I really wanted to love this one. The concept had so much potential. A murder mystery set in 1920s Harlem with flapper vibes and a young Black woman at the center of it all? Yes, please. But unfortunately, the execution just didn’t work for me. The opening started strong: we meet a girl who survives…
Category: Time Period
I Was a Teenage Slasher
Small town teenager Tolly Driver had all the potential, until he was cursed to become a Slasher in his small West Texas town and gets even with those that have treated him wrong. Told in a memoir format, Tolly gives us his perspective on going from a normal teenage in 1989 to a murderer in…
The Women
It’s the late 60s and Frances ‘Frankie’ McGrath is trying to find her place in the world. When her brother is shipped off to Vietnam, Frankie impulsively signs up to server alongside him as an Army nurse. With no actually clinical experience, Frankie is thrown into the middle of the chaos. But her time overseas…
The Frozen River
Inspired by the real-life diaries of 18th Century midwife Martha Ballard, Ariel Lawhon gives readers just a glance into the life of women in post-Revolution, small town America. Often illiterate and with no prospects other than marrying and having babies, women of the late 18th century were vulnerable and tended to be given sentences (whether…
The Gentleman’s Gambit
After not enjoying Portraits of a Scotsman too much (Hattie is the worst), I was leery going into the newest installment of The League of Extraordinary Women. Have no fear though because Catriona Campbell has saved us. We finally get to get inside Catriona Campbell’s head in The Gentleman’s Gambit. Catriona is spending the summer…
The September House
It’s September, and Margaret knows the month is just going to get worse. The house walls will start bleeding, slowly but surely. The pranksters will start to show up one by one. And by the end of the month, she’ll be exhausted from lack of sleep due to the constant screaming inside the house. After…
The River We Remember
A police procedural and a slow burn mystery rolled into one. Krueger has excellently portrayed the impact war has on one small community, years later. Set in the small farming town of Jewel, Minnesota, The River We Remember is a story of how life continues on and how our pasts impact our future. Told from…
Shadows of Pecan Hollow
As a good Texas girl, I love books set in Texas! I’m so happy one of my favorite debut reads this year happened to be set in Texas! Shadows of Pecan Hollow is set in 1970-90s Texas, and is a wonderful story about a fierce woman and the partner-in-crime she can’t escape. This historical fiction/…
The Rewind
Frankie has spent the last ten years hating her college boyfriend, Ezra, after their relationship imploded on the day of graduation. Neither has seen each other in all that time. That is until their college friends are getting married, and it’s here that they are forced to be in the same room together. The night…
Now is Not the Time to Panic
“The edge is a shantytown filled with gold seekers, we are the new fugitives, and the law is skinny with hunger for us.” I love Kevin Wilson’s writing. If you have never read one of his books just know that ‘Quirky’ is the best way to describe them. I always find his books perfect to…