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Happy February!

Here in Buffalo, NY we are only a month away from springtime. Though, as I write this post, I can't complain about winter. So far it has been extremely mild. Cold, some snow, but all in all nothing like the 3, 4, 5, or 6 feet of snow we've had in the past. 

This month our review team chose

LET IT SHINE

by

Alyssa Cole

Sofronia Wallis knows that proper Black women don’t court trouble by upending the status quo, but it’s 1961 and the Civil Rights movement is in full swing. Sofie’s spent half her life being prim, proper, and reserved—as if that could bring her mother back—but the nonviolent protests happening across the South bring out her inner agitator.

Ivan Friedman has devoted his life to boxing, loving the finesse of a well-delivered punch and the penance of receiving one. His family escaped from Europe before the horrors of WWII, and Ivan decides to help fight injustice in their new country, even if it goes against all his instincts as a fighter.

When Ivan and Sofie meet, they realize that their pasts are intertwined and—with the sparks that fly between them—perhaps their futures will be too. With everything in their society lined up against them, will Sofie and Ivan be able to beat the odds? Or will their chance at love be destroyed by the tumultuous times they live in?

Cathrina's Review:

As I read page two of LET IT SHINE, the author Alyssa Cole had hooked me. Her writing is fabulous. 

LET IT SHINE takes the reader back to the turbulent sixties, when the civil rights movement was in full gear. Needless to say, before and during and after this time in history, it will always continue to make me cringe and cry. Right after reading LET IT SHINE, I watched the movie, MISSISSIPPI BURNING which took place in 1964 when 3 civil rights activates had been killed. While the movie is loosely based on fact, either way, it left me in tears. 

LET IT SHINE, brings together a couple fighting for civil rights, it is heart-wrenching and in the end up-lifting. And, an excellent novella which I highly recommend.  

Now let's head over to read Nana and Empi's reviews.