It's that time again to review the best books of 2023. As always, I would like to thank the various authors, publishers, PR companies, Reading groups, and individuals who brought these books to my attention. You are what makes this blog great.
I also would like to promote two very important books in which I edited and proofread. Please if you get the chance, read them. They may help you with your own conflicts and change your outlook. Links are provided below.
This is a brilliant Crime Thriller that starts out as a lighthearted nostalgia of 80’s high schoolers but then changes into a darker, grittier tale involving greed, corruption, violence, and murder.
In 1982, Las Vegas teen Brady Wilkinson struggled to fit in with his schoolmates. He is considered a nerd and outsider whose only friends are a Dungeons and Dragons group with whom he regularly meets. A new kid, Alex, joins their clique and he involves his friend in drug dealing. Brady is left with the realization that his friends are not who he thought they were.
There are two aspects to the story: the nostalgia side and the thriller side and Becker handles both extraordinarily well. The first half of the book, the nostalgia aspect, is filled with the humor and callbacks to that radical decade that the book’s Readers may have experienced. There are the cliques, the complaints about school, the crushes, the pairings, the parties, even the pop culture references. D&D fans will especially enjoy all of the inside jokes and references to the famous game that jump started the RPG trend.
The second half of the book, the thriller aspect, is also expertly crafted. What was once fun and games becomes more serious as Brady and his friends are faced with violence and murder. The friends change from selling drugs as a means to relieve boredom to selling them to obtain money and respect. Then they fight to survive in the dangerous world in which they jumped into feet first.
Violence ensues and everything that Brady once did, thought, and believed is called into question. He is left to face the consequences of what a life can bring and how much he stands to lose.
This Erotica Dark Fantasy anthology is definitely one for adults. It is filled with stories that are sexy, sultry, sinister, sometimes silly, sometimes sweet, satirical, and supernatural.
The characters are demons, devils, sorceresses, ghosts, incubi, succubi, angels, and ordinary mortals exploring their kinkier, passionate, lustful, and sometimes romantic sides as they encounter others who respond in kind. The authors concocted a blend of stories including a modern Dark Gothic horror complete with creepy mansions and family curses, to sharp and hilarious variations of Hell and its devilish inhabitants, to a deeper look at a familiar multidimensional universe previously explored in this blog.
This anthology will spice up any late night reading and fulfill many dark subterranean desires.
This Historical Fiction novel captures the time period in which it is set but is also a response to and commentary on current events.
Dr. Hannah Isaacson is an obstetrician and suffragist in 1900 Baltimore and New York. She is more than acquainted with the poverty and sexism which also surrounds her patients. She befriends Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, and joins her crusade in providing expert and professional reproductive care for women including contraceptives and safe abortions. When a patient dies from a botched abortion which Hannah did not perform, Hannah is arrested, tried, and sentenced to New York’s notorious Blackwell Island.
This novel is rich with historical detail about the struggles women doctors had to go through to be taken seriously in the time period. Hannah is faced with condescending male colleagues, patients who are beaten down by their circumstances, and the outdated and unsanitized conditions that are put into practice by those in her specific occupation.
Besides a detailed history, In the Hands of Women is also a call to action. It reminds us to look at the current controversies regarding reproductive rights, how they are still being challenged, and now in some states are outlawed.
It shows the awful period in the past before those rights were granted but also shows a potential dark and disturbing future if they continue to diminish.
This is a surreal and satirical Science Fiction novel in which a dim unassuming regular guy is called to save Earth from inevitable destruction.
Mitch Kuiper learns that Marty, his crush turned one night stand, is part of an advanced alien race. She reveals that Earth is being infiltrated by another avaricious destructive alien species so therefore Mitch has to find and kill their leader before Marty’s aliens destroy Earth.
Much of the humor stems on Mitch’s naivete and how because he is the last person that anyone would think was a hero means that he's the perfect choice to become one. Throughout this journey he makes one stupid mistake after another, puts himself and his friends in constant jeopardy, and somehow thrives by unbelievable luck and coincidence.
Asparagus Grass also takes some great shots at Science Fiction tropes, most notably conspiracy theories. The moments when Mitch, Marty, and their friends confront the evil aliens and their Earth allies during a secret organization meeting are laugh out loud hilarious.
Asparagus Grass is one of the books that describes a potential end of the world but does it with so much humor that the Reader doesn't mind.
This is a twisted Psychological Thriller about a pair of twins consumed by beauty, jealousy, rivalry, and their desires for revenge.
