BIPOC characters

Audiobook: The Missed Connection

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by Tia Williams
Read by Khaya Fraites
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing, including multiple f-bombs, talk of trauma and anxiety, and a few on-page sex scenes. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

After a year off, Sasha thinks she’s ready to get back in the game. She’s a casting agent, and she’s been hired to cast a lipstick commercial for makeup brand Seraphina. Which means getting on a plane for a transatlantic flight. She’s not happy about this, but when she meets Seat F, she feels like there’s an instant connection. They spend the flight talking and holding hands… but when they get to Paris, she loses him. Which is why she goes back to her old contact – a former private detective Wes (I can’t remember his last name!) – to help her find Seat F. But, the connection between her and Wes may be too much to ignore.

I really enjoyed this one! It was good to have a grounded romance, well-written, with fleshed-out characters that kept my interest without me rolling my eyes! I think I had a few nitpick items, but honestly, it didn’t really matter. Williams handled this in a way that felt realistic while also adhering to the guidelines in romance, and everything in the book felt intentional. It was smart, it was fun, and I definitely will be reading more from her.

Mixed Feelings

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by Sara Amini and Shadia Amin
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is a mention of girls having crushes and name-calling. It’s in the Middle-Grade Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

It’s the start of sixth grade, and Sara wants to make it the best year ever. Except that she has no classes with her best friend, she’s suddenly sprouted leg hair, and she just doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. Part of that is because everything is awkward in sixth grade, but part of it is that she is half Colombian and half Persian, and doesn’t feel like she’s enough for either.

Then she finds the drama club and discovers that acting helps make her feel like she belongs.

The book follows the whole school year: the ups and downs with Sara’s best friend, and her making new friends; the drama of not feeling like you fit in with everyone else. There’s nothing major, really, but it does capture the tiny trials of sixth graders, especially one who is bi-racial. It’s a solid story, and one that I think a lot of kids will relate to.

Young World

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by Soman Chainani
First sentence: “Dear Miss Escobedo, I know our weekly journals are supposed to be about current events and things that matter in the world, but right now the only thing that matters to me is a girl.”
Review copy provided by the publisher
Content: There’s some swearing (maybe f-bombs? I can’t remember), and violence. It’s in the Young Adult section of the bookstore.

All Benton Young wanted to do was impress a girl. So, he uploaded a video to YouTube with plans for a revolution, with demands that the young people of the world take over and change things. What he didn’t expect was for his video to go viral, for him to be written in as a presidential campaign, and for him – a 17-year-old black kid from St. Louis – to be elected as president. Suddenly, things aren’t quite as easy as he thought it would be. And he still didn’t get the girl.

I was honestly excited about this one. It sounded unique. The book itself is a fascinating mix of journals and “found” documents – graphs, newspaper clippings, etc. I liked the idea of a revolution and even though my husband was skeptical (“How do they get around the Constitution?”), I was game. Until I hit the halfway point. I hate to say it, but Benton isn’t a smart character. Maybe that’s the point, but he kept turning to his friends – both back in St. Louis and one he made in the White House – for information and help. And he never remembered what they said. He couldn’t make decisions – partially because of the way the adults were trying to handicap him, but mostly because he was just Obsessing about The Girl. So, we hit halfway, we find out who the girl was, and then he’s in Sweden for a G-8 conference, and there’s a whole made-up resource of oil and minerals the world is fighting over, and when the polar bear showed up, I bailed. I thought this would be a book for me, and I just didn’t have the patience.

I’m sure there will be readers out there who love it. Maybe they will even find it “empowering” as Chainani hoped. But this wasn’t for me.

Audiobook: Black AF History

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by Michael Harriot
Read by the author
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is swearing in this, including multiple f-bombs, and true to its title, Harriot doesn’t water down the abuses of white people in history.

This one is exactly what it says: American history through the lens of Black people. It starts in the pre-colonial era and goes through the present day, which is a lot to ask out of one book. That said, I think Harriot does a good job making history both interesting and challenging. I thought, when I began, that I wouldn’t learn anything after reading Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi, but I learned a bunch. Hariot doesn’t just stick with “known” history – he weaves in stories from his family history, giving this book a distinctly personal touch. I liked his three little questions at the end of each chapter and the supplemental stories.

