I’ve organised my reviews by star rating so you can easily find your next read!

Five Stars = 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.

Alvarez, Julia – How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

Alvarez, Julia – In the Time of the Butterflies

Angelou, Maya – Letter to my Daughter

Arthurs, Alexia – How to Love a Jamaican

Atwood, Margaret – The Testaments

Babalola, Bolu – Love In Colour

Bennett, Brit – The Vanishing Half

Castillo, Elaine – America is Not the Heart

Edim, Glory – Well-Read Black Girl

Ephron, Nora – Heartburn

Evaristo, Bernadine – Girl, Woman, Other

Garthwaite, Annie – Cecily

Haynes, Natalie – A Thousand Ships

Hosseini, Khaled – A Thousand Splendid Suns

Kent, Hannah – Burial Rites

Lee, Min Jin – Pachinko

Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga – Manchester Happened

McDaniel, Tiffany – Betty

O’Farrell, Maggie – Hamnet

Peters, Torrey – Detransition, Baby

Reid, Kiley – Such a Fun Age

Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things

Shamsie, Kamila – Home Fire

Taylor, Brandon – Real Life

Ward, Jesmyn – Men We Reaped

West, Dorothy – The Wedding

Yousafzai, Malala – We Are Displaced

———– [FOUR AND A HALF]———-

Bracken, Alexandra – Lore

Dawson, Juno – Meat Market

Diop, David – At Night All Blood is Black

Gyasi, Yaa – Transcendent Kingdom

Honeyman, Gail – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Jackson, Naomi – The Star Side of Bird Hill

Jenkins-Reid, Taylor – Malibu Rising

Larsen, Nella – Passing

Lawton, Georgina – Raceless

Lupton, Rosamund – Three Hours

Miller, Kei – The Last Warner Woman

Millwood-Hargrave, Kiran – The Mercies

Morrison, Toni – The Bluest Eye

Mustapha, Sahar – The Beauty of Your Face

Nealon, Louise – Snowflake

Owens, Delia – Where The Crawdads Sing

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

Shreeves-Lee, Jac – Broadwater

Straub, Emma – All Adults Here

Stringfellow, Tara M. – Memphis

Stuart, Douglas – Shuggie Bain

Thomas, Angie – The Hate You Give

Whitehead, Colson – The Nickel Boys

Wilkinson, Lauren – American Spy

Zayyan, Hafsa – We Are All Birds of Uganda

Zoboi, Ibi – American Street

Four Stars = 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.

Àbíké-Íyímídé, Faridah – Ace of Spades

Acevedo, Elizabeth – Clap When You Land

Alammar, Layla – The Pact We Made

Amaka, Rosanna – The Book of Echoes

Azumah-Nelson, Caleb – Open Water

Beard, Mary – Women & Power

Benary, Margot – Castle on the Border

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

Bourne, Holly – Am I Normal Yet?

Braithwaite, Oyinkan – My Sister, The Serial Killer

Brathwaite, Candice – Sista Sister

Brooks, Geraldine – People of the Book

Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Summer Queen

Clark, C.L. – The Unbroken

Coel, Michaela – Misfits

Cruz, Angie – Dominicana

Dalcher, Christina – Vox

Daré, Abi – The Girl with the Louding Voice

Dawson, Juno – Clean

Evaristo, Bernadine – Mr Loverman

Garza, Alicia – The Purpose of Power

Gyasi, Yaa – Homegoing

Haynes, Natalie – Pandora’s Jar

Healey, Jane – The Animals at Lockwood Manor

Herbert, Adrienne – Power Hour

King, Stephen – On Writing

May, Nikki – Wahala

Morris, Brittney – The Cost of Knowing

Nichols, Grace – The Fat Black Woman’s Poems

Okechukwu, Nzelu – The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney

Onuzo, Chibundu – Sankofa

Osman, Richard – The Thursday Murder Club

Papillon, Buki – An Ordinary Wonder

Park, Sang Young – Love in the Big City

Rahman, Khurrum – East of Hounslow

Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things

Saint, Jennifer – Ariadne

Shamsie, Kamila – A God in Every Stone

Shukla, Nikesh – Brown Baby

Slimani, Leïla – Lullaby

Taddeo, Lisa – Three Women

Tartt, Donna – The Goldfinch

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

Wilkerson, Charmaine – Black Cake

Williams, Alicia D. – Genesis Begins Again

Yorke, John – Into the Woods

Multiple authors – The Haunting Season

———– [THREE AND A HALF]———-

Adebayo, Ayobami – Stay With Me

Adeyemi, Tomi – Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Alderton, Dolly – Ghosts

Benson, Jendella – Hope & Glory

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

Bsharat, Ahlam – Trees for the Absentees

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

Domingo, Sareeta – Who’s Loving You

Galgut, Damon – The Promise

Gregory, Philippa – Tidelands

Lefteri, Christy – The Beekeeper of Aleppo

Loupas, Elizabeth – The Red Lily Crown

Mantel, Hilary – The Mirror & the Light

Mengiste, Maaza – The Shadow King

Morris, Stephen – Black Tea

O’Porter, Dawn – So Lucky

Parker-Chan, Shelley – She Who Became the Sun

Quế Mai, Nguyễn Phan – The Mountains Sing

Rhys, Jean – Wide Sargasso Sea

Rooney, Sally – Normal People

Ryan, Madeleine – A Room Called Earth

Smith, Zadie – Intimations

Söderberg, Hjalmar – Doctor Glas

Thomas, Angie – Concrete Rose

Woodson, Jacqueline – Red At The Bone

Washington, Bryan – Lot

Zafón, Carlos Ruiz – The Shadow of the Wind

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

Ashour, Radwa – Granada

Burns, Anna – Milkman

Burton, Jessie – The Miniaturist

Carty-Williams, Candice – Empress & Aniya

Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Winter Crown

Cole, Teju – Every Day is For the Thief

Ephron, Nora – I Feel Bad About My Neck

Evaristo, Bernadine – Hello Mum

Lahens, Yanick – Moonbath

LB, Jade – Keisha the Sket

Machado, Carmen Maria – Her Body & Other Parties

Parker, Morgan – Who Put This Song On?

Rahman, Yasmin – All The Things We Never Said

Rushdie, Salman – Midnight’s Children

Selmi, Habib – The Scents of Marie-Claire

Smart, Ciannon – Witches Steeped in Gold

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

Nwelue, Onyeka – The Strangers of Braamfontein

One Star = I stopped reading before my soul was crushed.

Sebald, W.G. – The Rings of Saturn