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!

dolenperkinsvaldez.com

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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 If Looks Could Kill, by Julie Berry

Audiobooks, History, Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

If Looks Could Kill

by Julie Berry
read by Jayne Entwistle

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. 15 hours, 24 minutes.
Review written November 14, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This brilliant novel is Medusa vs. Jack the Ripper! But not a Greek Medusa. Instead, Medusas are something like vampires, getting created by a kind of infection. But then they stand against those who would prey on vulnerable women.

The setting of the book is the Bowery in New York City in 1888. Jack the Ripper, the Whitechapel Killer, is fleeing London after a very strange encounter with his last victim. Meanwhile, in New York, 18-year-old Tabitha Woodward is adjusting to her new life in the Salvation Army and her annoying partner, Pearl. Tabitha and Pearl visit the saloons and bars, selling the Salvation Army’s newsletter and coaxing people to come hear the preaching. They meet the people in the city and see a girl get pulled into the orbit of a notorious madam.

And I don’t want to give anything away, but yes, the story ends up being Medusas vs. Jack the Ripper. With the innocent and earnest Salvation Army girls in the middle of it.

I appreciated the long historical note at the back reflecting the author’s deep research. She chose a likely suspect for Jack the Ripper who actually came to New York after the murders. She even gave him a plausible motive, using the theosophical teachings popular at the time to use almost-living organs to try to cure his own illness. She honored his victims, who may not have been prostitutes at all. And I especially love the way she also researched the early Salvation Army and showed Tabitha and Pearl’s deep faith and desire to help people in trouble in the slums of New York. I was afraid when they showed up that they’d be a caricature, but they were the opposite of that.

And I do love a story where the helpless become powerful! But these Medusas don’t blindly use their power. It’s not a matter of one look turns the viewer to stone – they have to mean it. And they grapple with the meaning of that power. There are scary moments, and a few in-the-nick-of-time rescues, but it all adds up to a fascinating historical story with lots of suspense. There’s even a developing sweet romance.

I heard about this book at ALA Annual Conference last June, but wasn’t able to get an Advance Reader Copy, so I was looking forward to its publication ever since and got on the holds list for the audio the first day I purchased it for the library. I knew to expect good things from Julie Berry, and I was not disappointed.

julieberrybooks.com

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Review of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
read by Arina Li

Harlequin Audio, 2020. 6 hours, 53 minutes.
Review written November 11, 2025, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I placed a hold on Before the Coffee Gets Cold after I read and loved What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama, and many blurbs about the book compared it to Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

And yes, it’s a good comparison. Both books are set in Tokyo and are international bestsellers translated from Japanese. Both tell stories of separate people whose lives are changed after they visit a particular place. Both have a touch of magic – this one a much stronger thread, enough that I’m going to call it science fiction. Of course I enjoyed What You Are Looking For Is in the Library more because the magical place is a library – but I enjoyed this book, too.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a time travel story. Normally, I’m not the audience for time travel stories. (Though because I only review books I like, my readers might not realize there are plenty of time travel stories I’ve decided not to review.) But I like the way the time travel in this book came with rules that did away with any nasty paradoxes or feelings of “that wouldn’t happen that way.” (Okay, there’s one exception to that, which I’ll list at the end. But it didn’t nag at me like in some books.)

The setting is a café where visitors can time travel. But the rules are many. Nothing they do in the past will change the present. They can only time travel in one particular seat. And they can’t leave that seat while they are time traveling. So of course they can only talk with people who are also in the café at the time they travel to. And perhaps most crucial – the time travel begins when a particular cup of coffee is poured – and they have to drink the entire cup – and finish before the coffee gets cold.

The rules make the story more fun. And no real explanation is given, despite what the first featured visitor wants. That’s simply the way the time travel works. By not trying to explain it and by making the rules somewhat inconvenient – it’s easier for the reader not to question how it works.

The book features four time travelers. First is a young woman who wants to revisit the conversation in the café when her boyfriend told her he was moving to America. Then comes a wife whose husband is inflicted with Alzheimer’s and has forgotten who she is. We’ve got a sister who wants to see her sister one last time, and a woman who wants to reassure herself that her daughter will be okay.

