Welcome to another week of BBPD! The lineup this week is STACKED, and my wallet is giving me side-eye as we speak. Too bad! This week we’re highlighting Turning Page Bookshop in Goose Creek, SC, so make sure to support and show love. Happy reading!
Wings of Ebony
J. Elle
'Make a way out of no way' is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue's taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghazan--a hidden island of magic wielders.
Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghazan’s sacred Do Not Leave Law and returns to Houston, only to discover that Black kids are being forced into crime and violence. And her sister, Tasha, is in danger of falling sway to the very forces that claimed their mother’s life.
Worse still, evidence mounts that the evil plaguing East Row is the same one that lurks in Ghazan—an evil that will stop at nothing until it has stolen everything from her and everyone she loves. Rue must embrace her true identity and wield the full magnitude of her ancestors’ power to save her neighborhood before the gods burn it to the ground.
Take Back the Block
Chrystal D. Giles
Wes Henderson has the best style in sixth grade. That—and hanging out with his crew (his best friends since little-kid days) and playing video games—is what he wants to be thinking about at the start of the school year, not the protests his parents are always dragging him to.
But when a real estate developer makes an offer to buy Kensington Oaks, the neighborhood Wes has lived his whole life, everything changes. The grownups are supposed to have all the answers, but all they’re doing is arguing. Even Wes’s best friends are fighting. And some of them may be moving. Wes isn’t about to give up the only home he’s ever known. Wes has always been good at puzzles, and he knows there has to be a missing piece that will solve this puzzle and save the Oaks. But can he find it… before it’s too late?
Gutter Child
Jael Richardson
Set in an imagined world in which the most vulnerable are forced to buy their freedom by working off their debt to society, Gutter Child uncovers a nation divided into the privileged Mainland and the policed Gutter. In this world, Elimina Dubois is one of only 100 babies taken from the Gutter and raised in the land of opportunity as part of a social experiment led by the Mainland government.
But when her Mainland mother dies, Elimina finds herself all alone, a teenager forced into an unfamiliar life of servitude, unsure of who she is and where she belongs.
Little Petty Notions
Rae Shawn
Love can come and go, but after Jada Lorenzo's bad breakup, she doesn't want to be bothered again. That all changes the moment an old flame walks back into her life.
Jada is figuring out how to balance her single parenthood, while also maintaining a business and a fresh start in a new place. Her best friend is there to provide as much assistance as he can, but after Jada has a random encounter with her first love, he seems to start encouraging her to rekindle with the flame who already burned her burned.
Tra'Mel Denzel is adjusting to to life off the field. After an career-ending injury, he opened up a rehab facility to help other athletes. When he runs into Jada, all the feelings he once had come rushing back, but he doesn't know if she will be willing to give him a second chance.
While Jada and Tra'Mel work to figure out if love is in the cards for them again, they both have to deal with factors that seem to want to drive them apart.
Won’t Go Home Without You
Cheris Hodges
One night only—that's all Robin Richardson-Baptiste will give the husband she once adored. She thought nothing could shatter their storybook marriage—not illness or a life-saving operation that left her unable to have children. For her husband, Dr. Logan Baptiste, told her in a thousand unspoken ways their love was all he needed. But now, in the face of overwhelming evidence, his co-worker, Kamrie, claims Logan fathered her son.
Logan can’t recall what happened with Kamrie—and DNA never lies. He does know he’s never stopped loving his gentle, courageous wife. But doing whatever it takes to uncover the truth, and save his marriage, not to mention his career, will challenge them like never before. And one night of undivided attention and desire may be the only thing to heal their hearts, reveal all—or shatter things beyond
repair . . .