With February being a shortened month, I didn’t get a chance to post this one yet and having a cold hasn’t helped.
384 pages Publisher Ballantine Books Publication date April 1, 2025
ABOUT THE BOOK
WINNER OF THE BLACK CAUCUS OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S FIRST NOVELIST AWARD • BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, She Reads
Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.
Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she’s desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie’s freedom may cost them their own.
A compelling story of three black women on different paths in their freedom journey. Richly woven historical fiction about a time, pre-civil war Philadelphia where freedom had been won. But why wasn’t everyone treated as if it was? The ignorance and behavior from my home state is shocking. The struggle to right a wrong, slavery kept these characters struggling while look towards that glimpse of hope. The path is carved out towards freedom.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Ashton Lattimore is an award-winning author, journalist, and former lawyer. Her debut novel, All We Were Promised, won the First Novelist Award for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Lattimore’s journalism has appeared in the Washington Post, Slate, CNN, Essence, and Prism, where she was editor-in-chief until 2024. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two sons.
288 pages Publisher Bethany House Publishers Publication date
October 7, 2025
ABOUT THE BOOK
When they leave the ranch in search of stolen treasure, will the spark between them survive the perils ahead?
When an earthquake strikes Two Harts Ranch, it shakes the life of Annie Lane along with that of Cord Westbrook, who has been working as a cowboy on Annie’s family ranch in anticipation of purchasing his own. The only thing delaying his plan is the deep attraction he feels toward Annie, a widow with a child and an established life as a teacher at the Hart School for Orphans. Unfortunately for Cord, she seems determined to avoid romance.
The aftermath of the earthquake reveals that prized artifacts from the long-sought MacKenzie’s Treasure have been stolen from the ranch. But the return of the MacKenzie family from out east has everyone focused on what other precious finds might be waiting at the end of the legendary two-part map. As Cord, Annie, and the MacKenzies set out in search of riches, they face dangers more treacherous than earthquakes. With gold in their sights and love within reach, Cord and Annie realize that some treasures may fade, but life’s true riches are far more valuable than earthly goods.
Embark on a rousing California wilderness adventure filled with danger, deception, and second chances in this riveting conclusion to Mary Connealy’s Golden State Treasure series–ideal for fans of frontier romances, cowboys, and treasure hunts.
MY THOUGHTS
Riches Beyond Measure is the conclusion to the Golden State Treasure series by Mary Connealy. You know this one is going to be full of adventure when it starts out with an earthquake. There were so many twists and turns and suspense that I could hardly put it down. Despite this and a character or two not having the best of intentions towards others I loved this series and the excitement. Cowboys, treasure hunting, an old ship the excitement just keeps going. I enjoyed the characters and the men were so protective of their ladies and with new relationships being forged life does move on after loss. Nice faith-based novel and I will certainly be looking forward to many more by the author.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy with cowboys always with a strong suspense thread. She is a two-time Carol Award winner, and a Rita, Christy and Inspirational Reader’s Choice finalist. She is the bestselling author of over 80 books and novellas.
Her most recent book series is: Rocky Mountain Marshals including Ambush of the Heart, and Golden State Treasure, including Whispers of Fortune and Legends of Gold, and Riches Beyond Measure.
Other series include A Western Light Series, Brothers in Arms, Wyominng Sunrise, The Lumber Baron’s Daughters, The Brides of Hope Mountain, High Sierra Sweethearts, Cimarron Legacy, Wild at Heart, Trouble in Texas, and Kincaid Bride for Bethany House Publishing. She’s also written four other series for Barbour Publishing, an indy pubbed series called Garrison’s Law, and many novellas.
Mary has over a million and a half books in print.
303 pages Publisher Lake Union Publishing Publication date August 30, 2022
ABOUT THE BOOK
In a deeply emotional novel of family, cultural heritage, and forgiveness, estranged sisters wrestle with the choices they’ve made and confront circumstances beyond their control.
Nona “Peaches” Davenport, abandoned by the man she loved and betrayed by family, left her Natchez, Mississippi, home fifteen years ago and never looked back. She’s forged a promising future in Chicago as a professor of African American Studies. Nona even finds her once-closed heart persuaded by a new love. But that’s all shaken when her father’s death forces her to return to everything she’s tried to forget.
Julia Curtis hasn’t forgiven her sister for deserting the family. Just like their mother, Nona walked away from Julia when she needed her most. And Julia doesn’t feel guilty for turning to Nona’s old flame, Marcus, for comfort. He helped Julia build a new life. She has a child, a career, and a determination to move on from old family wounds.
