Today’s post covers the second half of the books I read in March 2021. I shared the first half of the books I read here. My top books of the month can be found here. I will be linking up this post with the Show Us Your Books Link Up, and the Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. If you’ve read any of these books or are interested in them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Title: Act Your Age, Eve Brown
Author: Talia Hibbert
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Avon, 3/9/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
I have enjoyed the Brown sisters series and was excited to read about Eve. I really liked the quirky characters of Eve and Jacob. Eve’s parents tell her it’s time to grow up and act her age. Find a job she can keep and start supporting herself. She drives off into the countryside and happens upon a bed and breakfast that is hiring. The owner, Jacob, liked to always be in control and to run things his way, so when Eve accidentally hits him with her car and breaks his arm, and she decides to stick around and help him run the place, it doesn’t make him very happy!
“Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong. So she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she’s not entirely sure how…Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right. Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore… and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.”
With some enemies to lovers and forced proximity, featuring neuro diverse characters, Act Your Age, Eve Brown was a delightful conclusion to the Brown Sisters series.
Title: The Purpose of Power
Author: Alicia Garza
Genre: Non Fiction, Memoir
Publisher: One World / Penguin Random House Audio, 10/20/20
Source: Publisher / Library Audio App
Why I Read It: Antiracism Education
My Rating: 4 Stars
I listened to this book as read by the author as well as read the text at the same time. There were a lot of things that I marked along the way! Alicia Garza is one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement and in her book she talks about how “organizing is connecting with purpose” and bringing people together to create change.
“In 2013, Alicia Garza wrote what she called ‘a love letter to Black people’ on Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin. Garza wrote: Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter. With the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter became the hashtag heard ’round the world. But Garza knew even then that hashtags don’t start movements—people do. Long before #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Garza had spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some hard lessons about organizing. The lessons she offers are different from the “rules for radicals” that animated earlier generations of activists, and diverge from the charismatic, patriarchal model of the American civil rights movement. She reflects instead on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still awakening can inspire and activate more people to fight for the world we all deserve. This is the story of one woman’s lessons through years of bringing people together to create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new generation of changemakers, from the mind and heart behind one of the most important movements of our time.”
I was very interested in the beginning of the book in which Garza talks about how the conservative movement rose in popularity and how people believe competition is inevitable and desirable. We grew up at similar times and I could relate to her memories of the LA riots in 1991 and learning from MTV. I wasn’t as interested in her descriptions of how to make a movement grow, but the book was interesting overall.
Title: Serena Singh Flips The Script
Author: Sonya Lalli
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 2/16/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Serena is reluctant to get close to people and since she broke up with her ex 12 years ago, she doesn’t have many friends, mainly because they have all married and had kids and she feels left behind. At the same time, she doesn’t want that life. She is an ad exec making it big at a new job!
“Things are going according to plan for Serena. She’s smart, confident, and just got a kick-ass new job at a top advertising firm in Washington, D.C. Even before her younger sister gets married in a big, traditional wedding, Serena knows her own dreams don’t include marriage or children. But with her mother constantly encouraging her to be more like her sister, Serena can’t understand why her parents refuse to recognize that she and her sister want completely different experiences out of life. A new friendship with her co-worker, Ainsley, comes as a breath of fresh air, challenging Serena’s long-held beliefs about the importance of self-reliance. She’s been so focused on career success that she’s let all of her hobbies and close friendships fall by the wayside. As Serena reconnects with her family and friends–including her ex-boyfriend–she learns letting people in can make her happier than standing all on her own.”
I think this book was billed as a romance, but it’s really a look at Serena’s independence and personal growth. There are also some chapters told from her mother Sandeep’s point of view. There is reference to past abuse included. I liked the cultural aspects of this book and found some parts to be funny as well.
Title: Girl A
Author: Abigail Dean
Genre: Literary Thriller
Publisher: Viking, 2/2/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
If you’ve ever read the conclusion of a thriller and wondered how the people involved continued living after, this is a book for you. It follows a set of siblings who had been help captive by their parents as a look at what happens to each of them post-trauma.
“Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It’s been easy enough to avoid her parents–her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the home into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings–and with the childhood they shared. What begins as a propulsive tale of escape and survival becomes a gripping psychological family story about the shifting alliances and betrayals of sibling relationships–about the secrets our siblings keep, from themselves and each other. Who have each of these siblings become? How do their memories defy or galvanize Lex’s own? As Lex pins each sibling down to agree to her family’s final act, she discovers how potent the spell of their shared family mythology is, and who among them remains in its thrall and who has truly broken free.”
Some parts of the story were captivating while others left questions. The writing was done in an interesting way, where within each chapter, it shifts to the past. Some have said these time shifts confused them, but they didn’t bother me. Apparently this was a ripped from the headlines story modeled after the Turpin family, which I was not familiar with previously.
