Review of Happy Land, by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Historical 0

Happy Land

by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
read by Bahni Turpin and Ashley J. Hobbs

Books on Tape, 2025. 10 hours, 19 minutes.
Review written November 21, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

First, a big thank you to Suzanne, who recommended this book when she signed up for my email newsletter, Book Talking with Sondy. My hold finally came in, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This is a book that combines characters you care about with little-known history and present-day injustices. There are two perspectives and two narrators in this audiobook. First, in the present day, Nikki has been summoned unexpectedly from her home in DC to her grandmother in North Carolina. Nikki hasn’t seen her grandmother since her mother and grandmother had an extreme falling-out. Now Nikki’s own daughter is at loose ends after graduating from high school without a plan going forward, and Nikki hasn’t been doing well in her career as a real estate agent. But she doesn’t know why her grandmother has summoned her to the mountain where their family has lived for generations.

The second perspective is Luella, Nikki’s grandmother’s great-grandmother. Luella was born in slavery, but after gaining freedom, her community was in danger from the Klan in South Carolina. So the entire community, led by her father, a preacher, traveled to a mountain on the border with North Carolina. At the urging of William Montgomery, a charismatic young man who asked her to marry him – they founded not just a community, but a kingdom. And William was elected the king and Luella the queen.

At first, the folks of the kingdom rented the land from a widow who needed their help running her hotel, but they worked toward owning the land. There were many obstacles along the way and much personal turmoil. And this is all based on an actual “kingdom” that existed in America not long after the Civil War.

Meanwhile, in the present, Nikki learns about the kingdom – but that her grandmother is in danger of losing the land, where she’s lived since she was born on the premises. And along the way, she sees how connected her grandmother is to the land and to the community – but needs to find out more about why her grandmother and mother stopped speaking to each other. Can she mend the generational rift? Can she save the land that her family has owned for 150 years?

I didn’t completely understand the law that allows people who inherit one portion of property to sell off other portions of property at auction without folks who live there knowing about it. Since I was listening, I didn’t even catch the name of this type of law, but the author names it as a major way that land has been stolen from African Americans, destroying generational wealth. So one of the big conflicts in the book has to do with an actual current issue.

And it’s all told in a compelling story. Luella’s life wasn’t easy, even though she was a queen. And Nikki, after her, has some choices to make as she learns about her connection to royalty and the Kingdom of the Happy Land.

The author’s blog points to a fascinating webpage about the actual Kingdom of the Happy Land. Amazing stuff!

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Review of The Davenports, by Krystal Marquis, read by Joniece Abbot-Pratt

Audiobooks, Historical, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Davenports

by Krystal Marquis
read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written April 29, 2023, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

The Davenports reminds me of a Jane Austen book – a wealthy family trying to get their kids married off – only this one is set in 1910, and the family are successful Black Americans in Chicago. The father of the Davenport clan was born enslaved, but after escaping, ended up making a fortune with a carriage company. And he’s happily giving his family a much better life – maybe sheltering them a little too much.

Now the two daughters and one son are at an age to be married – but nobody falls in love with the person their parents want and expect them to marry. And it’s quite fun watching it happen.

There are four viewpoint characters: Olivia Davenport is getting ready for her second season and really needs to find a husband this time around. When Jacob Lawrence shows up from England, everyone thinks she’s found one. But then she stumbles into meetings of activists when she’s doing charity work and learns the plight of her people in the South.

Olivia’s friend Ruby has been in love with Olivia’s brother, John Davenport, since they were kids. Her father is running for mayor of Chicago, and her parents want Ruby to go ahead and get him to propose. Maybe if she makes him jealous….

Younger sister Helen Davenport is never happier than working in the garage on the modern horseless carriages. Maybe she can help John convince their father to expand the business to automobiles. But instead, her parents hire an etiquette tutor to bring Helen into line.

The final viewpoint character is Amy-Rose, long time friend and maid to the Davenport girls. She’s been saving her money, and now she’s almost ready to start her own business and open a salon.

