TOUGH LUCK – Sandra Dallas

When I read John Larison’s Whiskey When We’re Dry, I called it Lonesome Dove  meets Calamity Jane.  I loved everything about it. When I saw he’d blurbed Sandra Dallas’s Tough Luck (St. Martin’s Press 2025), which is marketed as a homage to True Grit, the new release was immediately placed on my radar.  (A huge thanks to the publisher for sending me a finished copy for review.)  I can see why Larison weighed in as there are some similarities between his Jessilyn/Jesse and Dallas’s Haidie, but Larison is gritty and unflinching, a liquor that burns.  Tough Luck is more akin to sweet tea, going down easy but at times too saccharine.

Several times while reading, I had to double check that the novel was not a middle grade novel.  IMHO, that’s the target audience and how it should have been marketed.  There’s nothing wrong or lesser than about middle grade novels, and had Tough Luck been marketed as such, most of my concerns would have vanished.  But it’s not a middle grade novel and therein lies the rub.

When Haidie’s mother dies, her older brother, Cheet (unfortunate name for a gambler) sells the family farm and takes her and their younger brother, Boots, to an orphanage. She lies about her age because 14 is too old for the orphanage, and she needs to be there for Boots. The orphanage isn’t a bad place, but Haidie begins to plot for their escape.  She plans to go to Colorado, to find their pa.  With a series of adventures and characters that have a Tom Sawyer / Huck Finn taste to them, Haidie, masquerading as a boy, and Boots eventually make it to Colorado.

It’s cute, easy to swallow, and action packed. I think a 11-13 year old would love it.  Are there “hoors”?  Yeah, but they barely kiss the page.  Indian shootout?  Yeah, but again, it happens in a blink. Is she discovered as female and almost raped? Yes, but that is even less than a blink. The weight of those scenes is what remains unwritten.

Now let’s talk about the cover.  It’s absolutely gorgeous.  And it is absolutely  the incorrect choice for this novel.  Give me a girl with “hacked off” hair, britches and a mule.  Don’t give me a cowgirl with a braid.  I don’t know who is on the cover, but it’s not Haidie.

HOMESEEKING – Karissa Chen

Karissa Chen’s Homeseeking (Putnam 2025) is a novel of choices and resilience, spanning 1938 – 2008 in the lives of dual souls divided by distance and circumstance. Suji/Suchi/Sue and Doudou/Haiwen/Howard became ready friends as children and that friendship quickly blossomed into a deep love that would act as a magnetic force, pulling them toward each other their entire lives. If you recall my review of The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern, I called it the saddest book because it took too many years for Augusta and Irving to reconnect and get their happily after all.  Homeseeking is sadder.

Through dual POVs and jumping timelines, Chen takes the reader on a historical journey of war, famine, and chance through Hong Kong, Taiwan, New York, and California.  Languages and histories blend and break along with their lives. Mandarin. Cantonese. Taiwanese. Shanghainese. English. Suchi and Haiwen dance between languages with ease – even their early years had been marked by a multi-lingual relationship.  (Please read the author’s note at the beginning!) For decades, their lives ran adjacent, with each just seeking to survive.  Sometimes, those lines were perfectly parallel, other times they kissed next to each other, same place and the right time to prevent someone from ending it all.

Homeseeking is a novel of the Chinese diaspora – a search for happiness and home while rebuilding from the ruins. It’s sad, there’s no denying that.  But there’s a beauty in the ruins, a beauty of survival, of self, of living.  With a comfortable writing style, Chen will readily have you captivated.

It’s a BOTM selection, a GMA Book Club pick, and Laura Beth will be hosting a virtual author chat with Karissa Chen on 5/19 – plenty of time to pick it up! (I should warn you – she’s deliciously chunky!)

Read this book!

HAPPY LAND – Dolen Perkins-Valdez

I’ve been sitting on this review for a bit, trying to figure out how best to condense my thoughts into a relatively small space. (I’ve also been toying with the possibility of changing how I review/react, but that’s really neither here nor there.) As per usual, it’ll likely just be bookish babbling, but I encourage you to keep reading.

