sarah_thebooknerd's reviews
850 reviews

 I am glad I picked this book up because I do think it is important to see the fat experience through different lenses. I love an unlikeable character but I also really hate when people are harmful to others and although I empathize with the FMC in this one given the trauma of being fat and queer in a world that wants to reject you, I really struggled with how she hid behind her identities and didn't take accountability for her actions. I feel like I need a sticker with this made but you are entitled to your feelings but you are not entitled to harm others because of your feelings. You have to hope those around you will be understanding but you still have to own your mess ups. That is where I wanted more out of the FMC. I do not feel like we got to see her change and own the harm she did, especially to her sister.

Please be mindful when reading this one, there are multiple content notes for- cancer, death, anti-fatness, anti-queerness, anti-tranness, past suicidal attempt, parents with alcoholism. 

 Thank you @prhaudio for a free audio copy.

Narrator: This story is told in single POV from the FMC perspective. The narrator did a great job capturing the emotion and characters.

Sarah and Caleb were high school sweethearts who married each other really young in order to have Sarah's mother present for their wedding. Her mother was dying from ALS. On the night of a fundraiser, Sarah put together to raise funds for ALS research she was running short on meeting her goal and Caleb stepped in and met it for her. This causes a rift within them as Sarah feels useless and Caleb saves the day.

In an effort to reconnect they head to the woods for a wilderness retreat. I found aspects of this one to be funny, it captures grief and dealing with a family member battling a medical disorder. I connected with the desire for Sarah to want to help others not go through the same grief by funding ALS research. I also understood her fears of not being worthy/ not knowing her contributions in life. The love between Caleb and Sarah is there and communication was needed and some of that happens. I do think the end kinda stopped some of the flushing out I wanted to see between them, but I am also just not a fan of the specific literary device that is used. (trying to not give spoilers). I also learned that I am not a fan of specific spicy acts without bathing for a week when you have been in the woods was a hard no for me.

Overall, this one was in the middle for me. I liked aspects and was frustrated with other parts. 

Tamara Lanier took on Harvard in a reparations case that is pivotal for the ancestors of slaves in America. Her ancestor, Papa Renty was an enslaved Black African man from the Congo and her mother who was sick wanted Tamara to take down the oral history of what she remembered being passed down through the family about him. She wanted her daughter to find Papa Renty and Tamara followed through on that promise.

Tamara came across the mention of a Papa Renty in research and with it were photos, the first daguerreotypes (which were early photographic process employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate & mercury vapor) and it was a photo of Papa Renty. The Papa Renty who was defiant, strong and who learned how to read and taught others how to read. The study that Papa Renty was used in was by a Harvard professor, Louis Agassiz who tried to argue that Black people were inferior to white people through physical science. He argued that they were not able to read or were even capable of thought. He was a horribly racist man, and his study has left lasting stereotypes of Black people to this day.

But where were these photos? Harvard had them and Tamara tried to connect with Harvard to get them to acknowledge all the information passed down through her family about Papa Renty as a person. Appealing to their humanity to counter Agassiz's narrative and provide the evidence she had of him teaching people to read, his defiance even at 13 demanding a checked shirt that is documented in paperwork by the white people that enslaved him. She worked with world renowned genealogists, hobby ones and historians alike and was able to unearth a mountain of records showing the connection she had to him and his history but still Harvard would not bend. She was not even supposed to use the image of Papa Renty in any way, but she defied that because he was her ancestor.

She fought the court and I do not want to give away too much of the case and what happened because I want you to read it first hand and experience the ups and downs that came with Tamara's fight for justice.

This book was so powerful and showcases why we CANNOT erase the history of what slavery was and its impact even today. Tamara sat down with the descendants of those that enslaved her family and ate lunch with them. She sat at the table that her ancestors made with their hands. She was able to connect with the ancestors of Agassiz and see the remorse and willingness they had to make right the wrongs of their relatives. Even if your family didn't own slaves. Even if your family didn't participate in racist studies, they were complicit in the abuse and enslavement of Black people. Healing cannot be done until reparations are made, and reparations is taking accountability, giving back and allowing the ancestors of the enslaved to have power of the artifacts and history of their loved ones. They deserve to have their histories recognized, acknowledges and made accessible to all.

I cannot stress the importance of books like this one, especially given today's fight to hide and erase Black history even more.

 ❤️Fat FMC
❤️Afro-Latine FMC
❤️Black MMC

🌺It's Us Against the World
🌺Victorian Situationship
🌺 Reproductive Rights Doctor

Review:
I LOVE this series with all my heart, hands down one of my favorite historical romance series. This is the last in the series and I am so sad. One of my favorite aspects of this series is that Adriana infuses historical aspects into the book and or characters were inspired by real historical people. I am always so eager to read the after note to find out what information she learned.

Each of the women in Las Leonas friendship are so strong but I think Aurora is by far the most firm in her convictions and what she will not compromise. She is a female doctor who fights for the reproductive rights of women in the 1890s. Aspects of this book were challenging given our current political climate in the U.S. and how much this fight is not over. During the 1890s abortion and women controlling their bodies is not permissible so Aurora is moving in the dark, engaging in dangerous activities that could get her arrested. Apollo, is the first Black duke to hold the title and he is taken with Aurora and the two of them enter into a Victorian Situtionaship. Neither, thought they would catch feelings but alas now they are up against the world if they remain a couple. As Aurora is not a match for a Duke.

The fat representation is fat positive/ body neutral and I always appreciate that with Adriana’s work. You will swoon, you will be fanning yourself and you will get angry and ready to go to battle for each of them individually and as a couple! 

Keeonna brought a voice to an often forgotten aspect to the prison system, the families and loved ones who are also punished. The state takes the control and forces them to jump through so many hurdles I didn't realize when it came to visitation and the sheer amount of effort that goes into continuing to have a relationship with people incarcerated when the world wants us to just allow them to fade into the background. Yet, they dangle visits and communication in front of them in an effort to keep them controlled. It is an aspect that can be stripped from incarcerated folk so easily and it made me really have to think even more on my abolition journey that the prison industrial complex is not built for growth of prisonioners like they like to claim but about power and control and something to be exploited and manipulated. As Keeonna talks about growth cannot occur when you are in survival mode 24/7. It will happen after release but with even more hurdles due to being removed from society, your family and the trauma of being incarcerated. 

Thank you to Libro.Fm for a free audio copy to read. It is powerful in audio and I would recommend it! 

 I LOVE This series! This is such a sweet and beautiful love story for Angel and Iris. Iris is a widow and a single mom. Angel is a musician and he has had it bad for Iris for some time now. The backstory of Angel and the hardship of having a parent who wouldn't accept him and his music due to religion and Iris needing to allow love in again just really worked so well together. They are such a good couple and I am sad that this series is done.

The audio narration is amazing! J. Shani Michaels & Ian Hackney did such an incredible job and the audiobook is def worth picking up! 

 Thank you to @berkleyromance and @prhaudio for a free ebook and audiobook copy.