My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due marks my initial engagement with Due’s work, facilitated by the book club. My reading was somewhat delayed due to a two-week stay in Jamaica, where reading was limited to bedtime. However, the chapters I’ve read suggest compelling characters and intriguing actions by the vampire protagonist.

Esperance by Adam Oyebanji, a crime thriller, enhanced by science fiction elements, has captured my interest with its rapid pace, engaging mystery, and well-developed characters. The dialogue is characterized by witty exchanges, introspection, and evocative language. Although I am only a quarter of the way through, I know that I will enjoy this reading experience. The audiobook production is also of high quality.

I’m reading Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. All Murderbot wants to do is watch media but it’s a Security or “Sec” unit and needs to protect it’s contracted humans from danger and their own stupidity.  This is a series of currently 6 novellas and 1 full length novel following a Security Unit who’s just trying to figure it out. I loved reading about Murderbot figuring out human emotions such as sadness, depression and anxiety all whilst keeping trying to keep it’s humans safe and making friends and enemies along the way.

My favourite characters in this book are Murderbot, the spaceship it calls ART (Wait till you find out why it calls it that!) and the Preservation crew that Murderbot is initially assigned to protect including the enigmatic Dr. Mensah who becomes a friend and confidant to Murderbot as it’s figuring itself out. Along the way we meet different types of humans and augmented humans, dangerous planets, alien viruses and every novel has an all-out gun fight which makes it a thrilling read.

This series has now been made into a TV show on Apple TV and while I haven’t watched it as yet, I believe it stays true to some of the first few books.

David Mogo, Godhunter by Suyi Davies Okungbowa is an urban Nigerian fantasy set in a world where the gods have fallen the earth(literally). The story follows a demigod who hunts gods for a living. I’m 20% in and I love the writing style already. David Mogo has a big ego(which makes perfect sense) and I love him.

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due is a supernatural thriller. It follows a black reporter, Jessica and her ex-professor husband, David (Dawit). They seem to have the perfect marriage; with David being a supportive stay-at-home dad. She seems to have made it. However, people close to Jessica stay dying in unexpected ways, and David seems to be keeping secrets from her (aka he’s an immortal).

This one has me on the edge of my seat. David is a complete psychopath masquerading as a loving husband and father, and Jessica is starting to question their perfect life. I’m invested! The writing is also fantastic, which makes reading this even more intriguing.

Sheri

I Bet You’d Look Good in a Coffin by Katy Brent is the sequel to How To Kill Men and Get Away With It and picks up with our favourite murderous (now ex-)influencer, Kitty Collins as she continues her morally questionable (but oddly satisfying) mission to rid the world of abusive men. As with the first book, I’m living for her shenanigans because how she keeps getting away with the sloppiest kills imaginable is beyond me.

Did this story need to be continued? Probably not. But am I mad about it? Also no. Kitty is out here somehow making murder look like self-care. She’s basically doing the Lord’s work in heels, and honestly, I respect the hustle.

Joan

A General Theory Of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa is the first book I’m reading from Angola and I found a reading buddy for it, yay!

Amyn

I’m balls deep in The Kingdom of Copper by S.A Chakraborty and I’m having the time of my life, I hope to finish the entire Daevabad Trilogy this year. I’m also buddy reading A General Theory of Oblivion with Joan and I’m just glad to have a partner on this ride because I have no idea where this book is taking us to.

Uchenna’s recommendations on the dark side of influencer life got me curious, so I picked up Such A Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter and it’s such a riveting read and I have to hold myself from trying to solve the mystery, instead I’m letting the plot do its thing.

Nenye

This is shaping up to be one of those months where reading just isn’t coming easy. People, I’m deep in the throes of what the kids call a slump! I haven’t picked up anything new, but I do have a couple of overflows from last month I’d like to get back to. Douglas Staurt’s Young Mungo is one of them. I had to pause it last month because it got heavy and with everything else I was reading at the time also leaning towards emotionally intense, I shelved it to breathe. But I’m hoping to return to it when I have more bandwidth.

In an attempt to gently ease myself back in, I’ve started a second-chance romance called Before We Were Strangers by Renée Carlino. It’s a trope that rarely misses for me, so fingers crossed it does the trick and kicks my reading back into gear. I also have a few hopefuls lined up, books I’m hoping might sweep me off my feet and remind me why I love this whole reading thing in the first place. Reem Gaafar’s A Mouth Full of Salt, Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People, and Tia Williams’ Audre & Bash Are Just Friends.