I thought I knew where this book was going, but all the romances run into snags toward the end of the book, and the author’s note hints at a sequel. So I’m looking forward to more time with the Davenport family in the future. The author’s note also tells us that the family was based on an actual family led by a formerly enslaved Black man who got rich in the carriage business. She wondered what life might have been like for his daughters. And her wondering gave us this delightful book.

krystalmarquis.com

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Review of The Bluest Sky, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Children's Fiction Review, Historical 0

The Bluest Sky

by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. 314 pages.
Review written September 11, 2025, from a library book.

The Bluest Sky is the story of Hector, a Cuban boy in 1980 who dreams of getting on the National Math Olympiad Team. But he wonders if the politics of his father, who spent time in prison and now lives in America, will outweigh that of his grandmother, who is a high official in the Communist party.

There are rumors that the government is allowing more people to leave Cuba. But they are rousing communities against the non-patriotic scum who would do so. Hector loves his country and his friends and doesn’t understand why anyone would leave.

And then his mother tells him that she has applied for exit visas to join his father, whom Hector hardly knows.

The story that follows is full of ups and downs and conflict. It builds toward the Mariel boat lift, when Cuban prisoners were added to the boats of refugees.

This book is a window into a difficult time and tough decisions. I had heard of the Mariel boat lift, but hadn’t realized it was so recent – and that Hector would have been younger than me, so folks from that episode of history are still alive in America today. I appreciate that fictional eyes can help kids understand what it must have been like to live that historical moment.

christinagonzalez.com
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Review of The Alchemy of Moonlight, by David Ferraro, read by Will Watt

Historical, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Alchemy of Moonlight

by David Ferraro
read by Will Watt

Dreamscape Media, 2023. 9 hours, 44 minutes.
Review written September 16, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Is it just me, or does anyone else get a crush on eaudiobook narrators with dreamy voices? As soon as I heard the first few sentences from Will Watt, I was hooked on listening to this book – never mind that he was talking about a young marquis discovering a severed hand next to the path on the estate where he was hiding out as a servant.

This book riffs off the gothic classic The Mysteries of Udolpho, except with a gay man named Emile as the protagonist instead of a young lady named Emily. (I’ve never read the original, but I have read Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey that spoofed it, and I checked Wikipedia for the basic plot after a castle called Udolpho was mentioned.)

There’s a love triangle in this version involving our marquis and the local doctor’s apprentice, as well as a count attached to the estate where Emile is serving. But Emile’s pose as a servant must not be found out, because his aunt is in charge of his own estate until he comes of age. If he doesn’t give up his fondness for men and marry, she will have him committed to an asylum.

And things get even more complicated. The reader will be much quicker than Emile to figure out the connection between body parts on the path and the fact that family members send almost all the servants away once a month, but those who remain administer injections all night long as they suffer and writhe in their beds.

I won’t say much about the plot. It’s based on a gothic novel, and yes, it’s over-the-top. But I think it helped to listen to a skilled narrator (with a dreamy voice) reading about the events completely in character, completely startled when supernatural things happen. Hearing his skepticism – but inability to discount the evidence of his own eyes – helps the listener keep their own skepticism at bay. I was with them every step of the way.

This book is an adventure with many gruesome moments, but if you’re in the mood for some melodrama at all, you’ll have a great romp with this. Not having read the original, I’m still quite confident that the ending in this version is quite different. And it certainly surprised me.

I do recommend listening to this one. (Is it just me? That voice!)

davidferraroauthor.com

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Review of The Cassatt Sisters, by Lisa Groen

Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Cassatt Sisters

A Novel of Love and Art

by Lisa Groen

Black Rose Writing, 2025. 260 pages.
Review written November 5, 2025, from my own copy, ordered via Amazon.com
Starred Review

Full disclosure: The author of this book is a friendly acquaintance of mine. She was a regular customer back when I worked at Sembach Air Base Library in Germany, and we became Facebook friends, and I read and enjoyed her first book, The Mother’s Book of Well-Being.

So when I heard that she’d written a novel about the Impressionists, of course I preordered a copy!

Now, I didn’t know a lot about the Impressionists except having been thrilled to enjoy their work in Paris at the Musée de l’Orangerie and the Musée d’Orsay – which together are my favorite museums in Paris, or, yes, in the world. So I enjoyed finding out more – and especially about Mary Cassatt, the only American woman among the Impressionists.