Upon Nona’s return to Natchez, a cautious reunion unfolds, and everything Nona and Julia thought they knew—about themselves, each other, and those they loved—will be tested. Unpacking the truth about why Nona left may finally heal their frayed bond—or tear it apart again, forever.
MY THOUGHTS
Nona “Peaches” Davenport has grown up, moved on and has no need for her family in Natchez, Mississippi. She knows she has all her stuff together living in Chicago as a professor of African American Studies. Having not been to see any of her family in fifteen years she’s satisfied to keep it that way but then she’s notified her father has passed away. Returning means, she can no longer hide from the past, she must confront it and head on. It’s not easy, it’s bitter many times. She deeply regrets not having visited her grandma these past years. As she returns the feeling of betrayal rears its head and the more, she finds out the harder it gets but confront the past she must. Seeing and knowing isn’t easy. A sense of betrayal but regained closeness and forgiveness make this a worthwhile read.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Cade Bentley is a novelist and editor who is also published as Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Abby L. Vandiver, as well as Abby Colette. When she isn’t writing, Cade enjoys spending time with her grandchildren. She resides in South Euclid, Ohio. For more information visit http://www.authorabby.com.
336 pages Publisher Bethany House Publishers Publication date February 3, 2026
ABOUT THE BOOK
As the middle child of the Shanahan family, Zaira does her best to keep the peace. She doesn’t share her dream of becoming a published author with her family to spare herself their disapproval. When she’s caught in a scandal involving the local matchmaker, Bellamy McKenna, she must put her storytelling ability to good use and feign a match with him to avoid wagging tongues and her parents’ anger.
Feeling the growing pressure to marry as a well-known, yet single matchmaker to St. Louis’s Irish community, Bellamy reluctantly agrees to a temporary match with Zaira. But even though the matchmakers in his family might be able to find love for others, they have a history of disastrous relationships for themselves. When secrets and danger force Zaira and Bellamy to work together, is it finally the matchmaker’s turn to be lucky in love?
MY THOUGHTS
Marrying the Matchmaker is the fourth and final book in the A Shanahan Match series. An Irish Matchmaking American Historical Romance Novel Set in 1800s St. Louis. I’ve read and loved all of them. It would be hard to pick a favorite but if pushed to, I’d have to say it’d be this one. Fake it til you make it or in this book a fake relationship becomes of so real with sizzling chemistry. Swoon worthy writing that’ll keep you reading!
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Jody Hedlund is the best-selling author of over seventy books and is the winner of numerous awards. She writes sweet, clean romances with plenty of sizzle (but without the spice).
278 pages Publisher Regal House Publishing Pub Date Feb 06 2024
ABOUT THE BOOK
In a bleak Mississippi farmhouse in 1918, Leona Pinson gives birth to an illegitimate son whose father she refuses to name, but who will, she is convinced, return from the war to rescue her from a hardscrabble life with a distant mother, a dangerous brother, and a dwarf aunt. When, instead, her lover returns with a wife in tow, her dreams are shattered. As her brother’ s violence escalates and her aunt flees, Leona must rely on the help of Luther Biggs, the son of Leona’ s grandfather and one of his former slaves, to protect her child. Told against the backdrop of the deprivation of World War I, the tragedies of the influenza epidemic, and the burden of generations of betrayal, That Pinson Girl unfolds in lyrical, unflinching prose, engaging the timeless issues of racism, sexism, and poverty.
MY THOUGHTS
An amazing book written by an author that lives in the area she writes about so she’s familiar with the area. A southern very atmospheric book. Life was so much harder back then but that was their normal, they kept going. Taking place in rural Mississippi, it covers many social issues taking place back then including racism. I will be checking to see if the author has a new book out.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Gerry Wilson’s linked story collection, STORM WARNING, is forthcoming from Silent Clamor Press in October 2026. Her debut novel, THAT PINSON GIRL, was published by Regal House Publishing in 2024. Her first fiction collection, CROSSCURRENTS AND OTHER STORIES (Press 53, 2015), was nominated for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction Award.
A seventh-generation Mississippian and a child of the hill country she writes about in THAT PINSON GIRL, Gerry Wilson came of age during the turbulent civil rights era. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous journals.
350 pages Publisher Amistad Publication date April 12, 2022
ABOUT THE BOOK
Combining the haunting power of Toni Morrison’s Beloved with the evocative atmosphere of Phillippa Gregory’s A Respectable Trade, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s groundbreaking novel illuminates a little discussed aspect of history—the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade—witnessed through the experiences of Pola, an African captive used as a breeder to bear more slaves.
