When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey

In the acknowledgments the author wrote that this book was about the friends and family that hold us together, uncertainty, learning to accept love and support and how scary and hard a skill that can be to learn (I like the notion of learning to accept love and support as a skill), and about doing hard things un-alone. I suppose that is as good as explanation as any.

The story begins with a dead boy and his exploded penis. Alexis was trying to lose her virginity with Josh Harper when she inadvertently caused his penis to explode with her magic. Yes, magic. Alexis and her five best friends can all do magic. Each has a particular gift. Alexis can communicate with animals. She doesn't talk to them in words exactly, but understands them and they understand her. One of the other girls can do something similar with plant life, especially trees. Another can heal. They don't know where their magic came from or why they can do it. They just can. They're still experimenting and learning what they can do. They don't know the extent of their powers. Josh's spontaneous explosion is as much as a surprise to Alexis as it no doubt was to Josh. She had no idea she could do something like that.

Alexis calls her friends for help. Together the six of them try to figure out how to fix, or failing that, how to deal with the situation. Being seniors in high school, Josh is only one of many things they have to deal with. There is college to think about, family members to contend with, and unarticulated feelings to express.

I enjoyed reading about the deep friendship among the six girls but there was a slight disconnect. The death of a person is a big deal and yet Josh doesn't matter much even though the actions of the girls revolve around concealing his death. His death was merely a way into the story. Little is revealed about Josh or the way the magic in this story works and why these six random girls can do magic. I want to think the magic was a metaphor for the power girls and women have but don't always realize they have. Alas, that is just a guess.

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon

  I like the set up of this book. Samiah Brooks is an intelligent and accomplished African-American woman who works in the tech industry at a company called Trendsetters. The story begins with Samiah finding out that the guy she's been seeing is a liar who's been dating her and multiple other women. She confronts him at a restaurant. The upside of this dating disater is that Samiah gets two new friends out of it - Taylor and London - two other women who had been duped by the same guy. I wouldn't be surprised if there were future books focusing on these two women.

Samiah's work life is going better than her romantic life. She's a star at work and better yet, a hot new guy named Daniel Collins just joined the team. They flirt for awhile before there's a kiss. Then he abruptly pulls back before diving back in. Slowly Samiah and Daniel find themselves in the beginning throes of a relationship. There is just one problem - Daniel isn't exactly who he claims to be.

Be forewarned, there are spoilers going forward...

Turns out Daniel is an undercover federal agent sent to find out who at Trendsetters has been laundering dirty money that could be used to fund terrorist activities. On the whole Daniel is very good at his job. Unfortunately for him Trendsetters is even at better at securing sensitive information. Much of what Trendsetters does is solve computer related problems for other companies and that necessitates keeping private information private. So private that Daniel can't infiltrate the company's security protocols.

Eventually an opportunity presents itself. Remember how Samiah is a star at work. Being star also means having a better security clearance. One night after sleeping with her, Daniel steals Samiah's access card and makes a copy of it. This is where I fell off the Daniel train and had trouble getting back on. Once he had access to the necessary areas of Trendsetters, Daniel is able to find the evidence he needs and bad people are arrested. Sure Daniel had to lie and steal from Samiah, but it was for the greater good, right?

Here's my problem. By stealing Samiah's access card, Daniel not only puts Samiah's job, but her entire career at risk. Several times in the book Samiah talks about the obstacles she faces in her career as a Black women in an industry where there are relatively few women, few people of color, and even fewer women of color. Samiah knows people don't expect her to be smart. They don't assume she knows programming. Colleagues steal her ideas but she can't make a fuss because then she would be the Angry Black Woman who isn't a team player. She has gotten to used to people being slightly disappointed and shocked when they learn that the "S" in sbrooks@trendsetters.com stands for Samiah and not Sarah or something else more White sounding. She has to work twice as hard as anyone else to be taken seriously. She does it because she loves what she does and because she wants to pave the women for other women and people of color in the tech industry.

