Review: Blackness Is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey

Blackness Is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey by R. Renee Hess
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

It isn’t easy being the first— the first Black woman to win gold, to run a hockey school, to be a professional hockey scout, to start a hockey non-profit that values Black women above all else. “Firsts” need the support and care of our communities. But by creating safe spaces where others can be vulnerable and honest, we give ourselves that same gift—and that’s a beautiful thing to behold. 

With a title that I expected to deliver more of a scholarly tone, footnotes and the like (there is a Works Cited), Blackness Is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey instead was a conversational piece about the author's fandom, experience, work, insight, and hope for inclusivity in the world of hockey. The beginning lays out how they came to be a fan of the sport and then how isolating it could be at times being a Black and queer person in that fandom. This had the author creating Black Girl Hockey Club, sending them down a road of creating space, connections, and opportunity for others to not feel so isolated. 

Be a bridge to something better, and take care of the bridges in your own communities. 

A lot of this highlighted the people working to make a difference, such as Kim Davis, Dr. Szto, Shireen Ahmed, Sarah Nurse, Erica Ayala, Blake Bolden, and Jashvina Shah, along with organizations, BGHC, Carnegie Initiative, Get Uncomfortable Campaign, and Hockey is for Everyone. Important names to get out there, as the book discusses, resources, information, and knowledge give people a way to reach out and connect. Relaying this information shows the work being done and how many kids and families want to give hockey a try but have no idea where to start. There's a lot of talk about community, whether in person or online but always addressing the importance of building it and relaying how the author has done it, helping with suggesting how to do it.

I am leery of anyone who would rather be blissfully ignorant than painfully aware. 

The heart of the book was the relaying and sharing of experiences of players, parents, kids, and people that have a love of the game that the author interviewed, Joel Ward's thoughts and feelings about his mom will connect and hit hard with many. There's discussion of how colourism and ignoring intersectionality work to undermine efforts for inclusivity and an ending chapter that speaks on how insidious white feminism is to efforts for equality and equity for all. 

Black hockey players are few and far between at all levels of hockey, which means that equitable communities must be built with intentionality. Parents of Black children will seek these spaces out, but first they must exist. 

The evolution of women's hockey is also discussed and how behind the NHL is compared to the NBA on reaching out. The burst of popularity of the WNBA in the last year shows that once afforded attention, money, effort, and time, women's sports can more than hold their own. The spending power companies let sexism and racism leave on the table never ceases to amaze me. I thought the first half of this was laid out perfectly but the latter second half before it wrapped up had moments of not held together as tightly, causing it to feel a little sluggish. Anyone can get something out of reading this, if you're Black, a sense of community, if you're white, a shake up to see outside of yourself, and if you're a hockey fan, you'll feel the excitement and love of the game and see all the ways the experience for all needs to and can improve.

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Reading Update: 20%

 

"I recall him waxing eloquent about the 2009 Stanely Cup champions" 

 

Only a few pages in, this needs some kind of warning for Red Wings fans 😭 

(also reading this after watching that Wings home opener ) 

As a hockey fan since 1997, it's glaringly obvious that this sport has an inclusion problem. 

From the ice stretches up and into the stands and if you love this sport, why not help and work to make it welcoming and safe for others to get to experience the joy, there is nothing like a live hockey game 

I'm about 20% in and, written by the woman who started the Black Girl Hockey Club, it's been great at talking through personal and systematic barriers while naming some current associations (bghc & Hockey Is For Everyone) that are out there trying to help

'Tis the season to pick this up to read, then go watch the NHL doc Ice Queens 

Blackness is a Gift I Can Give Her: On Race, Community, and Black Women in Hockey by R. Renee Hess purchase link

Apple Sage Turkey Chili recipe

Halloween Bingo 2024

I feel like my game play has been pathetic :(

HB in a Presidential election is rough for me, I'm so busy and now the NHL season has started. Hoping for an end of the month surge though! 

Currently Reading

A Curse of Blood and Wolves by Melissa McTernan

  for the bingo square

The Legend of Meneka by Kritika H. Rao

  for the bingo square  I'm not 100% this is going to work for the square, but reading to find out!

Deja Brew by Celestine Martin 

  for the bingo square

Red in Tooth and Claw by Lish McBride

  for the bingo square  

Bingo squares and books (links to my review) read for them

Raven Middle Square - A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

Modern Masters of Horror - Evil in Me by Brom

Romantic Suspense - Truth Hurts by A.R. O'Brien

Arsenic & Old Lace - The Bane Witch by Ava Morgyn

Review: The Bane Witch

The Bane Witch by Ava Morgyn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.7 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

“Things are not always as they seem, Piers. Remember that. A very little poison can do a world of good. It’s all about how you apply it.” 

