I have a ton of books on my TBR this month. I am a little ahead on my books for authors, shh, don’t tell anyone. That means I get to add more books of my choosing this month. I’m excited to share with you what I will be reading. Let’s get to it!
The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett
Coming of Age, Historical Literary
I’m overdue in reading this, so I’m excited to start it.
About the book:
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.
The Ladies of the Secret Circus, Constance Sayers
Historical Fantasy, Releases March 23rd
I saw my spirit animal, Jenny Lawson, review this book, so I raced over to request it. It looks so good!
About the book:
Paris, 1925: To enter the Secret Circus is to enter a world of wonder—a world where women weave illusions of magnificent beasts, carousels take you back in time, and trapeze artists float across the sky. Bound to her family’s circus, it’s the only world Cecile Cabot knows until she meets a charismatic young painter and embarks on a passionate affair that could cost her everything.
Virginia, 2004: Lara Barnes is on top of the world until her fiancé disappears on their wedding day. When her desperate search for answers unexpectedly leads to her great-grandmother’s journals, Lara is swept into a story of a dark circus and ill-fated love.
Soon secrets about Lara’s family history begin to come to light, revealing a curse that has been claiming payment from the women in her family for generations. A curse that might be tied to her fiancé’s mysterious disappearance
A Danger to Herself and Others, Alyssa Sheinmel
YA
I recently read The Castle School and loved it, so I’ve bought this one, and will work my way through her back catalog.
About the book:
Hannah knows there’s been a mistake. She doesn’t need to be institutionalized. What happened to her roommate at that summer program was an accident. As soon as the doctors and judge figure out that she isn’t a danger to herself or others, she can go home to start her senior year. Those college applications aren’t going to write themselves. Until then, she’s determined to win over the staff and earn some privileges so she doesn’t lose her mind to boredom.
Then Lucy arrives. Lucy has her own baggage, and she’s the perfect project to keep Hannah’s focus off all she is missing at home. But Lucy may be the one person who can get Hannah to confront the secrets she’s avoiding—and the dangerous games that landed her in confinement in the first place.
When No One is Watching, Alyssa Cole
Thriller, Women’s Detective Fiction
This one has had some really great reviews, so I was able to snag it from my library.
About the book:
Sydney Green is Brooklyn born and raised, but her beloved neighborhood seems to change every time she blinks. Condos are sprouting like weeds, FOR SALE signs are popping up overnight, and the neighbors she’s known all her life are disappearing. To hold onto her community’s past and present, Sydney channels her frustration into a walking tour and finds an unlikely and unwanted assistant in one of the new arrivals to the block—her neighbor Theo.
But Sydney and Theo’s deep dive into history quickly becomes a dizzying descent into paranoia and fear. Their neighbors may not have moved to the suburbs after all, and the push to revitalize the community may be more deadly than advertised.
When does coincidence become conspiracy? Where do people go when gentrification pushes them out? Can Sydney and Theo trust each other—or themselves—long enough to find out before they too disappear?
A Million Reasons Why, Jessica Strawser
Women’s Fiction, Releases March 23rd
This sounds like a tough but heartwarming read. I can’t wait to start it.
About the book:
When two strangers are linked by a mail-in DNA test, it’s an answered prayer—that is, for one half sister. For the other, it will dismantle everything she knows to be true.
But as they step into the unfamiliar realm of sisterhood, the roles will reverse in ways no one could have foreseen.
Caroline lives a full, happy life—thriving career, three feisty children, enviable marriage, and a close-knit extended family. She couldn’t have scripted it better. Except for one thing:
She’s about to discover her fundamental beliefs about them all are wrong.
Sela lives a life in shades of gray, suffering from irreversible kidney failure. Her marriage crumbled in the wake of her illness. Her beloved mother, always her closest friend, unexpectedly passed away. She refuses to be defined by her grief, but still, she worries what will happen to her two-year-old son if she doesn’t find a donor match in time.
She’s the only one who knows Caroline is her half sister and may also be her best hope for a future. But Sela’s world isn’t as clear-cut as it appears—and one misstep could destroy it all.
Spellmaker, Charlie N. Holmberg
Historical Fantasy, Releases March 9th
Charlie is one of my most favorite authors. It’s been hard having this and waiting to read it closer to release day.
About the book:
This is the second book to the duology.
England, 1895. An unsolved series of magician murders and opus thefts isn’t a puzzle to Elsie Camden. But to reveal a master spellcaster as the culprit means incriminating herself as an unregistered spellbreaker. When Elsie refuses to join forces with the charming assassin, her secret is exposed, she’s thrown in jail, and the murderer disappears. But Elsie’s hope hasn’t vanished.
Through a twist of luck, the elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey helps Elsie join the lawful, but with a caveat: they must marry to prove their cover story. Forced beneath a magical tutor while her bond with Bacchus grows, Elsie seeks to thwart the plans of England’s most devious criminal—if she can find them.
With hundreds of stolen spells at their disposal, the villain has a plan—and it involves seducing Elsie to the dark side. But even now that her secret is out, Elsie must be careful how she uses the new abilities she’s discovering, or she may play right into the criminal’s hands.
Sheltered, Jacob Paul Hatchen
Childrens, Dystopian, Releases February 16th
This one came in as a review request and it sounds fantastic.
About the book:
With America under attack from within, twelve-year-old James must fight his way to freedom while trying to hold onto his values and virtue.
“We are all given a space in life to fill, a roaring emptiness in time… and it’s how you choose to fill that void, that will determine the difference in becoming a man or a legend.”
That’s what my father said to me a few years ago before he walked out on Mom, Emily, and me. If I would have had any sense back then, I would have asked him exactly what that meant.
Instead, I’m out here learning it the hard way – dodging bullets and bombs while America is at war – my friends fighting back with all we have, while trying to keep these orphaned children safe and our dreams alive.
They call us The Risers. Well, okay… so we call ourselves “The Risers.” But either way, we’re out here doing everything we can just to survive and rise up from our nation’s ashes with honor, integrity, and justice.
Now, with smoky memories of a lost childhood, and the horrible, lingering, cardboard taste of MRE crackers (still left over from living in Dad’s bomb shelter), my mini army and me march forward, taking back what was once taken for granted.
Allegedly, Tiffany D. Jackson
YA
I read Monday’s Not Coming a few months ago and really liked it so I’m looking forward to reading this.
About the book:
Mary B. Addison killed a baby.
Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it?
There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?
Well, there it is. I’m sure I will be reading a bunch of other books, especially because I have a quiet weekend (that is, if the neighbors kid calms down…ugh). What is on your TBR for this month?
Rae's Reading Lounge 