Flip the Page

For today's episode, we're back with another reading wrap up, this time looking at some YA Mystery reads. 

Books covered in this episode:
1) Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
2) Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow 
3) Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
4) Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury

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Welcome back to another episode of Flip the Page! 

In this episode, we're going to be discussing black hockey romance books (never thought I'd see the day); specifically, two books from Deanna Grey's Mendell Hawks series, Sunny Disposition and Team Players. Plug in and see if hockey romance lovers deserve rights.

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Annnd she's back with another episode of Flip the Page. This week, we're gonna be tapping into Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah.

Rootless is a literary fiction novel about societal pressures, motherhood, and sacrifice. Efe and Sam are the main characters who met in their teens entering university. After flirting around their attraction and connection, Efe and Sam eventually get together. Efe is someone who has always struggled under the overbearing pressure of her parent’s expectations and determining what she truly wants to do. She finds comfort in Sam, who on the flip side is stable in his career and has a clear vision of his and their future. Unfortunately down the line, Efe realizes the future Sam has mapped out for them is not one she wants. 

Cue an unplanned pregnancy entering the chat. Sam wants to keep the baby. Efe, who has just grasped her dreams career-wise for the first time, does not. Finding the idea of motherhood suffocating and her dreams slipping from her hands, Efe disappears.

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Hey y'all, welcome back to another episode Flip the Page. I'm doing things a lil different in this episode and bringing y'all a reading wrap up of the books that launched me into the worst reading slump I've experienced in years. Featuring (mostly) romance books. 

Books covered in this episode:
1) Curvy Girl Summer by Danielle Allen
2) Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi Robinson
3) Can't Let Her Go by Kianna Alexander
4) Saavy Sheldon Feels Good As Hell by Taj McCoy

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After a likkle hiatus, we're back with another episode of Flip of Page. Today we're going to be talking about Unplanned by Natalie K. Martin.

Unplanned is an adult contemporary fiction novel that tells the story of 38-year-old Zoe, whose been traveling the world for the past 11-years with her long-time boyfriend, Sam and currently settled down in Australia. When Zoe suddenly learns she’s pregnant, Sam’s disinterest in a child has her reevaluating the compromises and choices she’s made in her relationship and life. Choosing to separate herself from Sam, Zoe returns home to London. When her best friend challenges her to create a pre-baby bucket list, Zoe is forced to look at her life from a different perspective as she strives to determine what she really wants and whether that “want” includes a man or not.

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We're back with another episode of Flip the Page. On the menu for today is a historical fantasy novel, Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi. We'll be discussing love, power and power dynamics.

Masquerade is a historical fantasy novel set in a reimagined 15th century West Africa, loosely based on the myth of Persephone. Òdòdó, the main character of the story, is a young woman born into and belonging to the blacksmith guild; a societal status marking Òdòdó, her mother and other women blacksmiths in the guild as social pariahs and outsiders. At the start of the novel, Òdòdó’s hometown, Timbuktu, has been conquered by the warrior king of Yorùbáland, only worsening the living conditions of her and the other blacksmiths.

A chance encounter with a vagrant outside her home leads to Òdòdó being abducted; stolen away to the capital city of Ṣàngótẹ̀, where she learns the man who orchestrated her kidnapping is the vagrant. The vagrant, being the warrior king, Àrèmọ. It isn’t long before Òdòdó learns Àrèmọ had taken her to make her his wife. 

Suddenly thrust into the upper echelon of society, Òdòdó touches power for the first time in her life. As dissension and tensions brew amongst the population, Òdòdó finds herself caught in political schemes, torn between her old life and new, risking everything she stands to gain from aligning herself with Àrèmọ.

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Welcome back to Flip the Page. Today's episode, we're getting a bit serious, delving into white supremacy and antiblackness through the concept of "rot" seen in Akwaeke Emezi's, Little Rot.

Little Rot weaves the story of five friends, through their point-of-views, as they each come into varying degrees of contact with the elite underbelly of a Nigerian city. Aima and Kalu are a long-time couple, who have just broken up. In despair, Kalu attends a sex party hosted by his best friend Ahmed. A single decision made by Kalu at the party sets off a chain reaction. Two sex workers, Ola and Souraya, visiting the city, find themselves suddenly flung into the chaos as they intersect with Ahmed and Kalu. In the face of evil, corruption, violence, loss, grief, murder and betrayal, Little Rot shows the lengths these five will go to save each other and themselves.

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Welcome back to Flip the Page. We're back with episode 11 of the pod, talking about Robbie Renee's 'Somebody's Wife', and y'all.. this is not what I want... this is not what I planned. I was so ready to get elbows deep in a good ole cheating trope, yet here we are instead, discussing colorism in literature...