Daniel knows all of this and steals her access card anyway. Sure at the end of the day some bad guys get caught doing bad things, but the fact that it was Samiah's access card that got stolen will haunt her and her career. And in fact, she is punished for it at work. For reasons, the punishment works in her favor but still it is a punishment.

Because this is a romance, there must be a happily-ever-after, which is to say, everything works out in the end between Samiah and Daniel. But it felt disingenuous. Yes Daniel apologizes, but it was a quick "Sorry I lied. I had no choice, and hey, I really do like you." It wasn't enough of an apology and not enough time had passed between the betrayal and the happily-ever-after moment. In the end, the fact that a Black woman has to get thrown under the proverbial bus for the so-called greater good just didn't sit well with me. For that reason, I cannot entirely recommend this book.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

  My Dark Vanessa is a modern day Lolita with less bloodshed but equal, or perhaps more, devastation.

Vanessa is 15 when she walks into the the classroom of 42-year-old Jacob Strane. He seduces her fairly quickly and continues to haunt her life for the next 17 years. There are times when it's happening that Vanessa feels victimized and hurt but Jacob always manages to twist the narrative in his favor. He tells Vanessa that she's in control, that she holds all the power because she could easily destroy him by revealing their physical relationship. When that's not enough he adds threats, not threats of harm from him, but threats of how her life would be forever destroyed and altered if she were to come forward. He tells her social services would take her away from her parents, that she would be forever reduced to being the girl who slept with her teacher. With equal parts affection and manipulation Jacob controls Vanessa's life well into her adulthood. Of course, he doesn't see it that way. In his mind, Jacob is a good guy guilty only of falling in love with her.

Vanessa needs to believe he's a good guy too because if he isn't what does that make her? A victim? Vanessa can't see herself as a victim because there were times when she said yes to Jacob, and times when she didn't scream no. Jacob once tells Vanessa that society wants women to see themselves as victims because it's a way of controlling them. Vanessa wants to believe that she is in control, that she was always in control. But there are cracks. As Vanessa gets older Jacob becomes less interested, casting the love story he sold to her in doubt. Other women come forward with stories of how Jacob touched them when they were his students. Vanessa doesn't want to believe them and even when she can no longer deny the truths the women tell, she tells herself that she was different, that what she and Jacob had was love not abuse.

The subject matter makes it hard to say that I liked this book but I am glad I read it. It is a difficult read in the sense that it is hard to sit through any passage involving the repulsive Jacob but it was well worth the read. It reminded of two other books with the same basic plot: Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire and Excavation by Wendy Ortiz. If you're looking for something super dark and violent, read Taming the Beast. For something less violent but equally captivating and more well rounded, check out Ortiz's memoir Excavation.

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigain Hing Wen

Ever Wong is a first generation Chinese American young woman finishing up her senior year of high school. Her passions are dance and choreography but here parents' dream is for Ever to be the doctor her father was in China but wasn't able to be in America. Ever's parents send her to a summer program in Taipei that students have nicknamed the Love Boat (after the late 70s/80s show) because of all the hooking up that happens throughout the summer.

Loveboat, Taipei is basically a coming of age story. Ever must figure out what she wants and how to articulate that to her parents in a respectful way. One thing I appreciated is that Ever eventually comes to appreciate her parents' position. She still gets angry at them for controlling her life but realizes they aren't bad parents for pushing her into a medical career. They sacrificed a lot when they left China. Her father went from being a doctor in China to a hospital orderly in the U.S. They believe a career as a doctor will her secure her future. In Taipei Ever gains an appreciation for her parents and her and their culture, while also realizes that she has to figure out a way to talk to her parents.

There are lot of shenanigans and soap opera tropes in this story and how much a person like it will in part depend on how much one is willing to tolerate those shenanigans. To name a few, there's a fake relationship, two love triangles (both of which involve Ever), a misunderstood artist bad boy, and plenty of bad teenage decisions. There is perhaps a bit too much going on but it isn't bad for a debut novel.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

Remember the Scholastic book sales in grade school? My memories of those book sales are bittersweet. I loved looking at the catalogs but I rarely could afford to buy anything from them. I always felt left out watching other kids receive their book orders. The fact that I loved reading made not being able to buy books from the Scholastic catalog hurt that much more.

