The Davenports by Krystal Marquis

The Davenports by Krystal Marquis

Historical Fiction – Chicago 1911

Wow!!! I LOVED this book. It is this author’s debut novel, and I can’t wait to see more from her in the future. It was sweet, exciting, and well-researched historical fiction. I would rank it very high up in my list of favorite historical fictions, actually. I really loved it. The story is loosely based on the C. R. Patterson family. It weaves a lot of important Black history into the story, and is one of those books you could read for fun while still learning a lot, though I would still say romance is central to the story.

SHORT SPOILERY SUMMARY: First, there is Olivia, who is looking for love and ends up in a love triangle. Helen wants to be a mechanic and is on a personal journey. She wants to be respected and valued for more than a pretty face, but things get complicated when she turns her sisters’ love triangle into a love square by falling for Olivia’s suitor. Amy-Rose works for the Davenports, and has big dreams of opening her own salon. And she falls in love with Olivia’ brother, who already has something going on with Oliva’s riches-to-rags BFF Ruby!!! SO. MUCH. DRAMAAA!

I loved Amy-Rose and her love story, hers was my favorite couple, easily! Helen was an awesome SFL and the chapters from her POV were my favorites overall. But, its hard to pick favorites because Olivia was also amazing!! I think Ruby was my least favorite, just because I got jealous-friend-vibes from her near the beginning and I couldn’t shake them off. But it left lots of room for her character to grow, so that was valuable.

I love when authors hide character traits within the characters’ names (the closest word I can find is ‘Euonym‘: a name well suited to the person, place, or thing named. I feel like there is a better literary device for this, if you know it please help me!). I thought it was clever that there was flower imagery in Amy-Rose chapters, gemstone imagery in Ruby chapters, and Olivia gets an olive-branch moment that is super adorable.

Overall I enjoyed Marquis’ writing style. Having four main characters can be a lot to juggle, but each perspective is so different that it makes it really easy to keep them separate in your head. The multiple POV also allowed readers to see the differences in class, the challenging of gender roles, and the difficulty of aquiring and maintaining wealth and status. There were places where I thought the grammar could have been better, and passages that I thought could be reworded for readability, but this copy was just an ARC and those things are usually fixed in final copies. I did think the story moved very fast, and because of the multiple POVs certain characters and relationships could have been fleshed out more. Also, more history!! I selfishly would have loved to this done as a series, but that’s just because I wanted more lol!

I also maintain that this could make a really great show or movie adaptation!

 Follow Krystal Marquis on Instagram @krystabelle_reads and @krystalmarquis on Twitter.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an ARC of this title. All opinions are my own.

#PenguinTeenPartner!

Unboxing Penguin Teen YA Paperback Picks

Christmas came early for me this year! A huge thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me such an amazing book box! I can’t wait to show you all of the amazing books they sent me!!!

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time. But then one of the sisters goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, and Iris and Vivi are left to trace her last few days. They aren’t the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they’ve been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home.

When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez

Sarai is a first-generation Puerto Rican question asker who can see with clarity the truth, pain, and beauty of the world both inside and outside her Bushwick apartment. Together with her older sister, Estrella, she navigates the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Sarai questions the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives with determination and an open heart, learning to celebrate herself in a way that she has long been denied.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Aza Holmes never intended to pursuethe disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett’s son Davis. Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

At first, Jude and her twin brother are NoahandJude; inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them. Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways . . . but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor. The early years are Noah’s to tell; the later years are Jude’s. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they’ll have a chance to remake their world.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the feeling took root—that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible. 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.

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

Sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston sees dead people everywhere. But he can’t decide what’s worse: being a medium forced to watch the dead play out their last moments on a loop or being at the mercy of racist teachers as one of the few Black students at St. Clair Prep. Both are a living nightmare he wishes he could wake up from. But things at St. Clair start looking up with the arrival of another Black student—the handsome Allister—and for the first time, romance is on the horizon for Jake.

Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan

In this YA contemporary queer romance from the author of Hot Dog Girl, an openly gay track star falls for a closeted, bisexual teen beauty queen with a penchant for fixing up old cars. But while Morgan–out and proud, and determined to have a fresh start–doesn’t want to have to keep their budding relationship a secret, Ruby isn’t ready to come out yet. With each girl on a different path toward living her truth, can they go the distance together?

