This week I have a very serious audiobook review. I read for fun and escapism, so in general I tend to shy away from these types of titles; stories on racism and hate crimes especially.  This was one of my book club reads, so of course I read the book and I'm glad that I did.  While this was a work of fiction, it truly brought incredible feelings of rage, sadness, and understanding to me. Read on and find out why not only did 'Stand Your Ground' earn a 4 bookmark rating, but also why I think it's the most relevant and emotionally driven book I've read this year.

Publisher: Touchstone | Recorded Books
Release Date: June 30, 2015 | September 15, 2015 (audio)
Format: Audio MP3
Pages: ebook: 369 pages | Audio Length: Approx 10.2  hours
Narrators: Suzzanne Douglas , Madeleine Maby ,James Colby
Source: Audible
Genre: AA Fiction, Fiction
Review Date: December 7,  2016
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis: A black teenage boy is dead. A white man shot him. Was he standing his ground or was it murder?

Janice Johnson is living every black mother’s nightmare. Her seventeen-year-old son was murdered and the shooter has not been arrested. Can the D.A. and the police be trusted to investigate and do the right thing? Should Janice take advantage of the public outcry and join her husband alongside the angry protestors who are out for revenge?

Meredith Spencer is married to the man accused of the killing and she sees her husband and the situation with far more clarity than anyone realizes. What she knows could blow the case wide open, but what will that mean for her life and that of her son? Will she have the courage to come forward in time so that justice can be done?

Wow. Just wow. I can't say enough about the feelings that this title evoked. I found myself getting very upset and worked up about the racism that still exists in our society today. Beyond the blatant racism in the plot, the story was well written and I felt connected to the characters. The characters are imperfect and yet relatable. 

Hey readers,

This review is a part of a author hosted blog tour. Ms Arielle sent me a copy of her book to review. Thank you Ms. Arielle, I enjoyed the South African adventure.  Be sure to enter the giveaway at the bottom of the post, hosted by the author.

Publisher: Phenice Arielle
Release Date: June 5, 2013
Format: Paperback
Pages: 508
Source: Author
Genre: Fantasy, AA Fiction
Review Date: October 11, 2013
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis Sure, Kay’s parents didn’t think twice about sending her to therapy.

After all, Kay fully believes that she just narrowly escaped an explosion, watched a handsome co-ed walk through fire for her—oh, and that she battled an extremely skilled foe to the death—all before her 10 AM class! 

They’re just dreams of course, but when this talented NYU student wins a coveted trip to South Africa, she soon finds out the truth—that everything her parents TRIED to convince her wasn’t real actually lies HIDDEN deep in a jungle Kay once assumed was paradise. 

Now, if Kay can survive the hand-to-hand combat and the one with the ivory dagger who wishes her death, Kay may just get the answers that unlock her dreams. Kay might even fall in love. On the other hand, our brave girl may get an answer to something she never wanted to know the answer TO: 

What happens… when you die.

Disclaimer: I received this book as a courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest review.

Phoenix Rising is one beautifully descriptive book. The authors very talented with world building. To read a story about a place that you're not familiar with and be able to visualize it almost like a movie is amazing. This is one book that I will not soon forget.  Love, adventure, betrayal, and family all revealed in a far away place, Africa.  This was the first story that I've read that is primarily set in Africa and I really enjoyed it.  I would place this book in the new adult arena. The main characters are juniors in college, so they're young but mature.

Publisher: Harlequin Kimani
Release Date: January 22, 2013
Format: Kindle
Pages: 224
Source: NetGalley, Courtesy of Harlequin Kimani
Genre: Romance, AA Fiction
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Synopsis: In the wake of political defeat, former mayoral candidate Ainsley St. James does something totally out of character-she has a one-night stand with a seductive stranger. Never expecting to see him again, she accepts a job covering a breaking story in Hilton Head, South Carolina...only to discover that the island's most desirable recluse is the lover she has yet to forget. 

Winston Coltrane can't get that incredible night-or the sexy, sophisticated beauty-out of his mind. The marine biologist is developing a secret formula that could be a major medical breakthrough. But there's something Winston is keeping from Ainsley: his feelings for her have grown beyond the bedroom. Kiss by breathtaking kiss, Ainsley is transforming his oceanside sanctuary into a sensual retreat. Will they be able to turn a passionate fling into forever in each other's arms?

Disclaimer: I received this book as a galley courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

I've read a few books from Brenda Jackson in the past and she never disappoints. I'd recommend her if you're wanting a fun, light-hearted romance. There a little heat in the bedroom scenes, but the old school way. Nothing over the top or embarrassing to admit that you're reading. Haha! This book was short and sweet, which makes these type of books perfect for summer or vacation reading. If you've read any romance novels, you know that there's a formula that works for these kind of books. If the author doesn't deviate too far from it, the story is always enjoyable. Boy meets girl. Boy sleeps with girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl falls for boy. Girl find out boy has a secret and turns out he's a millionaire...etc...