Along the way, we get to know the owner and workers in the café and its regular visitors, including the ghost of a woman who time traveled too long, and her coffee got cold.

Oh, and what’s the one little nagging question? When somebody goes back in time to a time when they know the person they want to talk to was in the café – where did their own past self go? (Maybe I missed the part where they made sure it was before or after they themselves were there, but I wasn’t super clear on how that part worked.) The story was done well enough, I didn’t really think about that until after the encounter, though.

It’s one of those charming feel-good books, and I just learned that so far there are four sequels, though unfortunately the library doesn’t own the audiobook versions. But I do like all that can be done within those simple time-traveling rules, and how much it can reflect on life, relationships, and interactions.

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Review of The Poisoned King, by Katherine Rundell

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Poisoned King

by Katherine Rundell
read by Sam West

Listening Library, 2025. 7 hours, 7 minutes.
Review written November 7, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

With Book 2 of the books set in the magical Archipelago, I’m loving this series more than ever. I believe you don’t have to read the first book, Impossible Creatures, to enjoy this one, because it’s a mostly self-contained story. But I highly recommend that you do read the first, because both are wonderful!

This book does start with Christopher, an Outlander Guardian from our world, being summoned back to the Archipelago by Jacques, the tiny jaculus dragon. He’s summoned because dragons have been dying throughout the Archipelago, and they want a Guardian to figure out what’s wrong and save them.

Once he arrives, he gets guidance from a sphinx – who pulls him into the story of Anya, Princess of Dousha. And her story is the story of the poisoned king – for her grandfather the king was poisoned, her father was framed for his murder, and now Anya’s life is in danger because she’s next in line for the throne.

So the adventure in this book is to find out what happened to the dragons and the king, clear Anya’s father’s name, and get vengeance on the person behind all that. The idea is simple, and the adventure is wonderful.

Again, the book is full of impossible, fantastical creatures. I like the Gagana birds who follow Princess Anya around and look after her. We do meet some friends from the previous book, all working for the good of the islands. The eventual plan to make things right is ingenious, and not without danger. And it’s mostly carried out by children – Christopher and Anya.

The narrator of this series is phenomenal as well. He does excellent voices for the many creatures, and his storytelling voice is perfect for the dry humor throughout the book. One example is the chapter title, “A Discovery: Oysters Both Look and Taste Like Snot.” There are also many wise sayings (such as “Fear has wisdom in it, if you treat it well.”), which he declares with wonderful gravity.

I recently finished another Book 2 and was annoyed the story wasn’t done. With this book, I’m delighted it’s Book 2, because it has the feel of a series. I’m hoping for many more grand adventures in the magical world of the Archipelago. If you haven’t visited it yet, here’s another opportunity!

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Review of The Rebel and the Rose, by Catherine Doyle

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Rebel and the Rose

by Catherine Doyle
read by Emily Carey and Freddy Carter

Simon & Schuster Audio UK, 2025. 13 hours, 23 minutes.
Review written November 7, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.

The Rebel and the Rose is the sequel to The Dagger and the Flame, romantasies with a very unusual magic system. I’ve gotten spoiled by the recent flood of duologies out there – I was disappointed when this book did not finish the story, but I will want to know what happens next.

At the start of this book, Ransom is now head of the Daggers, and Seraphine lives away from the city of Fantome, making Lightfire that counteracts the Shade the Daggers use in their work as assassins.

But when Sera and her friends go into the city to find out more about a prophecy of new Saints, they’re captured by the King’s Guard, imprisoned – and then forced to work together with the Daggers – and Ransom himself – to kill the two new Saints who have appeared. The one who’s calling himself the People’s Saint has been raising up rebellion against the king.

I thought I knew where this book was going. The king turns out to be an odious and horrible man, and Ransom and Sera are still full of lust for one another. The king doesn’t realize that Sera herself with her new power is one of the new Saints. She wants to find out about the new Saint, and get Ransom to agree to hold off on killing him.

