Review: American Betiya – Anuradha D. Rajurkar

Rani Kelkar has never lied to her parents, until she meets Oliver. The same qualities that draw her in–his tattoos, his charisma, his passion for art–make him her mother’s worst nightmare.

They begin dating in secret, but when Oliver’s troubled home life unravels, he starts to ask more of Rani than she knows how to give, desperately trying to fit into her world, no matter how high the cost. When a twist of fate leads Rani from Evanston, Illinois to Pune, India for a summer, she has a reckoning with herself–and what’s really brewing beneath the surface of her first love.

REVIEW

I would like to thank the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I adored this book. From the moment I read the blurb, I knew it would be good but it was better than that. The way Anuradha D. Rajurkar writes this book is incredibly beautiful and instantly makes you fall in love with this story. 

I loved American Betiya for the little things. From beginning to end I could relate to Rani who was worried bout college applications, having family pressure and expectations all things a lot of young people can relate to. I was so swept up in Rani’s story and not just the portrayal and representation of an interracial relationship which is not always easy, something which is explored through the book quite well, but also the interactions she had with her family and friends. 

I also loved the way Anuradha D. Rajurkar portrayed Rani’s relationship with Oliver as it showed the cute romantic scenes but it also showed the importance stuff. Like how whoever your in a relationship with needs to have a real understanding of your culture because that’s a part of you and I think the way the author wrote this was incredibly powerful

I would highly recommend this book to everyone and can’t wait to see what Anuradha writes next 

Anuradha D. Rajurkar is the national recipient of the SCBWI Emerging Voices Award for her contemporary debut novel, American Betiya. Born and raised in the Chicago area to Indian immigrant parents, Anuradha earned two degrees from Northwestern University, and for many years had the joy of being a public school teacher by day, writer by night. 

Nowadays, when she’s not writing or reading, you can find Anuradha exploring the shores of Lake Michigan with her family, obsessing over her garden, watching old horror flicks with her sons, eating too many baked yummies, or roguishly knitting sweaters without their patterns. She hopes her stories will inspire teens to embrace their unique identities and inner badass despite outside pressures and cultural expectations. American Betiyareleases on March 9, 2021 by Knopf Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House.

FLOAT PLAN – TRISH DOLLER

Critically acclaimed author Trish Doller’s unforgettable and romantic adult debut about setting sail, starting over, and finding yourself…

Since the loss of her fiancé, Anna has been shipwrecked by grief—until a reminder goes off about a trip they were supposed to take together. Impulsively, Anna goes to sea in their sailboat, intending to complete the voyage alone.

But after a treacherous night’s sail, she realizes she can’t do it by herself and hires Keane, a professional sailor, to help. Much like Anna, Keane is struggling with a very different future than the one he had planned. As romance rises with the tide, they discover that it’s never too late to chart a new course.

In Trish Doller’s unforgettable Float Plan, starting over doesn’t mean letting go of your past, it means making room for your future.

REVIEW

I would like to thank the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Float Plan is Trish Doller’s adult debut and also the first book I’ve ever read by her and to say it was anything short of greatness would mean I was lying. 

This novel is absolutely heart wrenching and starts by advising readers that there are discussions about self harm and suicide which I think is incredible and more books should definitly do it. As someone who has experienced a lot of loss I would describe Float Plan as two individuals journey to help them move on from loss.

We first meet Anna whose fiance died by suicide a year ago. Anna and her fiance had planned to go on a sailing adventure and instead of staying home with her grief, Anna decides to embark on the journey he had planned for them. She then meets Keane, a professional sailor and hires him to help her continue this voyage when she realises she can’t do it alone. 

I loved how we travelled with Anna across places like the Virgin Islands and Trinidad. We see Anna and Keane open their hearts as they experience the wildness of the sea as they try to survive and how much you have to expose yourself to heal past wounds. 

When I started this book I was really in the mood for a romance book and while there are romance aspects in this book. I would definitely describe it as a slow burn and gentle romance book that crafts itself around the grief, pain and struggles of both Keane and Anna. This story is brutally honest about the struggles of both Anna and Keane which is just part of why it is so incredible.