Bachelor Unclaimed was an easy read with a good story and pretty well developed characters, given that the book is so short. I also could believe this romantic fantasy could be real enough. What I mean by that is the story wasn't so over the top that you'd be like "What the hell?!" It's just the right amount of real with the fantasy perfect man and his perfect match.

This book is actually the fourth in a series. But never fear, you don't have to read the others to read this one. They all connect through the Bachelor featured in each book, but the books can be read as a stand-alone story too. If I get some free time, I may go back and read the others in this series.

Going on a beach vacation soon? I recommend taking this along with you.

Happy Reading,
~Tamara

Throwback Thursday is my weekly feature which I created to post a review that I've written from the past. Every week I will post a review that I've written prior to my blogs existence. I'll be sharing both the books that I think you'd enjoy and the books that I should warn you against wasting your time on! ;-)

I chose to post the last J.D. Mason book I read because I enjoyed a few of her other books in the past. They were better than this one, but You Gotta Sin to Get Saved was still pretty good.  Ms.Mason storytelling makes you think about how crazy and messed up the world is. It made me thankful not to have that drama in my life! These characters are screwed up and believable ..totally unfortunate.  Like drama? This may be a good one to check out! ;-)

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: April 1, 2008
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Source: Library Borrow
Genre: AA Fiction
Original Review Date: October 3, 2011
Rating: 3 bookmarks 

Synopsis: Charlotte Rodgers has always wanted too much. Too much love, too much attention, and had too many big dreams.   It was how she ended up abandoning her two daughters, Connie and Reesy to chase after a man and the promise of a dream life.   But Charlotte never anticipated how her world would be irrevocably changed.  Now, twenty-seven years later, her whole world shifts yet again with a letter from one of her daughters.  And the past is about to bust wide open.  

Reesy has always been obsessed with something.  Obsessed with finding her birth mother. Obsessed with her sister’s life. Obsessed with her own adopted daughter never finding out that Reesy is really her aunt.  With a neglected husband, who is unknowingly drifting further and further away, a sister who is trying to escape her well-meaning clutches, and a daughter becoming more and more curious about her true parentage, finding the mother she always dreamed about seems to be an answered prayer to Reesy.  That is until Reesy is brought crashing back to earth to find that her perfect life is in tattered pieces.
Connie has always expected too little. Too little from the man she’s been living with for years. Too little from her modest jewelry business.  And too little from her relationships, or lack thereof, with her daughter, mother and sister. And too little from herself.  Until she discovers she is pregnant again and decides that this time she is keeping her baby, sending her life and her relationship into a tailspin.  And rediscovering the mother who left them behind is the last thing she wants. 
 
Thrown back together again, in a maelstrom of shocking truths, Charlotte, Reesy and Connie will discover on their journey to forgiveness and redemption that you just might have to sin first in order to be saved.

I ended up reading this book for my book club, this was selected by the majority to read. I wasn't thrilled this was picked because I found out that this was the 3rd book in a series. For one thing, I don’t like coming in at the end of a story, so I wasn't happy about that. I remembered reading the first book, One Day I Saw a Black King a very long time ago but I didn't recall the details. Nor did I want to reread that or even read the 2nd book because I know J.D. Mason’s writing is heavy and there is no way I could take 3 of her sad books in one month. Because I’m committed to reading all the books, I went ahead and read the 3rd installment.

Publisher: Harper
Release Date: September 18, 2012 
Format: ebook
Pages: 384 (Paperback)
Source: A friend, ebook copy
Genre: AA Fiction, Mystery
Review Date: January 20, 2013
Rating: 3 bookmarks

Synopsis: The American South in the twenty-first century. A plantation owned for generations by a rich family. So much history. And a dead body.

Just after dawn, Caren walks the grounds of Belle Vie, the historic plantation house in Louisiana that she has managed for four years. Today she sees nothing unusual, apart from some ground that has been dug up by the fence bordering the sugar can fields. Assuming an animal has been out after dark, she asks the gardener to tidy it up. Not long afterwards, he calls her to say it's something else. Something terrible. A dead body. At a distance, she missed her. The girl, the dirt and the blood. Now she has police on site, an investigation in progress, and a member of staff no one can track down. And Caren keeps uncovering things she will wish she didn't know. As she's drawn into the dead girl's story, she makes shattering discoveries about the future of Belle Vie, the secrets of its past, and sees, more clearly than ever, that Belle Vie, its beauty, is not to be trusted. 

A magnificent, sweeping story of the south, The Cutting Season brings history face-to-face with modern America, where Obama is president, but some things will never change. Attica Locke once again provides an unblinking commentary on politics, race, the law, family and love, all within a thriller every bit as gripping and tragic as her first novel, Black Water Rising

This story centers around Caren, her daughter, and her history.  Everything pretty much takes place on a sugar cane plantation turned historical state funded tourist location, Belle Vie.  Next to Belle Vie are the sugar cane fields, that is run by a corporation which employees migrant workers.  This story gets going when when a body of a sugar cane migrant worker is found along a fence that boarders Belle Vie.  

