yourbookishbff's Reviews (650)

This anthology, compiled with support from the American Friends Service Committee, centers the voices and perspectives of Palestinians in and from Gaza as they reflect on the district's past and present while imagining its future. Published in 2022, many of the writers reference Israeli bombardment in 2014 and 2021, and it is a particularly harrowing experience to read their contributions now, in 2024, as Gaza is under far more deadly siege. Less than two years after his essay Gaza Asks: When Shall This Pass? was published in this anthology, poet and activist Refaat Alareer was killed in a strike that also killed his brother, brother's son, sister, and her three children. It's this stark contrast - the scale of death, displacement and structural devastation in today's Gaza and the cautious hope of Palestinians in 2021 and 2022 envisioning futures for another generation - that makes this anthology a challenging read.

While structured loosely around future visions of Gaza, the essays, poems and reflections range from highly academic to deeply personal, covering the lived environment and home construction, agrarian practices and the future of farming in historic Palestine, the use of AI in Israel's surveillance and oppression of Palestinians in Gaza, and so much more. The scale of creativity and resilience required for those living under military occupation and blockade is staggering - how do you build a home when you can't use concrete, how do you run a business when you don't have consistent access to electricity, how do you stock a library when you can't order books, how do you survive when arbitrary borders separate you from family, healthcare, employment, education and freedom? For those who've never experienced this level of surveillance and restricted movement - not to mention the constant threat of aerial attack, search and siezure, or imprisonment - the description of Gaza as the world's largest open-air prison takes shape into something visceral. By the time you get to the second-to-last essay, Let Me Dream, by Israa Mohammed Jamal, you begin to better understand the reality of multi-generational trauma and how it shapes those attempting to build lives in Gaza.

Another through-line in this anthology is Gaza's current population density and large refugee population. I hadn't realized that around 70% of those living in Gaza are refugees, and I appreciated how intentionally each contributor engages with the legacy and continuation of the Nakba in shaping Gaza's present and future. 

I highly recommend this anthology to anyone interested in learning more about Gaza - its history, its present, and its people dreaming of survival. Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for an advanced listener's copy - I'm grateful that this new audiobook recording will make this collection more accessible to readers. 

Ok, I LOVED this. Our female main character is a famed spy for the Union (known as "The Butterfly") and she's been thrown back into duty after the war as a fake madame for New Orleans' newest gentleman's club. She's reluctant to return to spying, but is pressured by the current administration and her good friend Harriet Tubman in a trade-off that will hopefully help protect her parents' right to land. She's from the swamps of South Carolina and knows how to defend herself (which she demonstrates, repeatedly, much to my delight), and has to navigate what her future holds post-war and what kind of life she wants to build for herself. Our male main character is another fairly spoiled Le Veq brother (Archer, this time), and our prologue introduction is pitch-perfect (who doesn't love a man who needs rescued by a woman undercover). Years after their initial encounter, he is wandering through life, well-intentioned but aimless, and his reunion with the spy who saved him is a chance for him to find both purpose and partnership. We have a high-stakes mix of hidden identity and class difference, with original twists on familiar tropes (like sex lessons), and a plot that paces well with the romance from start to finish.

My ONLY gripe is that we have a truly bizarre set of twins in the secondary cast, and I did NOT need their scenes in my brain box. Check content warnings, but holy heck I could have done without their characterization and their role at the sex club. 

I've learned that Beverly Jenkins' books lean more heavily on plot development than character development (and can feel more tell vs. show), but that it works for me when the plot hits - and the plot really hit for me here! Set in the final months of the Civil War and then during Reconstruction, Through the Storm is packed with history lessons and asides (classically Jenkins!). I particularly appreciated how Jenkins explored the constant threat of violence Black folks faced during these years, and the immediate (and successful) attempts to recreate slavery through legal "contracts" that bound Black laborers right back to white land-owners. Jenkins shows - graphically - the ways in which formerly enslaved people had to keep fighting for their basic autonomy and freedom, how white people consistently worked against them, and how the political whiplash between presidential administrations made life post-war unpredictable and regressive. 

And the romance worked for me because holy heck was it messy. I loved how complicated our main characters' relationship became as the story progressed, and how many obstacles they had to face down - separately and as partners - to achieve their happily ever after. I felt the male main character, Raimond, was more fully developed on page than Sable, but only because Sable started out a heck of a lot wiser to begin with, and this man needed the growth. 

For romance readers who are new to Beverly Jenkins, know that the intimate scenes are heavily euphemistic in this one - not at all surprising for the pub date (late 1990s). There is also significant on-page violence and threat of violence, so check content warnings here.

This is a reread, and I loved it even more than I did the first time around. The pacing for this installment feels just right, and I couldn't set it aside in the second half as all the threads begin to weave together into something recognizable. There are several scenes that are just so expertly written that I want to savor them - the scene setting, the dialogue, the tension and longing, the silences. It's such a treat to reread and doubly enjoy all the in between character moments. 

This was a really satisfying end to the series! There were a few moments where I wondered if it should have been a novella instead, particularly with where the plot landed at 50%, but ultimately, I loved how the series' primary conflict resolved, and particularly how we wrap up the 50 Ways to Sin premise. The final few chapters were perhaps my favorite, as we see our larger cast of female main characters together, and in a setting that is particularly fitting.

The romance in this is childhood friends-to-lovers with a heaping dose of second-chance romance, and it had me misty-eyed by the end of part one. Despite how dark the opening is, it actually ended up being more plot-driven (and mystery-driven) than character-driven, and it wasn't as angsty through the story as I had expected. These two have *suffered enough* honestly, so I was ok with this, but noting it because I felt like the character development suffered for it a bit.