But things go askew when it turns out the People’s Saint is also a horrible person. The resolution of all this will not be simple – and the part that takes place in this volume is full of drama and danger. And yes, more sex and violence and magic.

Something I loved is that there are big coincidences regarding Ransom and the identity of the Saints – and the author can get away with it because the God of Fate is involved. Instead of rolling our eyes at the coincidences, this assures the reader that Fate is messing with him! Plus, the author observes the Rule of Good Fiction that coincidences can get characters into trouble, but never out of trouble.

I’m not sure how they’ll get out of the mess at the end of this book, but it’s going to be interesting….

catherinedoylebooks.com

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Review of The Dagger and the Flame, by Catherine Doyle

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Dagger and the Flame

by Catherine Doyle
read by Emily Carey and Freddy Carter

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 13 hours, 23 minutes.
Review written July 21, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This is another eaudiobook I decided to put on hold because so many other people had done so. Maybe they were onto something! I saw that the sequel is out soon, and it already has lots of NotifyMe tags in Libby – I decided to see what the fuss is about, and was glad I did.

This is a romantasy with a dash of violence, but a unique set of fantasy world-building. Seraphine has grown up on a farm with her mother, a smuggler of Shade – a magical substance with an affinity for shadows. But the Prologue tells us about a strange experiment her mother didn’t want her to see, when something she did with Shade turned their cat into a monster.

There are two groups in the city that use Shade, but Sera’s mother only sold to the Cloaks. The Cloaks wear cloaks woven and sewn and created with Shade that enable the wearer to turn invisible in shadows. They are a guild of thieves, hired by those who desire their services. Sera’s mother told her to go to them if she is ever in trouble.

So when Sera comes home to find her mother dead, their farm burned, and sees a member of the other guild, the Daggers, standing over her – Sera runs to the Cloaks. She knows she may be next if she can’t find sanctuary. Can she fit in with them and learn to be a thief? She’s used to Shade, but not to wielding it.

After establishing all this, we hear from our second viewpoint character – Ransom, a Dagger who has indeed been tasked with assassinating Seraphine. He’s in no hurry, but finds himself more intrigued by his mark than he’s accustomed to. Daggers actually drink a potion made of Shade. It’s said that drinking Shade eventually eats out their hearts, but they can actually wield shadows and kill with impunity.

And then some monsters start appearing in the city, killing people with much less finesse than the Daggers used – but the same symptoms on their bodies. Does it have something to do with Sera’s mother’s experiments? And then when Ransom tries to carry out his assignment – she discovers the necklace her mother gave her has a strange power.

The history of the city, the guilds, and shade, is all woven into the story. Both characters have strong friendships in their guilds that help guide their actions and choices. It all builds to a crisis that leaves things unsettled, but with a new kind of power to explore. I’m definitely wanting to find out what happens next – coming in September! (And I’m currently in line for the eaudiobook. Note: I think it’s related to the author being Irish, but the ebook and eaudiobook are available to the library before the print book, which comes out in December.)

catherinedoylebooks.com

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Review of James, by Percival Everett, read by Dominic Hoffman

Audiobooks, Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

James

by Percival Everett
read by Dominic Hoffman

Books on Tape, 2024. 7 hours, 49 minutes.
Review written September 2, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I put James on hold shortly after reading the graphic novel Big Jim and the White Boy, by David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson. And then, when my hold was only a couple weeks away from coming in, I accidentally canceled the hold when I meant to cancel a different hold – and then had several more months to wait. Anyway, that gave me more time between the two books, which are essentially doing the same thing – retelling the story of Huckleberry Finn, this time from the perspective of Jim.

I honestly enjoyed Big Jim and the White Boy a little more. It was more light-hearted and cast Jim as essentially a superhero, telling something of a tall tale about his exploits. A lot of fun to read.

“Fun” isn’t the word I’d use to describe James. Though it was certainly more realistic, and gave you some insights about what would happen if a slave ran away with a white boy and floated south down the Mississippi River.