There were two times when I was able to buy a book from the Scholastic and one of the two books I bought was Heidi. (The other was Little Women.) I still own the copy I bought in the third grade. Recently I purchased a set of Puffin editions of four classic children's books, one of which was the much loved classic, Heidi.

Heidi is the story of a little girl who brings joy to everyone she meets. It's a moral tale much like A Little Princess, another Puffin classic I recently read. At age 5 she is sent to live with her grandfather who is known as Uncle Alp by everyone in town. Years earlier Uncle Alp retreated to the mountain after losing his only child. Years living on the mountain top away from other people have led townspeople to view of him as a bogeyman of sorts. Tongues start wagging when Heidi's aunt drops off the orphaned Heidi at her grandfather's house. Everyone is worried about what will become of the poor child though none of them bother to check on her.

It turns out all the worry was for nothing. Contrary to what the townspeople think, Uncle Alp isn't all that bad. Even though it's been years he hasn't forgotten how to raise a child and immediately adjusts to being Heidi's caregiver. Aside from not attending school, Heidi thrives under her grandfather's care and the mountain air. Poor Heidi's life is turned upside down when her aunt arrives to take Heidi to Frankfurt to be a companion to another little girl. Heidi brightens up the lives of those in her new Frankfurt home, but her own light dims as she suffers from homesickness. For Heidi the best place on earth is on the mountain with her grandfather, the goats, and the many people that have become like family to her. Eventually she returns to her beloved mountain. Heidi's Frankfurt friends later discover for themselves just how wonderful the mountain is.

I loved this book as a child, as evident by the fact that I still own the copy I got in third grade. Reading this again decades later I'm happy to say it still stands up. It is perhaps heavy handed in moralizing department but it manages to make living on a cold mountain, drinking unpasteurized goat milk, and sleeping on hay sound heavenly. I bet there were a lot of little girls who, like me, dreamed of living on a mountain with their grandfather.

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

  Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffani) wakes up in a park bruised and battered, surrounded by dead bodies, and no memory of who she is or how she got there. Fortunately there is a letter in her pocket to help her figure out who she is. The new MyFanwy will have to figure out the rest.

Myfanwy is an agent for her majesty's secret, secret service, the Checquy, whose job is to protect the UK from supernatural threats. Myfanwy has a supernatural power but her greatest power is administration and organization. She learns that she rose through the ranks of the Checquy based on her ability to efficiently run a large organization (which truly is a talent not possessed by many). If this all sounds crazy, well it does to Myfanwy too. She goes along with it because what else can she do? Someone tried to kill her and she doesn't know who or why or if they'll try again. She must figure out what happened to her without letting anyone know that she has her memory. After all, she was/is a high ranking member of a secret government organization and if her colleagues knew she had amnesia they might deem her a liability.

Half the story is told in letters written by the old Myfanwy to the new Myfanwy. As I read I couldn't help but think about the role memory plays in our lives. Who are we if we can't remember who we used to be? Can one truly become a new person?

This was not at all what I expected. I was expecting a more straightforward international spy story (and yes I realize a straightforward spy story is something of an oxymoron but maybe you know what I mean). It is rare to be truly surprised by a story and for that alone I recommend this book.

A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole

  This is the second novel in Alyssa Cole's Reluctant Royals series. In this one Portia, a flighty fun loving woman, goes to Scotland to do an internship with a swordmaker named Tavish. Tavish is immediately struck so hard by Portia's beauty that he can't think straight or act right. Instead he is rude and dismissive. Eventually he sees how smart and talented Portia is. Portia for her part is also attracted to Tavish but she never lets that get in the way of her job. Speaking of which, while doing research Portia discovers that Tavish is the son and heir of the former duke. So then Tavish has to learn how to be a duke and the two of them have to figure out their relationship.

This was cute. The ending was a little rushed. There is a story line involving Portia's relationship with her family that I wanted to explore more, but aside from that minor quibble this was an enjoyable read.