Book Tour and Review: Dysfunction Junction by Robin Pearson

 Title:  Dysfunction Junction

Author: Robin W. Pearson

Publisher:  Tyndale

Publishing Date: February 6, 2024

Genre:  Contemporary Fiction

Rating:  💥💥💥💥💥

About the Book:

When three women receive an unexpected phone call that leaves them reeling, they have no other choice but to reckon with a lifetime of memories they’ve long tried to bury. Only in facing the past will they find their path forward.

Frances Mae Livingston’s firm grip of her family’s destructive history makes her hold her husband and four children even closer. But she’s losing bits of herself while proving to everybody and her mama that she’s enough. There’s no way she’ll repeat her mama’s mistakes, even if it kills her.

Annabelle McMillan didn’t have trouble kicking the Eastern North Carolina dust off her feet. The tough part was replanting herself in familiar soil. Now she’s blending her old life with her new husband, stepson, and unborn child. And battling old memories of abandonment and new fears of rejection.

Dr. Charlotte Winters has built a career around helping others sort through their emotional baggage. She’s also spent a lifetime refusing to unpack her own. So what if Charlotte doesn’t recall all that her mama did to her and what her daddy didn't do for her? Her only mission is to help others help themselves…until the women from her past and the man in her future undo her well-sewn life.

At the junction of healed and hurting, broken and whole, and past and present, three women wrestle with their inability to forgive and forget in this riveting Southern family drama about sisterhood from award-winning author Robin W. Pearson.

My Thoughts:

Although I don't have any sisters, I am the oldest daughter, so I could relate to Frances's character with several things.  This was an emotional and powerful read.  It tugged on my heartstrings for each of the characters at different times throughout the story, and these characters won't leave me anytime soon.  I didn't want to put it down.  Forgiveness is a big theme throughout the story, and rightly so.  And I will surely be looking for more in the future from this author

About the Author:

Robin W. Pearson's A LONG TIME COMIN’ earned a 2020 Christy Award for First Novel. Both her debut and her second novel, 'TIL I WANT NO MORE (February 2021), earned a Publishers Weekly starred review. They show how man's timeless love affair with God affects day-to-day relationships. Robin's writing sprouts from her Southern roots, and she has corrected grammar up and down the East coast, starting with Houghton Mifflin Company. Her family’s faith, life lessons, and life’s longings inspire her as a wife, homeschooling mother of seven, and author, what she blogs about on https://robinwpearson.com/mommy-concentrated/. They're the source of all the characters living and breathing in the stories waiting to be told about her belief in Jesus Christ and the experiences at her own kitchen sink.

Blog Tour: Last Seen In Havana by

Title:   Last Seen in Havana A Havana Mystery Book 4

Author:  Teresa Dovalpage

Genre: Mystery

Publisher:  SoHo Crime

Publishing Date:  Feburary 6, 2024

Rating:  💣💣💣💣

A Cuban American woman searches for her long-lost mother and fights to restore a beautiful but crumbling Art Deco home in the heart of Havana in this moving, immersive new mystery, perfect for fans of Of Women and Salt.

Newly widowed baker Mercedes Spivey flies from Miami to her native Cuba in 2019 to care for her ailing paternal grandmother. Mercedes’s life has been shaped by loss, beginning with the mysterious unsolved disappearance of her mother when Mercedes was a little girl. Returning to Cuba revives Mercedes’s hopes of finding her mother as she attempts to piece together the few  scraps of information she has. Could her mother still be alive?

Thirty-three years earlier, in 1986, an American college student with endless political optimism falls deliriously in love with a handsome Cuban soldier while on a spontaneous visit to the island. She decides to stay permanently, but soon discovers that nothing is as it seems in
Havana.

The two women’s stories proceed in parallel as Mercedes gets closer to the truth about her mother, uncovering shocking family secrets in the process . . .

Wow.  That was what came to mind by the time I got to the end of the book.  It definitely was a shocker by the time I got to that point.   This goes to show why I'm a firm believer of people not keeping secrets from their children/grandchildren.  I felt so sorry for Mercedes as I was going through the story.   My favorite part of the story was the dual timeline aspect.  It fit in right where it needed to be.  I would advise that you read book 3 in the series first, as it gives a little more to Mercedes background (The other two i believe do not contain her character, so they're not integral to this particular story.)  Although I do wish there was a little more with the ending, I do plan to go back and checkout the author's backlist.