This book covers her life beginning in 1877. Mary Cassatt had already been living in Paris, working to establish herself as an artist, living with her sister Lydia and her parents. They had settled in Paris as well, to support her. Mary’s close relationship with Lydia is a primary thread all through this book. Lydia was her muse, and often the subject of her work.

But the book begins with her admiring the work of Edgar Degas, meeting him, beginning to work with him – and starting a romantic relationship.

Now, honestly, if that were all there was to it, the book might have been a little trite. Let’s just say the relationship doesn’t last, and Mary coping with that – while grappling with who she is as an artist – deepens and enriches the book.

And life as an artist wasn’t the same for Mary as it was for the male Impressionists. Nor was it the same as for Berthe Morisot, who was a mother. This story of Mary Cassatt’s life, work, loves, and ambitions, makes the reader think about women and our place in the world – and how things have changed and not changed in 150 years.

I did laugh when Mary called Monet’s Water Lilies glorified wallpaper – apparently an actual comment of hers. The book included black-and-white reproductions of the specific paintings that got mentioned, which added richness to the narrative, since art was such an important part of Mary’s life. Another thing I thought was funny was when Mary used her nieces and nephews as models – and then her mother wouldn’t let her “sell the grandchildren.” She was more limited than the men in whom she could use as models – and then her mother didn’t want her to sell the paintings of family. What’s a woman to do?

By the end of the book, I felt like I’d spent time in Paris – only in such a way that I really need to go back as soon as possible. I will look at the Impressionists’ art with new eyes, now feeling like they are interesting individuals with personalities, instead of one big group. This book, as happens with the very best historical fiction, made these great artists of history come alive in my mind.

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blackrosewriting.com

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Review of That Self-Same Metal, by Brittany N. Williams, read by Patricia Allison

Historical, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

That Self-Same Metal

by Brittany N. Williams
read by Patricia Allison

OrangeSky Audio, 2023. 10 hours, 31 minutes.
Review written August 4, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

That Self-Same Metal is a historical fantasy set in the time of Shakespeare, in fact, among Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men. This book happens in 1605, shortly after King James has taken the throne – and the patronage of Shakespeare’s company. Our heroine is Joan Sands, a Black girl with a magical ability to manipulate metals, a gift given to her by her Head Orisha, Ogun. She not only makes swords for the company, but she stages their swordfights. Her twin brother James is an apprentice with the players, taking women’s roles, because of course it’s illegal for women to perform on stage.

Joan and James, as followers of the Orisha, have always been able to see when the Fae are among them, because they give off a glow under their skin. But they know that Fae cannot harm humankind. However, Joan’s godfather tells her that he needs to renew the pact between the Fae and the new king – and then he is arrested. The pact is not in effect, and Fae very much begin to harm people.

When Joan defends herself and others using blades she’s coated in iron, she makes some powerful enemies, both among the Fae and in the royal court. Can she protect her family and those she loves from these enemies?

It’s all played out in a well-drawn historical setting, with Shakespeare himself one of the characters, and his plays going on in the Globe theater. It turns out the characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream are based on actual Fae, but they are quite different than he portrayed them. Joan’s adventures include needing to step in and act when James is injured, hoping no one will notice the difference, and watching another play with the queen and her ladies, who treat her like an exotic pet. And she’s not sure what to make of her attraction to one of the handsome players as well as to a mysterious girl who asks for her brother’s help.

It’s all woven together in a way that hooked me, and the narrator’s British accent is a delight. The author clearly did her research – naming the characters who were actual people at the end of the book.

My one word of warning is that there are some excessively gory scenes, so you may not want to listen if you get squeamish easily. They did establish that the stakes were very high.

There is a reversal at the end, and yes, I will want to read or hopefully listen to the next installment.

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Review of Song of a Blackbird, by Maria van Lieshout

Graphic Novel, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Song of a Blackbird

by Maria van Lieshout

First Second, 2025. 256 pages.
Review written October 27, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This historical teen graphic novel is set in Amsterdam in 1943 and 2011, with maps on the endpapers showing important buildings in the city at both time periods. Notes at the back tell how the author took actual historical people and incidents to craft this story of Annick’s grandmother, who learns when being tested for a bone marrow match that the people she thought were her siblings aren’t related to her at all. Annick sets out to learn her grandmother’s background, using a series of prints of buildings in Amsterdam to lead her to the truth.