And, on top of that, Harriot is an engaging and funny writer/narrator. I know he wasn’t going for “funny”, but sometimes hard truths go down better with a laugh. Like his conversations with Racist Baby, or when his uncle “took over” the narrative.

It was tough listening at times, though I think it’s a good thing to be challenged in what one has learned. It’s good for that, yes, but I also think it’s a book worth reading on its own merit.

Our Sister’s Keeper

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by Jasmine Holmes
First sentence: “Lucas Fulton was Marah’s least favorite client.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: June 9, 2026
Content: There is a lot of Black trauma in this one – lynchings, abuse, racism, general violence – and a lot of violence against women, both overt and passive. It will be in the Horror section of the bookstore.

On the surface, East Cobb, Mississippi, sounds like heaven. It’s a Black town where everything is perfect: men have good jobs, there are good homes, and best of all, there isn’t any violence. It should be the perfect place for newlyweds Thea and Kidd Elliott to make their home. Except, once they get there, Thea starts to realize that not everything is as it seems. There is a patriarchal order that she is uncomfortable with; everyone in town, both men and women alike, looks down on her for wanting to be like Ida Wells and make a living writing and reporting. She’s supposed to be supporting her husband and having babies, right? And then, when she starts to see and hear things – women screaming, lynchings, echoes of crimes past – the women in town start gaslighting her: there are no ghosts. There isn’t anything wrong. You’re just going crazy, dear.

Marah, on the other hand, is trapped as a carrier in East Cobb – a woman to takes away, literally, the burdens of the men in town. She – and the other carriers – are “experiments” of a white doctor, and of the Black mistress who runs the house. Then, after a couple of the girls die under suspicious circumstances, Marah starts trying to figure out how she got to be a carrier and how to break out of the prison she is in.

There was so much anger baked into this book. Anger at the way Black people are treated. Anger at the way women are treated. But there is also a lot of hope: the community of Black women who band together (instead of hiding and giving into the patriarchy) is Strong, and not only are they survivors, they will Flourish despite all that has been done to them. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I felt like I was witnessing the anger of Black women and the retribution that will (eventually) come.

I was thinking when I started that this would be Mexican Gothic-like, but as I went on, I found it was less Horror and more speculative fiction. The “magic” of the carriers was never really explained, which I didn’t mind, but I also wasn’t terrified by it all. It’s a good work of historical fiction, and I appreciated looking at what an all-black town could be like. It’s also a warning, though: if we don’t heal from the past, there is no way to have a good future.

All this to say: it wasn’t what I expected, but I am glad I read it.

Audiobook: The Wedding Date

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by Jasmine Guillory
Read by Janina Edwards
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is some swearing, including a few f-bombs, and fade-to-black sex. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

Drew doesn’t want to go to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding by himself, so when he meets Alexa (in the elevator), and there’s instant chemistry, he convinces her to go to the wedding with him. Where he accidentally calls her his “girlfriend”. But, they realize there’s something there and start a long-distance (well, LA to San Francisco) relationship of sorts. As their relationship goes on, though, they wonder if it could be something more.If only they weren’t so far away. If only one of them could say how they feel.

This was a fun romance. Nothing too deep – Alexa has a side project trying to get an arts program for troubled kids set up in Berkley – but it was fun. I didn’t like Drew – he was (especially in his internal narration) very reluctant to commit, and was so very often misunderstanding Alexa’s motivations. It was a trope, yes, but his end of it really annoyed me. The best thing, I think, was that these characters’ lives felt real. They ate. They went to the store. They had normal-sounding conversations. It was nice.

I enjoyed it enough that I think I’ll give another one of Guillory’s a try.

Fishbone Cinderella

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by Elizabeth Lim
First sentence: “Marigold Yuen used to think she had a knack for fixing things.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: July 28, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is abuse, including physical, and some swearing, including a few f-bombs. It will be in the Fiction section.

Yut Ying was the youngest of four children – her three older brothers were obviously more important than her – in 1940s China during the occupation. She was living in a poor village until her mother sent her to live with her father and his second wife in Hong Kong. There she was treated as a servant, cooking and cleaning for the family instead of getting the education her father promised. But, after a bad relationship, she married the first man who could take her to America, eventually to Chinatown in San Francisco, where she raised her three daughters. The catch with all this: the women in Yut Ying’s family are cursed. Yut Ying herself can disappear, and her daughter Marigold can catch snatches of memory when she touches people. They end up going back to Hong Kong to try to break the curse, so they can all live without fear.