The Bane Witch was the story of a woman growing into her powers and learning to use them for the greater good. When Piers was little, she remembers her mother's fear when there was some incident with a man who died. Taken to doctors over and over until they diagnosis her with the eating disorder Pica, she feels compelled to eat poisonous plants, specifically pokeweed, Piers is then drugged to the point of not feeling anything to try and control the pica. When her stepfather, who she never liked, dies and then her mother commits suicide, she's all alone, except for a vague memory of a great-aunt who came to visit them once, before her mother chased her away. Determined to make a life on her own, she becomes an interior designer and marries a man named Henry. In little, almost unnoticeable ways, Henry begins to control her, then comes the violence. Off medication now, Piers' senses are showing her that Henry will not only kill her but other women in the future. Thinking the only solution is to fake her own death, she does just that and takes off to find the mysterious great-aunt. 

She smiles in the soft light. “We don’t fear men in this house,” she tells me. “Men fear us.” 

This story, pretty non-stop, discusses and shows violence against women and girls. Told, mostly from Piers' pov, there's her thinking about and recounting the violence Henry has committed against her (physical and sexual), her fighting against an attempted rape, thoughts and scenes from a serial killer, and stories recounted to her from the venery (a coven of familial witches) about why they killed their marks. So while this story is about a group of women who have magical powers to use their “allure” to draw abusive men to them and then use their poison eating magic abilities to kill them, the author sure leaned into recounting, describing, and go over and over what evil acts these men commit. This is probably a mileage will vary, and while I understand fictionally serving the story, the tone and way these awful acts kept getting descriptively written out, over and over, started to give me the feeling of desensitized true crime and faintly, horror movie torture porn creeping in. It was a lot for this genre of story and I wish we could have focused more on the victims or venery members. 

The hunt is beginning, and my prey is out there, hunting me in return. 

Some of this was Gone Girl-ish with Piers faking her suicide and we get a pov from one of the detectives that is working her, initially, missing persons case. It was brilliant how Piers planned everything out and getting to see the detective work through the clues. The other half is Piers learning about being a bane witch. Her great-aunt Myrtle works to train her after the venery of thirteen females, all related to Piers, mostly want to kill her off because they don't trust she won't get them exposed somehow, but with the matriarch behind her, Piers gets six weeks to prove she can successfully become one of them. Her magic has picked a serial killer that has been operating in the area and there's some thriller mystery as the two circle each other. There's a little romance thread with the sheriff and Piers, and while we get some emotional background on the sheriff, he's not completely a flushed out character. They spend some time together, have two quick kissing to door slammed bedroom scenes, and then it's “I love you” time that I didn't really feel. 

“[...] You either live as a bane witch, or you die as one. There is no in-between.” 

This had a tendency to meander and rehash enough that I do think the pace suffered at times, Piers could get ad nauseam back and forth over her bane witch powers, accepting and using them. The ending gave us final clashes and Piers coming into her own, along with a death that was brushed away pretty quick taking away it's emotional impact. The repeated bringing up and descriptive violence against women and girls wasn't a good feeling experience for me though, it's always tougher for me in fiction to strike that right chord, and it caused me to miss some celebrating in what the bane witches were doing. However, this did have a solid ending of where Piers was going to go in life and I liked that ending for her.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Chocolaty cookies with Halloween sprinkles and poison witches for this Thursday 

Poison has always been at the heart of her story 

Piers faked her own death to get away from her husband. And is now using her poison eater abilities to rid the world of evil men 

(Queen!) 

But the local Sheriff is starting to get curious about all the dead bodies she seems to be leaving in her wake, along with a serial killer that's in the area 

Time for this Bane Witch to get poisonous 

The Bane Witch by Ava Morgyn preorder (March 18th) link

Brownie Cookies recipe

Review: The House at Watch Hill

The House at Watch Hill by Karen Marie Moning
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

I feel like I know what a percentage of the reviews are going to be like for this, “This could have been an email”. BUT, hear me out, if you're going to buy this book, buy it right now. This is for all my Gothic atmosphere reader friends, read this during the months of late August through December first. Is it 384 pages of set-up that could have been condensed into a pre-series novella? Probably. BUT, it is dripping in such delicious Fall/spooky season atmosphere, that I reveled (ok, a little after the midway point before the ending ramped up, I maybe felt it drag some) in the story. Moning was atmosphere-ing and crafting for that rent that was due and I was completely transported. I know it's not how publishing works but I would have loved this published September first and then the second immediately available October first, because, hold my hand, this ends on a big cliffhanger. 

