roadtripreader's reviews
357 reviews

Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 well that opening was soul crushing - folowed by loss, grief, weed high, acute mania and coming of age somehow crash into each other to give off a way way more nightmarish Oz than I'd like to think about.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
This story just cracked open my ribcage and squeezed my heart. Loochie loves her Bestie Sunny and the ever present threat of death just kept haunting them. But there's also this theme of Loochie caught between childhood and teendom, it's this weird tug-o-war and maybe that's why Louis stupid story about the Kroons took on a very Through-The-Looking-Glass-Darkly effect in her imagination.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Would Loochie have experienced that whole sequence if it weren't for Louis planting the seed? Obviously a break in reality was coming but Louis Louis Louis - even the most sane person would get a bit paranoid after that story.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
I'm not even 12 and Louis scared the Hell outta me with that Kroons atpry. Creeeepy. Smdh 🤣older siblings always trying to scare the living bejesus out of younger siblings.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “You whores can get out of my house!” Loochie yelled.” (I have never applauded a foul-mouth cussing 12 year old as much as I did Miss Loochie🤣)
🖤 “Being young doesn’t protect you. Horrors come for kids, too.”” (I wish this wasn't fact but it is)
🖤 “A cloud of rats. No, that’s not quite right. A flock of rats. The worst of the New York City varieties.” (Deep in Kroon hell)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts :
■ All the millenial hits! Pink, Shakira Shakira - bittersweet memories
■ Sneak attack debt counselling
■ Kroons
■Rats with wings and not pigeons

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Horror Books by 2025 

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 Omg I loved this so much - I had veen procrastinating starting Technically Yours, so I switched and just decided to go the route of another popular Contemporary Romance and man I'm so glad I just went into this with no expectations.

Cue the Rocky Balboa music🎶because cheers! I can't believe it but this is my first 5⭐ read of 2024 and it's a Romance go figure and in the subgenre I no longer hate or deign to read once in a while..I wondered when I'd find my 5 star read.

Now *shoves this book between all the romantasies in my bookcase* pardon me while I gush and rave like a teen for a minute okay? Thank you so much.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
I laughed, I cried, I smiled dumbly into the distance inbetween sips of wine, shook my head, sighed like I'm in love (which for the duration of this book, I was) and then I sniffled and wanted to just scoop Chloe and Redford up into a massive hug.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Chloe:I loved her from the moment she said "I think I'm in shock - could I have some chocolate" because yes Chloe you can have all the chocolate your heart desires.
Redford: tattooed to within an inch of his life, long hair, motorcycle, leather jacket and the biggest most golden heart ever. And he's a ginger ninja so there's that. And an artist. And did I mention hot? I feel like I didn't mention that. Well he's a hot sweetypie.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
How can I choose? There are too many cozy, fuzzy and laugh out loud moments and please pass me a quart of ice cream while I reread this damn chapter right now. I am beaming with joy and it's ridiculous.

■Chloe and the cat in the tree - that inner monolgue alone was worth a re-read.
"She would dominate this tree"- we know how that went🤣
Or
"Let me just secure the cat" she mumbled
"Fuck the cat. It's playing you like a violin"
Her gasp tasted of ice and pollution.
"How dare you! This cat is an angel. Look at it. Look!"

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Cute as a button, neat as a button, always dressed in buttons” (I can't with how much Redford likes his Chloe-button)
🖤 “Goodness gracious, he'd better stop doing that. Looking at him was distracting enough; if he started to emote her brain might short circuit” (One of my favorite scenes)
🖤 “She hadn't always been like this, a tongue with the tip bitten off, her feelings squashed into a box.” (Oh Chlo! You are beyond relatable)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts :
■ Disability representation done so well
■ Get A Life List
■ Chloe's Self Eulogies

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025 

Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen by Chris Scott, Chris Scott, Brittany Cornerly, Brittany Cornerly, Sarah Zorn, Sarah Zorn

informative inspiring lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

4.0

RTC ...after my final experiment in the kitchen.

