Fire

This week's Five Star read was read by Meg! 

Fire by Molly McAdams

Synopsis from Goodreads:

I’m the oldest of all the Dixon boys.

Yeah, that family.
And, yeah, that Dixon. The one with a notorious temper and devastating fists.
My family tried everything short of giving up on me, but there’s only one person who can calm me.

Savannah Riley Dixon.

Girl next door. My best friend.
Sweeter than honey and stronger than whiskey. And the answer to my enraged soul.

From the moment she came skipping onto our ranch when we were kids, I knew she was my future—my everything.
One touch, the fire in me cools.
One kiss, that rage melts away.
But the girl who’s stood by my side through brawls, cop cars, and kids of our own warned me years ago: One more fight, and she’s gone.

For her, I’d do anything.
I’d lower my fists. I’d rein it all in. I’d stop the damn world.
But when someone threatens our marriage, all I see is red.

Genre? Romance

Backlist? No. 

New to me Author? Nope.

Why I rated it 5 stars? 

Molly McAdams writes it, I read it, scratch that, devour it. This was probably my favorite book of the series and has dethroned Forgiving Lies as my favorite Molly book. I loved the characters of Beau and Savannah. Would definitely recommend reading the entire Brewed series!

Color Me In by Natasha Dia

  This week's Five Star read was read by Jay! 

Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

Debut YA author Natasha Díaz pulls from her personal experience to inform this powerful coming-of-age novel about the meaning of friendship, the joyful beginnings of romance, and the racism and religious intolerance that can both strain a family to the breaking point and strengthen its bonds.

Who is Nevaeh Levitz?

Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, sixteen-year-old Nevaeh Levitz never thought much about her biracial roots. When her Black mom and Jewish dad split up, she relocates to her mom's family home in Harlem and is forced to confront her identity for the first time.

Nevaeh wants to get to know her extended family, but one of her cousins can't stand that Nevaeh, who inadvertently passes as white, is too privileged, pampered, and selfish to relate to the injustices they face on a daily basis as African Americans. In the midst of attempting to blend their families, Nevaeh's dad decides that she should have a belated bat mitzvah instead of a sweet sixteen, which guarantees social humiliation at her posh private school. Even with the push and pull of her two cultures, Nevaeh does what she's always done when life gets complicated: she stays silent.

It's only when Nevaeh stumbles upon a secret from her mom's past, finds herself falling in love, and sees firsthand the prejudice her family faces that she begins to realize she has a voice. And she has choices. Will she continue to let circumstances dictate her path? Or will she find power in herself and decide once and for all who and where she is meant to be?

Genre? Young Adult, Contemporary, #OwnVoices

Backlist? Yes. Published August 20, 2019.

New to me Author? Yes. This was her debut novel.

Why I rated it 5 stars? 

This book was so much more than your average coming of age story. Nevaeh is growing up in a world where she passes for white, despite the fact she is also half Black. Oh, and she's Jewish also. This book tackles so many relevant issues and does so beautifully. It's an #OwnVoices novel based on the author's experience growing up mixed and Jewish. She has an author's note in the back that really sums up her own experiences. This was a Book of the Month book, but honestly I had only heard about it from a friend. I don't know why this isn't more hyped. This was unquestionably 5 stars!

Getting Lucky by Denise Grover Swank and A.R. Casella

Thank you to Denise Grover Swank for allowing me to be part of her review team and providing a free eARC! All opinions are my own.

Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

One night. Just one night.

Or at least that’s what Maisie tells herself when she brings Jack Durand home. Because even though his arms are things of beauty and he can charm wild animals (a huge turn-on for an animal lover like her), she’s in no position to start anything with anyone. So she pretends she’s just scratching an itch.

Jack is pretending too. His little sister is moving to Asheville as his ward, and between getting her through her senior year of high school and working at the family brewery, he doesn’t have time for a girlfriend. Even a sexy, no-nonsense powerhouse like Maisie.

But he can’t stop thinking about her, and it turns out he doesn’t have to. Her best friend, River, announces his engagement to Jack’s half-sister, Georgie, and—surprise!—they’re both in the wedding party.

Fate keeps throwing Jack and Maisie together, reminding them of how good they are together . . . which would be a whole lot less complicated if she hadn’t spent half her life in love with River.

Genre? Contemporary Romance

Backlist? No. This was published January 12, 2021.

New to me Author? No. I'm working my way through all of her backlist right now.

What did I think? 

Getting Lucky is the third book in the Asheville Brewery series and it is just as good as the rest! We follow two different characters in a dual narrative as we follow along on their possible love story, even as chaos ensues.

All of my favorite characters were back but honestly, I think this book brought Maisie to the top of my list of favorites. I loved her back story. I loved being in her head. I just could not put this down!

Denise Grover Swank does a great job in capturing all the different angles of running a business, developing feelings, dealing with your past, and making friends. Even though this book is based mostly around Jack and Maisie, you never feel like you're missing out on hearing about River, Georgie, Adalia, and the gang.

