With each book I’m more impressed with the author. Once again sucked in and invested in the characters. I love how she keeps the town and the every dynamic involved. With newly arriving figures in the story, she managed to intertwine them in a manner that didn’t make you feel as though they took away from the others. So excited for part 3 – what’s on the horizon for Trent & Lily? Malachi and Bernadine? And most importantly Tamar (Lawd knows I’m not ready for her role to diminish). There’s just soooo many characters that I wish I knew personally … matter of fact where is the REAL Henry Adams, I may need to take a trip. 5 stars and beyond …

  The Queen of the Frogs. David Cali & Marco Soma, ill. 2017. 38 pages. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.]   Today is release day for The Queen of the Frogs, a hilarious story with a moral that everyone can relate to. The story is set at a pond with a community of frogs, flies, and dragonflies. One day, a shiny gold object drops into the pond – the frogs aren’t quite sure what it is, but it looks a lot like a crown. The frog community decided that the frog who found the “crown” should be their new queen, and then the fun ensues.

The Loud House # 1: There Will Be Chaos. Chris Savino. 2017. 64 pages. Papercutz Books. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] The Loud House is no stranger to my household, so it was a must that we check out its first graphic novel. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this graphic novel is more like an anthology, with the stories focusing on a different child of the Loud household. Admittedly, the idea of a house filled with 11 kids is overwhelming to me, the show is entertaining and carries that same humor to the book. For those unfamiliar with the Loud House television show, this book gives a short and sweet intro to the Loud family in the beginning. There is a brief bio about each of the 11 Loud children that provides some context for their personality type in addition to their ages. At the end of the book, the reader is introduced to the creator, Chris Savino, whose own childhood many of the stories are based upon. The book also took a creative approach to the contents of the book, with a fridge serving as the hub of information. The table of contents is actually presented…

Orange is the New Black. Piper Kerman. 2010. 322 pages. Spiegel and Grau. [Source: personal copy.] I’m not a fan of memoirs, which trumps whether this was good or not, because it was a self inflicted torture. Her account was realistic, honest and enlightening but extremely boring at times. I’ve never had to use the dictionary so many times when reading a book and wonder if this is her everyday vocabulary or if she became best buddies with a thesaurus during her prison stay and just never mentioned it. Either way, I’m glad I’m done and maybe I’ll try the series.

Her Secret Life. Tiffany L. Warren. 2017. 320 pages. Kensington Books. [Source: ARC provided couresty of NetGalley.] It’s been awhile since I’ve been so conflicted about a protagonist. To say that I wanted to see Nikki lose isn’t entirely accurate, but I definitely wasn’t rooting for her happily ever after, either. Nikki is portrayed as a flawed, yet persistent woman. I can always understand her choices, even if I didn’t always respect them. Her Secret Life follows Onika “Nikki” Lewis through her young adult years, alternating between her high school graduation and early years of college to her post-graduate mid-twenties. In vivid flashbacks, Warren dredges up painful memories of a drug-addicted mother and grandmother who is too consumed with her daughter’s “sickness” to love and nurture the granddaughter who’s left behind. Nikki’s escape comes in the form of a full scholarship to the prestigious Robinson University in Atlanta, a beacon of excellence for the most promising black scholars. It here where Nikki opts to create a new identity. No longer known as the daughter of the town whore, she vows to become successful and sophisticated.