Review

This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work

This Book is Anti-Racist

This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work

By: Tiffany Jewell

Illustrated By: Aurelia Durand

Blurb:

Learn about identities, true histories, and anti-racism work in 20 carefully laid out chapters. Written by anti-bias, anti-racist, educator and activist, Tiffany Jewell, and illustrated by French illustrator Aurélia Durand in kaleidoscopic vibrancy.

This book is written for the young person who doesn’t know how to speak up to the racist adults in their life. For the 14 year old who sees injustice at school and isn’t able to understand the role racism plays in separating them from their friends. For the kid who spends years trying to fit into the dominant culture and loses themselves for a little while. It’s for all of the Black and Brown children who have been harmed (physically and emotionally) because no one stood up for them or they couldn’t stand up for themselves; because the colour of their skin, the texture of their hair, their names made white folx feel scared and threatened.

It is written so children and young adults will feel empowered to stand up to the adults who continue to close doors in their faces. This book will give them the language and ability to understand racism and a drive to undo it. In short, it is for everyone.

Review:

This book is YA, so it’s not super in-depth or overly complicated, but that’s what I loved about it. I also really liked the glossary in the back. It’s an excellent primer for someone looking to learn. It was very colorful with lots of graphics so I wouldn’t recommend reading it on a kindle unless it was a kindle fire.

This book is Anti-Racist is informative and had a positive tone for such a heavy subject. Highly recommend reading.

5/5

Not That Kind of Guy

Not That Kind of Guy

Not That Kind of Guy

By: Andie J. Christopher

Blurb:

An office attraction becomes something more when they’re off the clock in this delightful romantic comedy by the USA Today bestselling author of Not the Girl You Marry.

State attorney Bridget Nolan is successful in all aspects of her life–except romance. After breaking up with her longtime boyfriend, she’s been slow to reenter the dating scene. To be honest, she has more important things to do like putting bad guys behind bars. But with her brother’s wedding right around the corner, she suddenly needs a date and fast. Lucky for Bridget, the legal intern is almost done with his program.

Matt Kido is dumbstruck by Bridget–total love at first sight–but there’s one problem. She’s totally off-limits while she’s his boss. But the moment he no longer reports to her, Matt asks her on a date. An impulsive decision takes them to Las Vegas where, as the saying goes, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Unless you put a ring on it.

Review:

The Proposal meets Newlyweds is the basic plot of this book. They’re tropes I like, so I was looking forward to Not That Kind of Guy.

Bridget was in a long term relationship that wasn’t good. Not abusive, but no spark. It was what people who aren’t keen on marriage imagine marriage to be. She cooked for him, she scheduled sex, and she was expected to put her career on the back burner. Until she realized fuck that noise. Only, instead of taking that to the logical conclusion that she was in a bad relationship, she decided to wash her hands of the whole thing.

Matt was a spoiled rich boy that hadn’t truly worked for anything in his life. He worked, but there was always that safety net under him, and there was never any question that he wouldn’t be given the best of everything. At least he recognized that and made up for it by being sweet. He was dedicated to Bridget, except when he wasn’t.

That’s where my issues with the story came into play. I make up my mind fairly quickly about certain things. Mainly because I overthink them, so when I’m ready, I’m ready. Bridget and Matt did not act that way. They were going to avoid each other. Then they weren’t. They were all in. Then they weren’t. Bridget was the one pulling back most of the time, and it was always explained away by her previous relationship, but I got a bit tired of it. I enjoyed the beginning and middle of the book, but the end was not to my liking for that reason.

This is not listed as being in a series on Goodreads, but the characters from Not the Girl You Marry are in this, and it’s about the sister of the male lead from that story. You don’t have to have read it to understand anything, but I thought I’d mention it.

3/5

To Have and to Hoax

To Have and To Hoax

To Have and to Hoax

By: Martha Waters

Blurb:

Five years ago, Lady Violet Grey and Lord James Audley met, fell in love, and got married. Four years ago, they had a fight to end all fights, and have barely spoken since.

