Hi Friends! It’s Friday! 2020 has been a rough year and it doesn’t seem to be getting better. It feels hard to talk about books when the world is so unsettled. But also I know that books bring comfort to many, including myself. I want to quickly highlight two books this week.

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon– The cover is adorable and the premise is great, Samiah finds out through social media that the man she is dating is also dating two other women. Samiah immediately dumps this man and sparks a friendship with the two other women. They decide that they are going to spend time working on themselves, making their lives and careers the priority, instead of focusing on dating. Almost immediately after making that decision, Samiah meets Daniel at work. 

Samiah is a Black woman working in the tech industry. That is a main focus in this book. We get to see her triumphs along with some challenges. I am not a Black woman nor do I work in tech, but this part of the book felt very realistic to me. It wasn’t overly done or traumatic, just seemed like things she was going through. 

I enjoyed watching the relationship develop from work friends to lovers. Daniel does a thing that causes some hurt feelings but I thought it was handled well.

I recommend this book particularly if you are looking for strong female relationships.

Grade: B
Amazon l Goodreads (pub date 6/9)

The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season by Molly Fader– I will read almost anything Fader/O’Keefe writes. This book is under her pen name that she uses for Women’’s Fiction. I didn’t love it as much as I liked the previous one, The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets, but this one was still a good read.

CW: grief, depression, off page parental death, depictions of intimate partner violence, guns (learning to use them and violence)

Hope, one of the main protagonists, is 27 and has escaped a bad relationship. She packs up her ten-year daughter and they go to Hope’s aunt Peg’s farm. Hope needs a safe place and she believes she has found it at the farm. While there Hope and her daughter Tink help with the cherry season and build a family

Fader also gives us POV from Peg and Tink. Peg is a grumpy old woman who is living with her grief and shame. Tink is ten and although sad is also hopeful.

Some of it was a little predictable and I figured out the plot twists early on. Because of my own life experiences some of this book felt very real. It was emotional in the best ways. There is a romantic arc, but it is very light and not the focus of the book.

If you read Fader’s previous book and liked it, I think you would like this one too. 

Grade: B
Amazon l Goodreads (pub date 6/9)