At the premiere of their new movie, Tessa and Kirstin Morgan, twin models turned actresses, have a frightening encounter that leaves them hospitalized and disfigured. The book takes us through flashbacks before the premiere when their rivalry began and after the encounter when they struggle to rebuild their lives and their animosity is reignited.
Both Tessa and Kirstin are characterized by Rudman playing with and at times subverting the “good twin/bad twin” dichotomy. Tess and Kirstin have enough subtleties and facets in which they are both caught in a contentious duality that has probably been going on since the two shared a womb.
There are times when Tessa is very sweet and scholarly as compared to Kristin’s scheming manipulative nature. Then their personalities flip flop and Tessa becomes cold and self-righteous while Kristin adapts a sharp mind and a self-sufficiency that allows her to survive adversity. They are not wholly good or evil, instead they are two fully formed, nuanced, and damaged individuals who fight, vie with, compete against, and confront each other fully aware of the intuitive link between them.
The twins’ confrontations are as tense and suspenseful as accusations are made and secrets are revealed. The twins reveal the beauty and ugliness that can hide inside the darkness.
This is a haunting moving Historical Fiction novel which tells the disturbing true story of the Radium Girls, told through the point of view of one of the women, Catherine Wolfe Donohue.
Catherine is one of several women who work at the Radium Dial Company in Ottawa, Illinois in the 1920's and '30's. She and her coworkers suffer from physical pain, tumors that affect their entire bodies, and severe illness. They are diagnosed with cancer caused by the radium paint that their employers encouraged them to use knowing about and downplaying the health and safety risks that radium produces.
The book is painfully upfront and honest about the horrible physical transformations that ravaged the women's bodies and the psychological toll that the lawsuits took on their lives. It also reveals the heartless endeavors that factories like Ottawa Dial took in downplaying their employees’ illnesses then vilifying them in the press.
Catherine in particular is dissected as she goes from a naive guileless employee to the leader of the movement and their spokesperson. As her body weakens, her spirit strengthens as she fights to improve workplace conditions even if she will not live to see the results.
Luminous is the type of book where an ordinary person finds their inner courage to speak out against inhumane decisions from corporations that put profit over people.
This is a lovely and heartbreaking Memoir of Boreham’s 59 year marriage to his wife. Dawn, and his grief since her death in 2021.
Boreham keeps his and Dawn’s years alive through great recall and detail.
He brilliantly captures various incidents from their first meeting, to their differing backgrounds, their marital conflicts, and happy memories. Boreham’s writing is filled with sensory details and clear memories that invite the Reader to experience them along with him.
Joy captures various emotions. The Boreham’s decision to start Dragonfly, an organic whole foods business is filled with humorous moments of two very stubborn individuals trying very hard to work together to create and promote their business. There are also stories that are filled with sweetness and light as Boreham recalled happier times with his wife and how the couple passed their love of each other to their children and grandchildren.
The book’s strongest emotion is grief as Boreham’s anguish since Dawn’s death is very raw and real. Readers will understand the sorrow and loss when the person that someone loves is no longer there and everything reminds them of that person. It also is uplifting as Boreham reveals many of the coping strategies that he uses such as refining his relationships with his family and writing poetry about his emotions. These chapters show that even though grief and sorrow never really go away. They just recede towards the back of the mind.
Joy: The Art of Making Tofu is a sad book about grief and loss, but it is also a funny and touching book as it tells the details of a happy marriage. It reminds the Readers to find joy in not only happy memories but also within the remaining time that they have left.
This is a metaphorical but also timely Supernatural Horror involving religious hypocrisy, dehumanization of those considered “The Other,” and the struggles that the LGBT+ community face especially when they live in small towns and rural areas.
Nurse Jared Huntington returns to his hometown of Anastasis Creek, Pennsylvania to attend the funeral of Roger McPherson, the homophobic father of his former boyfriend, Scotty. Jared’s return coincides with a tradition in which every 17 years so-called “unrepentant sinners” are kidnapped, murdered, and sacrificed to relieve a curse.
This book offers plenty of horror of both the supernatural and human variety. One character goes through a terrifying and painful transformation from human to a demonic looking creature. The most heartbreaking passage is when the transformation takes place near someone that the character knows and is left with the painful decision to save the person that they were or kill the monster that they see before them. Demons resound this entire book and ancient evil curses and spells make this book a terrifying one.
