Harmony by Sienna Mynx

Harmony by Sienna Mynx

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


I pulled this one up on my Kindle because I was watching the HBO movie "Bessie" with Queen Latifah (who is the definition of awesome), and I wanted to read something set at this time, and especially IR. I had downloaded is specifically because of the time setting and the storyline, and this was the perfect time to read it.  I wasn't disappointed. This was a very good book.

Disclaimer: I will use the term 'colored' for black people because that is what black people were called at this time.  This term is not appropriate to use anymore, but in the context of this story, it's timely.

Harmony sings the blues at the Cotton Club.  Music is in her soul and it's her gift, how she pours out her anguish over the loss of her grandmother and her man.  Her dreams of escaping a life bound by the restrictions of race and lack of money are given full rein when she sings.  When her brother goes missing, she exploits the fact that powerful gangster Vinnie Romano seems captivated with her voice.  She asks him to help her find her brother, knowing he'll have a price, and one that she's willing to pay.  Set in a time of Prohibition when gang violence is near an all time high, this book delivers on the intensity.

I bought in on the chemistry between Harmony and Vinnie from their first meeting.  I like that you initially don't know what Vinnie's motives are.  He's a hard man and he keeps his heart buried deep. Coming over from Sicily with nothing, he's earned his status as a Boss with blood.  And Vinnie definitely has an intimidating vibe.  I like dangerous heroes, although I can't same I'm fond of mobsters.  They aren't my cup of tea since I don't like brutality and the ruthless killing for profit and status associated with that kind of business.  What hooked me in with Vinnie was his extreme appreciation for Harmony's singing and his love of blues music, a music that was strictly colored music at this time. They actually called them race records.  For Vinnie to connect with such soulful music showed that he was deeper than he might have appeared.  While at first, you don't get that race isn't an issue with him, you wonder that it can't be if he would connect so deeply with a culture so different from his own.  Vinnie made me care about him. As Harmony sees his layers and the lion's heart he has, so did I. I appreciate loyalty and honor, and I don't tend to associate those with mobsters, but Vinnie clearly has those traits.  He's a fascinating guy and I could see why Harmony loved him.

Harmony is equally layered. She's tough and independent and fiery passionate, but also sweet and demure. She's an artist and a believer deep in her soul, a dreamer, even in this world where colored people aren't allowed dreams. I loved how determined and fearless she is at the end of this book. That was a really bad and scary situation and she did something that only a lioness would do to save her man. Kudos to her for that. 

I remember there is a great movie that I saw a long time ago called "Machine Gun Blues", starring Cynda Williams and Nick Cassavettes, about a colored blues singer who falls in love with an Italian mobster. It has a sad ending (sorry for the spoiler), and I always wished it had ended differently. I would like to thank Ms. Mynx for giving me a happy ending version of that seemingly doomed love affair.  There is a time in this book where you aren't sure you'll get a happy ending, and I think I hardly breathed as I read the final pages of the book.  The thing about Kindle books is it tells you how much time you have left in the book, and the last 20% was agony for me.  But Mynx delivered.

I have a problem with erotica, and I try to avoid it. I just don't like all the 'anything goes' sex. I like to know there will be limits on what kinds of sex acts are depicted in the book.  I don't mind steamy vanilla sex and plenty of it (so long as it doesn't take over the story), but I don't like the kinky stuff.  A reference during the first love scene had me worried, but that stuff didn't take place on screen in the book, so I heaved a sigh of relief.  While I do think this did have a bit more sex than strictly necessary, I can understand how important it was to show the passion and desperation of these two lovers, and how their love comes to the surface past their guarded armor and facades.

I won't say I'm a mafia/mobster romance fan, but I really did like this book.  And since I'm a sucker for Early 20th Century romance, and I like reading about the 20s and 30s, it kind of comes with the territory.  Prohibition was a very violent period in American history, and there are a lot of untold stories. I loved seeing what it was like a young colored woman and her Sicilian lover, that they did have a chance at a happy ending, even in their world of blood and strife.  I learned some historical facts as I read that found very fascinating, such as which states it was legal to marry interracially during this period. 

The writing was crisp and very organic and visually-stimulating.  I felt like this was a cinematic read, and I would love if someone did make a movie out of this one day. I would definitely go see it!  The music aspect was well-conveyed and integral to this story. The editing was pretty good, with only a few errors, mostly near the end.


I'd have to give this 4.5/5.0 stars because this was an intense, passionate and involving book that kept its hooks in me even when I was afraid to keep reading.  I really cared about Harmony and Vinnie and I wanted desperately for them to get their happy ending together.  I can see why Sienna Mynx is such a popular author.



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Ironskin by Tina Connolly

Ironskin by Tina Connolly

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars


Ironskin is a clever re-telling of Jane Eyre with a delicious heaping tablespoon of faerie thrown in.  Since Jane Eyre is tied for my favorite book of all time, I definitely loved that about this book.  I appreciated catching the references to the original novel and reading the author's original story with her own ideas based on this beloved classic. In other words, this is not a word for word redux of Jane Eyre. Instead it's a "what if?" sort of take on the novel by Charlotte Brontë.

