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Ever since she was a small child, August Landry, the main character of One Last Stop, has spent virtually all her free time helping her mother investigate a family member’s unsolved disappearance. As a result, she’s never really had friends before. That all changes when she transfers to a college in New York City, where she has to share an apartment with three roommates who forcibly befriend her and help her find a job waiting tables at a 24-hour diner.

Set in a Nigerian town, this book opens with a mother finding her son’s body on her front porch. This was no natural death and who took the time to wrap him in a cloth and place him in front of her house? Through flashbacks of Vivek’s life, we learn more about this intriguing, lovable boy and his friends, who seem to know more than they admit about his demise.

For those that are excited about the Shadow And Bone adaptation that is being brought to us by Netflix, we wanted to create a collection of books that you may enjoy if you enjoyed the Grishaverse series!

For curious minds who don’t know what The Grishaverse series consists of:

In Before She Knew Him, artist Hen and her husband Lloyd have just moved to the suburbs to get a new start after her recovery from a manic episode during which she became obsessed with the unsolved murder of a young man named Dustin Miller. When their new neighbors, Matthew and Mira, invite them over for dinner, Hen is shocked to see a trophy in Matthew’s office that was taken from the scene of Miller’s murder.

in The Hating Game, Lucy is the executive assistant to the CEO of a publishing company. When her company merges with another, the heads of both companies are kept on as co-CEOs, and Lucy is forced to start sharing an office with her counterpart Joshua. In contrast to cheerful, quirky, approachable Lucy, Joshua is an intimidating and seemingly humorless workaholic. They hate each other instantly, and before long, they’ve made a game out of trying to outdo and annoy each other.

Most mystery readers love a good series. It’s fun to get to know a character, while secure in the knowledge that there will be more adventures after you’ve turned the last page. Few series, however, have as many titles to enjoy as J.D. Robb’s Eve Dallas Mysteries.

8 out of 10 stars

In Spoiler Alert, Marcus, star of the fictional hit TV show Gods of the Gates, deals with his frustration with the showrunners by secretly writing and posting fanfiction about his own character. He becomes close to another fanfiction writer, April, and though he wishes he could meet her in person, he can’t tell anyone about his online alter ego without destroying his career.

Kindred, by classic science fiction author Octavia Butler, is a novel about a Black woman from 1970s Los Angeles who finds herself repeatedly pulled back in time to pre-Civil War Maryland, where she must save the life of her white ancestor. While there, she experiences the horrors of slavery first-hand and is forced to make difficult choices in order to stay alive and return home.

Spanning decades over the lifespan of the Conroy family, Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House is a difficult, absorbing, fascinating read that was really hard to put down. Told from the perspective of younger brother, Danny, the reader is taken through Danny’s difficult childhood with his father and his stepmother. Protected and raised almost entirely by his sister Maeve, Danny graduates high school, college and eventually medical school; falls in love, gets married and has children.

Kathryn Stockett’s first historical fiction novel is amazing. It’s about the lives of African American maids/nannies who served white women in the 1960’s, particularly in Mississippi.

In 2009 “Precious”, the movie that is based on Push, was highly acclaimed and received multiple Academy Awards. I wanted to know what all the hype was about, but I wouldn’t watch the movie because I was afraid it would be unsettling. So, I decided to read the book. The book is intense. I was not prepared for its graphic nature. Both the language and subject matter are very disturbing, albeit authentic to the author’s traumatic experience.