But let me just say - Scrapple doesn't taste half bad🤷🏻‍♀️. I enjoyed trying new things. It's not my usual spicy food at all but man is it comfort and goes well with a movie.

Anyway, I am plotting dinner. The Hard Times section has some delicious recipes. Still, goimg with tried and tested:
■Obssessed with the Nana Browne's Potatoea (leftovers)
■ Pan seared chicken livers
And if I can get this right:
■Crispy Fried Tripe with hot vinegar peppers. (But I miss chillies and heat so I'll probably switch this out or add jalapeños or habañeros or something)

In a word yum. 

(Trust) Falling For You by Charish Reid

adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I have a sudden urge to suggest to my own faculty that maybe a week long camping trip to Wisconsin might just be in order. But nope, there are like 4 young folk in this department, the rest are cryptkeepers - we would not have a blast.

Soo many cute, adorable, teachable moments. I just want to inhale this novella and whip it out whenever I feel a bit blue.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Oh don't you just love it when a light and fluffy spicy romance starts of with shoving the two main characters into a tight corner to make them boil with all that seething-tense-alchemical spark? Well I'm finding that I love it hehehe🤗

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
♡Samuel shushes people!. Like Dude c'mon. The only time I am responsive to shushing is at a library or the theatre and if I still went to Imax or whatever in fact I'll join in the shushing. Any other place and you're begging for a Guinness world record side-eye followed by more chatter. But he's hot with the beginning of early-onset silverfox syndrome so we let it slide.
♡Yolanda Watson is a little petty and not in the Petty Queen kind of way. Messy and chaotic. But you know, I still like her.
♡Juliais a loveable straight shooter. The work-bestie I need in my life.
♡Peter The Theology Professoris a damned hoot! His not-funny-jokes actually had me giggling.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
Oh I cackled! I love a good bwahaha🤣. The bathroom spider-assassin chaos was everything.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Safety is real important to me, and your dean assured me that none of you are gonna do anything stupid like walk off a mountain” (Gus Kelly lodge owner exuding PopPop-Dumbledore vibes)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts :
■Essence Festival
■ Ole Smokey
■ TB Buddies Challenge
■Yolanda's t-shirts

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025

Caged View: A Collection of Urban Fantasy Short Stories by Kenya Wright

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

ew gross there's a Were-rat in this - okay but Paranotmal Romancers, when TF did shifter become a blanket for all creatures under the sun? Like when did Were-insert_anycreature_here become a thing?

Seriously, I get my ass handed to me by depression and disappear from books for about 6 years and when I get back it's Were-tigers and Were-pillows and Were-Doorknobs and Were-Balloons and what's next Were-Clouds. Hey now - yall do not go writing a spicy smutty novella about a shapeshifting cloud😳

Watch, that's next weeks new release now. Bet.🤣

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
It's actually a decent set of short stories and reminds me of Bright on Netflix. Also it's a bit dark and tragic and you kinda sorta feel for the characters. But I don't particularly like the universe it takes place in. Maybe it's meant to be uncomfortable, it's a caged city after all.

I hate the diminutives for perfectly good words "Vamps" sound like they're a dance troupe. Just say Vampires. "Supes" makes me want to get out a recipe for good chicken soup - what's wrong with Supernatural. Why Habbs and not Habitat Police? Does everything need a nickname/slang?
Petty problems but I just didn't like this at all.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Zulu is too sexy 🔥so hey, that was a treat.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
Vengeance!Also damn Meshack you went straight for violent castration? I mean no judgment but whoa.
Fck Around and Find Out! Zulu doing the thing and smiting Tango.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “In this cage, behind these bars, I think of you and me.” (Zulu on Lanore)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts :
■ Caged Habitats for Supernaturals
■ Blue-Fi, Green Goblin, Hemo Drop
■ Old African Gods: Shango, Yemaya Oya et al

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Romance Books by 2025

What's A Girl Gotta Do To Get On The Naughty List? by Kimberly Lemming

funny relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Aaww! I want to go plotting and get up to prankster shenanigans with a hot krampus!