A Woman of Endurance, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation society, follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves. The resulting babies are taken from her as soon as they are born. Pola loses the faith that has guided her and becomes embittered and defensive. The dehumanizing violence of her life almost destroys her. But this is not a novel of defeat but rather one of survival, regeneration, and reclamation of common humanity.
Readers are invited to join Pola in her journey to healing. From the sadistic barbarity of her first experiences, she moves on to receive compassion and support from a revitalizing new community. Along the way, she learns to recognize and embrace the many faces of love—a mother’s love, a daughter’s love, a sister’s love, a love of community, and the self-love that she must recover before she can offer herself to another. It is ultimately, a novel of the triumph of the human spirit even under the most brutal of conditions.
MY THOUGHTS
Quite heartbreaking and emotional read. An African woman is kidnapped and brought to Puerto Rico as a breeder slave. Babies taken as soon as they are born. This is the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade, a little-known time in history and not what we think of when we hear the word slavery. A hard read but it’s so important that attention is brought to this terrible time.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
424 pages Publisher Tyndale Fiction Publication date July 19, 2022
ABOUT THE BOOK
From award-winning author Robin W. Pearson comes a new Southern family drama about one family who discovers their history is only skin-deep and that God’s love is the only family tie that binds. Paulette and Fred Baldwin find themselves wading through a new season of life in Hickory Grove, North Carolina. Their only son, McKinley, now works hundreds of miles away, and the distance between the husband and wife feels even farther. When their son returns home, his visit dredges up even more conflict between Fred and Paulette. McKinley makes it no secret that he doesn’t intend to follow in his father’s footsteps at George & Company Fine Furnishings or otherwise. Fred can’t quite bring himself to accept all his son’s choices, yet Paulette is determined McKinley will want for nothing, least of all a mother’s love and attention—which her own skin color cost her as a child. But all her striving leaves Fred on the outside looking in. Paulette suspects McKinley and Fred are hiding something that could change the whole family. Soon, she’s facing a whirlwind she never saw coming, and the three of them must dig deep to confront the truth. Maybe then they’ll discover that their history is only skin-deep while their faith can take them right to the heart of things.
MY THOUGHTS
The premise sounded interesting. I enjoy reding books about Southern fiction with some drama thrown in. Good plot and characters.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
384 pages Publisher Harper Muse Publication date July 5, 2022
ABOUT THE BOOK
As 1947 opens, Eva Cardon is the twenty-four-year-old owner of Washington, D.C.’s, most famous Black-owned restaurant. When her path crosses with Courtland, a handsome white senator from Georgia, both find themselves drawn to one another—but the danger of a relationship between a Black woman and a white man from the South could destroy them and everything they’ve worked for.
Few women own upscale restaurants in civil rights era Washington, D.C. Fewer still are twenty-four, Black, and wildly successful. But Eva Cardon is unwilling to serve only the wealthiest movers and shakers, and she plans to open a diner that offers Southern comfort to the working class.
A war hero and one of Georgia’s native sons, Courtland Hardiman Kingsley IV is a junior senator with great ambitions for his time in D.C. But while his father is determined to see Courtland on a path to the White House, the young senator wants to use his office to make a difference in people’s lives, regardless of political consequences.
When equal-rights activism throws Eva and Courtland into each other’s paths, they can’t fight the attraction they feel, no matter how much it complicates their dreams. For Eva, falling in love with a white Southerner is all but unforgivable—and undesirable. Her mother and grandmother fell in love with white men, and their families paid the price. Courtland is already under pressure for his liberal ideals, and his family has a line of smiling debutantes waiting for him on every visit. If his father found out about Eva, he’s not sure he’d be welcome home again.
Surrounded by the disapproval of their families and the scorn of the public, Eva and Courtland must decide if the values they hold most dear—including love—are worth the loss of their dreams . . . and everything else.
The author of When Stars Rain Down returns with a historical love story about all that has—and has not—changed in the United States
Historical romance set in civil rights era Washington, D.C.
Stand-alone novel
Book length: approximately 120,000 words
Includes discussion questions for book clubs
MY THOUGHTS
I’d give this more than five stars if I could, I just loved it. I could barely put it down. It started out with a fiercely independent black woman. She owns one of the most prestigious D.C. restaurants in 1947. At a New Years party there she meets a white politician from Georgia. This turns into a forbidden romance that people on both sides try to dissuade each other from this romance. This junior senator has high ambitions in D.C., and his father in his mind, already has him married off to one of the smiling white women and taking his first steps towards the presidency. Falling in love with a white man is an unforgivable sin in her family’s eyes. Her mother and grandmother both did and the results weren’t favorable. In this civil rights era novel, we see threats both verbal and physical aimed at the public’s displeasure of the relationship. They must decide if them being together is worth possibly losing everything they hold dear or to let the chance at strength, compassion and not giving in to others wishes is worth it. Fabulous read but heartbreaking. Will not easily be forgotten.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Angela Jackson-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and playwright who is an Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN and a member of the graduate faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, KY.
