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  Published: 2021, Simon and Schuster Genre: Fiction Themes: witchcraft, curses, love My rating (out of 5): ❤❤ I don't usually annotate books (mostly because they belong to the library and it would be frowned upon) but there are times when I was reading this book I just want to grab a pen and scrawl 'REALLY???' in the margin. For instance:  One of the principal characters, Kylie, wants to end a curse that has been put on her family so she seeks out a man who is known to be an expert in curses.  Because of his surname she suggests that they may have a common relative from centuries ago.... 'Tom realized who she was.  The seven-times great-granddaughter of a witch who had been married to his six-times great-grandfather.' Well obviously. Anyway, Kylie belongs to a family where the women are bloodline witches and the curse hanging over them was set to prevent them having their hearts broken through love.  They must avoid falling in love and if they don't abide ...

Published: Penguin, 2021 Genre: Fiction Themes: Ugandan Asians, family business, family dynasty My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ This made me consider how much our lives can be influenced by those who came before us.  Decisions made by parents and grandparents can influence where we live; our moral boundaries; and how we view, and inwardly judge, others.  Even if we decide to do everything differently, there are times in our lives where we feel the pull of the family compass and all we want to do is to return to a familiar path. This is a debut novel and I struggle to understand how anyone can write so well at such a young age.  Hafsa Zayyan must be under 30 as this book won the Merky Book Prize and that is only open to people aged 16 - 30.  Apparently she wrote the whole thing in 6 months while continuing to work as a dispute resolution lawyer, and she is writing convincingly about a totally different culture to her own. The book is set in the present and follows Sameer ...

  Published: 2021, Penguin Random House Genre: Fiction Themes: White Supremacy riots, Thomas Jefferson, Monticello My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤❤ Ah, Thomas Jefferson.  Spokesman for democracy, American Founding Father, principle author of the Declaration of Independence and Third President of the United States.  All-round good bloke right? Well, maybe not quite so all-round as he had a bit of a blind spot when it came to owning people.  Mr Jefferson owned more than six hundred African American people during his adult life and they were all put to work in and around his magnificent house, Monticello.  If you look up Thomas Jefferson's page on the White House website there is no mention of these people at all, and quite near the top of the text there is a quote from one of Jefferson's private letters where he states: 'I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.'  No wonder Jocelyn Nicole Johnson ...

  Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2021 Genre: Fiction Themes: Ancient Pompeii, slaves, brothel My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤  If, like me, you spent most of your history lessons looking out the window and didn't really absorb very much about the ancient Roman Empire, nil desperandum, as you will still manage perfectly well with this book. Set in first century Pompeii, the story follows the life of Amara, a young Greek woman who has been shipped to Pompeii as a slave and then bought by the owner of The Wolf Den brothel.  As the daughter of a doctor, she was bought up in relatively comfortable circumstances, but a series of terrible events turned her life upside down and she is now trapped in an endless cycle of fear and degradation with almost no hope of escape.  Amara is one of a group of slaves working in the Wolf Den, and they do what they can to protect one another from serious harm, but Amara knows that if she wants anything better for herself, she must make the brothel ow...