Odd One Out. Nic Stone. 2018. Crown Books for Young Readers. 320 pages. [Source: Public library.] I intentionally started Nic Stone’s latest without reading about it. I didn’t read reviews, I didn’t even read the synopsis on the jacket. Like Angie Thomas, she is an author whose books I will read without a prior question. I am grateful I came into this book with no preconcieved notions, no expectations for content, no “clues” about the characters and the story ahead of them. It made reading Odd One Out that much more of an experience of openness that I relished. Odd One Out is, on its surface, a story of three teen friends. Courtney is a star basketball player who joined the cheerleading team in the off-season. His best-friend, Jupiter, is his self-assured next-door neighbor. Their friendship extends beyond themselves, and is a kinship shared by Courtney’s widowed mother and Jupiter’s gay fathers. Rae, a newcomer to their town and the daughter of his mom’s coworker, finds an immediate connection with Jupiter, much to Courtney’s chagrin. The story, however, is about much more than new and old friendships. Through the trio, Stone explores how youth grapple with understanding their sexual identities…

He’s Just a Friend. J. Nichole. 2019. Not the Last Page. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] I’m a sucker for a good buddies-turned-bae romance, and He’s Just a Friend is exactly that. Brooklyn and Josiah have been thick as thieves since they were kids. They’ve held each other down through the good and the bad, but have never taken it any further. They’ve batted away the usual comments about them really wanting to be together, but that changes when they both find themselves single at the same time. For her part, Brooklyn is still pining away for Marcus, who broke up with her out of the blue. She’s convinced that at any moment, he’ll call and be ready to jump back in with her for good. Josiah, however, is a barely willing participant in his new relationship with Alana, whose high-maintenance ways are a constant source of annoyance. Brooklyn and Josiah, however, have an obviously comfortable rapport that demonstrates their care for each other; it seems obvious to literally everyone except them. With this book, I felt that the author made it easy to love Josiah. He’s a genuinely good guy who wants to keep the people around him happy and cared…

White Like Her. Gail Lukasik. 2017. Skyhorse Publishing. 316 pages. [Source: personal copy.] We all think we know who we are. We all believe what our parents tell us about our families. Sometimes what they don’t tell us is the real story. On its surface, White Like Her is one woman’s dogged journey* to learn about her family’s history. What sets it apart is that Gail Lukasik’s journey is predicated on sifting through the secrecy that shrouded much of her mother’s life, ultimately disrupting the narrative of Lukasik and her family’s whiteness.  You see, Alvera Frederic passed as white for most of her adult life, but spent her formative years in a black family. Born in New Orleans, she straddled the line of “blackness,” until she reinvented herself in Ohio, marrying a white man and starting a family, while leaving her own behind. Much of this book follows, step by step, Lukasik’s uncovering of her mother’s true racial identity, pieced together as a result of a census record and an appearance on PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow.  What I like most about this book is that it serves as a primer, of sorts, for those unfamiliar with key tools of the genealogy…

Coveted. Christina C. Jones. 2019. 107 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] I am so pleased that Christina C. Jones is back with the second installment in the “Eternally Tethered” series, Coveted. With this book, she focuses on younger sister Ancelin and further explorers the ties between her and Nasir that were introduced in 2015’s Haunted. Ancelin is known as a bit of a wild child; her reputation for hedonism is well-known. She, like Khalida in Haunted, is loath to commit to one person for fear of getting hurt or making the wrong choice in partner. However, when a series of odd and forboding coincidences keep occurring in relation to Ancelin, she’s forced to accept Nasir as a bodyguard. As Aram’s right-hand man, Nasir is unquestionably loyal to Ancelin and will guard her life at all costs. The reasons run deeper for him, but Ancelin takes a while to get to a point of truly understanding his motivations. Along the way, though, the two have a deliciously tense chemistry that has Ancelin doing all she can to tempt Nasir. I enjoyed Coveted even more than Haunted, which I was a bit shocked to realize. I’m still not into paranormal, so these two…

My Sister, the Serial Killer. Oyinkan Braithwaite. 2018. Doubleday. 240 pages. [Source: public library.] Older siblings are often like surrogate parents to their younger brothers and sisters. They leverage their wisdom and experience to help the younger ones navigate life. Or get away with murder. In My Sister, the Serial Killer, Korede has the misfortune of being the only person her younger sister Ayoola calls when one of her boyfriends has the misfortune of encountering her late father’s prized knife. I suppose the third time is a charm, because that’s what turned her into the textbook serial killer. Korede, with her meticulous attention to detail, has proven herself a worthy accomplice, shielding Ayoola from the consequences of her actions. Ayoola is, by all accounts, the more beautiful and beguiling sister. I read her as flighty and self-centered, and prone to ignoring the perceptions about her behavior, especially as she “mourns” her missing boyfriend. Ayoola, for all her naivete, is also cunning. She uses her charisma to endear herself to people, but her ability to manipulate everyone around her to protect her demonstrates that she’s not the beautiful fool she seems. I found myself very early on not trusting her, straddling a very thin line…