However the human monsters are a lot worse. Rev. Zalman, a self-righteous pastor, has a tremendous hold over many of the townspeople as they become his cult. He uses all of the buzzwords and fear mongering to make his cult commit murder in his name and cover up his crimes.
Despite the supernatural metaphor, this book is clearly a sharp commentary about the cult mentality that many religious people, especially Conservatives, have. They are bound by their own religious rhetoric that they isolate and commit violence towards those that don’t fit their standards while dehumanizing them and themselves.
By comparison, those that they attack are often the most authentic honest people because they are true to themselves and protective of those that they love. That authenticity and honesty is seen in this book by Jared and Scotty who are brought together amidst the turmoil, bigotry, and fear that surrounds them.
The Covenant Sacrifice is a book that despite its unreal premise still resonates in real life with its themes of religious hypocrisy, equality, acceptance, honesty, and love.
This is a Psychosexual Thriller combined with a modern Crime Noir novel. These genres require a strong feminine presence. Mary Bliss is not only that presence but the most interesting character in this book.
Mary captures the eye of Jimmy Noze, reporter turned investigator. During a case, Mary and Jimmy become drawn to each other while being pursued by a couple of stalkers, Mary’s former admirer and an enemy of Jimmy’s.
Mary is an alluring beguiling heroine, similar to the femme fatales of old Classic Hollywood films. She captures men’s attention by a smoldering glance, a flip of her hair, and a gentle request. Despite her attractiveness, Mary maintains total control in her relationships. She never gives herself sexually and uses cunning and wit to get out of troubled affairs that aren’t working. She doesn’t mind being a muse, a model, or a temporary assistant but she will never be a lover.
She is very moral, strong, independent and self-reliant. She has many layers and nuances so she far outshines the male characters that see her as a sexual plaything, a virginal inspiration, a sound partner but don’t see all of her.
Flirt offers a female protagonist that has many layers. She is beautiful, alluring, honest, polite, strong, savvy, and kind. Mary is more than someone who needs to be seen. She is someone to be heard, accepted, and understood.
This is a captivating Historical Fiction novel about a woman's struggle to survive war, run her own business in a male dominated society, provide a future for her children, and create something beautiful, unique, and long lasting.
After her husband's death, Madame Jeanne Alexandrine Melin Pommery decides to run her husband’s Pommery winery herself. Despite animosity from male colleagues and the looming Franco-Prussian War, Alexandrine rose to prominence particularly after creating brut champagne.
Alexandrine’s character arc has her evolve from a frilly philanthropic housewife who studied etiquette to an opinionated strong-willed vintner who seizes opportunity whenever she finds it.
Many of her deeds and discoveries prove beneficial towards her product and brand. She taught and helped reformed prostitutes find gainful employment. They were so grateful that they worked for Pommery when potential male employees served during the War. Even accidents leading to victories like leaving grapes out too long resulted in the creation of brut champagne, currently one of the most popular types of champagne.
The book also looks at Alexandrine's personal life and focuses on her relationships with friends and family. She uses a steely resolve and cleverness to protect her family, friends, and business during the war. She sees her children through difficult courtships and welcomes her in-laws into the family.
Rosenberg has given us a great Historical Fiction about an amazing woman. It is sweeter than a glass of wine or flute of brut champagne.
The Caribbean islands were a frequent setting for 2023’s books. This book combines a beautiful setting with a dark history of slavery, racism, and restricted gender roles.
In the 18th Century, Amari, a Ghanaian man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery escapes from a ship with the help of Ronnie Shepherd, a young woman posing as a cabin boy. The duo make their way to Jamaica where they are aided by Adria, a wealthy pregnant heiress, and encounter famed pirate, Anne Bonney. The four characters' lives become intertwined during their struggles to maintain freedom and independence.
The Jamaican setting is beautifully captured in details that activate the senses. This is a book that captures the natural beauty that is a direct contrast to the ugly socio-political landscape which benefits from the buying and selling of human beings. It is a dichotomy showing a land that is so rich and abundant with resources and land and is corrupted by a colonial population that holds the natives and people of a darker skin color in bondage rather than share in the abundance.
The main four characters live on different sides of the racial, socioeconomic, and law abiding scale and also serve as individuals in their own right. Amari leads a community of escaped slaves and indigenous Taino who live outside colonial rule and fight against it. Ronnie uses her survival instincts to become a go between between Amari’s community and the colonials with whom she marries into. Adria's philanthropic nature covers her unhappy love life. Anne lives her life outside of laws and gender conventions according to her terms. The characters face insurmountable odds to gain not only freedom and independence but respect and identification. Their struggles are external for those around them but also internal for themselves as well.