I was overdue something silly, spicy-bordering on smutty. I been reading about harrowing epic tales of the David and Goliath varieties over there yonder and I need a teenie tinie break. Romance has become my little refuge and trust Kimberly Lemming to put together a little something something😉 to take the edge off.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Krampus is very reasonable. He presents the facts before his spanks thy ass. I like an organized ...what is it a demon? A spirit? A what? Well whatever Krampus is he is organized.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Hehehe Daphne is a basket case of problems.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
She really hit pause in the middle of a heated debate to save her soul just so she could water plants. Well. Not just. They're plants afterall. Lol that was gold.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “There wasn’t a situation alive I couldn’t gaslight, gatekeep or girlboss my way out of.” (😲no way, Daphne is problematic AF)
🖤 “You have the taste of something truly devious about you.” (Howcome Krampus aounds so hot?)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Krampus has Interns and a cellphone
■metal ball piercings ahem...🔥

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories by 2025

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 I've read so many installments in the Dead Djinn Universe that this version of Egypt feels real and the one I've travelled to seems like a weird lucid dream-nightmare. -I wish it was.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
It feels so physical, tangible that I can actually plot my route from the airport to Le Passage hotel from there into Cairo and imagine Djinn walking down the street, steam engines propelled vehicles, people in gallabiyahs, tarbooshes kaftans all luxurious and classy - no scammers or at least less than today's Cairo.

Sigh, I'd travel to Clark's version of Cairo for summer vacation every year.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
This time around, we get to swashbuckle with Djinn and ghosts and automatons with Agent Hamed (He's so annoyable really it's too easy) and Agent Onsi (bright-eyed and bushytailed) instead of Agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi. It's new and I like it.

We all need an Onsi, someone who will chat away the silence while we zone out and think deep important thoughts

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:
Sheika Nadiyah, Fahima the Boilerplate Eunuch and Jizzu the Qareen Djinn perform the Zār on the tram.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Whatever became of the dead, it didn’t appear they cared to converse with the living.” (Hamed on the lack of ghosts in Egypt)
🖤 “Never seek a wish from a djinn” (true true but now I want to make a wish real bad)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Ramses Station: Trams, Airships, Dirigibles
■Art&Design: Pharaonists, Djinn Architecture, Alexandrian Scholars
■ Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities.
■Spectral Goggles
■The Kaf & Djinn: Jann, Marid, Ifrit, Qareen
■Al-Jahiz - The wandering Soudanese

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Steampunk Books by 2025 

The Black Pages by Nnedi Okorafor

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Success! Just needed a little patience - I hated the other short story by Okorafor in the Scifi collection edited by James SA Corey, but I was determined to find something I liked before delving into a full length novel for this BHM. Bingo! This is fire - I mean inflammable ... whatever you get it.

We open onto absolute chaos in Timbuktu; in the middle of a full blown Terrorist attack, extremists invasion and magic inbetween. I did not expect that at all.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
So, there's a book in this library that wouldn't burn.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Oh Issaka's family😥

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
●Faro taking refuge in an iPad.
●Uncle Moussa' soliloquy

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Heat rises, but it also scorches the earth when it is hungry. That fire is hungry.” (Faro on freedom and Fire)
🖤 “Chicago needs work. But Al Capone was a long time ago.”
“Sure, sure, but spirits and djinn always linger when there is something to linger for.” (On Tv's power to meld stereotypes)
🖤 “She stood tall now, looking at him, looking at him, looking at him. She wasn’t remembering him because she’d never forgotten him” (Faro on Issaka)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts :
■ Timbuktu
■Ahmed Baba Institute (❤libraries)
■ tempête de sable sandstorm

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories by 2025 

The Visit by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

dark reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 🤣That opening paragraph - how rude is all I could think. Like dude you're nitpicking the president's appearance right down to her crown - those hair extensions! But the way he critiqued her made me think...hhhmmm feels a bit wierd, something is afoot but what? And I decided to find out.

