gabbylikestoread's reviews
196 reviews

Will is a young man who’s used to living by the rules told by his brother. Don’t cry, don’t snitch and always get revenge. Now his brother has been murdered and the only thing left to do is follow the rules. However, once he goes to do so, he’s confronted with the reality of what getting revenge has cost him and his family.

This book deserves all the rewards and the hype. It’s poignant, powerful and thoughtful. 

This is a short novel in verse that I read in one sitting and the author was able to pull me into the story immediately and helped me relate to the characters in the story. 

I loved this book! It definitely appropriately hyped.

This book is funny, endearing, with an undertone of mystery and grief. I literally laughed to the point of tears and a few scenes which was unexpected but great. 

I love how everyone is connected to someone in this story. Though, it’s fiction, I feel like I’m in a time capsule where there are a bunch of artifacts of what Brooklyn was like in the late 1960’s when heroin first entered the scene. 

The characters introduced were wonderfully layered and written so beautifully. And there were a few plot twists in this story as well!

This would’ve been a full five star read if it weren’t for all the sexual references sprinkled throughout. Nothing is explicit but it was often enough that it’s not easily skippable. 

CW: sexual assault (mentioned), child abuse (mentioned), gun violence (non-explicit), drug use (mentioned), alcoholism

I enjoyed this story immensely. This story is set in 1789 Maine and follows perspective of Martha Ballard, a midwife of over 30 years who is called upon to perform an autopsy of a body found in the river that was frozen over. 

This story is set up a small town mystery with many characters that have their own backstories and histories that link with Martha’s. Doctor, a Black woman from France, was a cool character that I look forward to doing for research about in the future! 

I enjoyed seeing how her love for the people in the town and, particularly, her family motivated her to bring people who have done wrong to be brought to justice. 

I continually thought about this book whenever I wasn’t reading and kept looking forward to picking it up again. The fact that this story is based on a little known midwife made it all the more compelling for me. 

CW: sexual assault, depictions of hanging, violent acts

🌶️: pg. 155, 349 (sexual references), pg. 223, 337 (fade-to-black)

I liked this one! While the romantic relationships still aren’t handled the best, I did like that there weren’t many interactions in this book and the one that did, it made sense. There was a build of chemistry between the characters. 

Also, I do like how Elayne, Nynaeve and Egwene are doing all this OJT even as accepted and Rand and Mat are growing their character development. 

There was high stakes towards the end of this book, a main character died and the reality of that not every character will survive to the end is setting in. There were some plot twists I didn’t see coming which was great.

My two main gripes is that these books are WAY too long and this one had no Perrin in it! A crime! 

This was such a beautifully written story. I loved reading this book slowly. I enjoyed taking my time with each of these characters and learning about how their stories weave together. I unintentionally did the same thing with Black Cake and it actually helped me appreciate the overall story more. 

My favorite thing about this book was the multigenerational aspect of it and how much the stories around this precious family heirloom was not just the Freeman’s story but a window into American history. The most painful but beautiful about this novel was how Wilkerson was able to depict what losing a loved one through a violent act can affect a person’s life and how grief affects everyone differently. 

This book will stick with me for a long time! 

Publisher: Ballantine 

I liked this book. I enjoyed getting the perspectives of different people in various walks of life. Their view of the canal and how it would impact their day to day lives was intriguing to learn about. Majority of the characters had very interesting backstories and seeing how one connected to the other was fascinating, however, I do feel like at some point there were too many to follow. For example, there are a few characters that worked with Omar or assisted Ada help someone into a passenger train we met and dismissed in the same chapter. It was almost like a tease. 

Due to there being so many storylines lines, it was hard to develop enough of a connection with them which I feel is unfortunate. This is more of a character driven story so I wish the character development was focused on the key players. 

🌶️: slightly open door ch 3 pg 15, sexual reference ch7, pg 83-84; ch 9 pg 101; sexual references pg 174

This was a cute holiday romance! The couple was adorable and I’m glad that there was no 3rd act breakup. I liked that they were able to be honest with how they were feeling about each other from the jump. I liked seeing their relationships with their siblings and Starr’s revelation on relating to family as an adult! I loved that Christ was the center of their relationship and they wanted to honor him in their decisions in all aspects of their lives!

🌶️: kissing only

This was a tough one. While I love getting to know Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, the extraordinary life she lived and the empire she was able to amass, I feel a bit let down that we were spending so much time on the romances that Dorothy entertained throughout her life and not enough time learning about how she conducted her business and protected her fortune. 

After reading the author’s note, I can see that Riley used the experiences of other colored women of means to inspire the way she crafted Dorothy due to the lack of a personal diary. While she mentioned in the note that she believes Dorothy was acquainted with men based more on who had power versus who she was most attracted to, this was contradicted in the book since the only men she noted as attractive were white. Also, these actions and attitudes contradicted the way she described herself, her daughters, grandchildren and friends. She declared herself black and beautiful, dark and lovely but she never found a black man handsome at all, even if she did not desire to be with him intimately. (For example, Polk, Jean-Joseph, his brother nor any other black or colored man is described as handsome in Dorothy’s perspective.) This for me was a great disservice to the narrative of black empowerment that is meant to be deployed. 

Finally, this book had way too many spice scenes for my liking, which is none. I’m not a big fan of spice in general but especially in non-romance genres. If this book is primarily a historical fiction book, then I personally feel that these scenes were not necessary and if they were to be in there, they could be faded to black. 

I really enjoyed this book and getting to learn about the titan that was Belle DaCosta Greene. 

She, against all odds, was able to rise in her career and become the personal librarian to JP Morgan. She created a sought after collection of art pieces and manuscripts that many people loved and adored. 

These accolades came at a great cost to her since she was passing as a white woman and kept her true identity hidden until her dying day. 

I loved seeing her navigate society during the Gilded Age, new era of fascination for me. Also, I loved that her struggles with being a black woman in a white world were shared in this story. The promise of reconstruction and how the threat of Jim Crow threatened to split her family apart. 

The authors did a phenomenal job taking the facts of Belle’s story and weaving in the nuisance of what her life was like. 

This would make for a great book club pick and I highly recommend reading the historical and author’s notes. It makes the story even more special after hearing all the BTS info on how this book came together. 

🌶️: ch 19,24 kissing, slightly open door; ch 23 pg 192-195 - slightly open door.