Bring on the Blessings. Beverly Jenkins. 2009. 383 pages. HarperCollins. [Source: personal copy.] Love love loved this book! When I opened and realized the entire “back” description was the opening pages, and that I wouldn’t be starting from Bernadine’s tragedy and reading her rise to triumph, I was immediately skeptical. But the book literally grabbed me and never let me go. In the first couple of chapters, you were overwhelmed with characters but the author ultimately formulated each and every one of them. Committed to reading the entire 6 book series now, I have to know what happens to the kids, the town and everyone receiving the Blessings thanks to Bernadine. Definitely 5 stars!

Lust: A Seven Deadly Sins Novel. Victoria Christopher Murray. 2017. 368 pages. Touchstone. [Source: personal copy.] Unusual that it took so long to complete a VCM book. Definitely not her normal writing style, and despite the characters being interesting it failed to truly captivate me. I was into it, but not committed enough to focus entirely on it. I’m definitely intrigued to see how the rest of the deadly sins series will go.

Wives, Fiancées, and Side-Chicks of Hotlanta. Shereé Whitfield. 2017. Dafina. [Source: Personal copy.] It was everything I expected it to be…ratchet, basic, based on Real Housewives of Atlanta characters. Seemingly depicting Kim, Nene, Sheree and Dwight, the book was the whirlwind drama that comes with being in the “in-crowd” of the TV version of Atlanta. With the opening, she could have recapped the saga of Sasha & Terrance without going into so much detail, and that would have allowed her to cover more ground. My guess is the detail and redundancy will allow for a book 2 and 3 so that we can see just how Sasha learns to “play”. Three stars; it wasn’t good, but like the show I’m sure I’ll pick up sequels because it’s like a train wreck you can’t turn away from.