this audiobook ARC! Hannah’s character was super relatable as she tried to juggle her life and aspirations while being a new mom and essentially solo parenting. Her emotions and feelings were depicted so honestly and I loved that. I also loved how her relationship with her parents changed and grew throughout the book. I enjoyed the is book more for Hannah’s development as a mom, entrepreneur, daughter, and friend than I did for its romance aspects. River was a little mediocre to me as a love interest and he often came across as selfish and immature. But Hannah’s character held her own and I couldn’t help but cheer for her and hope that things would work out for her. The ending was hilarious and very gratifying in rectifying some injustices that Hannah suffered while creating her AirBnB. Hannah Tate comes out next week!

India Allwood knew that she wanted to be an actor since she was sixteen, and now she’s a Hollywood star. Her new movie about adoption has the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though, and wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something an actor should never do—she tells a journalist that the movie is bad. Soon she’s at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from all fronts. Her twin ten-year-olds know they need help—and who better to call than family? But that’s where it gets really messy because India’s not just an adoptive mother…The one thing she knows for sure is what makes a family isn’t blood. No matter how they’re formed, the truth about family is this: it's complicated.

Thank you @netgalley, @laurie.frankel, and @macmillianusa for the ARC and happy pub day to this wonderful book! This was such heartwarming story about adoption and how complicated family can be and it was the perfect amounts of both heartwarming and hilarious. The story is told in dual timelines, which really helped all of the layers, secrets, and drama unfold throughout the book. The dialogue between all of the characters was great, and I loved getting to know each individual character as they were introduced. The kids Fig and Jack have a lot of little phrases or words that they say incorrectly as kids do, and it was adorable and funny. I really loved the beehive analogy at the end of the book when India and Fig are talking about their family and privacy from the paparazzi. I also loved the author’s note at the end and hearing about her own experience with adoption and where she came from in telling this story’s. Overall that was a great book about what truly makes family and the importance of connection and relationships. 

We’ve all heard of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, with The Wife of Bath being once of the most popular poems. But now it’s time for the Wife of Bath to tell her story in her own words. Eleanor is married for the first time at the age of twelve. With a mind for business, Eleanor manages to turn her first marriage into a success, and with each subsequent husband she rises through society from a cast-off farm girl to a woman of fortune. Some marriages are happy; others, not so much. Eleanor endures several pilgrimages, many lovers, murder, and mayhem in her pursuit of the one thing that all women want: control of their own lives. 

Phyllis’s Former Students Book Club January pick! We all decided this year that we wanted to read adaptations of well known stories rewritten from the perspective of female characters, and The Good Wife of Bath was a great start. Eleanor was an amazingly strong and persevering character, and I loved seeing things from her perspective. She was so courageous. I loved her quest for independence and how many times she was able to make the most of terrible situations. She really created a found family throughout the course of the book and I loved her relationships with the maids and other workers in her households. The writing was filled with wit and humor, especially Eleanor’s letters from her pilgrimages, but also didn’t shy away from how difficult life was for women in medieval times. The book really rounded out The Wife of Bath as a more complete woman and I loved this take on the tale.