That summary doesn’t really do it justice. It’s a family drama, with the conflicts between mothers and daughters, and between siblings, mostly sisters, and it’s been a long time since I’ve read one of those. While the magic is a central plot point, it’s not really magic in the fantasy sense of the word, which is surprising since Lim is known for her sweeping YA fantasies. It’s a quiet book, one in which you care about the characters, even though not much happens in the plot. I really enjoyed it, but as I’m sitting here writing about it, I find I don’t have much to say. It’s a good book, one that I thoroughly enjoyed, but can’t seem to find anything to say about.

Audiobook: Red City

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by Marie Lu
Read by André Santana, Eunice Wong, Natalie Naudus & Sid Sagar
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is a lot of violence, much of it graphic. There is also sexual assault, on-page sex, and lots of swearing, including many f-bombs. It’s in the Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

Growing up the child of a strict single mother, Sam wanted more for her life. She is smart – she has a perfect memory – and she had a promising future. That is, until her mom was in an accidental fire at the restaurant she worked at. Then, Sam turned to the syndicates – the organizations that control the drug Sand, and the magic in this alternate reality. She learns to be an alchemist and falls deep into this dangerous world.

Ari, on the other hand, was brought to Angel City from his home in India, recruited because of the strength of his charisma, his soul, to be a part of Luminos, one of the syndicates. He’s taught and trained since he was 10 to be a bioalchemist, someone who can persuade pretty much anyone of anything.

Ari and Sam were friends growing up, unaware of their involvement in rival syndicates, until they re-meet as adults, on the opposite side of a brewing war.

I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I really enjoyed this one. I was talking to K about the book and describing how they used alchemy as the magic system, and she was like “Oh, like Full Metal Alchemist”? And yes, exactly like that. Except mashed with the Godfather, and you have a good sense of this. But I liked the characters, I appreciated the way Lu developed the world that she set the story in, and I didn’t even mind the ending – there is still an opening for another book (hopefully, only a duology) but the story of this one is wrapped up. I loved the audio version; the narrators were amazing, capturing the emotion of the book as well as the action. I probably would have liked reading this, but I really enjoyed it on audio. Perhaps I’m being overly generous to this because I was listening to it while reading Spark of the Everflame, and it was just refreshing to have good worldbuilding and a unique, fully developed magic system.

I’ll definitely be on the lookout for the sequel to this one.

Audiobook: One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

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by Omar El Akkad
Read with the author.
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There is talk of the genocide in Gaza and abuse by immigration officers. It’s in the Current Events section of the bookstore.

In this short memoir/accounting of the genocide in Gaz, El Akkad talks about how it is to be Muslim in the west, and how the ideas of justice and freedom are so far from what Americans, at least, believe them to be, that it’s laughable. There is heartbreak, despair, and pain and a lack of hope that anything will ever change. Except, in the writing of this, El Akkad bears a witness to the pain and maybe by reading this, there is a small amount of hope that things will become more just and truly free.

I don’t usually say books are important; I don’t really believe that there are books that everyone should read. And yet, as I was listening to this, feeling El Akkad’s pain – feeling the pain of the Palestinians who have been obliterated, feeling the pain of the people who have been unjustly detained – I realized that this is a book that, in order to change, everyone must read. If you read this and come out unchanged, you have a heart of stone.

There is pain out there; pain that must be stopped. And, the very least we can do is be a witness for the people who can’t speak.

Audiobook: All the Crooked Saints

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by Maggie Stiefvater
Read by Thom Rivera
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There’s some swearing, including a couple of f-bombs. It is in the Young Adult Science Fiction section of the bookstore, but younger kids might be interested in it.

I’m not really going to sum up the plot, since I did that when I first read this book eight years ago. I did enjoy Rivera’s narration, though. And maybe I enjoyed this better as an audiobook. It felt like Rivera was sitting there telling me this tall tale about family and love and miracles. It’s the least Stiefvater-y book of all the ones I’ve read this year, but I still loved it. And yeah, while I see it’s problematic that Stiefvater is exploring a culture that isn’t hers, I still liked the way she wove religion and myth with Latinx culture and 1960s. It was a delightful audiobook to listen to.

Highly recommended on audio, especially.