January 1, 2022
In Honey and Spice, following Babalola's buzzy debut story collection, Love in Color, young Black British woman Kiki Banjo--host of a popular student radio show and known for preaching bad-relationship avoidance--gets tangled in a fake liaison with the very guy she's been citing as big trouble. From Bays, co-creator of the Emmy Award-winning series How I Met Your Mother, 2015 New York-set The Mutual Friend features Alice Quick, mourning her mother, barely managing as a nanny, and trying to make herself sign up for the MCATs even as her tech millionaire brother experiences a religious awakening. In Blush author Brenner's latest, three sisters from a Gilt-edged family in the jewelry business are torn apart following a publicity stunt gone wrong, with one sister dying in a subsequent accident and her daughter struggling to regain traction within the family. In Coleman's Good Morning, Love, aspiring songwriter/musician Carlisa "Carli" Henton's efforts to keep her business and personal lives separate crumble when she meets rising hip-hop star Tau Anderson (50,000-copy first printing). From Egyptian-Irish BBC broadcaster El-Wardany, These Impossible Things features friends Malak, Kees, and Jenna, on the verge of adulthood as they struggle to be good Muslim women yet wanting to follow their dreams (50,000-copy first printing). In Fowler's It All Comes Down To This, three sisters--freelance journalist Beck, struggling with her marriage and a desire to write fiction; Claire, an accomplished pediatric cardiologist, recently divorced; and Sophie, leading a glamorous life she can't afford--face their mother's impending death and the fate of their beloved summer cottage on Mount Desert Island, ME. In Ho's Lucie Yi Is Not a Romantic, a follow-up to the LJ-starred Last Tang Standing, a hardworking career woman gives up on finding the right guy after her fianc� calls off their marriage and signs up for an elective co-parenting website so that she can have a baby--with unexpected consequences. In USA Today best-selling Moore's latest, Maine is not exactly Vacationland for Louisa when she visits her parents one summer with her three children, as she's dealing with an unfinished book, an absentee husband, and a father suffering from Alzheimer's, plus a young stranger in town trying to get her own life in order (100,000-copy first printing). In popular Patrick's The Messy Life of Book People, Liv Green forms a tentative friendship with the mega-best-selling author for whom she works as a housecleaner but is surprised when the author dies suddenly and in her will asks that Liv complete her final book (75,000 paperback and 10,000-copy paperback first printing). In Saint X author Schaitkin's Elsewhere, an interesting departure, Vera grows up in a small town where for generations women keep vanishing mysteriously (200,000-copy first printing). Vercher follows the Edgar-nominated, best-booked Three-Fifths with After the Lights Go Out, about a biracial MMA fighter aging out of his career and facing his father's end-stage Alzheimer's when he scores a last-minute comeback fight. Already a multi-award winner, Wolfe debuts with Last Summer on State Street, about Felicia "Fe Fe" Stevens and two close-as-hugging friends--a happy threesome that expands to an uneasy foursome even as the Chicago Housing Authority prepares to tear down the high-rise in the projects where Fe Fe's family lives (50,000-copy first printing).
Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from April 25, 2022
Vercher (Three-Fifths) strides back in the ring with the explosive story of a troubled Philadelphia MMA fighter whose career has stalled. When 30-something Xavier Wallace gets the call to participate in a contender fight after being sidelined for months following a bust for accidentally taking a banned substance, he jumps at the chance. Xavier’s pride is on the line, as a brain injury has been robbing him of memory and cognitive function. His career is managed by champion boxer Shot, his glass-eyed cousin who owns the gym where he trains and to whom Xavier owes a huge debt. Xavier’s family, meanwhile, was fractured after his Black mother, Evelyn, left him and his white father, Sam, when Xavier was a child. The truth about why Evelyn left is finally revealed by a racist Sam, who suffers from dementia. The crux of the story lies in Xavier’s seemingly final chance to show his mettle despite a cacophony of personal issues, physical challenges, and an emotionally draining reunion with Evelyn. Adding complexity and depth is Xavier’s internal monologue (“You were born for violence, my guy. We all are. Just some of us are more attuned to it than others”), which alternates between motivation, reflection, and self-sabotage. Vercher expertly captures the brashness and discipline of combat sports as well as the harsh realities of the fighting life, delivering all of it in a swiftly paced triumph complete with a surprising one-two punch of a conclusion. This is simply brilliant. Agent: David Hale Smith, InkWell.
Starred review from May 1, 2022
The greatest boxing novels, from W. C. Heinz's The Professional in 1958 through Willy Vlautin's Don't Skip Out on Me in 2018, don't need much overt crime to make them noir, though there's usually a crooked manager involved somehow. The brutality of the fight game and its inevitable downward arc provide enough darkness, as in Vercher's tragic tale (following Three-Fifths, 2019) about mixed-race MMA fighter Xavier Wallace. The locked cage in which MMA combatants do battle is hardly the only confining element in Xavier's crushing life. He's alienated from his Black mother, Evelyn; his white father, Sam, is drifting into final-stages dementia, spewing long-suppressed racist venom; and Xavier himself is fighting chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), or pugilistic dementia. And, yet, he must climb into the cage one more time if he is to free himself from the debt he owes his cousin (the crooked manager). The fight-game story is enough to drive most novels, but this one goes way beyond that. The scenes involving Xavier and his father are agonizing in their soul-shattering horror; the portrait of the Black nursing-home worker who absorbs Sam's abuse is breathtaking in its complexity; and Xavier's internal battle as his brain functions fail him brings home the quintessential noir emotion of powerlessness. This is a difficult novel to read, but there is a deep and sustaining humanity at its core.
COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.