Book Review: A Poisonous Pour (Cece Barton Mystery, #3) by Maddie Day

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A Poisonous Pour (Cece Barton Mystery, #3)  by Maddie Day  opens with the city of Colinas, California celebrating Memorial Day weekend with various activities including a car show and picnic. While co-sponsoring a booth at the car show with local mechanic Josie Jarvin, Cece witnesses one of the attendees, Regan Greene, getting into multiple arguments with others. Aside from that, everything goes well. That is until the next morning when the town finds out that Regan is dead, and it looks like she was murdered. With multiple people having motives, Cece utilizes her amateur sleuthing skills to find out who actually committed the dirty deed. I was approved for and received a digital copy of an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of A Poisonous Pour by Maddie Day from NetGalley and Kensington Publishing. A huge thank you goes out to both for providing me a copy for free in exchange for my honest opinion. Maddie Day's Cece Barton series has become one of my favorite cozy mystery series, an...
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Book Review: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

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Science Fiction Book Review of Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is the first science fiction novel written by a Black woman. It's part memoir, part fantasy, and part historical fiction. The book opens with Dana, an African American woman in 1976 Los Angeles, California, who is transported back to 1815 Maryland and saves a drowning white boy.  However, she finds herself fearing for her life when the boys father, a slave owner, is pointing his shotgun at her.

I discovered Kindred through my book club, which selected it for our September meeting. Although I had heard of the novel, I wasn’t familiar with its plot. Science fiction isn’t usually my go-to, but I was captivated from the first page. The story is compelling, well-written, and utterly immersive.

Octavia E. Butler’s writing is engaging, vivid, and unputdownable. The characters feel real, and I found myself thinking about them long after finishing the book. Butler expertly portrays the horrors of slavery and imagines what it might be like if a Black person from modern times were thrust into that era. Though fictional, the novel resonates with historical accuracy, making its events feel hauntingly real. Key themes include racism, slavery, trauma, rape, and suicide, all explored with depth and nuance.

More than 43 years after its publication, Kindred has truly stood the test of time. It remains a powerful, thought-provoking story that deserves every bit of its acclaim. I rate it five out of five stars and look forward to reading more of Octavia E. Butler’s extraordinary work.

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