Candice Carty-Williams

Recommended: Yes!!
For people who are ok with honest depictions and discussions of all kinds of sex, as well as racial barriers barriers women face. For those who are ok laughing while reading a book ^.^

OHMYGODDDDD. Okay, I'm not usually one to fall into hyped books, but man this is hyped for a reason. Candice Carty-Williams promotes writing about underrepresented perspectives, and she leads by example! I hardly ever get to read from the POV of a black character, particularly a black woman, and it was enlightening as a suburban white girl who's never lived in very diverse areas. I learned what a weave is! But Queenie is also just such an enjoyable woman, even when she's at her worst points, you don't dislike her. You just feel her pain, because who HASN'T been there before? It's also hilarious, and I laughed out loud while reading enough to prompt my boyfriend to ask if it was a comedy book. Do yourself a favor and just read it. I'll be waiting. :)

See full review & more here! --> https://baileysbooks.home.blog/2019/06/10/queenie-by-candice-carty-williams/… (mere)

I went into this expecting standard rom-com chick lit and got something else entirely.

Queenie is 25 and a real mess: She’s breaking up with her boyfriend, estranged from her Mom, screwing up at work and drowning her sorrows in reckless, casual sex.

I assumed that all her problems would he solved when she fell slowly in love with her nebbishy co-worker or a guy she “met cute” but that’s not the case! We deal with her downward spiral and how it impacts her life and relationships and how she starts to right the ship again.

A fast read, couldn’t put it down once I started.
… (mere)

Cyril Pennington, Jamaican born but living in London, has five children (with four different mothers). Unfortunately

'Cyril saw himself as more of a people person than a father. Sadly for his children this didn't extend to the five of them in a way that was mutually beneficial.'

The children know of each other's existence, they even spent an afternoon in each other's company once, as teenagers, when Cyril picked them up in his gold jeep, his pride and joy, to take them on an unsuccessful outing to the park. But years have gone past without the siblings giving each other a second thought, despite living in the same part of London. Until that is, Cyril's third child Dimple has a problem, a very big problem, and decides to phone her eldest half-sister Nikisha for help. Dimple's unpleasant boyfriend Kyron has hit his head after slipping on some olive oil in Dimple's kitchen and now seems to be very dead indeed. So the siblings are gathered together in an attempt to bury the body before Dimple can be accused of murder ....

And this is where I started to have a problem with this book. Up until that point none of the half-siblings have shown any interest in each other at all. They haven't met since that one meeting fifteen years previously. They know nothing whatsoever about Dimple - for all they know she could be in the habit of murdering boyfriends in her kitchen. And yet they're all totally happy to drive about London looking for somewhere to bury the body. I don't think so. And Dimple herself, a thirty year old wannabe (but very unsuccessful) influencer who never seems to have had a proper job in her life is such an ineffectual and inadequate main character. If she was twenty rather than thirty I might possibly have been more sympathetic, but she's effectively an overgrown spoilt teenager. The lives of the other siblings, and their mothers as well, seem to have more back history that could be explored, but it's only mentioned very briefly.

So I didn't like this book. According to the blurb, it's 'hilarious'. I don't think I even smiled once.… (mere)