Author: Vanessa Diaz

I organically stumbled across Instagram posts by no less than six Rioters singing this book’s phrases in a 48 hour period! Nora is a teen living with her aunt in Northern California dealing with an awkward love triangle (love shape?) between her and her two best friends. But skrrrrrr! That issue is put on pause when Nora and one of those friends walk into a bank and finds themselves in the middle of a robbery. Things escalate quickly, hostages are taken, and law enforcement awaits outside. But there’s another wrinkle the robbers don’t know about: among the hostages is a young woman who’s been several girls in her short lifetime, and has enough dangerous criminal experience to be a seriously dangerous threat. (YA mystery/thriller)

Content warning: chemical use, physical violence, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, child abuse, murder, torture, and gore.

Read by the author, Tess Sharpe!

Cicely Tyson is a living legend, an icon, a gem in our midst! This is Miss Tyson’s memoir chronicling a storied life and career: “It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. Here, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.” (memoir)

Content warning: violence, racism, and chemical use.

Read by (are you ready??) Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis, and Robin Miles. Legends!

I looooove mythology and need this book in my hands now! Told from the perspective of Calliope, the goddess of poetry (and side note: one of my forever favorite characters in Grey’s Anatomy history), this book is a fictionalized account of the Trojan war that focuses on the women: Trojan citizens, Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, the Amazon princess who fought Achilles, and three goddesses who started the whole damn thing. And in the highest of all cosigns, Song of Achilles and Circe author Madeline Miller says Haynes has given a “much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War.” I. can. not. wait. (historical fiction, mythology)

Content warning: mention of slavery, murder, violence, sexual assault, violence

Read by the author (a theme today!)

Jamie and Zoe are strangers who have a funny little thing in common: they’ve each woken up in apartments they don’t remember renting. They have no idea who they are or how they got there, and one more surprise: they have super powers! Jamie uses his powers to pull of bank heists and other shady endeavors while Zoe uses hers to rain down some vigilante justice. and that is how their paths come to cross. When they meet for a second time at a support group for folks with similar stories to tell, they realize they might all be part of a bigger plan. (fantasy)

Read by Emily Woo Zeller (Book Riot fave alert! The Bride Test by Helen Hoang, The Poppy War series by R. F. Kuang)

All of my library holds are coming in and I’m trying to keep up! I inhaled this one in just a couple of days, the second book in Sonali Dev’s Rajes series of Austen rom-com remixes.

Ashna Raje is not okay! She’s struggling to run the failing restaurant that was her father’s legacy and to prove to her estranged mother that she knows her own mind. When she gets a last-minute offer to be on The Food Network’s latest celebrity cooking show, Ashna agrees begrudgingly. She does it mostly to avoid having to see her mother, and because winning the competition means a cash prize and the chance to turn her restaurant troubles right around. Pero… here’s the thing: the gorgeous retired pro soccer player she’s paired with on the show was once the love of her life, the one who ghosted her when she was at her absolute lowest. He has reasons of his own for wanting to be on the show, and him leaving her may not have gone exactly like Ashna remembers it. Is this partnership a recipe for disaster? Or will it end in sweet success? (tw: suicide, sexual assault; descriptions aren’t extremely graphic, but may still be much for some)

I am always so impressed by how fun and hilarious Sonali Dev’s books are while tackling some pretty heavy issues. The women in all of her books (and all of her characters in general) are so dynamic and layered, flawed and relatable. Both Ashna and her mother have moved through the world in ways that are difficult to understand as onlookers until we examine their behaviors through the lens of trauma. I am still sitting with the feelings that surfaced for me once the motivations behind Ashna’s attachment to the restaurant and loyalty to her father were revealed, and when her mother’s decision to rebel against societal norms at the cost of her family is made clear. Sonali Dev continues to give us these thoughtful examinations of the ways in which women have had to advocate for themselves, often at immense personal sacrifice, and rewarding us with a deliciously satisfying happily ever after for joining her in that reflection.

As for narration, I cannot imagine a more perfectly suited voice for Sonali Dev’s books than Soneela Nankani. In addition to also reading Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors, her catalog includes titles like The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty, The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey, and Internment by Samira Ahmed. She gives you mid-30s anxious, Brazilian-British athlete swag, wise aunty energy, and more with seamless transitions.