Amazon * Apple * B&N * Google * Kobo * Bookbub * Goodreads

Book Links:
Amazon: https://a.co/d/2Bu7pXO

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/last-seen-in-havana/id6448879804

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/last-seen-in-havana-teresa-dovalpage/1143455932?ean=9781641295390

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Teresa_Dovalpage_Last_Seen_in_Havana?id=hIC9EAAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/last-seen-in-havana

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/last-seen-in-havana-by-teresa-dovalpage

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150065074-last-seen-in-havana

Title:  Death Under the Persedis, A Havana Mystery (Prequel to Last Seen in Havana)

Author:  Teresa Dovalpage

Genre:  Mystery

Publisher:  Penguin Randomhouse/ SoHo Crime

Publication Date:  December 7, 2021

Rating:  💣💣💣💣

About the book:

There’s no such thing as a free cruise in Cuban American author Teresa Dovalpage's addictively clever new Havana mystery.

Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey and her American husband, Nolan, win a five-day cruise to Cuba. Although the circumstances surrounding the prize seem a little suspicious to Mercedes, Nolan’s current unemployment and their need to spice up their marriage make the decision a no-brainer. Once aboard, Mercedes is surprised to see two people she met through her ex-boyfriend Lorenzo: former University of Havana professor Selfa Segarra and down-on-his-luck Spanish writer Javier Jurado. Even stranger: they also received a free cruise.

When Selfa disappears on their first day at sea, Mercedes and Javier begin to wonder if their presence on the cruise is more than coincidence. Mercedes confides her worries to her husband, but he convinces her that it’s all in her head.

However, when Javier dies under mysterious circumstances after disembarking in Havana, and Nolan is nowhere to be found, Mercedes scrambles through the city looking for him, fearing her suspicions were correct all along.

My Thoughts:

This one took me on an emotional ride.  I was not expecting that, but I have to say I enjoyed this read.  It shows how secrets can come to the surface even when you think they're burried.  

Amazon * Apple * B&N * Google * Kobo * Bookbub * Goodreads

Book Links:
Amazon: https://a.co/d/81gdI1X

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/death-under-the-perseids/id1557163005

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-under-the-perseids-teresa-dovalpage/1138980118?ean=9781641294058

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Teresa_Dovalpage_Death_under_the_Perseids?id=GBsiEAAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/death-under-the-perseids

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/death-under-the-perseids-by-teresa-dovalpage

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59109228-death-under-the-perseids

**Don’t miss the rest of the series!**

Find them on Amazon-

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0881XQZPK

About the Author

Writer, translator and college professor, Teresa Dovalpage is a Cuban transplant firmly rooted in New Mexico. She is the author of twelve novels, among them the Havana Mystery series, three short story collections and four theater plays. She lives with her husband, one dog and too many barn cats. Her website is  http://teredovalpage.com

Author Links

Website * Facebook * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

Website: https://teredovalpage.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dovalpage

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/teresa-dovalpage

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001K93DCW

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1214980.Teresa_Dovalpage

Giveaway

A hardcover copy of Death under the Perseids,

$10 Amazon giftcard – 1 winner each!

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

https://bit.ly/LastSeenInHavanaTour

Blog tour: The Davenports by Krystal Marquis

 Title:  The Davenports

Author: Krystal Marquis

Genre:YA Historical

Publisher:  Dial Books

Publication Date: January 31, 2023

Rating:  💣💣💣💣💣

About the Book

The Davenports delivers a totally escapist, swoon-worthy romance while offering a glimpse into a period of African American history often overlooked.

"The perfect read for fans of escapist historical fiction.” —NBC’s TODAY

The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now it's 1910, and the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love—even where they’re not supposed to.

There is Olivia, the beautiful elder Davenport daughter, ready to do her duty by getting married . . . until she meets the charismatic civil rights leader Washington DeWight and sparks fly. The younger daughter, Helen, is more interested in fixing cars than falling in love—unless it’s with her sister’s suitor. Amy-Rose, the childhood friend turned maid to the Davenport sisters, dreams of opening her own business—and marrying the one man she could never be with, Olivia and Helen’s brother, John. But Olivia’s best friend, Ruby, also has her sights set on John Davenport, though she can’t seem to keep his interest . . . until family pressure has her scheming to win his heart, just as someone else wins hers.

Inspired by the real-life story of the Patterson family, The Davenports is the tale of four determined and passionate young Black women discovering the courage to steer their own path in life—and love.

My Thoughts

It's not often that I re read books, or even that I enjoy it like the first time I read it, but this happens to be one of those books. This was such an enjoyable and amazing read. I could not and did not want to put it down. The historicals have been hitting and this one was no exception. And of course being a romance girlie, the romance was very enjoyable. I could see this as a tv series. I absolutely loved the characters (most of them that is), as well as their growth from beginning to end. I finished this book in one sitting. Although I'm not a fan of cliffhangers, I really didn't mind it in this one, assuming that there will be a book 2. I am so excited for the next book and I can't wait.