Float Plan is an incredible book that stays with you beyond the last page. I would highly highly recommend it.  

You can purchase Float Plan from Amazon

BLOG TOUR: Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

HONEY GIRL by Morgan Rogers is a stunning #ownvoices debut, a charming, lyrical, and introspective romantic coming-of-age story about Grace Porter – millennial, Black woman, astronomy Ph.D. – who wakes up after a wild night in Vegas married to a woman she doesn’t know. 

Strait-laced and structured all her life, Porter now faces life without a plan for the first time ever. Between her disappointed military father, the competitive job market, and a consuming sense of aimlessness, finding and falling in love with her wife across the country seems to be the only right answer. But Porter’s problems are just as big in Brooklyn as they are anywhere else, and she realizes she’s going to have to face adulthood whether she’s ready or not. 

I am delighted to be a part of the blog tour for this incredible book and be able to share with you the first chapter from the book!

One

Grace wakes up slow like molasses. The only difference is molasses is sweet, and this—the dry mouth and the pounding headache—is sour. She wakes up to the blinding desert sun, to heat that infiltrates the windows and warms her brown skin, even in late March.

  Her alarm buzzes as the champagne-bubble dream pops.

  Grace wakes in Las Vegas instead of her apartment in Portland, and she groans.

  She’s still in last night’s clothes, ripped high-waisted jeans and a cropped, white BRIDE t-shirt she didn’t pack. The bed is warm, which isn’t surprising. But as Grace moves, shifts and tries to remember how to work her limbs, she notices it’s a different kind of warm. The bed, the covers, the smooth cotton pillowcase beside her, is body-warm. Sleep-warm.

The hotel bed smells like sea-salt and spell herbs. The kind people cut up and put in tea, in bottles, soaking into oil and sealed with a little chant. It smells like kitchen magic.

She finds the will to roll over into the warm patch. Her memories begin to trickle in from the night before like a movie in rewind. There were bright lights and too-sweet drinks and one club after another. There was a girl with rose-pink cheeks and pitch-black hair and, yes, sea-salt and sage behind her ears and over the soft, veiny parts of her wrists. Her name clings to the tip of Grace’s tongue but does not pull free.

The movie in Grace’s head fast-forwards. The girl’s hand stayed clutched in hers for the rest of the night. Her mouth was pretty pink. She clung to Grace’s elbow and whispered, “Stay with me,” when Agnes and Ximena decided to go back to the hotel.

Stay with me, she said, and Grace did. Follow me, she said, like Grace was used to doing. Follow your alarm. Follow your schedule. Follow your rubric. Follow your graduation plan. Follow a salt and sage girl through a city of lights and find yourself at the steps of a church.

Maybe it wasn’t a church. It didn’t seem like one. A place with fake flowers and red carpet and a man in a white suit. A fake priest. Two girls giggled through champagne bubbles and said yes. Grace covers her eyes and sees it play out.

“Jesus,” she mutters, sitting up suddenly and clutching the sheets to keep herself steady.

She gets up, knees wobbling. “Get it together, Grace Porter.” Her throat is dry and her tongue sticks to the roof of her mouth. “You are hungover. Whatever you think happened, didn’t happen.” She looks down at her t-shirt and lets out a shaky screech into her palms. “It couldn’t have happened, because you are smart, and organized, and careful. None of those things would lead to a wedding. A wedding!”

“Didn’t happen,” she murmurs, trying to make up the bed. It’s a fruitless task, but making up the bed makes sense, and everything else doesn’t. She pulls at the sheets, and three things float to the floor like feathers.

  A piece of hotel-branded memo paper. A business card. A photograph.

Grace picks up the glossy photograph first. It is perfectly rectangular, like someone took the time to cut it carefully with scissors.

In it, the plastic church from her blurry memories. The church with its wine-colored carpet and fake flowers. There is no Elvis at this wedding, but there is a man, a fake priest, with slicked back hair and rhinestones around his eyes.