This was my first time reading Attica Locke, and I thought it was okay. It took me a minute to start really getting into it, but it probably because it was laden with bits of story that weren't essential to the plot. Overall I liked the book, but if I sit and really go over everything (as we all did in our book club meeting) I could really bring down the rating by nitpicking it to death.  I won't do that.  I'll just say that I felt that I spent a good amount of time reading this and it was all wasted with the rushed and unsatisfactory ending   Like I told the book club ladies, I almost felt like the author was over her page limit so she had to hurry and wrap things up in a chapter of less.  I was about 50 pages to the end and was like "Will we find out who did it or what?"...Yes we did. In my personal opinion, it seemed like the ending didn't really fit and it could have been better.

Publisher: Washington Square Press 
Release Date: September 20, 2005 (original)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 496
Source: Purchased
Genre: AA Fiction, Horror
Review Date: August 16, 2012
Rating: 4 bookmarks

Book Synopsis: When Phoenix Smalls was ten, she nearly died at her parents' jazz club when she was crushed by a turn-of-the-century piano. Now twenty-four, Phoenix is launching a career as an R & B singer. She's living out her dreams  and seems destined for fame and fortune. But a chance visit to a historical site in St. Louis ignites a series of bizarre, erotic encounters with a spirit who may be the King of Ragtime, Scott Joplin. 

The sound of Scott Joplin is strange enough to the ears of the hip-hop generation. But the idea that these antique sounds are being channeled through Phoenix? Her life is suddenly hanging in the balance. How will she find her true voice and calling? Can the power of her own inner song give Phoenix the strength to fight to live out her own future? Or will she be forever trapped in Scott Joplin's doomed, tragic past? Stunningly original, Joplin's Ghost is a novel filled with art and intrigue -- and is sure to bring music to readers' ears.   

I enjoyed Ms. Due's writing style.  I always enjoy third person writing.  Personally, it seems that I get a lot more details when it's written in this style. Ms.Due had tons of historical information written in an entertaining way.   There must have been tons of research that went into this book.

The story was a pretty even mix of historical fiction and a urban ghost story all rolled up into one. I'd almost say this could even be considered speculative fiction.  The story splits it time in the early 1900's and the present. The story was both detailed and entertaining. This book is a little longer than what I'm used to. It's been a long while since I've read a book over 450 pages, and it was worth every page.  I picked up this book on a close out sale $4! Score! It's been sitting on my shelf for the last 3-4 years, I'm not sure why it took me so long to finally read it, but I'm glad that I finally did.  I ended up suggesting it for one of the book clubs that I'm in, and go figure, they wanted to read it!  

Publisher: Dutton Adult
Release Date: April 17, 2012 
Format: Hardcover
Pages:  416
Source: Library (borrow)
Genre: African American Fiction
Review Date: May 30, 2012
Rating: 3 bookmarks  

I haven't read EJD in a long time. I loved his earlier books. I was a little nervous picking this book up because many reviewers said that his writing style has changed and it's not as good as it previously was. Personally, I could detect the changes, but they aren't necessarily bad or good. For example, I could have done without all of the media reports scattered throughout the book. I see why were there, but they weren't really an important part of the story line. In the beginning of the book there were so many, I really just skimmed over them after reading several back to back.  

This book took me way to long to read. I like books that I can get through in one or two sittings. It took me 14 days to read this book. And that is unheard of for me. I just kept putting it down over and over again.  I was halfway through before things started to really pick up. Seriously, the cheating wife, Regina didn't make her appearance until almost page 200.  Until then the whole story was about James wanting revenge, James contemplating running away, James changing his name and hiding out in the ghetto, James sleeping with several of his neighbors. I mean really,it seemed like it was going on and on, yet, nowhere in particular.

Now down to the two main characters. James & Regina...what can I say? They are both crazy!!! Due to their both being crazy and capable of doing anything to anybody, including each other, they deserve each other. 

So finally, Regina shows up after coming out of hiding and BAM, the action starts with a vengeance.  There's drugs. murder, deceit, blackmail, and all sorts of hidden agendas. It's hard to distinguished who the bad guy really is.  By his actions, James is bad guy, but is he a product of his circumstances? Does what happened to him make his sins any more forgivable?  Is Regina's ex, the bad guy? His hands are very dirty, but did he get what he deserved? Was Regina the spark that lite the fire? If so, did she get off easy in the end?  So many questions, and depending on your point of view you could see this many different ways and left me thinking about it. The story left me thinking, what would I have done if my husband did this to me? Would I have been able to go off and seek vengeance like James did? In short, no! Hell No! 


The end was surprising. Almost sad. I'm not going to give anything away, but James and Regina surly deserve to end up with each other and any happiness or misery that their marriage happens to bring them in the future!

Overall, I liked the book. I only wish that the action started a little sooner. Or maybe the book was just 50-75 pages too long.  Regardless, if you can hang in for the first half, the payoff is worth it.