In my opinion, the perfect book needs to make you laugh, cry and you’ll never forget it. Fortunately, I cry very easily so most books fulfil at least one of my requirements. On this page I’ll post my honest reviews of all the books I’m currently reading. From young adult to historical fiction, latest releases to classics, I’ll share my unfiltered opinion in 500 words or less.

Àbíké-Íyímídé, Faridah – Ace of Spades

Acevedo, Elizabeth – Clap When You Land

Adebayo, Ayobami – Stay With Me

Adeyemi, Tomi – Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Alammar, Layla – The Pact We Made

Alderton, Dolly – Ghosts

Alvarez, Julia – How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Alvarez, Julia – In the Time of the Butterflies

Angelou, Maya – Letter to my Daughter

Amaka, Rosanna – The Book of Echoes

Arthurs, Alexia – How to Love a Jamaican

Ashour, Radwa – Granada

Atwood, Margaret – The Testaments

Azumah-Nelson, Caleb – Open Water

Babalola, Bolu – Love In Colour

Beard, Mary – Women & Power

Benary, Margot – Castle on the Border

Bennett, Brit – The Vanishing Half

Benson, Jendella – Hope & Glory

Blackburn, Lizzie Damilola – Yinka, Where is your Huzband?

Bourne, Holly – Am I Normal Yet?

Bourne, Holly – The Places I’ve Cried in Public

Bracken, Alexandra – Lore

Braithwaite, Oyinkan – My Sister, The Serial Killer

Brathwaite, Candice – Sista Sister

Brooks, Geraldine – People of the Book

Bsharat, Ahlam – Trees for the Absentees

Burns, Anna – Milkman

Burton, Jessie – The Miniaturist

Carty-Williams, Candice – Empress & Aniya

Castillo, Elaine – America is Not the Heart

Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Summer Queen

Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Winter Crown

Channing-Brown, Austin – I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

Clark, C.L. – The Unbroken

Coel, Michaela – Misfits

Cole, Teju – Every Day is For the Thief

Cruz, Angie – Dominicana

Dalcher, Christina – Vox

Daré, Abi – The Girl with the Louding Voice

Dawson, Juno – Clean

Dawson, Juno – Meat Market

Diop, David – At Night All Blood is Black

Domingo, Sareeta – Who’s Loving You

Edim, Glory – Well-Read Black Girl

Ephron, Nora – Heartburn

Ephron, Nora – I Feel Bad About My Neck

Evaristo, Bernadine – Girl, Woman, Other

Evaristo, Bernadine – Hello Mum

Evaristo, Bernadine – Mr Loverman

Galgut, Damon – The Promise

Garthwaite, Annie – Cecily

Garza, Alicia – The Purpose of Power

Gregory, Philippa – Tidelands

Gyasi, Yaa – Homegoing

Gyasi, Yaa – Transcendent Kingdom

Haynes, Natalie – A Thousand Ships

Haynes, Natalie – Pandora’s Jar

Healey, Jane – The Animals at Lockwood Manor

Herbert, Adrienne – Power Hour

Honeyman, Gail – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Hosseini, Khaled – A Thousand Splendid Suns

Jackson, Naomi – The Star Side of Bird Hill

Jenkins-Reid, Taylor – Malibu Rising

Kent, Hannah – Burial Rites

King, Stephen – On Writing

Lahens, Yanick – Moonbath

Lawton, Georgina – Raceless

Larsen, Nella – Passing

LB, Jade – Keisha the Sket

Lefteri, Christy – The Beekeeper of Aleppo

Lee, Min Jin – Pachinko

Loupas, Elizabeth – The Red Lily Crown

Lupton, Rosamund – Three Hours

Machado, Carmen Maria – Her Body & Other Parties

Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga – Manchester Happened

Mantel, Hilary – The Mirror & the Light

May, Nikki – Wahala

McDaniel, Tiffany – Betty

Mengiste, Maaza – The Shadow King

Miller, Kei – The Last Warner Woman

Millwood-Hargrave, Kiran – The Mercies

Morris, Brittney – The Cost of Knowing

Morris, Stephen – Black Tea

Morrison, Toni – The Bluest Eye

Mustapha, Sahar – The Beauty of Your Face

Nealon, Louise – Snowflake

Nichols, Grace – The Fat Black Woman’s Poems

Nwelue, Onyeka – The Strangers of Braamfontein

O’Farrell, Maggie – Hamnet

Okechukwu, Nzelu – The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney

Onuzo, Chibundu – Sankofa

Osman, Richard – The Thursday Murder Club

O’Porter, Dawn – So Lucky

Owens, Delia – Where The Crawdads Sing

Park, Sang Young – Love In the Big City

Parker, Morgan – Who Put This Song On?

Parker-Chan, Shelley – She Who Became the Sun

Papillon, Buki – An Ordinary Wonder

Peters, Torrey – Detransition, Baby

Quế Mai, Nguyễn Phan – The Mountains Sing

Rahman, Khurrum – East of Hounslow

Rahman, Yasmin – All The Things We Never Said

Reid, Kiley – Such a Fun Age

Rhys, Jean – Wide Sargasso Sea

Rooney, Sally – Normal People

Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things

Rushdie, Salman – Midnight’s Children

Ryan, Madeleine – A Room Called Earth

Saint, Jennifer – Ariadne

Sebald, W.G. – The Rings of Saturn

Selmi, Habib – The Scents of Marie Claire

Shamsie, Kamila – A God in Every Stone

Shamsie, Kamila – Home Fire

Shafak, Elif – 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World

Shreeves – Lee, Jac – Broadwater

Shukla, Nikesh – Brown Baby

Slimani, Leïla – Lullaby

Smart, Ciannon – Witches Steeped in Gold

Smith, Zadie – Intimations

Söderberg, Hjalmar – Doctor Glas

Straub, Emma – All Adults Here

Stringfellow, Tara M. – Memphis

Stuart, Douglas – Shuggie Bain

Taddeo, Lisa – Three Women

Tartt, Donna – The Goldfinch

Taylor, Brandon – Real Life

Thomas, Angie – The Hate You Give

Thomas, Angie – Concrete Rose

Ward, Jesmyn – Men We Reaped

Washington, Bryan – Lot

Washington, Bryan – Memorial

Weir, Alison – Katherine of Aragon

Weir, Alison – Anne Boleyn

Weir, Alison – Jane Seymour

Weir, Alison – Anna of Kleve

Weir, Alison – Katheryn Howard

West, Dorothy – The Wedding

Whitehead, Colson – The Nickel Boys

Wilkerson, Charmaine – Black Cake

Wilkinson, Lauren – American Spy

Williams, Alicia.D – Genesis Begins Again

Woodson, Jacqueline – Red At The Bone

Yorke, John – Into the Woods

Yousafzai, Malala – We Are Displaced

Zafón, Carlos Ruiz – The Shadow of the Wind

Zayyan, Hafsa – We Are All Birds of Uganda

Zoboi, Ibi – American Street

Multiple authors – The Haunting Season

Here’s my rating system:

***** = I hold this book in my heart everywhere I go. I will mention it in every conversation until I die. The characters will haunt me throughout my days.

**** = I will recommend this book to everyone I come into contact with for the next three months. Several of my friends and family will receive it for their birthday presents.

*** = I will forget the details of the plot after a couple of weeks but I will smile when I see it on my bookshelf.

** = I will cry with disappointment at the time wasted trying to finish this book.

* = I stopped reading before my soul was crushed.