In it, Grace is tall and brown and narrow, and her gold, spiraling curls hang past her shoulders. She is smiling bright. It makes her face hurt now, to know she can smile like that, can be that happy surrounded by things she cannot remember.

Across from her, their hands intertwined, is the girl. In the picture, her cheeks are just as rose-pink. Her hair is just as pitch-black as an empty night sky. She is smiling, much like Grace is smiling. On her left hand, a black ring encircles her finger, the one meant for ceremonies like this.

Grace, hungover and wary of this new reality, lifts her own left hand. There, on the same finger, a gold ring. This part evaded her memories, forever lost in sticky-sweet alcohol. But there is it, a ring. A permanent and binding and claiming ring. 

  “What the hell did you do, Porter?” she says, tracing it around her finger.

She picks up the business card, smaller and somehow more intimate, next. It smells like the right side of the bed. Sea salt. Sage. Crushed herbs. Star anise. It is a good smell.

On the front, a simple title:

ARE YOU THERE?

   brooklyn’s late night show for lonely creatures

  & the supernatural. Sometimes both.

   99.7 FM

  She picks up the hotel stationery. The cramped writing is barely legible, like it was written in a hurry.

I know who I am, but who are you? I woke up during the sunrise, and your hair and your skin and the freckles on your nose glowed like gold. Honey-gold. I think you are my wife, and I will call you Honey Girl. Consider this a calling card, if you ever need a—I don’t know how these things work. A friend? A—

 Wife, it says, but crossed out.

 A partner. Or. I don’t know. I have to go. But I think I had fun, and I think I was happy. I don’t think I would get married if I wasn’t. I hope you were, too.

What is it they say? What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Well, I can’t stay.

Maybe one day you’ll come find me, Honey Girl. Until then, you can follow the sound of my voice. Are you listening?

Excerpted from Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers, Copyright © 2021 by Morgan Rogers

Published by Park Row Books

Buy Links: 

Harlequin 

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Books-A-Million

Powell’s

Morgan Rogers is a queer black millennial. She writes books for queer girls that are looking for their place in the world. She lives in Maryland and has a Shih Tzu named Nico and a cat named Grace that she would love to write into a story one day. HONEY GIRL is her debut novel.

Social Links:

Author Website

Twitter: @garnetmorgue

Instagram: @garnetmorgue

Goodreads

Interview with Louisa Onomé

Chinelo, or Nelo as her best friend Kate calls her, is all about her neighborhood Ginger East. She loves its chill vibe, ride-or-die sense of community, and her memories of growing up there. Ginger East isn’t what it used to be, though. After a deadly incident at the local arcade, all her closest friends moved away, except for Kate. But as long as they have each other, Nelo’s good.

Only, Kate’s parents’ corner store is vandalized, leaving Nelo shaken to her core. The police and the media are quick to point fingers, and soon more of the outside world descends on Ginger East with promises to “fix” it. Suddenly, Nelo finds herself in the middle of a drama unfolding on a national scale.

Worse yet, Kate is acting strange. She’s pushing Nelo away at the exact moment they need each other most. Nelo’s entire world is morphing into something she hates, and she must figure out how to get things back on track or risk losing everything⁠—and everyone⁠—she loves.

PRE-ORDER NOW US | CANADA

Hi Louisa, thank you for being on my blog today to discuss your debut novel Like Home. How excited are you for people to read your book?

Thank you for having me! I’m so excited for people to engage with Like Home and the world of Ginger East, a world that’s really familiar to me and so many of my friends growing up in and around the Toronto area in Canada. I love being a resident here, so this is kinda like a bit of an homage to the place that raised me.

Can you tell us a little bit about Like Home?

Like Home is about 16-year-old Chinelo, or Nelo as her friends call her, and how she confronts–or doesn’t confront–change in her neighbourhood. She has so many good memories growing up there with her close friends, and even though most of them have moved away, she still feels so strongly that her hood is supreme. Suddenly, a beloved neighbourhood shop, one owned by her best friend, gets broken into, and she really has to confront what she knows about the place she loves. At its core, it’s a story about friendship, community, and what it means to change. 