Somebody's Wife centers around Dr. Jemma Holiday, a well-respected Black woman at her university. Jemma is married to her university sweetheart, Quinton. When they were younger, they were well-known in their school, Quinton being a top track athlete and Jemma coming from a well-respected legacy family. After they got together, Jemma became pregnant while in school. They kept the child and stayed together, with both sets of parents helping raise their daughter while they finished college. They got married and were very much in love for a few years, both currently employed in high positions at their alma mater. That is, until the sparks fizzled out, leaving Jemma stuck in an unloving marriage with a man who constantly cheated on her. When she meets Dr. Ezekiel Green, it’s love at first sight as passion erupts between the two. Suddenly, Jemma finds herself debating whether staying true to her marriage to maintain a facade of a happy marriage for their extended family and careers is worth it.

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Welcome back to episode 9 of Flip the Page. Today, we're going to be digging through a Black sapphic romance book and the best friends to lovers trope.

Rosewater by Liv Little is a Black sapphic romance that tells the story of Elsie, a 28-year-old aspiring poet, living in London, who has struggled finding a stable home ever since she was sixteen and left her house. At the beginning of the story, she is evicted from her apartment and reaches out to her best friend, Juliet, who she has not spoken to in 3 months, to ask to stay with her while she finds a way to get back on her feet. As the story progresses after she moves into Juliet’s apartment, you see Elsie struggling with finding and defining “home”, regulating and expressing her emotions, her relationship with Juliet, and coming to terms with her feelings for Juliet.

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Welcome back to episode 8 of Flip the Page. I’m your host Zo and today we’re going to be talking about a popular trope in romance: Fated Mates.

The book I’m going to be submitting in as evidence to frame my breakdown of this trope around is A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams.

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.

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Welcome back to episode 7 of Flip the Page!

In today's episode, I'll be diving into one of my least favorite mystery book genres in Rachel Howzell Hall's, "They All Fall Down".

Miriam Macy sails off with six strangers to a private island off the coast of Mexico, believing she’s about to partake in a reality competition show, in a remote island paradise, with a hefty monetary prize set for the winner to take home. It isn’t long, however, before she realizes she, and the others on the island were played. When people start dropping like flies, Miriam realizes the game she was brought onto this island to play, is a lethal one. With each person harboring dark secrets and suspicion running rampant on the remote island, Miriam can only trust herself as she works to uncover who on the island is behind these murders, before she is the next one to drop.

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Welcome back to another episode of Flip the Page! In today's episode, we'll be discussing "D'Vaughn and Kris Plan A Wedding" by Chencia H. Higgins. 

'Instant I Do'. The hit reality show where strangers are paired together and must convince their families they're getting married in six weeks, in hopes to win $100,000. D'Vaughn Miller knows her relationship with Kris Zavala is fake. But each week, she finds herself falling deeper and deeper. Suddenly, the prize money isn't the only thing at stake.

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Welcome back to episode 5 of the podcast! Our book for today's episode is "Outdrawn" by Deanna Grey; a slow burn, sapphic, rivals to lovers centered around two webcomic artists, Noah Blue and Sage Montgomery. As the Sage and Noah are forced to work together on a classic comic set to relaunch, they find themselves struggling to work together and struggling to deal with the feelings they are developing for each other.

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In today's episode, we'll be discussing Brendan Slocumb's, "The Violin Conspiracy". A riveting mystery thriller novel, centered around a Black classical musician prodigy and the theft of his violin. 

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In today's episode of the podcast, I'll be reviewing a contemporary romance novel by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, "Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?". 

The novel follows Yinka, a 32-year-old Black woman living in the UK, as she faces the compounding pressures of the patriarchy, an overbearing mother and aunties, and colorism, in her quest to secure herself a man. 

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Bridgerton fans! COME. GET. Y'ALL. JUICE!

Welcome back to another episode of Flip the Page! Since it's Bridgerton season, I have a special treat for all my Bridgerton babes and regency romance lovers. In this episode of the podcast, I'll be discussing Aphrodite and the Duke, a steamy historical romance with a dash of revenge plot, written by James McAvoy. The story is a second chance romance centered around a noble, Aphrodite Du Bell, and the man who jilted her several years ago, Evander Eagleman. Come with me as we read through the journey of the two ex-lovers!

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Plug into the first episode of Flip the Page, where I'll be deep diving into the contemporary adult fiction novel, "Queenie" by Candace Carty-Williams. 

In this episode, we'll unravel Queenie's self-journey through a case study on low self-esteem; examining how childhood trauma impacts Queenie's relationships and self-worth.

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