And we get a parallel story of a young woman in 1943 Amsterdam who learned that Jewish people were being deported, possibly to their deaths, and got involved with a group who were saving children from this fate. And then she got involved with a group of printers who were forging documents, because a priest wouldn’t take one more boy unless they had more ration cards.

There are more adventures in 1943, including a bank heist (based on an actual heist), but also some executions. In 2011, Annick follows the pictures to find out what really happened to her grandmother during the war.

It’s all skillfully done. A blackbird narrates both time periods, representing hope and art. Maria van Lieshout uses actual historical photographs of buildings in Amsterdam in the 1943 sections. And she makes you care about the children and about those who risked their lives in the resistance. The author goes back and forth between time periods smoothly, and helps us understand that the story plays out in the same city, in the same buildings, almost 70 years apart.

This graphic novel is a stunning work of art that makes a powerful statement.

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firstsecondbooks.com

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Review of The Book Club for Troublesome Women, by Marie Bostwick

Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Book Club for Troublesome Women

by Marie Bostwick
read by Lisa Flanagan

Harper Muse, 2025. 11 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written October 13, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I loved this one. In many ways it’s a standard story of four women bonding through the ups and downs of life because they’ve come together in a book club. But this book adds something special because they begin meeting in the early 1960s, and the first book they read together is The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan.

So the book isn’t simply about enduring friendships through life’s difficulties. It’s also about a woman’s role and society’s expectations for women.

The setting is a fictional suburb in northern Virginia called Concordia – that fits right in with the suburbs found here today. The four women of the book club are chafing under the expectations of running a home and caring for their husband and kids. One wants to be a writer, another wants to get her art into galleries, another wanted to be a veterinarian – but got married and dropped out of school shortly before getting her Bachelor’s in order to help establish her husband’s practice. And the fourth is a former combat nurse who now has six kids – and gets pregnant because she wasn’t able to get birth control pills without her husband’s permission, and he hadn’t gotten around to coming to the appointment yet.

A couple of the women have good relationships with their husbands, despite some ups and downs and working things out. A couple of them have very bad relationships with their husbands. The writer gets a job writing a column for a women’s magazine – but they only want her to write fluff pieces. The high point of the book is when she decides to write an honest essay about what The Feminine Mystique and the book club have meant to her.

I loved listening to this book right from the start. It got me thinking about my life and my mother’s life. My mother got married at the end of 1960, and I, her third child, was born in 1964 – so she was navigating marriage right in this time period. My mom did not achieve the perfect house and family – she had way too many kids to keep up (ending up with thirteen) – but she desperately wanted to. My mom would decidedly not have joined this book club, being staunchly against feminism, and despite the fact she didn’t meet society’s expectations for a housewife, she did pass those expectations on to me. So something else I had to deal with after I got married was realizing I couldn’t afford to be a stay-at-home mom even if I wanted to be. And keeping a clean house and good meals? An always failing proposition. In so many ways it was crazily liberating when my husband left me – because it pretty much threw out all those expectations, and I got to find out how truly wonderful a meaningful career can be.

But of course it’s all more complicated than can be put into a paragraph. Or an essay. But a novel – that’s a wonderful format to explore how attitudes were changing for women in the early 1960s and all that could mean for individuals.

And besides all that thought-provoking stuff, these characters were so much fun to get to know and spend time with. Troublesome women can be very entertaining! Highly recommended!

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Review of A Tangled Web, by L. M. Montgomery

Fiction Review, Historical, Old Favorites, Starred Review 0

A Tangled Web

by L. M. Montgomery

Bantam Books, 1989. Originally published in 1931. 257 pages.
Review written June 20, 2025, from my own copy.
Starred Review

Back in 2019, I got to visit Prince Edward Island, and attempted to reread all of L. M. Montgomery’s books in the order she published them before I did. I did not finish that project, but I did reread fourteen of her twenty novels. However, it’s only now in 2025 that I got back to that project with the joy of rereading A Tangled Web as the perfect diversion on a flight that ended up much longer than planned because of storms.

