“There is never a right time to say goodbye.” I didn’t have being absolutely destroyed by a book about a man turning into a shark on my bingo card, but here we are. Emily Habeck’s Shark Heart: A Love Story (Marysue Rucci Books 2023) positively shattered me. It was very nearly a 5-star read, butContinue reading “SHARK HEART: A LOVE STORY – Emily Habeck”
Tag Archives: BOTM
BANYAN MOON – Thao Thai
“He’s polish without substance, and I’ve hitched my wagon to nothing but a handful of glitter.” “The living must trespass on the dead; everything left behind a gift, an inheritance, no matter how unintentional.” Thao Thai’s debut Banyan Moon (Mariner Books 2023) is a heart hug of a family saga. From the 1960s Vietnam toContinue reading “BANYAN MOON – Thao Thai”
THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL – Kristen Loesch
“She stood, with her doll beneath her arm, and she walked, across the blood-red floor, over her blood-red siblings, through the blood-red door, out of the blood-red house, all the way to the blood-red river. She forgot to wash her blood-red hands.” Spanning the period from 1916 to 1993, Kristen Loesch’s The Last Russian DollContinue reading “THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL – Kristen Loesch”
BEASTS OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE – Ruth Emmie Lang
“Only rain, not tears, ran down his cheeks. He wasn’t a real boy after all. He was a wolf, and he cried like one.” Ruth Emmie Lang’s Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance (St. Martin’s Press, 2017) is one of my favorite reads of the year so far, and I almost didn’t read it. You may rememberContinue reading “BEASTS OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE – Ruth Emmie Lang”
LONE WOMEN – Victor LaValle
Larry McMurtry meets Stephen King in Victor LaValle’s genre-bending Lone Women (One World 2023), and I couldn’t put it down. The novel opens with 31-year-old Adelaide Henry fleeing her family’s farm and heading to Montana. She has a travel bag, a locked steamer trunk, and plans for a fresh start under the Homestead Act. She’llContinue reading “LONE WOMEN – Victor LaValle”
THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY – Jamie Ford
“A woman carries her fear inside of her.” Jamie Ford’s The Many Daughters of Afong Moy (Atria Books 2022) is an intriguing approach to inherited trauma. Epigenetic inheritance is at the core of Ford’s novel, and the science as well as case studies are absolutely fascinating. Set primarily in 2045, but timeline hopping from 1836Continue reading “THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY – Jamie Ford”
THE ATTIC CHILD – Lola Jaye
“Until the lions have their own histories, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” – African proverb, quoted by Chinua Achebe in “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review, no. 139 Lola Jaye writes in the author’s note of The Attic Child (William Morrow 2022) that the novel is her “attempt toContinue reading “THE ATTIC CHILD – Lola Jaye”
PART OF YOUR WORLD – Abby Jimenez
“If you have a baby goat, you always lead with ‘I have a baby goat.’” Brimming with Disney references and its own kind of magic, Abby Jimenez’s Part of Your World (Grand Central Publishing 2022) is the sweetest kind of romance. If you’ve been here for a bit, you know I don’t typically do romance. Continue reading “PART OF YOUR WORLD – Abby Jimenez”
AGE OF VICE – Deepti Kapoor
Billed as India’s response to The Godfather, Deepti Kapoor’s Age of Vice (Riverhead Books 2023) is a gangster novel meets political commentary kissed with a romance wrapped in a family saga. In short, it’s a muddled, confusing thrill ride of extreme violence and unlikeable characters. Even though a bit sloppy at times and in seriousContinue reading “AGE OF VICE – Deepti Kapoor”
QUEEN OF THIEVES – Beezy Marsh
“After all, gangland was a man’s world.That’s what they thought.But us women, well, we knew different.This is our story.” Oh, what promise the prologue to Beezy Marsh’s Queen of Thieves (William Morrow 2022 – Originally published in Britain by Orion Dash 2021) held. Oh, what a roaring disappointment. The premise is great. Inspired by aContinue reading “QUEEN OF THIEVES – Beezy Marsh”
A Girl Named Tommi 