Share My Life: A Journey of Love, Faith, and Redemption. Kem, with David Ritz. 2023. Simon & Schuster. 272 pages. [Source: ARC provided by the publisher courtesy of Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.] Before reading Share My Life, I wouldn’t have called myself a die-hard Kem fan. I was certainly familiar with some of his larger hits, but I had little familiarity with his overall career or his persona as an artist.  That unfamiliarity allowed me to come into this book with no expectations or assumptions about Kem or his life experiences. Taking its title from one of Kem’s chart-topping hit singles, Share My Life is the story of Kem’s life.  Central to his retelling are themes of family, relationships, work, and faith. The timeline is robust, and actually begins significantly with his mother’s upbringing and the circumstances of his birth. The structure then follows chronologically, following as he moves from Tennessee to Detroit, his discovery of family secrets, and eventual spiral into substance abuse. Share My Life clocks in with 59 chapters, but Kem’s conversational style and thematic chapters make the book very engaging and difficult to put down. What I found especially appealing about this book…

The Replacements. Shae Sanders. 2022. 223 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] When Savannah finds out, quite unceremoniously, that her husband of more than a decade is cheating on her, she knows exactly how to respond. She immediately goes into planning mode so she can get a divorce and move on to a replacement.  Using the connections she’s honed as a CEO’s wife, she lands herself as assistant to another CEO, the ever-brusque and grumpy Taurus. While the life she imagined crumbles around her, she tries to stay in Taurus’ good graces, or at least enough to stay employed. There’s plenty of tension between the two, though it’s not immediately sexual or romantic. Taurus is a hard man to please and expects nothing short of perfection from everyone in his life. He has a rigid approach to life, whether that’s in his relationship with his siblings, ex-wife, and daughter or how he approaches business opportunities.  When people fall short, he’s not one to give grace or see the other perspective so readily. While Savannah can rise to the occasion, she also pushes back against him in ways he’s not accustomed to. She’s a great foil to his uptight ways, and I loved…

Love and War. Shae Sanders. 2020. 56 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] This short-and-sweet novella is a blast from the not-so-recent past. Covid-19 just started to wreak havoc on the world, and that includes Jade’s home and work life. Her job is newly remote, her kids have switched to homeschool, and the cherry on top is that her estranged husband wants to move back in so he won’t have to quarantine away from their young sons.  Seeing this as an opportunity to lighten her load, Jade agrees with reluctance. Unfortunately, she’s not prepared for the physical and emotional toll of sharing a household again. The tension of trying to coexist with a former partner while figuring out if she even wants him to be her former partner is thick.  Travis is clear that he’s down to fix their issues, and Jade often seems like she’s just in her own way. Love and War is a very quick read; clocking in at under 60 pages, you can probably get through it in under 90 minutes. Despite its short length, it packs a lot in the way of reflections about relationships, honesty, and accountability.  Jade is set on ending the marriage, blaming Travis…

Candidly Yours. Reese Ryan. 2020. Sinfully Sweet Publishing.174 pages. [Source: Personal Copy.] Layla St. John is the quintessential example of a woman who lives for others. She gave up her college experience to return home and care for her younger siblings when their father fell into grief after their mother’s untimely death.  The following 20 years have followed the same sacrificial pattern, with Layla frequently rescuing her younger three siblings. Unfortunately, it’s left both her career and love life on hold. Layla’s life is thrown into a tailspin when Quincy Johnston finally comes back to Pleasure Cove. While he’s the younger, prodigal son of his family, he also has the distinction of being the childhood best friend of Layla’s younger brother Nolan. She’s literally seen him grow up and struggles seeing as a grown-ass man to whom she’s attracted. And not only is he no longer the stuttering, insecure boy; he’s a world-renown photographer who is lusted after by countless women, a point she knows he indulges in. Despite their history, what brings them together is her talent as a seamstress with a focus on carnival costumes. This provides the perfect intersection of their artistry, and leads to a documentary…

Her Exception. B. Love. 2023. 188 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] Shalom and Mecca thought that at 18, they were ready to take on the world and its obstacles together. But when reality dropped into their laps, they ended up on separate paths, each nursing their own confusion and anger at losing the version of forever they’d imagined. Fifteen years later, they’re thrust together when Shalom’s specialized experience is key to Mecca winning the largest court case he’s faced in his career.  Too bad they can’t stand each other, and have an explosively volatile rapport to figure out before they can even consider working together. From its description, Her Exception has all the makings of a great enemies-to-lovers story – high school sweethearts, abrupt and unexplained heartbreak, and forced proximity when they haven’t been able to process the demise of their relationship. Add in the drama of their current partners along with family and friends with their own opinions, and I was certain that this would be a juicy, emotional, and passionate story I couldn’t put down.  While I had high hopes for the premise, its execution fell short for me in terms of the overall plot, character development, and dialogue….