Hands on my Nook, flipping pages, on my book shit! These end-of-year pithy reviews feature ten (10) books with the lowest of low and highest of high ratings.
🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤
Title: The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Author: Marianne Cronin
Published: June 2021
Pithy Review: Rebel-hearted 83-year-old Margot and brave 17-year-old Lenni meet in the terminal ward bonding immediately. Through art and memories of the past, they celebrate a shared century and develop an extraordinary friendship. This novel reminds us that life is short so live in the moment!
Quote: "My body doesn't need any breaks. It's my mind that needs the break." ~ pg. 251
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Marianne Cronin
Published: June 2021
Pithy Review: Rebel-hearted 83-year-old Margot and brave 17-year-old Lenni meet in the terminal ward bonding immediately. Through art and memories of the past, they celebrate a shared century and develop an extraordinary friendship. This novel reminds us that life is short so live in the moment!
Quote: "My body doesn't need any breaks. It's my mind that needs the break." ~ pg. 251
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Published: August 2021
Pithy Review: 800+ pages of beautiful prose, a family's past, shocking tales of generations and a tribute to the deep South. This fiction debut chronicles one Black American family from the slave trade days to our era through the eyes of Ailey Pearl Garfield. It is a rich, multi-layered long ass read with many themes. A novel that deserves all of the literary awards!
Quote: "Communing with the ancestors was hungry work." ~ pg. 214
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Robyn Lucas
Published: September 2021
Pithy Review: How far would one go to protect a seemingly perfect life? To the outside world, the Henry family is perfect. Behind closed doors, it is a controlling and abusive marriage. Lina likens herself to a paper doll: dress up, smile and look pretty. But all it takes is one rip to expose the truth. What a debut with elements of illusion, romance, plot twists and independence. A top read of 2021!
Quote: "Please let this peace last." ~ pg. 77
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: David Levithan & Jennifer Niven
Published: August 2021
Pithy Review: Two bestselling authors co-write a story of finding home in the people who matter the most? Yes please! Bea runs away alone to a new city, chasing someone who might not want to be found. Her younger brother Ezra is left behind with an abusive stepfather and neglectful mother. The past is confronted. Hearts are broken. But trust and love between siblings conquer all.
Quote: "Nothing left of either of me." ~ pg. 261
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, Nicola Yoon
Published: June 2021
Pithy Review: Six YA authors bring interlinked stories featuring Black teens. They all take place during a summer heatwave blackout in New York City. Six couples spark a different kind of electricity when the lights go out but I expected more from such critically acclaimed authors. They did not meet the assignment.
Quote: "Rather everyday than not at all." ~ 70%
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️
Author: Bill Clinton and James Patterson
Published: June 2021
Pithy Review: Clinton and Patterson is my current favorite author duo. They've developed a formula that works! The President novels are long (600 pages each) but so full of suspense, plot angles and political thrills. In this latest novel, a former POTUS is on the hit list of an international assassin and threatens the President's daughter. I flipped these hardcover pages nonstop until finished!
Quote: "One does not succeed or get promoted by showing emotion." ~ pg. 14
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Nicola Yoon
Published: June 2021
Pithy Review: Evie has a gift of seeing other people's romantic fates. When she witnesses a kiss, she gets a vision of how the couple's romance begins and how it will end. As a result, she doesn't believe in love anymore. Until she falls for a boy named X while learning how to waltz, foxtrot and tango. Is it worth falling in love if it ends with a broken heart? Another hard cover page-turner!
Quote: "Come hither." ~ pg. 152
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Jeneva Rose
Published: July 2020
Pithy Review: You don't need my glowing highest recommendation to read this book. Just take my word for it. Where else can you find a page-turning suspense about a lawyer defending her husband who is accused of murdering his mistress? Yes, you read that right. Now go buy or borrow this mystery (and ignore the unnecessary cursing sprinkled throughout the dialogue)!
Quote: "You fucking reek of suspicion." ~ pg. 278
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Zakiya Dalila Harris
Published: June 2021
Pithy Review: The first sentence grabbed me then it was downhill in slow motion from there. Nella is no longer the only Black employee when Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They share IKYK glances, exchange hair care regimens and more until sinister events begin to happen. I could relate being the only meatball in the rice at work but this fell frustratingly flat. Like, WTF?!
Quote: "The first sign was the smell of cocoa butter." ~ 4%
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️
Author: Camille Baker
Published: July 2021
Pithy Review: I agree that contrary to popular belief, there isn't a match for everyone. But a dating app called Met may prove otherwise. It is an invitation for Corinne to reconnect with four missed men from her past; one of them being her soul mate. It's cute, hopeful and has a cover that screams, "Read Me!"
Quote: "A single success story doesn't help an entire family, let alone a community." ~ pg. 124
Recommend or Nah? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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