I am captivated with the post-World War I period and the twenties, and it was a big plus that this book is set somewhere in that late 1910s-early 1920s period.  Also, the infusion of faerie into the modern period that would seem incongruous but wasn't.  The Gothic atmosphere is prominent, and the menacing allure of faerie magic.  Don't look for friendly fey in this book.  They are mean and vicious, and terribly insidious.  The fey storyline turns out to be quite interesting and unsettling.  Connolly taps into the essence of Post-War morals, the shunning of deep things and an enhanced superficiality.  Shallow above substance.  While the Great War is quite different in this book, the scars it left on society are similarly wounding to the survivors, and the society grabs onto the bright phony allure when so little of the Pre-War way of life is left behind.

Most of the characters are walking wounded, with some who seem blatantly unsympathetic.  It takes a while to see where Connolly was going, which impacted my rating, honestly.  Even until the end, I felt ambivalent, and the story was rather ambiguous.  And yet, there was something impactful about this book.  I think Connolly connected to the aesthetic in me.  The appeal was in the dreamy and artful descriptions of the house and characters and the manner in which she revealed characters, with descriptions and body language telling much of who the characters were even before they open their mouths.  Additionally, the characters' emotions were seething off the page. For this reader, that always speaks loudly when reading a novel.  Jane, a tortured heroine who is drifting and surviving, because she has no other choice. When she finds a home with Mr. Rochart and his daughter Dorie, she fears it's an elusive dream, because of persistent feelings of inadequacy and a lack of self-worth. In this way she differs from Jane Eyre.  Jane Eyre is ever-aware of her shortcomings, but her sense of self is so strong.  She is a tiny ball of determination and powerful will.  She refuses to settle for less than she deserves, even if that means denying herself the man she loves.  This Jane has to grow into that, and while I wasn't happy with some of the choices she made, I was happy that she found the fighter within that was buried under a mountain of hurt.  Mr. Rochart is more vague and lacks the vibrancy of Rochester.  He's also not as abrasive as Rochester, which is an enduring part of this character's appeal to fans of the novel. But I think he's a better fit for this Jane.  He's her Rochester in the end.  Dorie had such an impact on me. The lonely, troubled child in need of love and care that Jane is able to connect with.   She is one of those younger characters that inspires the mothering urge in me. Also Poule's character.  I can't speak on her at length, since it would spoil what was a very novel part of this book.

While Ironskin was a good book, it just didn't satisfy me completely.  There was a sense of inertia when I read.  As though the story wanted to get someone but it wandered aimlessly in a series of ever-widening circles. I'm not sure if that effectively conveys how I felt as I read, but it's as close as I can articulate at this time.  The aspects of this story that appealed to me are significant, which is why I would recommend reading it.  I just wanted more momentum in this book.  Ultimately, I did appreciate the underlying themes.  It speaks on the power of substance and will over all that glitters.  Also that our wounds and scars can make us stronger, because they are tangible evidence of the inner truth. That we are survivors, down deep. We must just find that core of strength to prevail over our doubts and fears to grab hold of what we desire and need most in this life.


Overall rating:  3.5/5.0 stars.





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The Diviners by Libba Bray

The Diviners by Libba Bray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to give it to Libba Bray. She captured the Roaring 20s in full color. I can tell she put some serious research into this book, but also endowed this period with her own spark and brought it to life for this reader.

This was an odyssey in some ways. A long read, and a long listen. Thinking about this book gives me an ambivalent feeling. The subject matter is very dark. The tone quite pessimistic. I realize that this is the authentic feeling of youngsters of this period. How can you believe in the fairy tales your parents tell you about God and country, about safety and peace when your older brothers and friends went to die in the Great War that seemed to have nothing to do with you in America? Especially when things aren't exactly fixed on the home-front? All that the old timers say seems to be hypocritical and designed to suck the life out of you. That they are selling you a dream you can afford to buy.

With this novel, Libba Bray captures that feeling of doubt and despair of this period, and how the Bright Young Things, the Flappers and their male counterparts, threw themselves into the party, the Now, instead of focusing on a future that didn't seem to belong to them anyway. I think my feeling of almost depression when this ended also related to the fact that I watched a documentary on Sunday night about the black American experience and how by and large most blacks never really had a chance at the ever-elusive American Dream, far from it. So I can feel that sense of disillusionment that some of the characters felt in this book, knowing how bad it must have been for many blacks during the 20s, and having false promises about how great America was rubbed in their faces because of their skin color and race, despite being born and raised in this great country.

She also shows the constant party atmosphere that was going on during Prohibition, bought at a hefty price, with the rise of gangster-related crimes in the cities. Immigrants who came to America to get a better life, find themselves living in falling down tenements and preyed upon and despised because they can't afford any better (or to buy into the American Dream). Doors slammed in their faces because of their ethnic origins. The rise of xenophobia and racial hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and espousing of racial purity through eugenics. I imagine it was a scary time indeed for youngsters like Evie, Jericho, Mabel, Theta, Memphis, Sam, and Henry. Much better to drown your sorrows in gin, constant partying, and watching movies on the Silver Screen, than to face the scary present and an uncertain future.