Ginger Star captures great beauty in setting, ugliness in dehumanization, and courage and spirit within the various individuals who dwelled in that time and place and stood against those deplorable standards and institutions and led the charge in changing them.
This anthology features ten modern Fantasy stories told in the style of old folktales. These stories take characters, magic, fears, and beliefs from different areas around the world and create new spins with original stories and perspectives.
The stories take place in various settings and cultures including Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ireland, Australia, the United Kingdom and others. It’s an around the world trip of the imagination into the fantasy worlds that each author captures. We are introduced to magical talking animals, fairy folk, genies, demons, were creatures, elemental spirits, ghosts, sorcerers, and other magical creatures and many who would be at home in an old fairy tale but are given more depth by modern authors. The mortal characters are tested by their love of family, romantic bonds, their devotion to the planet and its elemental, animal, and human inhabitants, and traits including empathy, understanding, wisdom, courage, and kindness. In working through the framework of capturing a modern fairy tale, the authors weave gentle tapestries with engaging plots and deep characters.
This anthology captures the wonder of folktales reminding the Readers that there is a different world from the physical world around us. There is another world of imagination, magic, old ways, fantastic creatures, and heroes that show strength, courage, kindness, and wisdom.
This is a chilling Science Fiction dystopia set in a future where women are forced into becoming solely objects of beauty and sexualization by men who use a declining population as an excuse to dominate and control the women around them.
After a Slow Plague killed off millions of women and girls, females are kidnapped, trafficked, and forced into marriages and reproduction. One of these tactics is a reality show called Good Breeding which recruits women from around the world to participate in a pageant with an arranged marriage as the Grand Prize. Matchmaker Jakob Freeman recruits Punjabi native, Kutri Chandigarh but complications ensue when the two fall in love.
Rudman gives fascinating details about a world that is in decline. Women are treated as rare commodities like gold or oil, deprived of their humanity, and are left bereft of independent thought. Even the seemingly good intentions like tougher sentences for crimes against women are held under scrutiny as they exist solely to deprive women of their autonomy and abilities to choose their own paths.
The world in which Jakob inhabits and draws Kutri in is controlled by The Studio, a large entertainment conglomerate which controls all of California. There is a sense of corporate control that overpowers the arts, entertainment, and ultimately free expression. Those that had freedom to express now become tools of the government and people fear that culture rather than engage in, enjoy, and escape into it.
Jakob and Kutri are the people who exist in this society by playing their parts until they recognize the cracks and fight against it. Kutri recognizes the superficiality of a public life and realizes that she has become a prisoner of instant fame and self-gratification. Jakob becomes aware that his memories, personality, and independence have been either removed or altered through modification. Once they decide to stop being playthings for the men in charge and take control of their own lives, Jakob and Kutri find the strength to join the Resistance.
The Resistance itself has many interesting facets. There is a chilling encounter at a gentleman’s club in which the members have been deprived of their appendages because of prior convictions. There are Good Breeding contestants who commit murder and suicide rather than go through the marriages. There are characters who defy the current order by collecting forbidden memorabilia like Pokemon cards, board games, acid free paperback books, and old vinyl records. There is a resistance group made up of people who were former Good Breeding contestants and are planning an all out rebellion with women leading the charge.
Kutri is a sharp warning about the future where beauty is valued too highly, audience dependence on exploitation entertainment becomes fatal and destructive, and concepts like love, friendship, family, equality, independence, and commitment become distant memories. It demonstrates that we have the ability to let our forms of arts and entertainment destroy or save us.
Similar to her Adventures of George and Mabel Trilogy and Left, Hutcheson’s latest work captures the delicate balance between humor and sadness with a firm grip on characterization by taking little nuances and moments in character’s lives to discover emotional truths about them. What makes this one the best is how she expands on her previous work by not settling on one couple and their immediate circle of friends and family. With Lady on the Billboard, Hutcheson uses those gifts to capture a whole town.
Dr. Elizabeth Perkins, high school principal, gets her face plastered on a billboard that names her “Administrator of the Year.” She and various other characters view the billboard with embarrassment, flattery, pride, confusion, amusement, and startled recognition. The billboard becomes the catalyst for the characters to open up about their secret lives and links that connect them to each other.