I’m from NC. I may have been born across the state line, but NC is my home and has been for over four decades. Never once was I told that a kingdom, with its own king and queen, a palace, subjects, treasury, and industries existed in my state. That remnants of this kingdom still exist. That ancestors of the subjects still walk those grounds.  The Kingdom of the Happy Land (or just Happy Land), in Henderson County, NC, was almost erased, a whitewashed history with a legacy of stealing lives and stories. And while there has been scholarship surrounding Happy Land and interest in its history and stories has increased in recent years, I’m not sure when I would have become aware of this remarkable part of my state’s history but for Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s fictional account in Happy Land (Berkley 2025). You may recall how hard I pushed her first novel, Take My Hand (based on a real account of forced sterilization in black, brown and poor communities in the 1970s – which, considering the attention being put back on eugenics, I’d encourage everyone to read again).

There are a lot of unknowns about the kingdom, including where the former slaves came from. Some say South Carolina and others say Mississippi; Perkins-Valdez’s account has them flee the Klan in South Carolina. What I love about how Perkins-Valdez has set up the story is that it’s the story of Happy Land and its kingdom, focusing primarily on the Queen, and a present-day story of a middle-aged woman who has been summoned by her estranged grandmother to North Carolina. As the reader learns about Happy Land and its history, so does Nikki, a descendant of Queen Luella. (Luella is based on the real woman who built this kingdom and community; Nikki is the fictionalized storyline.)

It’s a story of strong women, forgotten histories, matrilineal lines and loyalties, and resilience. Part of the plot involves real property law, and this is where the novel hiccups. Ownership issues are misrepresented, possibly intentionally to create more of a villain, but the solution is not some obscure law like it is presented. My attorney brain read those sections and thought they should have been reworked to be both clear and realistic while also maintaining the integrity of her plot. (And there can be some confusion as the family would likely be confused – but an attorney shows up.)   That could just be a “me problem” because I’m a licensed NC attorney – who knows.

Regardless, this is a slice of history that is remarkable and fascinating. And Perkins-Valdez has packaged it in a compelling novel with characters seeking happiness.

Read this book.

SO DISTANT FROM MY LIFE – Monique Ilboudo

“My mind ran off as soon as I opened my eyes. I have always had a vagabond mind.”

Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – this marks the last of the Bs.

Country: Burkina Faso
Title: So Distant from My Life
Author: Monique Ilboudo
Language: French
Translator: Yarri Kamara
Publisher: Le Serpent á Plumes, 2018 English translation published by Tilted Axis Press 2022

Coming in at only 123 pages, So Distant from My Life is certainly one of the shortest of the Tommi Reads the World selections to date. But make no mistake – it packs quite the punch.  Set in Ouabany, a fictional city in West Africa and France, the novel centers around migration and sexual orientation – the resounding cry is one of the right to choose not only where one lives, but how they live.

Jeanphi’s life is derailed as a teen when his close friend is killed in a bike accident. Jeanphi has a bit of survivor’s guilt as he was supposed to be on that bike with his friend but had refused at the last moment.  He spirals into drugs and homelessness for several years before his mother finally convinces him to come home and gets him in treatment. He’s too old to return to school, and he flounders a bit as he tries to find his way.  He finds some success as a letter writer until a cyber café with secretarial offerings opens. Once again, despair threatens to find him. He sees himself as an embarrassment to his family, especially his father.  His repeated attempts to migrate to another country have been thwarted.

A chance meeting with an older French man opens new doors for him.  He becomes accustomed to the life of luxury Elgep provides, but upon learning Elgep is a homosexual, Jeanphi feels backed into a corner.  Is he gay or is he willing to do anything to escape to France?  After some hesitation, Jeanphil agrees to join Elgep. In France, Jeanphil begins to reconcile his identity, but he still struggles with how his father handled the news.  He eventually marries Elgep, resigning himself to the commitment because it wouldn’t really change anything for him. But it does.

After his father’s death, Jeanphil elects to return home, to Ouabany.  The novel wraps up in a bruised and broken tragedy.

Slim and unassuming, So Distant from My Life is a powerful novel. If you can get your hands on it, it’s certainly worth the read.

THE ASHFIRE KING – Chelsea Abdullah

The long awaited second book in Chelsea Abdullah’s The Sandsea Trilogy will be released on Tuesday, April 15th.  A huge thanks to the publisher for gifting me an advanced uncorrected proof of The Ashfire King.  I loved The Stardust Thief and had high hopes for the second installment of the trilogy. The publishing delay concerned me a little (it was initially supposed to be out Fall 2023), but I shouldn’t have worried; The Ashfire King is a solid follow-up that sets the scene for the final installment.