So go, dear reader, and treat yourself to Recipe for Persuasion. Oh, and you don’t need to read the series in order, but do absolutely make some time for Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors! and look for Incense and Sensibility in July!

Amari has never stopped believing her missing brother is alive. Then she finds a ticking briefcase in his closet (totally normal!), and inside it is a nomination for a summer tryout at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. She knows this organization is the key to finding her brother, and that’s why she soon finds herself competing with a whole bunch of kids who’ve always own magic exists. If she can accept that magicians, fairies, aliens, and other supernatural creatures exist, and convince her paranoid classmates that she isn’t, in fact, an enemy, Amari might finally have a chance at finding her brother. This book is the first in a new series. (middle grade fantasy)

Read by Imani Parks (Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West, Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton)

I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about this latest book in the Graceling Realm series. Bitterblue has been queen of Monsea for the past five years, slowly rebuilding her nation after her father’s horrific reign. She sends envoys to the nation of Winterkeep when she learns of lands in the east, but those envoys drown under suspicious circumstances. When Bitterblue decides to set off for Winterkeep herself, tragedy strikes again— a tragedy with devastating political and personal consequences. Meanwhile, in Winterkeep, the teenage daughter of two powerful politicians waits and watches. She’s the key to unlocking everything – but only if she’s willing to transcend leave behind the person she’s always been. (YA fantasy)

Read by Xanthe Elbrick, who also reads books two and three in the series (Fire and Bitterblue)

“The day Fatima forgot her name, Death paid a visit.” The new name given to her by the Angel of Death is Sanokfa, a name that means nothing to anyone but her and is her only tie to her family and her past. Now she searches for the object that fell from the sky and took everything from her with only a fox as her companion; anyone who gets in her way will face a girl whose looks and touch can kill. Whew, Nnedi Okorafor’s brain is a national treasure. (science fiction)

Read by Adjoa Andoh (Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert, The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie), one of the most rich, regal voices I’ve ever heard.

After she comes across a book featuring a love story between two women, a question takes root in seventeen-year-old Lily Hu: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?” She can’t remember exactly when the question planted itself in her, but the answer is obvious the moment she and Kathleen Miller walk under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. “But America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father – despite his hard-won citizenship – Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.” (YA historical fiction)

Read by Emily Woo Zeller, a Book Riot fave! (The Poppy War for R. F. Kuang, This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone)

For over 15 years, August Sitwell has worked as a groundskeeper for the Barclay family, “a well-to-do White family who plucked him from an orphan asylum and gave him a job” in their household’s all-Black staff. But the Barclay’s fortune has fallen and their money gone with it, so a desperate Mr. Barclay agrees to sell his cook Miss Mamie’s delicious rib sauce for some quick cash. Marketed under the brand name “The Rib King,” the sauce bottle features a caricature of a wildly grinning August on the label, and neither Miss Mamie nor August will see a dime from the sale. “Humiliated, August grows increasingly distraught, his anger building to a rage that explodes in shocking tragedy.” (fiction)

Read by Korey Jackson (Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles, Let Me Here a Rhyme by Tiffany D. Jackson) and Adenrele Ojo (Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera, The Mothers by Brit Bennett)

I mentioned wanting to read this book over my holiday break, but my Libby hold didn’t quite come in on time. It finally arrived this week and the timing was perfect; I’ve been in the mood for a spy story and don’t come across nearly enough of them by authors of color! The plot: Marie is a young Black woman working as an FBI agent in 1980s New York. Her career has gone stagnant when she’s suddenly approached by the CIA to spy on the president of Burkina Faso, a figure being billed as a dangerous Communist despot; she has her reservations, but figures she may be able to leverage some information of her own if she takes the gig. But as we spy novel people know all too well, that spy life is not an easy one; she finds herself sympathizing with her target and questioning the US’s motives—and thus questioning her loyalties in turn.

The story is told in the form of a diary that Marie is writing to her young sons in the hopes that they will read it and understand her better when they’re adults. I loved this format so much for the insight it gave into Marie’s career and her psyche, into the ways her relationships with the mother (who left her), her sister (who died on assignment), and even her target have informed her every move—and not always in a good way. Marie is smart, capable, intuitive, but she’s also human, vulnerable, and a mother; none of the decisions she’s forced to make are easy ones, and the consequences of those decisions don’t just affect her. I loved getting into her head to live in that complicated grey area along with her. I clenched my teeth and held my breath through a lot of it.