This is practically like a literary soap opera in which character’s problems affect one another and deal with topics like infidelity, abuse, addiction, unhappy marriages, missing family members, adoption, teenage parenthood, trauma, and so on. Even the style in which it is formatted on KindleVella lends itself to serialization so Readers can read chapters at a time and wait for the next episode that builds on the climax from the previous chapter.
The various plots and subplots are numerous as characters are linked together in a spider web of connections that eventually weave around everyone. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track but Hutcheson keeps a good handle on them. Sometimes she resorts to archetypes (like the fighting marrieds, the detective who arrives with an assignment, the teen with big dreams and bigger secrets, the couple who loved and lost each other, and so on). However what makes them stand out are the various idiosyncrasies and nuances like favorite musical genres, nicknames for each other, odd colloquial ways of speaking, and past memories. Those idiosyncrasies make the Reader understand and relate to the characters. We know them because we know people like that. Maybe we are people like that. It’s a gentle humor that comes from personality and identification rather than topical jokes and sarcastic one-liners.
As with many soaps, the book doesn’t shy away from discussing dramatic topics. These characters deal with the ramifications of those problems and are strengthened or weakened by them. Because the characters are so relatable, the emotional moments are that more powerful. You don’t want to see them go through such hardship because you don’t want to see an old friend go through such hardship.
Standing at the center of these shenanigans is Dr. Elizabeth Perkins herself. The events of the book after the billboard force her to look at and reexamine the life that she once had and the ones she leads now. The billboard reflects her image that she wants to convey. How she wants people to see her. Administrator. Principal. Wife. Mother. Community Leader. It’s all surface as she also has to confront her other roles as daughter and sister with long lost family members, a teen who was forced to make difficult choices, a wife in a crumbling marriage, a woman with at least three admirers, and someone who has to recognize those depths and take charge of her own life. Elizabeth has to confront her identity, where she comes from, what pushes her forward, what truths that she has to confront, and what she really wants and needs.
Ultimately Lady on the Billboard is a great character study about a woman confronting her image, her place in the world, and her own identity and self worth.
This Contemporary Fantasy Magical Realism novel tells the story of a family of mostly women who share a magical, dark, and disturbing past. This past binds them to each other even beyond death.
The Lafountain Women are very powerful. They are clairsentient, all knowing, and can experience other’s emotional and psychic energy. On top of that, many practice hoodoo and have a spirit guide, Jack, an ancestor who vows to look after his descendants before he can move on. Two Lafountain women are explored in this book: Suzanne, a modern day English teacher engaging in a very unwise and dangerous love affair and Addy, Suzanne’s 1940’s era grandmother who has to live through the ramifications of her own troubled relationship. While Suzanne and Addy have difficult love lives, they also experiment with their powers and learn some dark secrets that the Lafountain Family has been carrying for generations.
Addy and Suzanne’s stories are superbly interwoven by their similar experiences with men and a stronger link that is revealed later in the book. Their stories also reveal their different backgrounds and personalities in living with their abilities and family legacy. Addy has a large affluent family while most of Suzanne’s family are dead. Addy is sheltered, young, and naive, looking forward to romance. Suzanne is experienced, middle aged, and cynical, suffering from the end of one marriage and contemplating another relationship while rebuilding a life with her sons. Addy falls for Cash, her boyfriend, immediately and begins a long-term courtship challenged by her family deeming him unsuitable. It takes time for Suzanne to fall in love with Max but when she does, it is challenged by his own unlikable controlling personality and sinister past. Addy is at the beginning of discovering her magical abilities and seeks assistance with the help of her grandmother, Mimi Jeanne, to use and control them. Suzanne is experienced with her abilities and actually doesn’t want to use them but Jack and her other ancestors keep bothering her. Addy fluctuates between the spirit world and the natural world by studying her abilities while simultaneously finding an advantageous marriage. Suzanne wants to live a normal life with her sons and Max but finds it difficult when people think that she’s crazy or a witch and her powers will not be ignored.
Besides having intuitive abilities and practicing hoodoo, grandmother and granddaughter share something else in common: horrible taste in men. Before he ships out, Cash threatens Addy before impregnating her and then after returning commits a horrible betrayal that haunts Addy for the rest of her life and afterlife. Max is much worse as his own POV chapters reveal. His charming superficial appearance hides a much more sinister nature. He is a bad tempered crook who uses intimidation, threats, violence, and dirty illegal business practices to get his way. Once Suzanne falls in love with him, he proves to be a hard habit to break until she learns why she is connected to him and what he did before she met him.