About the Author

Krystal Marquis happily spends most of her time in libraries and used bookstores. She studied biology at Boston College and University of Connecticut and now works as an environmental, health, and safety manager for an online retailer. A lifelong reader, Krystal began researching and writing on a dare to complete the NaNoWriMo Challenge, resulting in the first partial draft of The Davenports. When not writing or planning trips to the Book Barn to discover her next favorite romance, Krystal enjoys hiking, expanding her shoe collection, and plotting ways to create her own Jurassic Park.

Blog Tour and Review: Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

 Title:  Madness:  Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

Author:  Antonia Hylton

Genre:  Nonfiction

Publication Date:  January 23, 2024

Publisher:  Legacy Books

Rating:  💥💥💥💥💥

About the Book:

On a cold day in March of 1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the heart of a forest in Maryland. Under the supervision of a doctor, the men were forced to clear the land, pour cement, lay bricks, and harvest tobacco. When construction finished, they became the first twelve patients of the state’s Hospital for the Negro Insane. For centuries, Black patients have been absent from our history books. Madness transports readers behind the brick walls of a Jim Crow asylum.

In Madness, Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the last segregated asylums with surviving records and a campus that still stands to this day in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. She blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research and archival documents. Madness chronicles the stories of Black families whose mental health suffered as they tried, and sometimes failed, to find safety and dignity. Hylton also grapples with her own family’s experiences with mental illness, and the secrecy and shame that it reproduced for generations.

As Crownsville Hospital grew from an antebellum-style work camp to a tiny city sitting on 1,500 acres, the institution became a microcosm of America’s evolving battles over slavery, racial integration, and civil rights. During its peak years, the hospital’s wards were overflowing with almost 2,700 patients. By the end of the 20th-century, the asylum faded from view as prisons and jails became America’s new focus.

In Madness, Hylton traces the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people’s bodies and minds in our current mental healthcare system. It is a captivating and heartbreaking meditation on how America decides who is sick or criminal, and who is worthy of our care or irredeemable.

My Thoughts:

Wow.  Although I've been in healthcare for half my life, and I've heard many stories about the horrors of how the health care system has been to black people in this country, this has been an absolute tearjerker.  This book was well researched, and absolutely heartbreaking.  It's emotional, moving and relays so much information that is sometimes hidden.  I cried for several of the stories i read within the pages of this book.  Hopefully there will be a time sometime soon where black people get treated better by the majority of health care workers.  And hopefully one day more victims and their families can finally be vindicated for the abusive horrors they've experienced in this place.  

About the Author

Antonia Hylton is a Peabody and Emmy-award winning journalist at NBC News reporting on politics and civil rights, and the co-host of the hit podcast Southlake. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where she received prizes for her investigative research on race, mass incarceration and the history of psychiatry. She lives in Brooklyn.

https://www.instagram.com/ahylton26
https://twitter.com/ahylton26
https://www.facebook.com/ahylton26
https://www.antoniahylton.com/about
https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonia-hylton-380bb887

Book tour and review: The Black Joy Project by Kleaver Cruz

 Title:  The Black Joy Project

Author:  Kleaver Cruz

Genre:  Nonfiction Social Science

Publishing Date : December 19, 2023

Publisher:  Mariner/Harper Collins 

Rating 💥💥💥💥💥

About the book:  

Featuring 117 full-color photos and eight breathtaking essays on a force that fuels Black life all around the globe, this is Humans of New York meets The Black Book

Black Joy is everywhere. From the bustling streets of Lagos to hip-hop blasting through apartment windows in the Bronx. From the wide-open coastal desert of Namibia to the lush slopes of Jamaica’s Blue Mountains. From the thriving tradition of Candomblé in Bahia to the innovative and trendsetting styles of Soweto, and beyond, Black Joy is present in every place that Black people exist. Now—at last—is a one-of-a-kind celebration of this truth and a life-giving testament to one of the most essential forces that fuels Black life: The Black Joy Project.

International in the scale, fist-raising in the prose, and chockfull of gorgeous works by dozens of acclaimed artists, The Black Joy Project does what no other book has ever done. In words and art, it puts joy on the same track as protest and resistance … because that is how life is actually lived. Uprisings in the street, with music as accompaniment. Heartbreaking funerals followed by second line parades. Microaggressions in the office, then coming home to a warm hug and a garden of lilacs. The list goes on. Black Joy is always held in tension with broader systemic wounds. It is a powerful, historically important salve that allows us to keep going and reimagine new ways of being. The Black Joy Project captures these dual realities to incredible, unforgettable effect.