Angela is a graduate of Troy University, Auburn University, and the Spalding low-residency MFA program in creative writing. She has published her short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in journals like the Louisville Courier Journal and Appalachian Review. She is the author of Drinking from a Bitter Cup, House Repairs, When Stars Rain Down, and The Light Always Breaks.
I hope your day is going well. Thank you for stopping in.
352 pages Publisher Bethany House Publishers Publication date May 6, 2025
ABOUT THE BOOK
After her brother’s entanglement with an Irish gang threatens their family’s safety, Alannah Darragh flees St. Louis and her troubled past, seeking refuge as a maid for the affluent Shanahan family. Alannah’s resolve to avoid romance is tested by the undeniable attraction she feels for Kiernan Shanahan. Determined to maintain her position and the safety it provides, she vows to resist the pull of her heart despite the growing bond between them and their undeniable chemistry.
In the wake of a devastating fire, Kiernan Shanahan sees a shrewd opportunity to invest in a clay mine and brickyard to aid the city’s rebuilding. To secure his venture, he seeks a wealthy bride with a substantial dowry. However, the matchmaker he consults has different plans. As danger looms and Alannah fights to keep her brother safe, Kiernan’s protective instincts draw them closer, but a future together seems too far out of reach. It will take a miracle–or a wager with the wily matchmaker–to form a match between the unlikely couple.
MY THOUGHTS
I really enjoy the author’s writing, and this series is a prime example of that. This is a special series, and I love how it’s Irish based with so many of the characters and the dialogue. Each book in the series reintroduces us to characters from previous books we’ve met, and the stories closely follow each other. Irish matchmaking series with closed door romance and marriage of convenience themes. I now have the last book in the series to finish.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Jody Hedlund is the best-selling author of over fifty books and is the winner of numerous awards. She writes sweet, clean romances with plenty of sizzle (but without the spice).
413 pages Publisher Amistad Publication date February 8, 2022
The author of the award-winning Sally Hemings now brings to life Hannah Elias, one of the richest black women in America in the early 1900s, in this mesmerizing novel swirling with atmosphere and steeped in history.
A murder and a case of mistaken identity brings the police to Hannah Elias’ glitzy, five-story, twenty-room mansion on Central Park West. This is the beginning of an odyssey that moves back and forth in time and reveals the dangerous secrets of a mysterious woman, the fortune she built, and her precipitous fall. Born in Philadelphia in the late 1800s, Hannah Elias has done things she’s not proud of to survive. Shedding her past, Hannah slips on a new identity before relocating to New York City to become as rich as a robber baron. Hannah quietly invests in the stock market, growing her fortune with the help of businessmen. As the money pours in, Hannah hides her millions across 29 banks. Finally attaining the life she’s always dreamed, she buys a mansion on the Upper West Side and decorates it in gold and first-rate décor, inspired by her idol Cleopatra. The unsolved murder turns Hannah’s world upside-down and threatens to destroy everything she’s built. When the truth of her identity is uncovered, thousands of protestors gather in front of her stately home. Hounded by the salacious press, the very private Mrs. Elias finds herself alone, ensnared in a scandalous trial, and accused of stealing her fortune from whites. Packed with glamour, suspense, and drama, populated with real-life luminaries from the period, The Great Mrs. Elias brings a fascinating woman and the age she embodied to glorious, tragic life.
MY THOUGHTS
Extensively researched, the fascinating and compelling read based on the life of Hannah Elias. Her life started out with a humble and poor background with mixed race parentage. Born in Philadelphia in the late 1800’s she’s done some things she’s not proud of, things she’d rather forget, and she assures herself she’ll never return to jail again but she does several more times. Living in the poorhouse she vows to do whatever it takes to get out. She turns to the world’s oldest profession and becomes a highly paid sex worker. She climbs the ranks and has some very high paying callers. Wickedly smart she listens when she is told how to invest her money and becomes the richest black woman in the world at that time period. From buying a boarding house to many prime New York prestigious real estates including luxurious mansions she is set. Until the day the bottom drops out there is a murder outside of her door and she is being taken to court for supposed blackmail. She is being accused of blackmailing her 84-year-old white lover and we see this play out in court. Before this though the warrant for her arrest has a mob at her door crying for her to turn herself in. We feel her terror as her door is broken down near midnight. It’s all spectacularly played out, the glamour, the rise and fall from power, wealth and drama. An addictive read that kept my attention throughout.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Barbara Chase-Riboud (born June 26, 1939) is an American visual artist, bestselling novelist and award-winning poet.