What is more important than the Lafountain's relationships with men are their relationships with each other. Even though there are some things that are hidden and need to be uncovered, the family members love, care for, and protect each other. This is the type of family that loves, guides, advises, and assists their loved ones, dead or alive.
This book is a Literary Fiction Dark Academia novel that is incredibly disturbing because many academic geniuses may find it relatable. They may recognize the moment when their interest becomes an obsession and takes over their entire lives. They feel at one with their pursuit of that specific knowledge and have a hard time separating their lives from their works. In this case, that obsession has terrifying results.
Molly O’Donnell’s late father loved James Joyce’s works. After he died of an aneurysm and his wife succumbed to an alcoholic stupor, Molly decided to keep her father’s spirit alive by studying his favorite author. While studying Finnegan’s Wake for her postgraduate thesis, Molly becomes interested in the story of Lucia Joyce, James Joyce’s’ troubled daughter. Molly’s research is so compelling that she begins to see Lucia in her private life even imagining conversations with her. She has trouble separating herself from her studies to the point that she is institutionalized because she believes that she actually is Joyce’s daughter.
blue: season excellently captures the voice of someone who is brilliant but going through intense psychological turmoil. Lombardi handles the intelligence and fragility of such a character rather well. Molly’s first person narration is full of literary references, quotes from songs and poems, and streams of conscious thoughts. The writing style captures her thought process rather well and is an intended pastiche to Joyce himself. Writers like him, Sylvia Plath, and Virginia Woolf wrote about troubled characters and had psychological and emotional illnesses themselves. These writers and Lombardi were very interested in how the mind works as it flickers about from one subject to another and how those thoughts can be both vivid and confusing. This mindscape is particularly prominent in people who have a deep intellectual life and frequently live inside their own heads.
Molly’s story alternates with her siblings and friends who want to discover why Molly turned out the way that she did. Why would a brilliant woman suddenly require hospitalization? What triggered her interest in Lucia Joyce? What happened to her? The revelation is easy to guess since the book drops obvious clues beforehand but it also answers some important questions about what Molly saw in the Joyces and how it echoed in her own life and led her down this unfortunate path.
blue: season offers a perspective of the ways in which genius and madness coincide revealing a mind that is capable of deep thought but is wrapped around a troubled soul.
Arabesque is a lovely story that captures the beauty of Paris and dance.
Gina is having trouble in her dance class and her difficult relationship with her boyfriend. Her friend, Tina and Uncle Gene invite her to move to Paris to study dancing with Tina.
This book is a wonderful imaginary trip written by someone who clearly loves Paris. Readers can visualize the streets, smell the coffee, hear the chatter, and engage with the setting. Shomshak recognizes the beauty, history, and marvel of the city. She loves it and wants her Readers to love it too. Paris is alive in this book.
The characters shine as well as the setting does. Gina and Tina have a close sisterly friendship that fills the empty voids in their lives. They work better together than they do apart, particularly when they perform a series of dances throughout the city in various outdoor venues and are dressed in elaborate costumes and masks. The dances make them famous but also give them artistic freedom and the ability to creatively express themselves.
They also have a wide circle of friends and family that support and assist them with their outdoor dances. Their female friends and boyfriends help them out while exploring their own pursuits. Gina's Uncle Gene is a loving guardian and engages in a tentative romance. Even Gina’s late mother watches from the Spirit World with tears of pride and joy at her daughter's success.. Gina and Tina's friends and family bring out the best in them and everyone else.
Despite being a mostly realistic novel, Arabesque has plenty of magic: magic of friendship, the arts, and a place that tells you that you're home. When that magic is found, well, c’est magnifique.
The Constellation Series is a high seas Adventure involving pirates and slavery and provides some great commentary about racism, and sexuality, and what it really means to take a stand against deplorable institutions and become a hero.
In the 17th Century, Ajani Danso and Abeni escape from a slave and prison ship getting past a young seaman, Nicholas Jerome. They then take to the high seas and become pirates acquiring a reputation as the Robin Hood and Maid Marian of the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, Jerome ends up working for and bonding with Captain Michel Delacroix. Jerome also gets to know Michel’s son, Rene and Frantz, Rene’s best friend and the son of Delacroix’s first mate.
Between the two books, the series is a master at plot and character development. There are plenty of sword fights, narrow escapes, betrayal, and sea travel that outshine even the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The second book features cameos from historical figures from the Golden Age of Piracy including Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, Sam Bellamy, Anne Bonney, Mary Read, and “Calico” Jack Rackham.