From the ashes of my mother's fiery grave, a wild thing had arisen. 

With any Gothic atmospheric story worth it's salt, there's a spooky house, and our lead character, the story is mostly told all from her point-of-view, has just inherited one, with conditions. Readers meet Zoey as she's begging for a job, after having lost another due to having to call in sick to take care of her mother. Her mother has cancer and since it's only been Zoey and her mother all her life all the care falls to Zoey, they've been on the run since Zoey was fifteen with her mother claiming Zoey's father is after them. We get a little clue that Zoey may have some magic to her, insight into feeling something is very wrong, the house she was renting burned down, with her mother in it. Before she can even really process that, she's notified of the inheritance and abandoning Indiana to try and start over in Divinity, Louisiana. There, the townspeople all seem to act odd around her and she learns that in order to inherit the House at Watch Hill and the 140 million (!!!!) estate, she'll need to live in the house, alone, for three years. 

Home to three centuries of secrets, blood, and lies, the mansion on the hill was a dark, slumbering beast. 

There's more will restrictions and hoops for her to jump through and she starts to clue in that some very weird things are going on. It's a lot of searching/wandering around the house and secondary characters acting shady, the attorney that almost seems fatherly towards Zoey but won't spill his secrets, the mechanic Devlin who acts protective and attracted towards her but seems to be holding back, an owl that seems to understand her when she talks, and her bestfriend from highschool who is suddenly saying she needs to tell something very important that Zoey's own mother kept from her. You're going to need patience and want to sink into the atmosphere if you're going to enjoy this. For my romance friends, there's some will they/won't they tension between Zoey and Devlin and when Zoey first arrives in town, she hits the sheets with someone she meets in a bar (the man introduced himself as Kellan, then we learn later, last name MacKeltar, yes I screeched), so possible love triangle on horizon, but she's pretty strong with Devlin in this. 

And I was a witch. 

As I mentioned the latter second half definitely ramps up with action and answers, there's another mysterious pov (Alisdair) that pops up every once and a while in the book and we get, a small, idea about who they turn out to be. It's pretty obvious throughout that Zoey has some sort of magical abilities, with ominous outside characters swirling around her and her trying to figure out if they are friend or foe. You're going to get the set-up for the lore of the world, Highblood and Royal families, dark and light witches, warm and cold vampires, shifters, and the mysterious grey witches to ground you in the new series world, along with really getting to know Zoey. What you'll also get though, is not much story movement, it's vast majority set-up until the end, and a big cliffhanger. However, this was dripping in delicious Gothic atmosphere that would be absolutely prefect for the spooky season.

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Quickie Review: The Dead Romantics

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars 

Didn't have quite as strong romance genre vibe as I thought it would. 

First half more chik-lit/women's fic with FMC going home for her father's funeral and contemplating her life, inability to finish ghostwriting for a famous author that she's being do for year and trying to move on by getting taken advantage of by an ex boyfriend. 

Second half does get more romance with her ability to see ghosts has someone coming into her life and they get to know one another. 

You could say seasonal vibes with the ghost aspect and if you need to know if it has an HEA or HFN,

SPOILER

HEA/HFN certified! 

END SPOILER

This didn't hit me the way it did some but there was a really little quick scene where the ghost husband still sends his alive wife flowers and it made me tear up: 

There was a shimmer in the hall behind her, an older man in an orange sweater and brown trousers, the hair that was left on the sides of his head combed back. He mouthed, “Thank you,” his eyes glistening with tears. 

Sometimes, a spirit’s final business wasn’t talking to someone, or exposing their murderer, or seeing their own dead body—sometimes it was simply a waiting game. 

A little something different, a little something good

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

🎃👻 

October 1st! 

How else would I celebrate, peanut butter bloody eyes bites and a Gothic tale. 

Zo's been down on her luck and reeling from the sudden death of her mother when she suddenly gets word that she's inherited an estate in Louisiana from a distant relative. 

But there's always a catch, she must live there for three years before she can claim the house and money. 

Accepting the opportunity, Zo finds herself meeting a red-eyed Stygian owl, Scottish groundskeeper, a home full of secrets and riddles, and townspeople that are a little odd. 

There's also sinister forces that if she doesn't want to risk being consumed by them, she'll have to discover her true identity and awaken her dormant powers. 