In both books, James doesn’t talk in the ridiculous way Mark Twain portrayed him talking. In this book, it’s quite a theme that among themselves, slaves speak “proper” English, but deliberately sound ignorant and childlike if any white people are around. James knows how to read and has spent hours in Judge Thatcher’s library reading philosophy. He dreams about people like Voltaire and has discussions with them about their defense of slavery. Throughout the book, it’s just plain comical how disconcerted white folks are if they hear Jim speaking without using slave speech. There’s a funny scene where the elders are teaching kids how to speak to white folks. The trick is to always play dumb and let the white folks figure things out for themselves.

Mostly the book is a series of adventures and tight spots, some with Huck and some without. James wants to be free and wants to purchase the freedom of his wife and daughter. And along the way, he acquires a pencil and also wants to write his story. There’s plenty of insight and commentary on slavery in the days just before the Civil War began. A very powerful and moving story that does shine light on an evil time in our nation’s history.

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Review of Somadina, by Akwaeke Emezi

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Somadina

by Akwaeke Emezi
read by Nene Nwoko

Listening Library, 2025. 9 hours, 47 minutes.
Review written September 2, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Somadina is a powerful fantasy novel about a girl with magical powers on a quest to rescue her twin. The story is completely rooted in an African cultural world, a refreshing change from the usual white medieval-based fantasy stories I read.

It’s been many years since the Split – when to protect themselves in a war, the magic-users in the community did such powerful magic, the earth split open – and everyone who survived ever since gets a magical gift when they come of age. But Somadina and her twin Jayaike are slow to get their gifts and slow to develop physically, confirming to some in the village that twins are inherently evil and should have been left to die.

But then when their gifts do manifest, they’re surprisingly powerful. When Somadina uses her gift to protect her friend being raped, the result revives the village’s fear that she is evil. Her own mother calls her an abomination. As if that weren’t enough, her twin brother is taken by a man who has appeared in Somadina’s dreams, telling her he’s going to eat their power. Her brother is like another part of her, and Somadina is compelled to find him, which brings its own adventures.

I was glad I listened to this book, because I love the narrator’s African accent that helped me feel immersed in that world. The story is full of mythic elements and comes to a wonderfully satisfying conclusion after the big showdown at the end.

A powerful fantasy tale that is definitely not the same old thing.

akwaeke.com

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Review of What You Are Looking For Is in the Library, by Michiko Aoyama

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library

by Michiko Aoyama
read by Hanako Footman, Susan Momoko Hingley, Kenichiro Thomson, Winson Ting, and Shiro Kawai

HarlequinAudio, 2023. 7 hours, 19 minutes.
Review written September 9, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

First, a great big thank-you to my friend Suzanne LaPierre for recommending this book! I loved it in every way! She recommended it in an answer to my new email newsletter, Book Talking with Sondy, so let me encourage more of my readers to sign up for Book Talking with Sondy and recommend books back to me!

What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a translation of a Japanese book, set in a neighborhood of Tokyo. We get five interlocking stories – a 21-year-old working in a department store and not happy about it, a 35-year-old salary man who wishes he could open an antique store, a 40-year-old who got demoted while she was on maternity leave, a 30-year-old NEET (not in employment, education or training), and a newly retired 65-year-old.

All of these people are thinking about their lives and their work and what it all means and what they want and what they’re stuck with – or are they actually stuck? All of them find their way to a small community library with a very large librarian, Sayuri Komachi.

I did love that these folks found a path to meaning in a library – my one quibble being that this librarian had time to take up a hobby and make felted objects while she waits behind a screen for customers to show up.

But this particular librarian has mystical powers – and she gives each of our featured characters the books they ask for, plus one seemingly unrelated book that makes all the difference. She also gives each one a bonus gift – a small felted object that ends up having special significance to that person and helps to change their life.

And all of our heroes find paths to new meaning after their encounter with the almost magical librarian. So that might be hard to read for someone struggling with similar issues themselves – except that the author treats all of the characters and their situations with deep respect, showing plainly that their life and their value goes much deeper than their current work situation.

Just a wonderful and uplifting book. And look! Our library has ordered another book by this author – The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park. I have already placed a hold.

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