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

The Wrath and the Dawn is the first of a two-book duology. It is a reimagining of the Arabian Nights and is about a teenage girl, Shahrzad, who, as an act of revenge, volunteers to marry a caliph, Khalid, even though she is aware that he takes a new bride each night and has them executed at sunrise, but then finds herself falling in love with him.

Dark And Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain

A teen girl disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot, in this chilling debut supernatural thriller for fans of Natasha Preston, Karen McManus, and Rory Power.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

In a fantasy world inspired by Ancient Rome, the story follows a girl named Laia spying for rebels against the reigning empire in exchange for their help in rescuing her captive brother; and a boy named Elias struggling to free himself from being an enforcer of a tyrannical regime. The novel is narrated in the first-person, alternating between the points of view of Laia and Elias.

Have you read any of these? Any votes for which I should read first?
They all look so good, I have no idea how I am going to pick just one to start with!!!

The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories

This is a collection of some of the most magical, moving, chilling and surprising Christmas stories from around the world. These short stories take readers on a Christmas journey, from the frozen Nordic woods to the glittering streets of Paris, a New York speakeasy to a quaint English country house, the bustling city of Lagos to midnight mass in Rio, and even deep into outer space. Featuring Santa, ghosts, trolls, unexpected guests, curmudgeons, and miracles, here is Christmas as imagined by some of the greatest short story writers of all time.

Collected works by writers big and small make this an essential companion for any Christmas reader. Classic Christmas storytellers such as Hans Christian Anderson and O. Henry have features in this compendium, as well as some unexpected names like Truman Capote, Shirley Jackson, and Chekhov, in addition to little-known treasures such as Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Italo Calvino and Irène Nemerovsky (and more!).

Some of my favorites include:

The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen

The Legend of the Christmas Rose by Selma Lagerlof

A Chaparral Christmas Gift by O. Henry

The Necklace of Pearls by Dorothy L. Sayers

One Christmas Eve by Langston Hughes

The Gift by Ray Bradbury

I was a little disappointed that the O. Henry story included wasn’t The Gift of the Magi, but I did enjoy A Chaparral Christmas Gift (which I hadn’t read before), so actually, it was probably a good thing that I got to read a new O. Henry story instead of one I already knew. 

This book of short classic Christmas stories is the perfect book to cozy up with this holiday. I am in love with this collection and can see that myself and my family will cherish reading these Christmas stories for years to come.

What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky, by Kelsey Oseid

A richly illustrated guide to the myths, histories, and science of the celestial bodies of our solar system, with stories and information about constellations, planets, comets, the northern lights, and more.

Combining art, mythology, and science, What We See in the Stars is a tour of the night sky through more than 100 magical pieces of original art, all accompanied by text that weaves related legends and lore with scientific facts.

This beautifully illustrated book details the night sky’s most brilliant bodies, covering constellations, the moon, and planets, as well as less familiar celestial phenomena like the outer planets, nebulae, and deep space. Even the most educated stargazers and scientists alike will surely learn something new when reading this book!

Continue reading “What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky, by Kelsey Oseid”

Ottessa Moshfegh, Homesick For Another World

Image result for ottessa moshfegh the weirdosHomesick For Another World, Ottessa Moshfegh’s collection of short stories, comprises a selection of her previously published pieces, culminating in a grand anthology that exemplifies Moshfegh’s work precisely. The published book helpfully gathers most of her published short stories together in one accessible volume (excluding only three: “Medicine”, Vice, December 1, 2007; “Disgust”, The Paris Review, No. 202, Fall 2012; and “Brom”, Granta, Issue 139, 2017). A Better Place is the only chapter that was written for the book itself. It stands alone as an ending to the book, but also as a new piece within itself.

The author of the best-seller Eileen has a distinctly identifiable style:

You know, I like weird characters. I don’t know any normal people [laughs]. I do like cliches in my satire: the hipster in the story dancing in the moonlight is a distillation of all the hipsters I knew when younger. I tend to be mean, huh? I’m really hard on men, especially older men.

Moshfegh deliberately chooses to write about the dirtiest and grimiest of our human activities, describing things we all do, the dark things, and finds beauty in the fact that we all indeed have that same darkness within. These stories illuminate the dark truth of human nature, told raw and real, with a morbid sarcasm and dry wit. Continue reading “Ottessa Moshfegh, Homesick For Another World”