What inspired you to write the book?

Several things, but primarily my own upbringing in an immigrant neighbourhood just west of Toronto. I had close friends who were just like family, similar to Nelo and her best friends. Having experienced that as a child of immigrants was such a cool time for me because, as my friends got to learn about my family and my culture, I spent a lot of time learning about them, their families, and their cultures. And then, of course, Like Home is also famously inspired by the Korean drama ‘Reply 1988’. I just loved the friends-as-family aspect in that and really wanted to write something with a similar vibe. 

What advice would you give to Chinelo?

Oooh, but would Nelo even take advice from someone she doesn’t know? That’s the real question! I want to see her thrive, so I would tell her this: “Unclench your fists every now and then.” Nelo isn’t a combative person, but she holds things so close to her that she’s unable to see around them sometimes. I always think perspective is important, so knowing when to hold and knowing when to let go can be so instrumental in achieving balance and understanding. And that’s definitely what she needs! 

What was the hardest thing about writing Like Home?

The hardest thing for me was definitely revising. As I was working on Like Home, I was also learning how to revise a story from front to back, and I can’t lie: it was so hard. Once I learned how to re-conceptualize my story in a way that could have multiple endings or plot twists or events, it became easier. But getting to that point took a lot of work and a huge change in perspective!

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Yes, always. Since I was a kid, I’d always taken a liking to stories and how they were told. I loved video games really early on for this reason. I just loved that a story could be told in different ways, using different kinds of people, and could have any kind of outcome. I used to write a lot as a kid, mainly fanfiction but oftentimes just weird poems and songs and things, but it wasn’t until I graduated university that I decided to pivot and try to write towards publication.  

What do you do when you’re not writing?

I love gaming, so I spend a lot of time buying games on my PlayStation that I sometimes play to completion. I’m also a big fan of music and recently I invested in a record player so I could start building a collection as a hobby. It’s been a lot of fun so far! Other than that, I enjoy the usual: adding things to my Netflix watch list that I will forget about, eating copious amounts of dessert, etc.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be??

I had a weird quarter life crisis and moved to London, and I absolutely loved it there. I also really enjoyed my time in Lagos and in Tokyo. But I’m such a homebody and I’m not sure if I really would live anywhere other than the Toronto area. I really don’t know!

When coming up with new book ideas, what comes to you first plot or the characters?

The characters for sure. I will always know my characters as they start to come alive on the page. I tend to think of plot in terms of “would this character even do or say something like that, anyway?”, and it helps me push the story along.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Keep going! Take feedback, understand your strengths, focus on your own paper, and keep going.

Finally, if anything, what do you want readers to take away from your book?

I would love for readers to tune into the idea that people who come from neighbourhoods like Ginger East, neighbourhoods that are primarily immigrant communities, are literally just that: people. We have different experiences, but just because someone has a different way of doing things, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong.

Louisa Onomé is a contemporary YA writer based in the Toronto area.

She is Nigerian-Canadian, holds a BA in professional writing, and works in counselling. She is also an all-around cheerleader for diverse works and writers.

When she is not writing, her hobbies include picking up languages she may never use, crying over her favourite video games, and perfecting her skincare routine.

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INTERVIEW WITH KATE ALBUS

Hi Kate, thank you for being on my blog today to discuss your debut novel A Place to Hang the Moon. How excited are you for people to read your book?

Oh my goodness. I have no words. It still doesn’t quite feel real! And thank you so much for having me here. It’s a real pleasure!

Can you tell us a little bit about A Place to Hang the Moon?

A Place to Hang the Moon is set in England in the early days of World War II. It’s the story of William, Edmund, and Anna Pearce, three siblings who find themselves orphaned by the death of their not-so-grandmotherly grandmother. They need a guardian right at the time when schoolchildren are being evacuated from London to be kept safe from the war, and their grandmother’s solicitor suggests that the evacuation might just be the opportunity they need. Together, they cook up a “preposterous plan” to be evacuated to the countryside with a local school, hoping to be scooped up by some kind family who just happens to want to keep them forever. In the country, they meet cruel foster brothers, hungry stomachs, and other perils, all the while taking comfort in the stories they love, and in the kindness of the village librarian. 