The plot is filled with great moments of excitement and suspense. In Sailing by Orion's Star, Danso and Abeni help slaves escape and give them the option of returning to their country of origin or joining their crew. These gestures help secure their legend and reputation to the point that many want to join their crew. By Sailing by Carina's Star, they become a crew of individuals who accept each other as family and Danso becomes a father to them.
However, this series is more than just Adventure. There is a lot of Drama and Tragedy as well. We see characters change for better and for worse. Jerome starts out as an ambitious sailor who sees Delacroix as a father figure and treats Rene as a kid brother. He is ambivalent about the slave trade but says nothing against it. He is ashamed of his Romani past and despises pirates because his estranged father was one. As he matures, traces of the flawed but potentially good man disappear until he becomes an unremorseful, bigoted, hateful tool of the British Navy. He once was someone that the Reader could understand and maybe empathize with but by the time the second book is over, he ceases to become understandable or identifiable. Instead, he is completely dehumanized.
As Jerome descends in character, the best character in the series: Rene Delacroix ascends. He starts out as a wide eyed kid who loves to follow his father on his sea adventures and being with Frantz. As a child he has an idealistic view of the world, so when his biracial friend is threatened with being sold and he finds out his father is transporting slaves, he verbally challenges the institution.
After a series of escalating fights, Rene runs away with Frantz to join Danso and Abeni’s crew. Here is where Rene shows his expert seaman skills and various talents in sword fighting and strategic planning to become a pirate notorious in his own right. He sees the hypocrisy from people like Jerome and his father who pay lip service to the law and take part in such a deplorable institution. At least the pirates are honest about living outside of the law and convention.
Along with slavery and racism, the series also discusses what it's like to be part of the LGBT+ community in the 17th Century. Many characters like Delacroix and Frantz’s father were forced to hide their feelings for each other. Delacroix is someone who learned to love the closet that he was stuck in instead of the honest life he could have had.
By contrast, Rene lives openly and freely with Frantz on the seas where there are no required standards and they can be as open and honest as they want. The progression of their relationship from childhood friends, to curious adolescents, to a loving, committed, and proud couple is one of the highlights of a series that is filled with highlights.
Sailing by Orion's Star is the start of the adventure and excitement and Sailing by Carina's Star is darker and more dramatic. Together, they create an engaging series that simultaneously puts you at the edge of your seat, breaks your heart, and puts it back together.
Fool, Anticipation is a brilliant Historical Fiction novel and character study about a woman who explores her talent and sexuality to find her independence and her own voice.
Edna Rose Doyle longs to be a poet like her idol, Edna St. Vincent Millay. She wants to write and live openly and freely with female lovers.
During WWII, Edna dates Tommy Prosky who eventually rapes and impregnates her. Even though she has a one night stand with Elle Rochfort, a woman whom she had unrequited feelings for, Edna settles into an unhappy marriage to Tommy and motherhood losing parts of herself until she succumbs to a nervous breakdown.
Edna’s intelligence and sardonic nature really shines through in her narration. When her coworkers talk about their boyfriends, Edna admits to feeling jealous that she could only admire other women from afar and not talk about them the next day. She is a complex character who questions her life, sexuality, and place in the world as a woman of deep intellect and desires that society tells her that she should not have.
Edna has definite ideas about how she visualizes her life and what she wants out of it. She sends poems to publishers and imagines herself surrounded by artsy intellectuals and writing verses about how she really feels. Even when circumstances take those dreams away from her, she continues to express herself through her poems.
Edna’s poetry is sprinkled throughout the text. They are mostly confessional and deal with her raw open emotions. She writes one on her wedding day about feeling imprisoned because she was forced to marry her rapist. She reveals her postpartum depression and disconnection from her son after his birth. During her marriage, Tommy's abuse leads to her becoming depressed, lonely, and paranoid. She is eventually institutionalized. The institutionalization gives her the opportunity to find her poetic voice and reclaim her talent after years of strangled conformity.
Edna’s relationship with Elle becomes a touchstone with her. After her rape, Edna spends one night with her. It is passionate and emotional and in better circumstances could have led to them becoming soulmates. Even though it does not at the time, it is enough to sustain Edna through the loneliness of her marriage.
Later in life, Edna and Elle seize the opportunity to reconnect and have a real relationship, one without fear, emotional baggage, or societal standards getting in the way. Through her poetry and Elle’s love, Edna finds the courage to make a clean break from her old life and make way for a new one.