Title: We Used To Be Friends
Author: Amy Spalding
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publisher: Recorded Books, 1/7/20
Source: Library Audio App
Why I Read It: Buddy Read on Instagram
My Rating: 4 Stars
This story of a pair of best friends was unique in that it told the story of the two growing apart over their senior year of high school. It was told by one friend starting from the summer after graduation and going backwards and by the other starting at the beginning of senior year and going forwards.
“Told in dual timelines—half of the chapters moving forward in time and half moving backward—We Used to Be Friends explores the most traumatic breakup of all: that of childhood besties. At the start of their senior year in high school, James (a girl with a boy’s name) and Kat are inseparable, but by graduation, they’re no longer friends. James prepares to head off to college as she reflects on the dissolution of her friendship with Kat while, in alternating chapters, Kat thinks about being newly in love with her first girlfriend and having a future that feels wide open. Over the course of senior year, Kat wants nothing more than James to continue to be her steady rock, as James worries that everything she believes about love and her future is a lie when her high-school sweetheart parents announce they’re getting a divorce. Funny, honest, and full of heart, We Used to Be Friends tells of the pains of growing up and growing apart.”
I found myself annoyed by both characters, but especially by Kat, who was over dramatic and selfish. James was more subdued and seemed depressed. It was hard to see how the two had been friends in the first place! It was sad to hear about how their friendship grew apart as the two branched off from each other and grew up over the year.
Title: Sadness is a White Bird
Author: Moriel Rothman-Zecher
Genre: Literary
Publisher: Atria, 2/13/18
Source: Giveaway Win
Why I Read It: Waiting on shelf
My Rating: 3 Stars
I was very disappointed that this book was supposed to be a look at the Israeli / Palestinian conflict from both sides, but really was just from the Palestinian view point. Of course, this is an important view point and I am happy to learn from it, but I was hoping for a more balanced look at the politics and background of the region’s issues.
“The story begins in an Israeli military jail, where—four days after his nineteenth birthday—Jonathan stares up at the fluorescent lights of his cell and recalls the series of events that led him there. Two years earlier: Moving back to Israel after several years in Pennsylvania, Jonathan is ready to fight to preserve and defend the Jewish state. But he is also conflicted about the possibility of having to monitor the occupied Palestinian territories, a concern that grows deeper and more urgent when he meets Nimreen and Laith—the twin daughter and son of his mother’s friend. From that morning on, the three become inseparable: wandering the streets on weekends, piling onto buses toward new discoveries, laughing uncontrollably. They share joints on the beach, trading snippets of poems, intimate secrets, family histories, resentments, and dreams. But with his draft date rapidly approaching, Jonathan wrestles with the question of what it means to be proud of your heritage, while also feeling love for those outside of your own family. And then that fateful day arrives, the one that lands Jonathan in prison and changes his relationship with the twins forever.”
The writing in this book was literary, which is not my favorite style, but I can see how it could be considered moving. Jonathan basically has a break down due to his difficulty being in the Israeli army and also being in love with both Nimreen and Laith. Like I said, the story is quite one sided, with long sections describing awful events in which Palestinian villages were attacked by “the Jews” – actually it was a group of Israeli soldiers, not the Jewish people and not Israelis in general. The only bit about the Jewish side is told when Jonathan learns about how his family members had to flee the Holocaust and had no where else to go. This book had potential, but ultimately did not win me over.
Title: How It All Blew Up
Author: Arvin Ahmadi
Genre: YA
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio, 9/27/20
Source: Publisher via Net Galley / Library Audio App
Why I Read It: Working on Net Galley Queue
My Rating: 4 Stars
How It All Blew Up is the story of Amir, a gay Iranian teen who is scared to come out to his family and runs away to Italy rather than face them.
“Eighteen-year-old Amir Azadi always knew coming out to his Muslim family would be messy–he just didn’t think it would end in an airport interrogation room. But when faced with a failed relationship, bullies, and blackmail, running away to Rome is his only option. Right? Soon, late nights with new friends and dates in the Sistine Chapel start to feel like second nature… until his old life comes knocking on his door. Now, Amir has to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth to a US Customs officer, or risk losing his hard-won freedom.”
The story is told in customs as the family is interrogated after an argument on the airplane, included the voices of Amir’s parents and sister as well as his own. This was an interesting and quick story with cultural elements as well as coming of age and I appreciated the view points shared.
This concludes my March reads, with 7 books in addition to the ones I covered in previous posts! They are 2 YA and 5 adult reads, 1 romance, 1 non-fiction, 1 thriller, 3 contemporary, and 1 literary. Most are relatively new with one from 2018!
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?