What inspired you to write this book?

I’ve been fascinated by the World War II evacuations since I was a child. The thought of putting a million children on trains to be picked up and cared for by complete and utter strangers for months or even years was terrifying and preposterous to me then; I hated being away from home, so I can’t imagine how I would have fared. In writing the book, I read a lot of evacuee memoirs, and I just marveled at them. I still can’t fathom the scope of this extraordinary historical event, and researching it was an absolute joy.

What advice would you give to Anna, Edmund and William?

Oh gosh, this is such a great question, and I’m not sure anybody has ever asked it of me before! The three of them have pretty distinct personalities, so I suppose my advice would be different for each of them. William, age twelve, is the responsible one, the ‘guardian’ of the trio. I’d just want to take the weight off his shoulders so he could relax a little and enjoy being a kid. Eleven-year-old Edmund is more hot-headed. He tends to speak before he thinks, and his mouth gets him in some big trouble. I suppose that as an adult I ought to tell him to be more mindful of what he says and does, but the truth is that I admire him for saying what he thinks, so I’m not sure I’d ever actually give him that advice. And Anna, age nine, is the beating heart of the family. I’d just want to scoop her up and tell her that everything is going to be okay.

What was the hardest thing about writing A Place to Hang the Moon?

It’s difficult to think of something really hard about the process, because it’s all been such a dream. But honestly, I think that as magical and fun and exciting and wonderful as it is, having the book come out into the world is also the scariest part. These characters have lived in my head for so long, and I love them so much, it’s like sending my real-life babies out to seek their fortunes!

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep shouting it. Finding your people is the greatest joy of this writing journey, wherever you’re at in it. It was writer friends who encouraged me to write in the first place, writer friends who provided support along the way, and writer friends I’ve met through the publication process who have continued to be the most generous and kind community. I’m more grateful to them than I will ever be able to put into words.

Finally, if anything, what do you want readers to take away from your book?

I hope A Place to Hang the Moon will remind young readers about the importance of family, both the one you’re born with and the one you choose. And I hope they’ll come away with an appreciation for the power of stories to carry us through dark times. 

Available for pre-order HERE!

INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN E. FREEMAN

Hi Megan, thank you for being on my blog today to discuss your debut novel, Alone!

Thanks, Liv! I’m happy to be here.

How excited are you for people to read your book?

So excited that it’s impossible to quantify. I love hearing from all the teachers and librarians who are writing and telling me their students are lining up to read it, and I’m excited to connect with young readers. It’s a project I’ve been working on for over ten years, and I couldn’t be happier with where it’s landed.

Can you tell us a little bit about Alone and what inspired it?

ALONE is the story of a girl who lies to her parents and arranges a secret sleepover, but then at the last minute her friends can’t join her and she ends up spending the night by herself. When she wakes up the next morning, she discovers the entire town has been evacuated and abandoned, and she’s been left behind. She has to figure out what to do and how to survive on her own, and it becomes even more difficult when the power goes out and she can’t communicate with the outside world at all. 

The genesis for the story came from a mother-daughter book club gathering when my daughter and her friends were in fifth grade. We read Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, and the girls were fascinated by how the main character could survive alone on an island. I pointed out that the island was her home, so she was comfortable there. I asked them to imagine what it would be like for them to come home after school to find everyone in the entire town gone. What would they do? How would they survive? What if they couldn’t reach anyone for help? What if no one came back? I couldn’t get the idea out of my head and it became the seed of the story.

The biggest enemy Maddie faces in the book is loneliness and  I think considering the ongoing pandemic, this is going to resonate with a lot of children and adults alike. When you wrote this book did you imagine it coming out in a situation like this?