Edna finally has the courage to change her life and become the person that she was meant to be: a talented published poet, an intellectual surrounded by artists and thinkers, a lesbian in a loving relationship, and a strong independent free spirited woman who is unafraid of life.
To End Every War is a complex superb Dark Academia Feminist Fantasy novel about a group of women who represent different species in their world and are united for a common cause.
In 1901, Vespa Academy was attended by students from various fantasy species: Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Fairies, Abraxas, Selkies, Giants, Kitsunes, and Centaurs. Unfortunately, many of the countries that they come from are at war with each other. Esmeralda, the Human Duchess of Vespa arranges for four women from different species to become roommates to open up potential friendships and communication and to put an end to the various wars that surround them. Besides Esmeralda, the roommates are: Viatrix Corna, a scholarly and devout Dwarf, Zabel Lusine, a quiet and mysterious Elf, Kirsi Takala, a wild Selkie, and Alya Panosyan, a stern and serious minded Abraxas. They along with Kam Ruszo, a saucy Human/Fairy hybrid and Bernie, Esmeralda’s loyal Human assistant go through a tumultuous first year where they attend class, study, fall in love, learn things about their families and their world, suffer great loss, achieve mighty victories, and cultivate a deep friendship that changes all of them.
To End Every War is a strange combination of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Mary McCarthy's The Group. It is an amazing Epic Fantasy with brilliant world building and wide sweeping plots. But it is also a first rate Women's Fiction novel in which each character experiences personal struggles, challenges, and conflicts that changes their outlook and strengthens their bond with each other. The characters are rich and vibrant in a way that transcends genres and makes these women relatable and identifiable to modern Readers. There is not a weak link in the chain.
One way that their interconnectivity is explored is by repeating incidents across chapters so each of the lead characters have their own interactions and responses to the event. Incidents like their first meeting and a school gathering are recalled by each character giving her own perspective based on her personality, experience, and bias. Their responses reflect different emotions like defensive, rational, anxious, self-absorbed, irate, worried, confused, preoccupied, and hopeful. The characters’ different responses to the same events develop them as representatives of their homogeneous countries, students involved in a wider diverse community, and women who are questioning their lives, goals, societal roles, and separate identities.
Many of the book’s touches add to an immersive world building experience. The map is similar to the continent of Europe suggesting that this book is set in an alternative version of Earth and is actually commentary about our own history and current events. The academic setting allows the characters to interact with each other while becoming aware of the struggles within their various nations and how they can overcome these struggles together.
The main characters have their previous world views shaken. In fact what stands out is not the epicness of political infighting, magical quests, secret conspiracies, and sweeping battles. It's the individual journeys and internal changes that make the book. This is not an Epic Fantasy with an all-female cast. It is a Women's Fiction novel that happens to have an Epic Fantasy setting.
Characters use magic and fight with weapons, but they also attend class, fall in love, fight with family members, and rely on each other for physical, mental, and emotional support.
As they go through these experiences, each character develops and changes. Esmeralda learns how to be an effective leader for all people, not just her own. Viatrix discovers heartbreaking truths about the Dwarves and her family that challenge her once arrogant worldview. Alya learns that strength can be found in peace and trusting those she thought were her enemies. Kirsi makes an effort to get off of her self-destructive path and gain a more positive forward thinking outlook. Zabel reveals her troubled background and accepts help from her new friends. Kam learns to reconcile
and gain closure with the two halves of her background. Bernie learns to step out from Esmeralda's shadow and find her own voice. In various ways the characters help each other with their individual struggles by caring for each other, listening to each other's problems, finding out answers to their questions, and being a sounding board of encouragement, acceptance, understanding, support, and love. The main characters are wonderfully written as striking individuals that form a perfectly working team.
To End Every War combines the immense world building of Epic Fantasy with the intimacy and emotional core of Women's Fiction to create a masterpiece that transcends both genres and inhabits one of its own.
Honorable Mention:
The Wynters Series: Harriet Disguised by Catherine Dove,
Pagan Worship by Patrick Beacham, A
Shadow Upon His Soul (The World War II Hidden Lives Series-Book One) by Ophelie Caton, A
Festive Juxtaposition by Paul R. Stanton,
The Water Doesn't Lie (A Dalton and Gibbs Investigation) by Kim Booth,
Journeyman A Central City Novel by Indy Perro,
For All of Us by Jillian Rose,
The Email from God by Neil Stevenson
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