The other aspect of the book that I’m a big fan of is how it shines a light on our country’s propensity for acting like the word’s police with, to be generous, less than noble intentions. This is an uncomfortable truth to sit with: we’ve meddled and contributed to instability worldwide under the guise of upholding democracy and fighting terrorism. Have we been the good guys in some of these scenarios? I hope so. But we’ve also done a lot of harm and don’t seem to like confronting that reality.

If you’re in the mood for a good, complex spy thriller with a POC main character and a lot of nuance, you know what to do. Bahni Turpin delivers another stellar performance that wonderfully embodies both Marie’s cynicism and passion. Is there anything she can’t do?!

In a fantasy version of Victorian England, Delly is a petty con and partially trained fire witch who’s not quite making ends meet. Then she comes across a listing for a job protecting a young woman in the weeks before her marriage. Seems like a cushy gig with easy money… Ha! Nope! Dellaria learns pretty quickly that her charge is the target of some pretty dangerous assassination attempts using necromantic magic. With the help of a motley crew of her fellow female bodyguards (including one she’s warming up to, if you know what I’m sayin’), Delly will have to find a way to best this elusive adversary and keep her charge (and herself) safe. (historical fantasy)

I read this one in print, so I sampled the audio and I have one hangup with the narration: it’s read in an American accent! Ava Lucas is lovely, this is not a critique of her. The book’s setting makes me wish it was read in an English accent, but the book is so fun that I have to include it here.

I love Amber Ruffin, a hilarious comedian and performer who’s written for Late Night with Seth Meyers since 2014 (a role that made her the first Black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the US). While Amber lives in New York, Ruffin’s sister Lacey still lives back in Nebraska where they both grew up. This book is a hilarious, if at times downright horrifying, collection of anecdotes of the kinds of comments, behaviors, and general racist BS that Lacey is subjected to on a near daily basis in Omaha. Some examples: strangers touching her hair, being mistaken for a prostitute, being mistaken for Harriet!! Tubman!! Oh, and getting hit on online by a dude with the confederate flag in his profile pic. Whew. The sisters’ banter and delivery injects a whole lot of comedy into what are otherwise some truly cringey stories. (humor, essays)

Read by the authors

Pheby Brown has grown up relatively sheltered on a Charles City, Virginia plantation, shielded by her mother’s position as the plantation’s medicine woman and beloved by the Master’s sister. She’d been promised freedom on her 18th birthday and plans to start a new life with the man she loves. Instead, Pheby is forced to leave the only home she’s ever known and finds herself at Devil’s Half Acre, a notorious jail in Richmond, Virginia where the enslaved are “broken, tortured, and sold every day. There, Pheby is exposed not just to her Jailer’s cruelty but also to his contradictions. To survive, Pheby will have to outwit him, and she soon faces the ultimate sacrifice.” This sounds like a heartbreaking read, but comes highly recommended. (historical fiction)

Read by the wonderful Robin Miles (Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, The Good House by Tananarive Due, and a million billion other awesome books).

A seamstress leaps from the window of an estate with a cryptic message sown into her skin; after receiving a strange letter warning him of impending danger, a destitute Cambridge student comes to London in search of his uncle—and the woman he once loved; an heiress-via-adoption is trying to make her name as a serious journalist, but her curmudgeon of an editor believes ladies should only report on society events and gossip; and a sharp and committed but volatile detective who deals with cases of an occult nature is assigned to find out what happened to the aforementioned seamstress. Alll of these people (and a whole bunch of others), are connected by a twisty case of missing girls who’ve all disappeared under similar mysterious circumstances. This book is a gothic romp and I loves it! (historical fiction)

Read by Charles Armstrong, the voice behind The Mysterious Affair at Styles and tons of other Agatha Christie novels)

January is a successful romance novelist whose views on love are shattered when she learns her recently deceased father was unfaithful to her mother for years. While staying at her dad’s Lake Michigan beach house for the summer to a) clear the house out, and b) isolate herself into writing an overdue book, she discovers her college rival Gus, a Very Serious literary fiction author, lives in the house next door. Neither of them is particularly jazzed about running into one another, but they can’t seem to stay away from one another either. When they both reveal that they have writer’s block, they come up with a plan: they’ll swap genres for the summer—and try not to fall in love.