Abdullah blends magic and stories within stories to create something that continues to be quite special. We still have our relic hunter, Loulie; the now-dead sultan’s son and banished prince and storyteller, Mazen; and Aisha, a former jinn-killing member of Mazen’s brother’s forty thieves whose life is now tied to a relic and ifrit. Along with Mazen’s brother, Hakim, the map maker, and a cast of other memorable characters, once more we’re off on an adventure.  Adventures, to be exact. Aisha is hellbent on revenge against Omar.  Loulie wants to find and save Qadir. And Mazen, well, Mazen is struggling a bit, but his adventure will always be being there for Loulie.

Noticeably absent is Qadir, Loulie’s bodyguard and the so-called Ashfire King.  The plot centers around Loulie trying to find and save him while she operates from within his former world beneath the Sandsea and he is imprisoned by the now sultan, Mazen’s brother, Omar, in the human world.

It’s a story of found families, lasting loyalties, and legends that breathe life and fire.  I can’t wait for the final installment.

SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME – Abby Jimenez

This is going to be a difficult review to write. Abby Jimenez’s new novel, Say You’ll Remember Me ( Forever 2025), just didn’t live up to my expectations. I really enjoy Jimenez’s work. I’ve said before that I don’t really read romance – that’s mostly because I’m just very particular about what I want in a book and romance books don’t always deliver that. Jimenez usually does, however.  Her books have heart.  But this one? I could feel its heart every once and again, but it mostly let me down.

I’m going to start with the cover because it annoys me – I do not think it fits the narrative. The backdrop is fine, the colors are fine though a bit cotton candy-ish, but the wardrobe choices on the characters just feel wrong (why is this man not in blue?) Both of them are supposed to have black hair, and she’s supposed to be curvy. The cat should have been on the cover moreso than Jake, the dog who rarely features in their relationship.

That leads me to my next complaint.  I love that Jimenez has dogs in her works, and I’ve never felt that the dogs were there just because she felt she needed to add a dog.  Until this novel.  Both Jake and Pugsly seem misplaced – serving for a  storyline and then being ignored until needed again.  Neither character seems to be a responsible pet owner, if we’re being real, and it annoys me that they were just abandoned plot devices.

The plot here is an insta love that must immediately face a long distance relationship.  Add the fact Samantha’s mother is suffering with early onset dementia and Xavier’s abusive upbringing and you have two folks who cling to each other in a way that teeters on unhealthy.  Both of them need a good therapist.  And Xavier’s friends and Samantha’s family just seem disregarded. Shells of people that deserved to be fleshed out, especially Samantha’s family.  (But also, Xavier is a crap friend when he gets in a relationship, eh?)

As for the good stuff?  The writing is sharp and fun. There are some hilarious and unique moments as expected with Jimenez.  I hate that the final product fell short for me.  I also know I’m in the minority so…

Also, the repeated ACOTAR references early on did nothing but annoy me.

LITTLE BEACH STREET BAKERY – Jenny Colgan

This review is a bit late, but hey, better late than never, right? I listened to my first Jenny Colgan novel a few weeks ago, Little Beach Street Bakery (2014), and while I enjoyed the story and found it cute, the audio does the experience absolutely no favors.

The narration took me completely out of the story, aging the characters significantly more than they are which does create a bit of a disconnect, and that voice for the American…. what even was that? Does no one know what someone from Georgia sounds like? I would have stopped listening because it was painful, but I’m no quitter.  The point of this little rant? Read the book, but don’t bother with the audio.

Wait. Rant not over. Why is there a cupcake on the cover? She bakes bread. Did the cover designer even read the book?!?

Okay. Rant now over.

The book is cute. There is some questionable treatment of cheating and moments that make you really not care for Polly, our leading lady, but there are some fun moments – mostly involving a puffin that becomes a pet while Polly gets her life together.

It’s a good candy book.

OATHBRINGER – Brandon Sanderson

“We could just skip the boring part.”

“Skip?” Wit said, aghast. “Skip part of a story?”… “You wound me.”

I’ve said before and I still believe that Wit/Hoid is Sanderson in his works. This particular quote comes at a point in Oathbringer (Tor 2017) where I was starting to get over the story – I just wanted to be done.  Dare I say, I was bored, and I really wanted to skip some parts.  Then Wit steps in to call me out. Get out of my head, Sanderson.

