Donna Hill (1)

She’s a brilliant Senate candidate, a tech mogul's loving wife, and mother to two precious daughters. As a member of one of the country's most prominent families, Kimberly Maitland grew up having it all—and fighting to help those who need help most. But when journalist Zoie Crawford revealed her family's best-hidden, most shattering secret, the media firestorm and personal fallout were beyond devastating.

I received this eBook on NetGalley for a review. I like Donna Hill’s writing style, and was anticipating this novel as a very good second book in a series. I read the first novel - A House Divided, which was a quick read and a great gate opener into Zoie Crawford and Kimberly Maitland Graham’s lives. The series of drama and a touch of mystery unfolded in a well written manner as the story progressed. I was able to picture the characters, the scenes and the food displayed on the table. I enjoyed the story and would have liked a slightly different ending, but I understood the premise behind Donna Hill’s’ conclusion to all the drama.… (más)

Journalist Zoie Crawford, and her grandmother, Claudia, inspired her to follow her dreams.
Her mother, Rose, held on too tight. Zoie reluctantly returns home to New Orleans, after the death of her grandmother. While there she discovers a stunning, painstakingly kept secret — one that could skyrocket her career, and destroy another woman’s.

Donna Hill is an excellent writer. Hill paints the picture with her descriptive words to your brain like a canvas. She puts you into the story without overly detailing. This story covers similar issues in familiar across the world. I agreed with the approach that the main character, Zoie took in dealing with her personal and professional lives. It is without a doubt that there is another novel in the waiting.

Moving forward to “The Other Sister.”… (más)

Confessions in B Flat was a particular treat for me. I am, admittedly, not a huge fan of historical fiction. But the lure of its description was too much for me to walk away. Two young Civil Rights activists from differing ideologies find themselves struggling to figure out if a relationship can withstand their polarized views.

Anita and Jason are, in many ways, like oil and water. Despite coming from a “bougie” background, Anita, a part-time waitress and poet, moves to the beat of her own drum and is often compelled by a sense of doing what fulfills her. She finds herself a follower of Malcolm X and is deeply committed to all Harlem has to give. Jason, a Georgia native who comes north to spread the teaching of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is more bound by duty and expectation. He wants to do what is right, even if it comes with a sacrifice. Their initial interactions are fraught with conflict about how they approach the fight for civil rights, but their chemistry is undeniable.

Hill masterfully captured the culture wars that existed in the ’60s. Jason’s Southern roots came with lofty expectations around gender roles and respectability that he was loathe to depart from. Anita had that same upbringing, but the Northern environment meant she engaged with them in a more fluid way. The tension, literally and figuratively, represented the shifting from traditional to more modern ways of thinking among the Black community around this era. So for all of the courtship dances with their families, the two move to their own pace in a way that feels right, social expectations be damned.

The characters in this book featured depth and complexity and sometimes a bit of hypocrisy. Anita was intent on living life on her own terms, whether that be her faith, her activism, her relationships. She wasn’t so much stubborn as she was fighting to make sure her voice was heard. Jason’s fight to do what he believed was right took him away from all that felt safe, even if it meant putting himself in harm’s way. Hill’s portrayal of them both showed that neither character was wholly inflexible, but their choices were deeply rooted in their own life experiences and the world they knew could come to fruition. They were at times endearing, infuriating, but always authentic and relatable.

My favorite feature of Confessions in B-Flat is its embedding of actual landmarks into the story to the point where they as as much a character in the story as Anita and Jason. More than just neighborhood names and well-known streets, the settings include staple restaurants and Black-owned businesses. The author goes a step further to include photos of the settings. While the images themselves aren’t necessary, they do add a touch of palpability and context. The resulting vibe is a book that feels part historical fiction, part scrapbook.

For readers who are particularly interested in history, this book will be a treat for how it highlights major figures and seminal events in the world broadly and the Civil Rights Movement nationally. Beyond Martin and Malcolm, there are references to well-known figures including John Lewis, Angela Davis, and Bayard Rustin. But there were also lesser known (to me) events such as the Cambridge, Maryland riots. As someone who considers myself well-versed, I found that I learned new things and was eagerly bouncing between looking up unfamiliar names and places as Hill introduced them.

Confessions in B Flat is more than a romance and it’s more than another fictionalized account of the Civil Rights era. It’s an honest look at two regular people doing their best to find their place in the movement. It is an examination of how the Black community as a whole worked to reconcile their warring ideals as they sought a more just world. It’s also an opportunity to reconsider assumptions about people on the other side of the “fence.” I think that what takes Confessions in B Flat from being another historical romance to a book that has lessons that can still be applied today.… (más)