So essentially almost a role reversal, a subversion and yet mysoginoir still finds it's way in. Curious. Curious indeed.

Maybe I don't get the hype because I've never read anything by the author and I just remember the craze surrounding her during that era where Beyonce was a "poet" and added poetry to that one song I keep forgetting. However, for my first look into Ngozi's writing, I do like it.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:

It's very on the nose but still enjoyable.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Obinna is still a bit of a mysoginist he's instinct is to tear apart the physical looks of the female presidents as part of his internal disapproval of the law being upheld. He characterizes her as dramatic which is a stereotype often used to describe African American women and he's an overall ass.

In the words of my dear Laszlo Cravensworth: he speaks the bullshit.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
Police Checkpoint: RUDE. Like seriously, WTF. Also I laughed then I stopped laughing and was like wait what?

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “Don’t lick your fingers like a bush boy. How will you find a wife with this kind of behavior?.” (got news for you weirdo, people have been known to lick their fingers. It's a human thing.)
🖤 “marriage was the ultimate prize for a man. Everyone knew that. So how could a man just choose not to marry? It felt to him sacrilegious” (See how ridiculous this sounds? Exactly. And yet it endures for women.)
🖤 “How will it look when we go to OPEC meetings and it turns out that only Nigeria has a male minister? They won’t take us seriously.”” (Oh I can't. This is too good!)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts :
■ Male Masturbatory Act🤣 straight to jail
■Pregnancy Checks
■Houseboys
■ Lagos cliché: the husband fighting the boyfriend in public
■G-15 Summit Topics: breast enhancement surgery and pedicures

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories by 2025 

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wait wait wait just a damn minute - so even Gods have debts? Man you can't get away from that debt-life even as an omnipresent deity???. SMDH No hay nada gratis, nothing for free I guess.

I was so worried this wouldn't live up to my expectations. I waited for almost a year to read it. Who am I kidding, the TBR kept expanding and I kept pushingnthis back by a month. But what a saga, snd the "Craft" *slaps table enthusiastically* Don't even get me started!

What a world Gladstone created. I can't even begin to break it down for fear it would just diminish it. Few books have this "hey you, yeah you lookie here - I built a whole world and you could pretty much survive in it but I gotta warn you, there's a couple of big things that might make life er let's see ... colorful. You're gonna love it." and love it I did.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
To feel worry for a God's wellbeing, health and safety and then go on a mission to drag that God back to the land of the living (in deity standards) to keep a city of humans functioning. Selfless in the former, selfish in the latter - so very human, snake eating its tail and all that. If that isn't a perfect dissection of human nature, what is even the point of psychobabble? The point here? This Book was a most delightful steampunkish fantasy.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
There are a ton of characters I was this close to drawing out a diagram to go with my reading.
■Ms Kevarian is this badass high Craftswoman (not high as in smoke, the other high).
■Tara Abernathy has this raw talent that'll surpass her mentor pretty soon.
■Kos is ever present, yet absent but his weight in deeds and misdeeds is a character on its own.
■Abelard poor buddy. Just put the cigarrette down dude.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene: :
Way to many scenes. I'll pic a few from Act 1.
Tara finessing the Blacksuits and stealing a f**e.
let's go to Kos' church:all the scenes with poor sweet bound-for- throat-cancer
Abelard.
Library of Kos: Standing inside the God

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “He was not the type to wall Himself off from the world. You got a better angle on humanity from down here, He claimed, than from on high.” (Kos being a "hands on" deity)
🖤 “Some kind of imbalance almost has to happen for a god as big as Kos to die. If he expends much more energy than he reaps from his believers’ faith and supplication, poof.” (Tara on the death of a god)
🖤 “These buildings remembered the taste of blood sacrifice, and hungered for more.” (The City of Alt Coulomb)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts :
■Kos and all his honorifics
■ The God Wars
■ The Deathless Kings
■ Prayer and Worship built into steam machine technology.
■Craft vs Soulstuff
■Crack in The World
■Agents of Justice: Blacksuits
■Mirrors as weapons

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Steampunk Books by 2025