2025 is my year of Sanderson. To date, I have read five Sanderson novels. Oathbringer is my least favorite.  That doesn’t mean it’s bad by any stretch of the imagination, it just didn’t hit the same. I am extremely glad I read Edgedancer and Warbreaker before because Lift and Azure give me such joy in Oathbringer when they show up.

Our main players are still there. Kal and Bridge Four take a bit of a back seat to Shallan (and Veil and Radiant) as she struggles with her identity. Bridge Four will gut you though – with Moash, Teft, and Rock breaking your heart. (I really thought I was going to see Moash’s redemption arc in this one. Color me heartbroken.) We get to visit Shadesmar, which is a terrifying and intriguing place. And we get a lot of Dalinar’s past – and it’s not a pretty past. More evident than in the first two of the series, all our leading ladies and gentlemen have to confront their pasts – and there are some wicked skeletons in those closets.  (Why won’t he say the words?!?!!) And folks die. Unexpectedly.  Oh and the moment between Renarin and Jasnah? What does it mean for Renarin? Will Jasnah keep those secrets? Oh yeah, Jasnah is back. And back in a BIG way.  Meet your queen.

I do not regret going on this journey.  And even though I found Oathbringer a bit more of a slug, I would 100% recommend embarking on this journey.

SMALL COUNTRY – Gaël Faye

“I was born with this story. It ran in my blood. I belonged to it.”

Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re still in the Bs.

Country: Burundi
Title: Small Country
Author: Gaël Faye
Language: French
Translator: Sarah Ardizzone
Publisher: Éditions Grasset 2016; English translation published by Hogarth 2018

Bordering Rwanda, Burundi is a small African country embroiled in political unrest and violence.  A decade-long civil war began in 1993 when the country’s first democratically elected president (Hutu)   was assassinated by Tutsi opposition in the military.  The conflicts between the two ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi, had long been exploited by the western world, and ultimately came to a head in the 1990s.  This is the country  Gaël Faye was born to in 1982, and the country he had to flee at age 13. 

Small Country is Faye’s story of ten-year-old Gabriel, whose childhood is stolen when the country he loves erupts into chaos; and while short, it is mighty. Gabriel’s mother is from Rwanda, having fled genocide and escaping to Burundi.  Gabriel’s father is a white Frenchman, clinging to the privileges remaining from Belgium’s colonial rule. First, Gabriel’s home life is upended when his parents separate. Then his country weeps and bleeds as his childhood is taken in the time it takes to spark a flame.

 Faye has ripped his chest open to show us how he bleeds, to highlight the nervous condition of the exiled, to scream of a lost childhood, a lost country, and the lost lives.  This novel positively blew me away; it’s likely my favorite thus far in my “Tommi Reads the World” list.

Read this book.

TIME SHELTER – Georgi Gospodinov

“Now, there’s everything you need to for a true beginning  – bad dreams, war, and a headache.”

“I had already lived through what was to come.”

Current installment of Tommi Reads the World – we’re still in the Bs.

Country: Bulgaria
Title: Time Shelter
Author: Georgi Gospodinov
Language: Bulgarian
Translator: Angela Rodel
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Company 2022 (originally published 2020)

Georgi Gospondinov’s Time Shelter, translated by Angela Rodel, was the winner of the 2023 International Booker Prize, marking the first time a Bulgarian novel won the prestigious award. (Most of you know I read the Booker Prize longlist every year; I’ve not added the International Booker Prize longlist to those endeavors. Yet.)

Time Shelter is a unique sci-fi novel that barrels headfirst into a dystopian future while also giving us a Bulgarian history lesson.  The translation is perfection – the novel smooth gliding without any stiltedness that sometimes comes from translations.  And the writing is simply stunning. This is an extremely well-written, well-crafted, and well-developed story. It’s witty, darkly humored, but also soft and comforting, like toast. I can see how it won the International Booker Prize.

The novel centers around “clinics” for memory loss patients, primarily Alzheimer’s patients. These “clinics” are “time shelters” – the shelters being more akin to time capsules that provide protection like bomb shelters. Patients are placed in “clinics” that are entirely composed of things from a time they remember. (Right down to the cigarettes they smoke and the news that’s delivered.) The 1960s are heavily featured, but so is the time just before WWII. The success of these clinics results in the world cashing in – countries are voting on which decade they should “rejoin” and what began as a treatment center becomes a profitable (and dangerous) reenactment movement.  To quote Taylor Swift, “I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending.”

Read this book.