The brainchild of educator and activist Kleaver Cruz, The Black Joy Project is an extension of a real-world initiative of the same name. It has become a source of healing and regeneration for Black people of all backgrounds and identities. Long overdue and somehow still worth the wait, The Black Joy Project is a necessary addition for any book lover, art enthusiast, or freedom fighter. And begs the question, What does Black Joy mean to you?

My Thoughts:

One of the beginning questions the book asks is " What Does Black Joy Mean to You".  For many Black people across the diaspora, that might be hard to answer because our collective history is full of ancestors being terrorized, killed, maimed, enslav3d and brutalized.   I'm still having a hard time coming up with an answer, although I'm sure those around me will gleefully shout "Books and Coffee".  And while that may be true and part of it, the question I think goes a little deeper than that.  One of my favorite things about this book is how no matter what, Joy is defined differently to the individual.  This book is full of wisdom and joyful and beautifully eye-catching  pictures that will surley make you think and more than likely put a smile on your face.  It is one that is needed in every household across the diaspora. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book

"Black Joy is the possibility that one day all the trauma that sits in the body will be released and the body will learn healing like a language it has always known"

About the Author

Kleaver Cruz (they/them) is a Black, queer, Dominican-American writer and educator from New York City. Cruz is the creator of The Black Joy Project, a digital and real-world affirmation that Black Joy is resistance. The Black Joy Project has been featured in British Vogue, Vibe.com, the Huffington Post and various other publications in print and online. Cruz is a member of We Are All Dominican, a U.S.-based, grassroots collective that works in solidarity with movements led by Dominicans of Haitian descent fighting for inclusion and citizenship rights in the Dominican Republic. Cruz is also an alum of the Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) Foundation’s Emerging Writers Non-Fiction Workshop and the Kenyon Review Writers Fiction Workshop.

IG: @theblackjoyproject
https://kleavercruz.com/

Blog Tour: Flames of Wrath by J. L. Campbell

 

Title:  Flames Of Wrath

Author:  J. L. Campbell 

Publication Date: November 28, 2023

Publisher:  Black Odyssey Media

Genre: Thriller/Suspence 

Rating:  💥💥💥💥💥

A mother’s quest for justice turns into a race against time to stop insidious murders that mysteriously begin populating throughout the city. Fans of Lisa Jewell and Ruth Ware will be enthralled by this emotionally chilling thriller!

The need to right a wrong against an innocent victim triggers a hailstorm of revenge!
 
In less than twenty-four hours—before Alexia Leighton is scheduled to return to Miami from spring break in Jamaica—a group of friends betray her in a grisly assault that stops a heartbeat away from murder. The seventeen-year-old prays for the mercy of death. She survives. While on the road to recovery, Alexia's attackers become victims of mysterious acts of violence, leaving authorities confounded and racing against time to prevent another deadly attack. Concern looms, as the perpetrator has proven to be two steps ahead of them at every turn.
 
When the attention swings to Alexia's mother, a cyber-security expert, the family closes ranks. Geneva Leighton must quickly eliminate herself as a suspect, but not without handing down more punishment. The offenders fear for their own safety and the secrets that plague them. Can they trust the police to find the killer before someone else dies, or has their fate been sealed—leaving them with no place to run, and no place to hide . . .

Wow.  I have been a fan of the author's for years because of her romance stories.   And now in recent years that I have become a fan of Thrillers, this book makes me love the authors writing even more.  This was such an emotional read that for the life of me would not let go.  Not until I was completely finished with the story.  It was entertaining and captivating and took me on a journey like no other.  There is a saying Hell hath no furry like a womanscored, and add to that a Black mother that would do absolutely anything to vindicate her children, God help anyone in the path of her rage.  This is also the third book I've read from this publisher, and it is one that you should have in your radar.  

About the Author

National Bestselling Author, J.L. Campbell lives in Jamaica and writes across several genres. She is a certified editor, and book coach, who has produced over forty books. When she’s not writing, Campbell adds to her extensive collection of photos featuring Jamaica’s natural beauty. 

Author Links

Website: http://www.joylcampbell.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jlcampbellwrites

X: https://twitter.com/JL_Campbell

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jl.campbell

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-l-campbell

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.-L.-Campbell/author/B004S148VO

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1091161.J_L_Campbell

Giveaway

$10 Amazon

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!