This is my first by Tia Williams, and I look forward to going back now to read Seven Days In June. Williams set vivid scenes, both in present day Harlem and the Harlem of the 1920s, and her banter was funny and fast-paced. Tonally, this felt like reading a fairy tale, with the mysterious opening from a seemingly omniscient narrator, and the fluidly shifting perspectives through scenes. Even the premise felt like a gender-bent fairy tale with a dash of dark magic and curse-breaking. For those who enjoy magical realism, Williams captures the right balance between whimsical and unsettling, bridging eras in a way that thankfully never felt cheesy.

That said, I struggled a bit with the pacing in the first half, as well as the decision to include several scenes with Ricki's family. We assume her family will be a central conflict, given the opening scene, and they even reappear at the height of the third act, but ultimately I don't understand the purpose of their involvement, as these scenes don't really advance the plot in a meaningful way, and don't add much to Ricki's character development (not much that we hadn't already gathered from her own inner monologue). It felt distracting. And while I don't mind the romance beats feeling expected, I was disappointed that the reveals in the magical plot were fairly obvious. I was hoping for a twistier story, given the set-up. 

The epilogue though. The epilogue was absolutely perfect. It was tender and sweeping in a beautifully panoramic way, bringing the story to such a satisfying conclusion. 

I really enjoyed this installment in Brothers Sinister, though my favorite elements were the secondary romance and several of the reveals among side characters, as I struggled with the primary romantic conflict. 

I loved the concept for our primary romance - Oliver, a man with political aspirations who is seeking to prove himself (in his own reflection, a square peg shoved so frequently into a round hole that it filed down his edges) falls in love with Jane, a woman who decided to lean into her differences and spare herself heartbreak by not attempting to meet society's standards (again, in his own reflection, a square peg who simply refused to be shoved into a round hole). Milan creates great character foils, and these two work really well together, seeing beyond each other's pretenses and navigating each other's challenges as a team. My frustration was primarily with how their conflict is paced, and feeling their resolution could have come earlier in the final act.

That said, I adored the secondary romance between Emily and Anjan, the nuanced reflections on his family and Indian marriage traditions, and how their romance affords each agency and independence. And the reentrance of Fredericka, our older sister from The Governess Affair and Oliver's aunt, was brilliantly done, creating a wonderful new connection within the cast of characters while reflecting on the power of writing and storytelling.

Also - love the set-up for Sebastian and Violet, and can't wait to dive into their book. 

All in all, it's not my favorite by Milan, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

I LOVED this hot mess of a love triangle. For historical romance readers, I would highly recommend this to lovers of Sherry Thomas. We have a cast of deeply flawed and self-absorbed characters caught between naivete and cynicism and heartbreak and hope. Nothing actually happens, except they ruin their lives and break each other's hearts. If you love character-driven historical fiction with a strong romantic through-line (and a happily-ever-after) and don't mind messy, often unlikeable people, this is a compelling and honestly gripping read (again, this is largely plotless, but if you love character work, this is delicious). 

Be warned, romance readers, this is a heady love triangle, with a slow-paced build in the first half, some repeated light infidelity (betrothals in historical romance often feel more transactional, but I do know crossing even this line is a deal-breaker for some in Romancelandia, and I get that!). We also have a capital-V-villain/Other Woman with a dedicated POV throughout - again, a choice not all romance readers will care for, but I loved it. 

I would also note how timeless and ethereal this feels. It's set in an imagined city that draws on the structure of European aristocratic society and la Belle Epoque era (though it feels really worldless in a lot of ways). I loved this decision to deny the reader a sense of being truly historically grounded, as it makes the romance feel that much more consuming and isolating. And the light touch of magical realism (the characters each have telekinetic abilities in a world where this is rare but not unheard of). This cemented Silvia Moreno-Garcia for me, looking forward to reading more of her backlist!

Note for audio readers: I loved the narration by Imani Jade Powers and how it brought to life Silvia Moreno-Garcia's vivid scene-setting and prose.

I loved this setting - in Harlem in the early 1900s - and I loved how original the premise is - a Black woman rewrites her dead husband's will to keep his nightclub and build a business on her own terms (while casually leading marginalized suffragettes in advocacy for the vote) and falls in love with her dishwasher-turned-sous-chef, a Bengali man who ditched a life at sea to live in NY and is now living in fear of immigration. Their love story is cautious and redemptive, and their relationship as guided by their passion for workers' rights as for each other. I will note that cultural appropriate is the crux of the original conflict between characters, and the foundation for their continued connection. It is used intentionally and challenged on page, as it helps both characters examine colorism, orientalism, and exoticization, but it is a lot packed into a novella, and I felt like it could have been further addressed with more page time.

I loved every moment of this conclusion to the Imperial Radch trilogy. Where the second book focused primarily on the political and cultural implications of colonialism, and, generally, felt more externally focused, this was deeply personal and intimate. After an entire book where Breq seemingly couldn't lose, she finally reaches the limits of her physical, mental and emotional abilities, and has to face difficult truths about herself, Ship, Seivarden, and her crew as a whole. I was levelled by the emotional conversations between Breq, Ship and Seivarden in particular.

I also felt like the pacing in this installment worked really well, making it a quick and compelling read. We pick up right where we left off at the end of book two, with significant action and emotional revelation before 50% and an extended resolution to the conflict that felt exactly right for the series and our characters.

And the Presger translator! The levity the Presger bring is excellent, and I was laughing out loud every time the translator entered the conversation.

Ultimately, this conclusion brought all the sentient ship moments I love - the developing self-awareness, the deep and unwavering loyalty, the stubborn insistence on respect, the passive aggressive rebuffs, the new emotional revelations. God I loved this.

"...And maybe it isn't that ships don't love other ships, it's that ships love people who could be Captains."