I could never in my wildest nightmares have imagined this. It’s interesting, because some of the early feedback I got when querying the book in its first iteration was that it was too far-fetched. Now it almost feels too close for comfort. There’s nothing good about the pandemic; I’d much rather be called far-fetched than live with the horrors COVID-19 has wrought on people’s lives. But if the book can give people some measure of hope or comfort or even just escapist pleasure, of course I’m delighted. 

What would be the first thing you would do if you were suddenly in Maddie’s position with  no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access.

When I was twelve I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to drive, so I might have taken the car and tried driving out of town to see if I could find other people. I don’t know if I would have had Maddie’s foresight to consider the possibility of running out of gas and being stuck in the middle of nowhere. 

I can also be pretty extroverted, so I might have decided to reveal myself to the looters immediately instead of waiting and watching to see if they were safe the way Maddie does. I guess it would just depend if my fear of them was greater than my eagerness to be with people again. But would interacting with them be a smart choice in the long run? Hard to say. There are real risks with every decision and the stakes are very high.

Being alone at 12 years old is a lot, there any advice you’d give to Maddie?

I think I would tell her to resist the urge to panic and to remember to breathe. And I would remind her that breathing involves both inhaling and exhaling. Too often when we’re stressed, we forget to exhale. The more grounded she can stay, the more clearly she will be able to assess each situation, and the better her decisions will be. 

Sometimes when I read a book, I recognise myself in a character. Is there any character in your book that you see yourself in?

I put a lot of myself in Maddie. We love the same books and have a lot of the same interests. And a lot of the writing process was asking myself what I would do in the situations she found herself in. But I’m also her mom. I would move heaven and earth to get to my daughter if she were left behind somewhere. It’s actually a recurring nightmare that I have on occasion, even though my daughter is now an adult.

Finally, if anything, what do you want readers to take away from this book?

I don’t intend any kind of message or lesson, or any one kind of reaction to the story. I hope it will inspire the children who read it to engage their imaginations in creative ways. I hope it will make them hungry to read more.

ORDER ALONE NOW FROM:

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Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week to teach poetry and she has been a writer ever since. She writes middle grade and young adult fiction, and her debut middle grade novel-in-verse ALONE will be published in January 2021 from Simon & Schuster/Aladdin. Megan is also a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, and her poetry collection, Lessons on Sleeping Alone, was published by Liquid Light Press. An award-winning teacher with decades of classroom experience, Megan is nationally recognized for her work leading workshops and speaking to audiences across the country. Megan used to live in northeast Los Angeles, central Ohio, northern Norway, and on Caribbean cruise ships. Now she lives in northern Colorado. 

ESCAPE TO THE FRENCH FARMHOUSE – JO THOMAS

Del and her husband Ollie moved to a beautiful village in Provence for a fresh start after years of infertility struggles. But six weeks after they arrive, they’re packing the removal van once more. As Del watches the van leave for England, she suddenly realises exactly what will make her happier…a new life in France – without Ollie. 

Now alone, all Del has is a crumbling farmhouse, a mortgage to pay and a few lavender plants. What on earth is she going to do? Discovering an old recipe book at the market run by the rather attractive Fabian, Del starts to bake. But can her new-found passion really help her let go of the past and lead to true happiness?

REVIEW

I would like to thank the publicist for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 

This was my first book of the year and honestly what a great book to start off with!

This was my first ever novel by Jo Thomas and it certainly won’t be my last as I loved her beautiful dreamy writing which makes for an excellent read when you’re stuck in lockdown and the great things seem few and far between. 

This book set in the beautiful French countryside, put a smile on my face. At the start of the novel we meet Del who decides to leave her husband to stay in her French Farmhouse and start again. While this story centres around Del, I loved the stories of the side characters and all of their journeys too. This book left me feeling hungry the whole way through and made me wish I could bake because all of the delicious baking Del does with lavender in her new home sounds right up my street. I also loved the love interest and how the romance didn’t overpower the novel but aided Del’s journey.

Escape to the French Farmhouse  is a beautiful escapist novel featuring  new friends, a new business and hope!

You can buy this book from Amazon