Their once-passionate love match has been reduced to one of cold, detached politeness. But when Violet receives a letter that James has been thrown from his horse and rendered unconscious at their country estate, she races to be by his side—only to discover him alive and well at a tavern, and completely unaware of her concern. She’s outraged. He’s confused. And the distance between them has never been more apparent.

Wanting to teach her estranged husband a lesson, Violet decides to feign an illness of her own. James quickly sees through it, but he decides to play along in an ever-escalating game of manipulation, featuring actors masquerading as doctors, threats of Swiss sanitariums, faux mistresses—and a lot of flirtation between a husband and wife who might not hate each other as much as they thought. Will the two be able to overcome four years of hurt or will they continue to deny the spark between them?

With charm, wit, and heart in spades, To Have and to Hoax is a fresh and eminently entertaining romantic comedy—perfect for fans of Jasmine Guillory and Julia Quinn.

Review:

Based on the blurb for To Have and to Hoax, I expected a romantic comedy. A wife wants to teach her husband a lesson; he quickly realizes and decides to play along. Instead, it was two spouses acting bitter and childish while constantly thinking about how attractive their spouse was. There wasn’t even a poor attempt at humor. The situations were silly and contrived. I was disappointed.

Violet is supposed to be smart, beautiful, and fiery. She is also incredibly stubborn, though, her husband beats her in that trait. She has spent the last four years, barely talking to her husband because of a misunderstanding he had. There didn’t even seem to be an attempt by her to try and clear things up. Oh well, he thinks this, so I’m not going to try and change his mind. It was ridiculous.

James is stubborn to the point of absolute stupidity. He feels a need to prove to his father that he’s worth something, doesn’t trust anyone, and because of his behavior ends up wasting four years of his marriage. If he had taken any time at all to think about what had happened, but no one in this book has the ability to self-reflect.

One of my least favorite tropes is lack of communication causing issues, and that was the entire conflict of this book. Violet, James, and their various friends were occasionally entertaining, but for the most part, I was annoyed.

2/5

The Proposal (The Wedding Date #2)

The Proposal

The Proposal (The Wedding Date #2)

By: Jasmine Guillory

Blurb:

When someone asks you to spend your life with him, it shouldn’t come as a surprise—or happen in front of 45,000 people.

When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn’t the hard part—they’ve only been dating for five months, and he can’t even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans…

At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik’s rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He’s even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik’s social media blows up—in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can’t be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and fantastic sex. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes…

Review:

I think I mentioned in my review of Party of Two I thought the romance was too much like her first book, and I was concerned about the other books in the series. After reading The Proposal, I’m no longer concerned. There are, of course, similarities, the women are all strong, the men are supportive, and they’re both professionals that love their jobs. Those are all things that I’m okay with reading over and over. (It would be nice to see someone more working class, but I understand there’s a theme with this series)

After the horrific experience of being proposed to on a jumbo Tron, Nik is just looking for a rebound. For whatever reason, Carlos only wanted something that wasn’t serious too. I was truly surprised by that considering how important family was to him. There was an explanation, which I understood, but what got him to that point didn’t seem plausible. Carlos forced Drew, in The Wedding Date, to face his emotions, it was hypocritical of him to do that after what you learn in The Proposal.

Lots of food is eaten. There are heartfelt discussions on deep topics. You see their relationship develop, but because of suppressed emotions, they don’t make things easy on themselves.

It was a good book. I enjoyed it much better than Party for Two and I didn’t dislike Party for Two. I’ll definitely finish out the series.

4/5

The City We Became (Great Cities #1)

The City WE Became

The City We Became (Great Cities #1)

By: N.K. Jemisin

Blurb:

Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.

Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She’s got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.

Review:

This was a very interesting concept, and it was incredibly creative. As someone not from New York City, the lead characters seemed to embody the boroughs very well. The evil in the book was so believable it made me sick. I’m interested in seeing the more sci-fi side of the antagonist explored.

The negative for me is I’m tired of New York City and their attitude that they are the best city ever. So much in popular media is set in New York and about New York that even though I’ve only visited once, I could recognize who the characters were supposed to be. I’m not sure if I could do that with any other city. Maybe L.A. It’s annoying, which could have been the point.

3.75/5