Welcome back! We’ve officially reached three dozen of these things. Thanks for sticking with me, suggesting your own recommendations, and indulging in learning about some great books.
We survived Valentine’s Week, where everyone is talking about romance. Did any of you discover new romance novels from the coverage? Let me know in the comments!
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Mademoiselle Revolution
Diverse historical fiction, ahoy! With a bonus of a sapphic romance. This starts out on the cusp of the Haitian Revolution and follows an heiress as she flees to France…which is in the midst of its own revolution as well.
A powerful, engrossing story of a biracial heiress who flees to Paris when the Haitian Revolution burns across her island home. But as she works her way into the inner circle of Robespierre and his mistress, she learns that not even oceans can stop the flames of revolution.
Sylvie de Rosiers, the biracial daughter of a rich planter in 1791 Saint-Domingue, is both a lady born to privilege and a damning reminder of her father’s infidelity with an enslaved woman. After a violent slave uprising begins the Haitian Revolution, Sylvie and her brother leave their parents and old lives behind to flee unwittingly into another uprising—austere and radical Paris. Sylvie quickly becomes enamored with the aims of the Revolution, as well as with the revolutionaries themselves—most notably Maximilien Robespierre and his mistress, Cornélie Duplay.
As a rising leader and abolitionist, Robespierre sees an opportunity to exploit Sylvie’s race and abandonment of her aristocratic roots as an example of his ideals, while the strong-willed Cornélie offers Sylvie guidance in free thought and a safe harbor. Sylvie battles with her past complicity in a slave society and her future within this new world order as she finds herself increasingly tugged between Robespierre’s ideology and Cornélie’s love.
When the Reign of Terror descends, she must decide whether to become an accomplice while another kingdom rises on the bones of innocents…or risk losing her head.
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On Rotation
I feel like for those who liked Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers, this is a good read-a-like. The main character has dedicated a lot of her life to earning a degree and is now questioning it all.
Ghanaian-American Angela Appiah has checked off all the boxes for the “Perfect Immigrant Daughter.”
Enroll in an elite medical school. Snag a suitable lawyer/doctor/engineer boyfriendSurround self with a gaggle of successful and/or loyal friends. But then it quickly all falls apart: her boyfriend dumps her, she bombs the most important exam of her medical career, and her best friend pulls away. And her parents, whose approval seems to hinge on how closely she follows the path they chose, are a lot less proud of their daughter. It’s a quarter life crisis of epic proportions.
Angie, who has always faced her problems by working “twice as hard to get half as far,” is at a loss. Suddenly, she begins to question everything: her career choice, her friendships, even why she’s attracted to men who don’t love her as much as she loves them.
And just when things couldn’t get more complicated, enter Ricky Gutierrez– brilliant, thoughtful, sexy, and most importantly, seems to see Angie for who she is instead of what she can represent.
Unfortunately, he’s also got “wasteman” practically tattooed across his forehead, and Angie’s done chasing mirages of men. Or so she thinks. For someone who’s always been in control, Angie realizes that there’s one thing she can’t plan on: matters of her heart.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi
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The Quarter Storm
One of the biggest rec requests I get is for diverse urban fantasy or contemporary fantasy books and this has been my recent go-to!
A practitioner of Vodou must test the boundaries of her powers to solve a ritual murder in New Orleans and protect everything she holds sacred.
Haitian-American Vodou priestess Mambo Reina Dumond runs a healing practice from her New Orleans home. Gifted with water magic since she was a child, Reina is devoted to the benevolent traditions of her ancestors.
After a ritual slaying in the French Quarter, police arrest a fellow vodouisant. Detective Roman Frost, Reina’s ex-boyfriend—a fierce nonbeliever—is eager to tie the crime, and half a dozen others, to the Vodou practitioners of New Orleans. Reina resolves to find the real killer and defend the Vodou practice and customs, but the motives behind the murder are deeper and darker than she imagines.
As Reina delves into the city’s shadows, she untangles more than just the truth behind a devious crime. It’s a conspiracy. As a killer wields dangerous magic to thwart Reina’s investigation, she must tap into the strength of her own power and faith to solve a mystery that threatens to destroy her entire way of life.
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Quarter Storm by Veronica Henry
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Unruly Places
I love providing funky, niche non-fiction for people. This one goes out to all the geography nerds in our lives.
This “guide to weird, ruined, and wonderful spots” across the globe explores disappearing islands, forbidden deserts, and much more—a “terrific book” (Los Angeles Times).
At a time when Google Maps Street View can take you on a virtual tour of Yosemite’s remotest trails, it’s hard to imagine there’s any uncharted ground left on the planet. But in Unruly Places, Alastair Bonnett rekindles our geographical imaginations with excursions into some of the world’s most peculiar places—such as moving villages, secret cities, no man’s lands, and floating islands.
Bonnett investigates Sandy Island, a place that appeared on maps until just two years ago despite the fact that it never existed; Sealand, an abandoned gun platform off the English coast that a British citizen claimed as his own sovereign nation, issuing passports and crowning his wife as a princess; Baarle, a patchwork of Dutch and Flemish enclaves where walking from the grocery store’s produce section to the meat counter can involve crossing national borders; and many other curious locales. In this “delightfully quirky” guide down the road much less traveled, Bonnett reveals that the most extraordinary places on earth might be hidden in plain sight (Ron Charles, Washington Post).
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We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Unruly Places by Alastair Bonnett
I really wanted to like ON ROTATION b/c the voice was amazing, funny but also descriptive and vivid. Unfortunately, it also had a love triangle thing going on and once I saw where it was going, I put it down. Maybe I’ll give it a try again sometime, but they just aren’t my thing.
@Jill Q. I don’t mind a love triangle as long as it winds up poly, but they hardly ever are. Otherwise I find the appeal almost incomprehensible. It’s not on my instant kiss of death list but it probably should be, because I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed one!
The only promising sounding recs I got with Valentine’s Day lists were things that haven’t come out yet, but I didn’t look around much because media and romance novels is a rage filled rabbit hole.
@kkw – love triangles that resolve into a poly relationship? Tell me more!
@Penny: try Ainsley Booth’s FULL MOUNTIE.
I usually don’t like love triangles for one of two reasons: One, all too often they aren’t a true triangle because one of the potential love interests is so clearly a jerk. Two, when all three are worthy, then I don’t like them because someone will get his/her heart broken, which reduces the feel good aspects of the romance — unless, of course, that person is the hero/heroine of the next book.
I loved On Rotation, and there is no love triangle in it that I can recall. It’s not a romance – more of a coming of age story with romantic elements. The male love interest definitely gives off mixed signals through most of the book, but the focus is really on the heroine and her attempts to navigate a lot of different stresses (family, school, career, relationships, etc.) in her life.
@Penny AO3 is great for this, if there’s a specific love triangle you need fixed someone has probably done it there.
I was thinking of some of Samantha Kane and Lauren Dane’s threesomes, although to be fair they usually get to the threesomeness early on, plus you know from the description it is going to work out that way. I can’t think of any books where it’s an unexpected resolution to an ongoing love triangle, but there must be some!