A new Karen Marie Moning, so excited! 

The House at Watch Hill by Karen Marie Moning purchase link

Peanut Butter Zombie Eyeballs recipe

Review: Can't Help Falling in Love

Can't Help Falling in Love by Sophie Sullivan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.7 stars 

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

  

“And as far as second dates go, getting engaged is unique.” 

Ever since her father died three years ago, Lexi has felt like her life has been on hold and she's been trying to catch her breath. A high-school track star who got a full ride to college, she had to drop out a while to help her grieving mother. Working two jobs and selling her dad's business has finally got her caught up on the bills, leaving her just enough to pay tuition on the three classes she needs to graduate at twenty-five years old. Life is starting to settle until she runs into some old high-school friends and doesn't want them to know Alexandria The Great is waitressing. Lexie suddenly finds herself “dating” the cute and flirty customer who turns out to be Will, Seattle's most eligible bachelor and the man who just might be able to get her to risk her heart. 

No strings. Just a break from regularly scheduled programming. 

This turned out to be a super cute and sweet “fake engagement” but not dating romance. I'm an angst monster but I appreciated how, even though Lexi's mother and herself to a certain extent, were still dealing with grief, it's more towards them finally being able to breathe through the loss. The majority of this was getting to watch Lexi and Will sweetly fall in love and it was so enjoyable. Will grew up rich, with his grandfather's business but he's sick of his mother pushing society women on him, he finds Lexi's realness refreshing and I thought their chemistry was evident in how they played off of each other. The first half of this had me grinning and getting that warm feeling in my heart as Will tries not to push Lexi too hard, she wants to keep things casual as she thinks her life is too busy for her to take time for herself, thinks she's not good enough for Will, and after seeing how her father's death wrecked her mother, is afraid to let herself love. Will, for his part is instantly charmed by Lexi and is trying to keep the outside forces, his family, gossip papers, at bay so that he can get to know Lexi. They were pretty much together from the beginning with Lexi's reluctance having her drag her feet a bit. 

Will’s gaze was locked on Lexi. “Lexi.” Despite the chaos swirling in her head and her gut, she took a moment to drink him in. She hadn’t imagined those gorgeous, intense eyes or the wide set of his shoulders. He looked like GQ personified in his dark suit, lightly pin-striped tie. His hair was a little mussed from the wind and she had vivid images of mussing it another way. 

I loved the first half of this but the second started to pop in too many tangents, this was at it's best when Lexi and Will were together. Will had some family business drama (the merger with the bad reputation son felt useless after it fizzled out so much) and family relationship drama that helped flush out his character but I still don't know if I felt he was a completely filled out. He was the sweet and perfect prince for Lexi, which usually feels cardboard cutout but he worked for me in this story. Lexi got a bit too stretching out for page count sake mulish in the second half and I could feel the story pace losing me a little. I wish we could have seen these two be more physical in the bedroom, the scenes are fade-to-black-ish, as I think it would have heat things up but this was steady in it's sweet vibe. 

Maybe that’s what was missing from his life: something real. 

The later second half gives us a quick third act breakup with Lexi deciding that telling the truth is the only way she'll be able to move on and give the romance a real chance and has her and her mother finally talking things out. Will also has a moment with his family (his mom and dad did a little too unbelievable 180 for me) and creates a romantic moment to fight for Lexi. The secondary characters were all great in this, Lexi's mom, friends, and sisters, I wouldn't be surprised if this was turned into a series. A little too filled with tangents second half but a Cinderella-ish story that was sweet and had me loving how the romance simply felt good to read about. Lexi and Will had chemistry, they genuinely liked and enjoyed each other, gave us fun scenes, Fall seasonal vibes, squee feelings, and delivered a happily ever after epilogue.

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Reading Update: Page 1

 

Nashville Hot Meatballs and me sneaking reading in while football's on in the background, must be a Fall Sunday 

I've become a seasonal reader over the years and love when I can find books to match the vibes 

Lexi needs some fun, she was forced to drop out of college when her dad died and has become a not so great waitress. When she spills on a charming stranger named Will, she thinks he's the distraction she's been looking for 

Turns out Will is rich Seattle royalty, and she's now in a fake engagement with him. Will needs to look settled down to the company he wants a merger with, so who better than the woman who wants to keep it casual, but Will's beginning to care for 

Fake engagement amongst apple picking, flannel, and Halloween preparations! 

Can't Help Falling in Love by Sophie Sullivan purchase link

Chicken Meatballs recipe

I used Nashville Hot and loved the taste