yourbookishbff's Reviews (650)

This was my introduction to Angela Y. Davis's work, and as a collection of interview transcripts and speeches, it certainly captures the throughline - and intersections - of her activism and scholarship. In reading these together, her emphasis on the interconnectedness of our liberation and the collectivism of our struggle is so apparent. Most impactful for me personally was her repeated reminder that movements do not need heroes and her insistence on crediting the work of the many often unseen and unrecognized resisters. Her voice is one we need in this moment, and I look forward to reading more of her original work.

All three stars are for the middle 25% of this book and the brief lead-up to their wedding. Everything else really did not work for me. First, this could function as a prequel to the series, but it spends 75% of the book on a few weeks and then covers more than a year and a half in 25%, skipping large swaths of time in sentences, recapping the plots of the previous two books as subplots of this one, and then spending an inordinate amount of time both on a school plot and an orphan plot that aren't actually related to each other until we remember we ALSO have a villainous cousin plot and he has his hands in everything. The couple lean so heavily on witty banter that we lack real substance in their actual dialogue and only ever have a sense of their feelings in inner monologue, which meant these two spend more than a year and a half married before actually broaching their feelings for one another in a declarative way, and by that point, I was no longer invested. This felt meandering and was ultimately a miss for me, though I did enjoy Kate Reading's narration and some genuinely sweet moments in the run-up to elopement. 

My new favorite installment in the Belvoir's Library series from Alexandra Vasti! Thank you to St. Martin's Griffin for an advanced reader's copy of Ladies in Hating. The set-up for this story is so delicious, our gothic novelist, Georgiana, returns from her previous appearances in the series, and now, several years later, is at a midpoint in her career and has grown increasingly suspicious of one rival novelist in particular. The opening scene is genuinely hilarious, and it perfectly sets up the Tessa-Dare-esque balance that Vasti always strikes between quick, witty dialogue and emotionally resonant inner monologue. Both Dare and Vasti will always make you laugh, but they will inevitably leave you weeping at the end, fair warning. This hits so many of my favorite HR beats - class difference, rivals-to-lovers, your childhood crush grows up and oh shit they're so annoyingly hot you hate them for it, ice queen melts in real time, ice queen gets a diminutive NICKNAME and it's ADORABLE, there's-only-one-ruined-manor, meddling Quakers, etc. etc. etc. What makes this an easy five-star read for me is the additional depth to Georgiana's internal conflict and the reflections on family and acceptance. I can get frustrated with a conflict that depends too heavily on self-flagellation, but when that conflict reveals a deeper fear of rejection and an internalized ocean of longing, then it makes a heck of a lot more sense to me. It works SO well here, and resolves beautifully for all involved. I felt the feels I felt at the end of Devil Comes Courting, by Courtney Milan, and if you know, you know. 

Also this is really hot? I should mention that it's really hot. 

Thank you to Berkley for an advance reader's copy of Rules for Ruin, by Mimi Matthews! Matthews is exploring new territory in this series and I LOVE IT. This has some of the hallmarks of a Matthews story - Really Bad Families everywhere you turn, enterprising women on the run, an isolated and mysterious orphanage, well-loved animal sidekicks, and a seriously cruel villain - and yet it feels so different in tone, less isolated and introspective and more intentionally adventurous, with lying and spying on all sides and a female main character undercover. It's so FUN. Also, no one writes closed-door tension and chemistry like Matthews, and this one had me sweating over an unbuttoned collar and dented crinoline. The ending was lighter than I anticipated and buttoned up almost too neatly, but honestly, that's a really small quibble for a story that I loved reading all the way through. I cannot wait for Nell's story, next!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC of A Rare Find, by Joanna Lowell! Lowell's prose is stunning, and her character studies make me feel every deliciously uncomfortable shade of longing and jealousy (complimentary). I love how character-driven and introspective her romances are, while feeling grounded in historically rich conflicts (female archaeologist fighting for acknowledgement in her field AND a treasure hunt?!). Lowell is so deliberate in building her characters into people who are deeply relatable and fallible and earnest. Also, three cheers for excellent side characters in the various Peaches, Phipps, Agnes (oh Agnes) and sundry matrons. I loved this, and I learned more than I expected about Vikings? And also, this gets 10/10 for an excellent Quaker shout-out in a brief reflection on the class protest that is Plain Speech (heck yes!). 

This isn't my favorite by Beverly Jenkins, but gosh I still have to give two thumbs up to a romance premise that's essentially, this stranger who happens to be my legal son-in-law will resolve debt I shouldn't owe and just discovered yesterday by making me his mistress and, well, it could always be worse, I guess! I love how intentionally Jenkins centers Indigenous history and characters in all of her Westerns, and this is no exception. I didn't feel a whole lot of chemistry between these two leads, though, and I didn't love the villain backstory's use of

abortion as a villainous character device

Also the "male-ness" was seriously dialed up here and I could have done without.

This book is DIRTY (complimentary, very historically accurate), and I spent the first 20% just desperately manifesting clean bathing water for my beloveds, and that is absolutely a testament to how authentically Hadley builds out her Civil War setting. This leans all the way in on historical detail and shows us how a Minnesota community finds its way into the Union army and how a woman might find a new identity and new path in wartime. The chemistry and tension between Henry and Charley is A+++ and I loved the emotional journey these two are on together. This is a slow (slow) burn that singes with all its repressed longing. Expect some forays into Turners, gymnastics, suffragist drama and more. 

When Deonn first announced the cycle would be four books instead of three, I was so curious where the middle of the series would take us, and I'm so delighted by how this third installment has expanded out the world and character arcs. I particularly appreciate how deeply this leans into a teenage protagonist's very valid feelings - grief complicated by overwhelming responsibility and expectation, stifled rage for all the obstacles she's expected to hurdle and all the slights she's expected to ignore, and an undercurrent of fear - fear that she's disappointed the people she cares about most and fear that she won't find a path forward. Bree makes some rash decisions in the middle of this cycle and she contends with the unexpected ramifications of those in this book. It's painfully real. I loved getting POVs from our beloved side characters in this and how many magical traditions we explore in greater depth. There were times I felt lost in the arc of the first half, but it makes so much SENSE when you get into the second half, and I feel like the ground we covered was ultimately necessary to the greater story. I have absolutely no idea where we go from here! I'm scared!

This was a lovely and lighthearted story and exactly what I needed after a heavier read. I particularly loved how beautifully affirming both the narrative and characters are of Tommy's gender identity, which would likely be considered gender-fluid or nonbinary in today's terms. I thoroughly enjoyed the light mystery plot involving our illuminated manuscripts and the generations of men who had falsely claimed the achievements of their female family members, and the rotation of disguises and hijinks that bring Tommy and Philippa together as both comrades and lovers. The Wynchesters are a really fun bunch, but I may be just as hungry for more stories centering this feminist reading circle of Philippa's!