#Diverseathon2021: April’s Prompt and Host
Tomorrow is April 1st: Now it is time to talk about April’s prompt and host for #Diverseathon2021:
For April the prompt is: A Main Character Who Isn’t Caucasian
April’s Host: Suleika at All About Books Divas
She will host at Instagram and Facebook.
For full details on this year long readathon, please click here.
And don’t forget about the awesome GRAND PRIZE at the end of the year. Click the link here for that information.
So what am I reading for April for #Diverseathon2021? My choice is…
This is My America by Kim Johnson
Book Description:
Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time—her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a “thug” on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive the uncovering of the skeletons of their Texas town’s racist history that still haunt the present?
What are YOU reading for #Diverseathon2021 in April?
Book Review: The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordyn Taylor
The Paper Girl of Paris
Author: Jordyn Taylor
Published: May 26, 2020
359 Pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Now:
Sixteen-year-old Alice is spending the summer in Paris, but she isn’t there for pastries and walks along the Seine. When her grandmother passed away two months ago, she left Alice an apartment in France that no one knew existed. An apartment that has been locked for more than seventy years.
Alice is determined to find out why the apartment was abandoned and why her grandmother never once mentioned the family she left behind when she moved to America after World War II. With the help of Paul, a charming Parisian student, she sets out to uncover the truth. However, the more time she spends digging through the mysteries of the past, the more she realizes there are secrets in the present that her family is still refusing to talk about.
Then:
Sixteen-year-old Adalyn doesn’t recognize Paris anymore. Everywhere she looks, there are Nazis, and every day brings a new horror of life under the Occupation. When she meets Luc, the dashing and enigmatic leader of a resistance group, Adalyn feels she finally has a chance to fight back. But keeping up the appearance of being a much-admired socialite while working to undermine the Nazis is more complicated than she could have imagined. As the war goes on, Adalyn finds herself having to make more and more compromises—to her safety, to her reputation, and to her relationships with the people she loves the most.
Kim’s Review:
So this cover. This. Cover. And the story was pretty good too.
We all dream of being left a random metropolitan apartment that has been preserved by time and we are the first to open the door in decades. I geeked out just reading it. And then finding the diary of your grandmother’s sister from WWII? I was living vicariously through Alice and thoroughly enjoying it. Adalyn’s story was great! A Parisian girl who joined the French Resistance and bravely helping to defeat the Nazis is always going to be exciting and engaging. I had tears in my eyes by the time I reached the end, which was more twisty than I expected.
My main criticism is with Alice herself. I acknowledge as a historian that we can only go by documented evidence and I hold to that. But there will always be speculation, no matter the situation. Alice apparently has no imagination and could only handle one theory at a time and that got frustrating real quick. I can’t get into too much detail because I don’t want to give anything away, but long before the truth was revealed, I wanted to throw the diary at Alice’s head just to get her to open her mind a little.
But overall, I thought this was a good book and I really enjoyed it. This is a great one to give to teens for WWII reading!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Blog Tour: Promo: Project Kaitlyn by Grayson Avery
Today I am helping to spread the word on Project Kaitlyn by Grayson Avery. This is the first book in The Sweet Water Circle series, the second novel Jenn Reinvented comes out April 21st!
Book Description:
Meet Kaitlyn Colby, a clumsy, inappropriate blurter with self-esteem issues, but also quite handy with an axe. She’s certainly no superhero, but she fights the battles of a single mom with sweet snarkasm. Between work and pining for and co-parenting with her man-child ex (is there any other kind?), Kaitlyn has no time to find that special someone. And if she did, would he really want her anyway? Kaitlyn’s sister and friends (The Sweet Water Circle) say yes, so following a typical Kaitlyn slip up, The Circle intervenes to force her out of the funk that she fell into following her unwanted divorce.
When Kaitlyn makes a decision to pursue her advertising career over love, she tumbles (like no tumble you’ve ever seen…or heard) into the life of hunky, bay breeze-drinking Hunter Dixon, an ad exec who is intrigued enough by Kaitlyn that he hires her firm to revive a struggling project, much like herself.
Can Kaitlyn become the woman she needs to be to land the man of her dreams? Maybe. Maybe not. But you’ll laugh out loud as she tries. There’s no doubt you’ll be rooting for the lovable, hilarious, and relatable Kaitlyn. And you’ll probably love her friends, too, which is good, because their stories are ready to be told in the Sweet Water Circle series!
Project Kaitlyn could be the funniest book you ever read. It’s a hilarious romantic comedy that speaks the truth (well, most of the time) about life and love, and…hiking thongs? What the heck is that? Well, you’ll just have to read it to find out!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble
Apple Books
About the Author:
Grayson Avery is the author of The Sweet Water Circle Series, a romantic comedy series that focuses on childhood friends in their 30’s and 40’s as they help each other navigate the stormy waters of dating, marriage, divorce, and a whole lot of inappropriate, naughty, and downright hysterical situations.
Contact Grayson:
Amazon
Goodreads