House Girl has been nominated for the Edinburgh First Book Award and is listed as one of The Observer‘s “New Faces of Fiction”; one of The Millions‘ “Most Anticipated Books of the Year” ; one of The Guardian‘s “Best Summer Books” and one of Library Journal‘s “Books to Anticipate.” It’s safe to say it is one…
Leah Franqui’s America for Beginners takes a disparate group of Indian-American immigrants (and one white woman) on a trip to California. They each have a different goal, and they all must stick together to survive the concrete wilderness before them. Pival Sengupta is a woman on a mission. She’s going to cross America, from New…
What We Were Promised is both a look at life in modern day China and an observation on the unchanging nature of humanity. “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” John Donne told us. This book shows that as a universal…
It’s been over forty years since Marlon Brando uttered the words, “I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse” but Number One Chinese Restaurant proves that not everyone took that warning to heart. When our story begins, Uncle Pang is eating at The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland with its owner Jimmy…
Holland has had a crush on Subway Station Musician for … let’s say a while. When he prevents her being shoved onto the tracks one night and saves her life, she pays him back by getting him an audition with her uncle, a Broadway bigwig. Subway Station Musician – whose name is Calvin – stuns…
I picked up Odd Child Out on a bit of a whim. I’d heard some great things about Ms. MacMillan’s work, the synopsis caught my attention, and looked like something I’d enjoy. Unfortunately, I didn’t do enough research into the author’s work before deciding to review this book, and I ended up more than a…
What an amuse bouche of a story! In the just ninety pages that comprise The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, Zen Cho builds a larger than life portrayal of Jade Yeo, her motivations and her shortcomings. The powerful message of this story is that love is accepting and love is kind. Even if you make…
Written from a beautiful and intimate ‘own voice’ perspective, Liz Jacob’s Abroad is a delight. Accurate and nuanced writing is becoming the norm with Brain Mill Press, and Abroad continues this trend, and raises the bar higher. Although the novel subtly changes points of view throughout, the strongest voice is that of Nick Melnikov. When…
New-to-me author Rebecca Crowley has published a number of standalone romances in addition to two series. Homefront deals with American military heroes and Elite Operators is a South African set romantic suspense series (I’m intrigued by this one!). She’s set her sights on soccer with her new series, Atlanta Skyline, and Crossing Hearts is a…
Many years ago, Abi Bishop was a fellow AAR reviewer whose voice I particularly liked. Turns out, she has since become a novelist whose voice I like even more. Soft Barracuda, her début novel, is a contemporary romance that mixes the exotic – a Trinidad setting – with a likeable hero and heroine and some…
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