A Tangled Web begins some of L. M. Montgomery’s more mature novels. Technically, it was published for adults, and the characters featured are almost entirely adults and young adults. But as with all of her books, there’s a wide appeal from preteens through adults, and you’d better believe that in 1931, she would not have written any sexual content.

A Tangled Web is about two large entwined (by intermarrying) families, the Darks and the Penhallows, living on Prince Edward Island. Aunt Becky is the owner of the famous clan heirloom, the Dark jug. She has gathered all the clan as she knows her time is coming – to tell them who will inherit the old brown jug.

All the family comes. Either because they’re desperate to own the jug, or because they want the entertainment of watching Aunt Becky make everyone squirm with all the secrets she knows about everyone. Well, she makes hints and threats – but announces that they will have to meet again on a certain day more than a year away, when the one family member who can keep a secret will announce who gets the jug.

And almost no one in the family is unaffected by the meetings and the jug. The book covers several of those life-changing events. This book reminds me greatly of L. M. Montgomery’s short story collections – but the stories are tangled together by somehow relating to the family jug.

And I’m afraid Maud Montgomery seems more cynical than in her youth. Yes, there is some love at first sight – some that even works out in the end – but there’s a theme running through of the wisdom of taking a second look at your passions to see if they stand the test of time. (And some do, some don’t.) Yes, there are a bunch of happy marriages that happen in this book – but there are also some painful course corrections for the people involved. And I love that at least one happily ever after happens when the course correction goes away from marriage. And that at least one legacy from Aunt Becky brings great good to a couple people who richly deserve it.

But you absolutely cannot go wrong with L. M. Montgomery. She is a master of making quirky characters come alive and revealing the vagaries of human nature. If you haven’t read her books yet, this isn’t necessarily the one I’d start with – but anyone who’s read and loved any of her books will be happy to find out there’s more.

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Review of Pedro and Daniel, by Federico Erebia

Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Pedro and Daniel

by Federico Erebia

Levine Querido, 2023. 425 pages.
Review written July 28, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

The author gives us a hint of what we’re in for in an Introduction:

This novel is a work of fiction based on my memorable relationship with Daniel, my brother. Other characters, and some scenes, are composites, and/or fictional. All other names are fictional.

We know from the start how the book will end:

After Daniel’s death in 1993 at age thirty, the seeds of this novel were planted within the fertile grounds of the controlled chaos of my mind, where they germinated – constantly calling out for the light of day, to be written down, to be shared with others.

Yes, this is the story of two brothers, Pedro and Daniel, close in age and close in spirit. They have a frighteningly abusive mother, who especially targets Pedro with her physical and verbal abuse.

I’m going back and forth thinking whether this book is an epic tapestry of the lives of two brothers, or if it’s a slightly self-indulgent set of memories that were only partly shaped into a novel. It’s interesting that it’s marketed for young adults, because there’s more about the brothers’ childhood and after-college years than the time they spent in high school and college, when they were separated.

But as I reflect, I’m leaning more toward thinking of it as an epic tapestry. I remember how I eagerly began, but bogged down in the middle where it got a little slower, a little more meditative. We feel their bond, and the different ways the two of them approach life. Both are gay, though Pedro took longer to admit it to himself. Daniel wants to be a priest, and Pedro wants to be a doctor. This becomes poignant when Daniel contracts HIV which progresses into AIDS, and Pedro knows medically what he’s going through, but still didn’t have any effective treatment to help him.

I enjoyed the Dichos that Daniel loves – Mexican proverbs. They’re given throughout the book, with translations. An index at the back is fun to read through. I have to say that he caught many biblical references, but I did find four biblical proverbs that were listed as “Origin unknown.” Oh well, if Daniel had been the one writing the book, he probably would have known.

This is not an action-packed novel. It’s a literary novel that covers the boys’ entire lives, with plenty of social commentary along the way. They were born about the same time as me, and I appreciated the little details that reminded me of my very different childhood. Give this to teens who like to read and think deeply. And I hope that gay boys who read it will find kindred souls in Pedro and Daniel.

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