3.5 stars

Emily Boylan is a 24-year-old woman who ends up vying to marry the bachelor on a reality TV dating show. Thrust into the spotlight, this sheltered, "nice" woman has to navigate this altered reality, while trying to learn who she really is.

This sharp novel makes some great commentary about the manufactured aspects of love-packaged-for-entertainment and how this cultural phenomenon adversely portrays women. The POV alternates between Emily and Miranda, Emily's producer. I didn't connect much with Miranda's story. Emily's story is more compelling, yet I still felt like her character wasn't as fleshed out as she could have been. A big piece of Emily's story is her strict Catholic upbringing--yet it's not mentioned much in connection with a big reveal halfway through the novel. All in all, I liked its exploration of sexism and culture this novel explored, but didn't find Emily as vibrant as she could have been.

I was thrilled to get to spend more time in the Firekeepers-of-Sugar-Island world that Indigenous author Angeline Boulley created with her debut novel, Firekeeper's Daughter!

Set ten years after the first book, this YA novel once again shares a compelling, Indigenous-focused mystery through the eyes of a strong, smart, dynamic teen--in this case Perry Firekeeper-Birch, the niece of Firekeeper's Daunis. It's as educational, engaging, and emotional as Boulley's first novel. I loved it.

After getting into an accident in her Aunt Daunis's car, Perry is forced to work off damages at the Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribe’s summer internship program. She starts off as the tribal museum intern & is immediately immersed in the plight of her Anishinaabe tribe to reclaim the remains of their ancestors from a local university, which abuses the laws to keep them. Perry's snark and her love of family shine through as she uses her intelligence and fearlessness to stand up for what's right, even against a society that is racist and misogynistic at almost every turn.

In the midst of a heist where she plans to steal back stolen remains, Perry also must deal with the reality of Indigenous women going missing. I was listening to this on May 5, which is the Nat'l Day of Awareness for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, so it was especially relevant.

Boulley once again smartly mixes information about Indigenous culture and social plights with the everyday struggles of teen girls. Perry is as strong-willed as Daunis but instead of a carbon copy, you get a fully fleshed out character in her own right. This attention to detail makes Boulley a star in the genre.

Indigenous narrator LaBlanc once again narrates a Firekeeper story with heart, passion, and joy. She's perfect for this work and elevates Boulley's words with her talent.

This is a YA book that's great for teens AND adults!

Oh, this book. I really really wanted to love it (women who rediscover themselves and their voices after the unexpected end of a relationship is one of my fave tropes!) but the flimsy main character and uneven story didn't make that possible. Let me explain...

Nadia Abassi is devastated to find text messages and more at her home that make it seem like her husband cheated on her. As she spirals and starts looking for more clues, she reaches out to her estranged sister, Zeba for support. The two sisters have had a tense relationship since Zeba took care of Nadia's ailing mother, while Nadia kept her distance (due to her mother not approving of Nadia's husband). Nadia becomes convinced the her husband is cheating with a gorgeous yoga instructor, so she goes on a yoga retreat to try and get proof.

Nadia spends a large portion of the book obsessing over if her husband is cheating. At least three times she has the chance to flat-out ask him and she doesn't or, worse, things interrupt them just as a talk is about to happen. This manipulation to drive the plot seemed disingenuous at best and annoying at worst.

I wasn't sure if the point of the story was for the sisters to work through their issues or to have Nadia "find herself" or both. In either case, these moments happen at the very end of the novel and feel unearned--especially since most of the novel is Nadia trying to either "find" the answer to a question she can easily ask or making derogatory comments about almost everyone she meets. Her commentary isn't mean, but it is absolutely judgmental and doesn't make her relatable. I appreciate fully fleshed out, flawed-but-human characters, but Nadia's snark and cluelessness about her marriage, her husband, and her sister's concerns make her more off-putting than relatable.

All in all, I felt like this book relegated the "big" emotional growth to the last bit of the novel and spent too much time on Nadia's fumbling around for a truth she could have gotten easily. I wanted more of Zeba, too. The image on the cover makes it seem like she attends the retreat with Nadia, but she doesn't. I wanted more sister-to-sister interaction...I feel like that would have made the reconnection and Nadia's growth more believable.

I will never give any novel less than three stars (you wrote a whole darn book, BRAVO!), but this one just didn't wow me. I loved The Marriage Clock, so I'm hoping Zara's next book is similarly in character and plotting to that one.

don't think thought-provoking truly covers how many issues this book touches upon as it presents an imagined future for America and, in relation, reality TV. It's bloody, violent, heart-rending, scary and, frankly, not that unbelievable considering the continued struggles America endures around capitalism, the prison industrial complex, and racism.

Adjei-Brenyah creates a harrowing America where convicts are given the choice to earn their freedom by participating in a gladiator-type program called Chain-Gang All-Stars (named for the "chain" of "links" that form each team). Run by CAPE, the Criminal Action Penal Entertainment group, this program finds convicts fighting each other in to-the-death-matches in an arena. Yet, the "entertainment" doesn't stop there. Cameras follow the "Links" as they shower, eat, talk, have sex, etc. Basically it's the threat of violence 100% of the time--and an adoring audience of millions laps up every bit of it.

At the center are Loretta Thurwar and Hamara Staxxx, two Black women who are Links on the same chain and lovers. Their story is the most compelling. Thurwar, with her trusty hammer, is close to her freedom, but, as you would expect, CAPE's corporate execs would rather amp up the drama by throwing obstacles in her path. Staxxx, the heart of the Chain, tries to inject a bit of humanity into this inhumane world. Their struggles, as well as those of Singer and Simon J. Craft, two Links on another Chain and a Chain Gang protestor named Mari, are the stories that grab your heart and mind and don't let go.

Like so many other stories of today, this one is a study in how the harsh realities of the systems that govern us and the complex people we live alongside negate humanity in favor of greed, ego, and power. Adjei-Brenyah has built a narrative world that is unthinkable—yet possible. He doesn't offer any easy answers to America's ills, but he absolutely encourages us as readers to examine our own participation in them—and challenges us to put humanity over entertainment. I loved this book and highly recommend it.

I'm always fascinated reading about the experience of children of immigrants and how they navigate growing up America within the traditions and cultures of their parents. This novel sounded similar to that, but unfortunately it didn't click with me. I'm not sure if it was a late-in-the-book plot point that made me cringe or lukewarm interest in the two main characters. The scenes of father Tony and daughter Tammy clashing engaged me, but the lack of history of how they came to be the way they were made the ending scenes lose some of their spark. I liked this book but didn't love it.

I've never read a Levy book before, but did know going in that they're usually dense with surrealism. In this intriguing novel, Elsa is a piano prodigy who abruptly stops playing in the midst of a big performance. She takes off and roams through Greece, where she sees her "double," a woman in a green raincoat who looks almost like her. Elsa's journey of self-discovery was unique, but a bit too surreal for me. At times I wished for a more clear-cut narrative, so that I could truly connect with the character. I listened to this one as well, and Alix Dunmore does a lovely job narrating this story. If you're a Levy fan, you'll most likely enjoy this one. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this quick, tense story. An unnamed Nigerian wife has a husband and best friend who hate each other. Told from each character's perspective, we learn that the wife has taken on a traditional "wifely" role and been cajoled by her husband and his mother into trying to have a child. Temi, her friend, is bold in both her contempt of men and her anger at her friend for capitulating to this life. Told over the span of one day, we are treated to messy revelations and three caustic, vibrant personalities. This was like a no-holds-barred therapy session. Absolutely engrossing.