The Wrong Family by Tarryn Fisher

 This week's Five Star read was read by Jay! 

Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

Have you ever been wrong about someone?

Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch.

Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage, the perfect son—the perfect life. Only now that she’s living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore.

Still, she isn’t one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno overhears a chilling conversation between Winnie and Nigel…

She shouldn’t get involved.

She really shouldn’t.

But this could be her chance to make a few things right.

Because if you thought Juno didn’t have a secret of her own, then you were wrong about her, too. 

Genre? Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Backlist? Yes. Published December 30, 2020.

New to me Author? Nope.

Why I rated it 5 stars? 

Wow! Tarryn has such a way with writing books where you think you know exactly what's going on, just to find out halfway through (and then again at the end) that you're wrong. I did not see these twists coming and I very much enjoyed it. I loved trying to figure out what was going on with Juno, Winnie, and Sam. Tarryn just weaves together such a great story. I am SO GLAD I got this right away after it was published. I've been looking forward to it since 2019.

The Survivors by Jane Harper

     Thank you to NetGalley for my free audio eARC! All opinions are my own.

Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets...

Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.

The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.

Kieran's parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.

When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away...

Genre? Mystery

Backlist? No. This was published today! (February 2, 2021)

New to me Author? Yes

What did I think? I'm going to be completely honest with you, I was not super invested in this book. I blame that partly on the fact that I listened to the audio, so I will possibly go back at some point to read the actual book in print. I normally don't have issues with audiobooks so I can't say if that was my whole issue or not. I do know that the narrator did not use a lot of expression, which made it easier to space out. 

I did enjoy hearing about Kieran and his girlfriend and baby. The relationships between the people in this novel were great. But the mystery of it all fell a little flat for me. I think the idea of looking back on the past and trying to figure out what happened is a great premise, but I just couldn't get into it. 

Also, the ending was, in a way, both beautiful and yet also cliche. Like I said, I'll give it another chance in case my issue was the audio only. However, it's also definitely a slow burn type of novel, which may have also been my issue.

2.75 out of 5 stars.

This book is also available through Book of the Month! Click Here to check out your membership options. (I am not endorsed by BOTM, I just really enjoy my own subscription.)

The Bad Muslim Discount by Sayed M. Masood

    Thank you to NetGalley for my free eARC! All opinions are my own.

Amazon

Synopsis from Goodreads: 

Following two families from Pakistan and Iraq in the 1990s to San Francisco in 2016, Bad Muslim Discount is a hilarious, timely, and provocative comic novel about being Muslim immigrants in modern America. For fans of Hanif Kureshi, Mira Jacob, and Mohammed Hanif.

It is 1995, and Anvar Faris is a restless, rebellious, and sharp-tongued boy doing his best to grow up in Karachi, Pakistan. As fundamentalists in the government become increasingly strident and the zealots next door start roaming the streets in gangs to help make Islam great again, his family decides, not quite unanimously, to start life over in California. The irony is not lost on Anvar that in America, his deeply devout mother and his model-Muslim brother are the ones who fit right in with the tightly knit and gossipy Desi community. Anvar wants more.

At the same time, thousands of miles away, Safwa, a young girl suffocating in war-torn Baghdad with her grief-stricken, conservative father will find a very different and far more dangerous path to America. These two narratives are intrinsically linked, and when their worlds come together, the fates of two remarkably different people intertwine and set off a series of events that rock their whole community to its core.

The Bad Muslim Discount is an irreverent, dramatic, and often hysterically funny debut novel by an amazing new voice. With deep insight, warmth, and an irreverent sense of humor, Syed Masood examines quirky and intense familial relationships, arranged marriage, Islamic identity, and how to live together in modern America.

Genre? Contemporary Fiction/Historical Fiction/#OwnVoices

Backlist? No. This was published today! (February 2, 2021)

New to me Author? Yes

What did I think? I really enjoyed this book! At the beginning, when we are following Anvar and his family in Pakistan, I'll admit I wasn't as much invested, though it had more to do with the fact that I'm not a huge historical fiction fan than it was the culture. I personally find the culture fascinating. 

Once we jump to the later timelines in America, I was all in. I really enjoyed continuing to learn more about Anvar and his relationship with himself, with women, and with his culture. You could sense his struggle, but it wasn't over the top. Anvar has a way of using humor (they always point out how bad his jokes are) to deal with things and I loved it so much! 

Safwa's story is so beautifully written, despite how heartbreaking it is. Again, her struggles and her successes are very evident when reading. She's fully relatable. 

One thing I got from this book that I was not expecting, was a lot more knowledge on the Quran. Now, I am in no way anywhere close to an expert, but I know more now than I did before reading. And, at the risk of getting too controversial, it was amazing to see the similarities in the Islamic beliefs and Western Christianity. This was so well written. It did not seem preachy, but just furthered the storyline. 

Highly recommend! 4.5 out of 5.