Tag Archives: Black protagonist

What Fire Brings, by Rachel Howzell Hall

10 Jun
Cover for _What Fire Brings_, showing a burning maple leave and a burning flower (probably a rose), over a dark background, where the burning parts meet at the center of the cover and the shape of the flames and smoke forms a partial silhouette of a face; The book title, overlaid on the image, is in white letters that seem to have been singed by the fire in places.

After this cover caught my eye, the blurb intrigued me, and since my friend Robin Bradford has often mentioned her love of this author’s work, it was a given I would request an ARC.

Beware: rape; gaslighting; torture; dissociative fugues; depression.

Continue reading

Rock Wedding, by Nalini Singh

15 May
Cover for _Rock Wedding_, showing a black and white photograph of a Black man, wearing a white dress shirt and black pants, sitting barefoot at a piano, presumably playing.

When at first you don’t succeed, you slam your head against a wall repeatedly (aka, my second try at SuperWendy’s May TBR Challenge: reading something by an author I had given up on–spoiler: it worked surprisingly well!); this ARC has been sitting unread in my kindle since mid-2016.

Beware: swearing; explicit sex on page; alcoholism; drug addiction; second chance; death of a child (sibling); death of parents; cancer; miscarriage; stillbirth; emotional abuse/manipulation; intimate partner violence; relentless heteronormativity.

Continue reading

Murder in Westminster, by Vanessa Riley

10 Nov
Cover for Murder in Westminster, showing London's skylne across the river Thames from between iron swirls, such as one would find around a fenced-in garden.

First in series; because reasons, I have an ARC of the second book in the series; given how much praise the author’s work has gotten from people whose taste I respect, I’d rather read the series in order, so here we are.

Beware: editing issues

Continue reading