I deeply identified with how bristly January is when she was first reunited with Gus. My alter ego’s name is Peppermint Petty (Petty and the Jets album dropping soon!), so I got my whole life from January messiness when she couldn’t figure out how to process her feelings (purse wine!). The book really sits with the ways in which our experiences, specifically grief, color how we interpret other people’s words and behaviors. The miscommunications abound, but they’re all so relatable. We aren’t ourselves when we’re consumed with big, scary feelings.

Perhaps best of all though was the very meta examination of the healing escapism of romance novels. January describes first being drawn into romancelandia when her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and my eyes got a little foggy; I became a romance reader in the last few years and emphatically vouch for the restorative quality of a good HEA when nothing else in your life makes sense. Reading about it from the perspective of a character who loses her love-conquers-all self in the wake of tragedy and then finds her way back again was a wonderful balm to start the year off with, even if things took a ridiculous turn a mere few days later.

Unambitious 22-year-old Darren is perfectly content living with his mom and working at Starbucks, but his mom wants him to want more. Then a chance run-in with the smooth-talking CEO of New York’s hottest tech start-up leads to Darren joining his team. Within a week, Darren has transformed into “Buck”, a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family (and the only Black person at the mysterious, cult-like, company). “But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.” (fiction)

Read by Zeno Robinson (Ali Cross by James Patterson, Hi Five by Joe Ide)

Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson has rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves (relatable, Tessa!). The only place she gets to be the leading lady is in the love stories she writes. She’s ecstatic when she’s accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, but gets smacked with a case of writer’s block during her very first workshop. But it’s okay! Her bestie Caroline has a plan! All Tessa needs is a real-life love story for some inspiration via a list of romance novel-inspired steps to a happily ever after. But Tessa finds these steps may actually be pulling her further and further away from herself… (YA romance)

Read by Jordan Cobb (Deathless Divide by Justine Ireland, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown, two books I really need to read)

Teen social activist and history buff Kezi Smith is killed under shady circumstances after attending a social-justice rally. Her sister Happi and their family are left reeling and devastated as Kezi becomes yet another victim in the fight against police brutality. Then Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered. Perfect. Angelic—”one of the good ones.” (contemporary YA)

This narrator trio tho!!! Bahni Turpin, Jordan Cobb, and Carolyn Smith. What?!

For centuries, Zeus has punished the gods with a game called the Agon wherein the gods must walk the earth as mortals and then be hunted for their immortality. Fun! Only a handful of gods remain, the rest replaced by mortals who killed them and ascended. Lore is the lone survivor of a line of god hunters who were brutally murdered by a rival family. With the Agon approaching, Lore sees a chance for revenge against the mortals-turned-gods responsible for her family’s deaths.

Read by Fryda Wolff (Mass Effect Andromeda: Nexus Uprising by Jason M. Hough, K. C. Alexander and Mass Effect: Initiation by N. K. Jemisin, Mac Walters)

Seventeen-year-old Ada is all smiles on her wedding day: she loves her husband and she loves working as an apprentice to her midwife mother. But a year later, she hasn’t been able to get pregnant, which is kind of a big deal when you live in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches. That’s when she packs up and joins the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known as the Kid. “Charismatic, grandiose and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she’s willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.”

Read by Cynthia Farrell (The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren, This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone)

TW: eating disorders and body stuff (not quite body horror, but close if you’re squeamish).

Oh my gatos, y’all. The release of this book’s Netflix adaptation reminded me that I’d been meaning to read it for years, it’s so my kind of book (I know, I know: story of my life). I finally read it over the break and wooooooow. It’s like Center Stage meets Black Swan and Fatal Attraction.