On top of that is a very real and very frightening supernatural peril, at a time where Modernism and self-determinism seems to counter beliefs in a supernatural God, must less anything like ghosts or even spiritual beliefs. How does one protect oneself against a ghost resurrected to continue his blasphemous work, when one doesn't even believe in that sort of thing, not as a Modern person? How can you conceal the fact that you have abilities that you are not able to explain in a rational sense?

Yes, combined together, this makes The Diviners not a fun read. At least most of the time. But it's very good. The characters were very vividly realized and I felt much sympathy for them even when I didn't agree with the choices they made. Evie, particularly, challenged me at times. Her reliance on drinking and her self-absorbed, questionable moral compass chafed at me. However, Bray shows the pain that lurks beneath her careless facade. Being the child who lived when her mother wanted her brother to come back from the War instead. Losing her only sibling to a war that didn't make any sense to her, and not even having a close relationship with her parents to console her. On top of that, her ability to read objects, and its effect on both her body (horrible dreams and headaches) and her reputation when she makes enemies by telling the truth, making her known as the weirdo who doesn't fit in. While Modernism seems the solution to the problems that she and many youngsters face, they run into the brick walls of establishment and parental authority, which is always telling them to follow rules that make no sense or have no personal relevance. Her dream to go to New York is a way to start her Real Life. She belongs there, where the party is, where she will fit in. However, she finds that many of her problems exist in New York as well, since she is answerable to her uncle, William Fitzgerald, and she's still considered a young girl to the establishment. When she gets involved in the case to find a ritualistic killer, her abilities give her a purpose and validation that she lacked before.

I appreciated how Bray uses each young character in this book as a frame of reference, across racial and social barriers, which the youth believe are artificial anyway. I sometimes questioned Bray's modern, almost Rainbow Coalition voice as I read, but with research into the era and the Modernist movement, it is clear that this voice was authentic to this era. I liked that she taught me a lot about the social politics of the time in the context of this fictional work. While I feel that this book has some very mature themes and dark themes and subject matter, I feel that it teaches important history lessons that a mature teen could benefit from. If I were a parent, I would suggest reading it first though.

The supernatural storyline was quite unnerving and disturbing. The tie into religious fanaticism made me uncomfortable, particularly in light of the fact that this was the major representation of modern belief in God in this story. I am not saying that Bray attacked religion, but perhaps these times were not as friendly overall to a positive view of Christianity not related to unpalatable social movements such as racial purity and isolationist xenophobia (keeping America pure). In the context of Memphis' journey as a young black man, Christianity doesn't seem to offer him much, since it has done little to improve either his life or the station of life for many people of his race. In the case of Evie, her parents' Episcopalian worship is strictly a social convention with little life or emotion. From that frame of reference, it's easy to see why this has no major influence on her own beliefs. Her friend Mabel's parents are atheistic social reformers, her father of Jewish background, and her mother a runaway socialite. In the case of Jericho, he renounced belief in a God who would abandon him to a life-threatening illness that changed his whole life. So when you have a killer who has grandiose beliefs of himself as the Beast who will bring about the end of the world, a very heretical corruption of Christian eschatology, it comes off as a very negative view of Christianity in general.

While Bray doesn't describe the murders in detail, she does show us the fear and the hopelessness of the victims of the killer, which was hard reading. Although society might consider them undesirable, to me, they were innocent human beings who didn't deserve what happened to them. I found it disturbing, although not gratuitous. Perhaps some readers wouldn't be as bothered. I admit I am a wimp when it comes to serial killers and psychopathic killers. It especially bothers me when religious imagery is mixed in with it.

While Evie's uncle Will is not a focus, I liked his character a lot. His scholarly bent and carefully disguised soft heart were a good foil for the younger characters. He is Old Guard, but the more time Evie spends with him, maybe he can show her that not all the values of the older generation are worthless. And maybe she can teach that it's okay to enjoy life and have a sense of emotional connection instead of viewing everything through a divorced and academic lens.

While I found the serial killer aspect disturbing, I like how this story sets up the series for a larger supernatural threat. I can definitely see this series building into something quite interesting and worthy of following.

Just a note about the narrator. She was excellent. She conveyed the characters very distinctly. I liked how she sang as well as speaking some of the parts. I felt like I was there in this period with her lively rendition on this audiobook.


The Diviners is a very good example of what young adult fiction has to offer to both teens and older readers who enjoy young adult books. I'd recommend it for the vivid and very faithful rendering of this intriguing time in history, the Roaring 20s, with an intriguing cast of characters that will bring me back to future books in this series.



Just a few casting images:

Evie O'Neill (Kirsten Dunst)



Theta Knight (supposed to resemble Louise Brooks)



Memphis Campbell (Mechad Brooks)



Sam Lloyd (Younger Christian Bale from Newsies)



New York City (Manhattan)-1928





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