Established as a sculptor, Chase-Riboud attained international recognition with the publication of her first novel, Sally Hemings (1979)
Things Past Telling is a remarkable historical epic that charts one unforgettable woman’s journey across an ocean of years as vast as the Atlantic that will forever separate her from her homeland.
Born in West Africa in the mid-eighteenth century, Maryam Prescilla Grace—a.k.a “Momma Grace” will live a long, wondrous life marked by hardship, oppression, opportunity, and love. Though she will be “gifted” various names, her birth name is known to her alone. Over the course of 100-plus years, she survives capture, enslavement by several property owners, the Atlantic crossing when she is only eleven years of age, and a brief stint as a pirate’s ward, acting as both a spy and a translator.
Maryam learns midwifery from a Caribbean-born wise woman, whose “craft” combines curated techniques and medicines from African, Indigenous, and European women. Those midwifery skills allow her to sometimes transcend the racial and class barriers of her enslavement, as she walks the razor’s edge trying to balance the lives and health of her own people with the cruel economic mandates of the slave holders, who view infants born in bondage not as flesh-and-blood children but as investment property.
Throughout her triumphant and tumultuous life Maryam gains and loses her homeland, her family, her culture, her husband, her lovers, and her children. Yet as the decades pass, this tenacious woman never loses her sense of self.
Inspired by a 112-year-old woman the author discovered in an 1870 U.S. Federal census report for Ohio, loosely based on the author’s real-life female ancestors, spanning more than a hundred years, from the mid-eighteen-century to the end of America’s Civil War, and spanning across the globe, from what is now southern Nigeria to the islands of the Caribbean to North America and the land bordering the Ohio River, Things Past Telling is a breathtaking story of a past that lives on in all of us, and a life that encompasses the best—and worst—of our humanity.
MY THOUGHTS
This is Maryam Prescilla Grace—a.k.a “Momma Grace” ‘s story all 112 years of it. It starts at the end of her life, and goes through her life as she reminisces winding up back at the end again. Very character driven. A young child forced to grow up way before her time, you could never say she had an easy life but smart as could be she adapted to whatever life presented to her. She had a choice, be weak, soft, an easy target or not. She didn’t take the easy way in life as she was a survivor. Kidnapped from her African homeland forced to make an Atlantic crossing at only eleven years old. A voyage that saw the death of her sister, her protector. Enslaved by several masters, a wise woman taught her the midwifery skill that would have her in high demand for the rest of her life. A skill that would take her from being sure she couldn’t do it to being highly skilled and respected amongst the blacks and whites alike. No stranger to hardships and personal loss she sees loved ones sold away and pass on. Strength and resilience, the best and the worst of humanity as the story is played out. Loosely based on the life of an amazing woman and her family the author found through her research Excellent and highly recommended!
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Sheila Williams is the award-winning author of several acclaimed novels, including No Better Time, Things Past Telling, The Secret Women, Girls Most Likely, The Shade of My Own Tree, On the Right Side of a Dream, and Dancing on the Edge of the Roof—the inspiration for the Netflix film Juanita, starring Alfre Woodard.
Her most recent novel, No Better Time, is an engrossing historical tale that shines a light on the little-known story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion—the only unit comprised entirely of women of color to serve overseas during World War II. The book was named a February 2024 “Books We Can’t Wait to Read” pick by The Root, a Black History Month selection by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and a BookSparks Book Club pick.
Williams’s 2022 novel Things Past Telling was a New York Times Book Review Summer Reading Pick and a Washington Post “10 Noteworthy Books for March” selection. It also earned spots on Bookworm’s Best Books of 2022 list and Book-ish’s “Books by Black Authors We Can’t Wait to Read.”
Her previous novel, The Secret Women, was featured as a top beach read by TIME, Woman’s World, Parade, and more in the summer of 2020.
In addition to her fiction, Sheila Williams is also a librettist. Fierce, her original opera created in collaboration with composer Dr. William Menefield, made its world premiere at Cincinnati Opera in July 2022. Inspired by the lives of Cincinnati-area teenage girls, the production was developed with community partners WordPlay Cincy, The Music Resource Center–Cincinnati, and i.imagine.
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Sheila now lives in northern Kentucky. She continues to write stories that explore the complexities of identity, resilience, sisterhood, and self-discovery.
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