The book is primarily told from the perspectives of Gigi, Bette, and June, three young ballerinas at an intensely competitive ballet school in Manhattan. Kind and lighthearted Gigi just wants to dance, but the act could literally kill her. She’s also the only Black girl at the school, so… you can guess how that goes. Privileged New Yorker Bette is… how do I put this? Picture a version of Regina George who pops a lot of pills and has a serious complex from dancing in the shadow of her ballet-star sister. She’ll stop at nothing to end up on top, and I do mean nothing. *shivers* June is a dangerous perfectionist who has to land a lead role this year, otherwise her super-controlling mom will pull her from the school. Everyone’s losing their sh*t because the cast for the school’s Nutracker performance is about to be announced, and an absolute mess of a scandal erupts when the Gigi lands the role of Sugar Plum Fairy. Everyone thought it would be Better. Bette for damn sure thought it’d be Bette. But it’s not, and not everyone is willing to accept that.

This is absolutely one of those books that makes you hold your breath and grip the nearest object with white knuckles. The competitive nature of ballet and all the related pressures, body issues, disordered eating, etc all leap off the page and smack you in the face: it’s tense and uncomfortable and vicious. I loved how the authors also examined the motivations of the less palatable characters (hurt people hurt people, it turns out). If you’re in the mood for an absolute ride of a book full of characters you both love and love to hate with narration that matches the AAAAAAAH-level tension and pace, pick up Tiny Pretty Things (and it’s sequel, Shiny Broken Pieces).

Read by Imani Parks (Saving Ruby King by Catherine Adel West, Monday’s Not Coming my Tiffany D. Jackson), Nora Hunter (You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! by lex Gino), Greta Jung (The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim, Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha)

This is the second book in the YA fantasy Camelot Rising series, which reimagines, as you may have guessed, Arthurian legend. In The Guinevere Deception, we first meet Guinevere, except she isn’t who we think she is: she’s a changeling come to Camelot to protect the kingdom, her real name and true identity a secret even to herself (not a spoiler). The Camelot Betrayal finds Guinevere trying to find her place in her adopted kingdom as she grapples with the price of progress and her own search for meaning. All the familiar characters make an appearance, but with all sorts of magical twists and unexpected romance. I feel like not enough people talk about this series and I can’t wait to dive back into this world!

Read by Elizabeth Knowelden (The Book of Dreams by Nina George, The Apprentice Witch by James Nicol, The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss)

This is a book I’m reading with Book Riot staff and one whose message I hope to internalize and put into practice more in 2021. Reshma Saujani is the founder and CEO of Girls Who Code and starts off by telling us about the time she quit her stable and lucrative career for a disastrous run for political office. She not only lost, she lost hard. That moment acted as a turning point in Saujani’s life and an epiphany: women are taught to chase perfection since childhood, and that pattern ends up holding us back in adulthood. Through a combo of personal anecdotes and some in-your-face statistics and studies, Saujani challenges readers, especially women, to embrace imperfection and live a bolder life.

Read by the author

I am high-key obsessed with spy stories and I love Bahni Turpin, so this audiobooks is kind of a no brainer for me. The fact that it comes highly recommended by several Rioters only made the decision that much easier! Marie is a young Black woman working as an FBI agent in the 1980s. She’s in a career rut when she’s approached by the CIA to spy on the president of Burkina Faso; she has her reservations, but figures she may be able to leverage some information of her own if she takes the gig. But as any spy novel aficionado worth their salt knows, that spy life is hashtag complicated: she finds herself sympathizing with her target and thus questioning her loyalties.

Read by Bahni Turpin (The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron, Dread Nation and Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead…all of the things!)

I’ve been in the mood for a cozy mystery set during the holidays, and it just so happens that the second book in the Gethsemane Brown series takes place over Christmas. Gethsemane Brown is a Black American classical musician who expatriated to an Irish village for a job when she was down on her luck in Murder in G Major. Then as one does, she made friends with a snarky ghost who helped her solve a string of murders and led a school orchestra to victory in a major competition. Now our whisky-drinking, music-playing sleuth in preparing for a little rest over the Christmas break—or not! Her ghost buddy has disappeared, her landlord’s wants to sell her cottage to a skeezy hotel developer, and the brother-in-law who’s shown up to visit unexpectedly has been accused of stealing a valuable antique. It’s up to Gethsemane to go undercover and solve the case.

Read by Helen Duff who also read most of the books in this series as well as a ton of work by Lisa Jewell (Then She Was Gone, I Found You, The Family Upstairs)