Quickie Review: The Blackest of Hearts

The Blackest of Hearts by Emma V. Leech
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A flush rushed over her, prickling up her neck as she found herself shocked at her own decadent desires. Horrified she glanced up, to find Luther watching her, wide awake, his gaze intent. 

“Don’t stop,” he said, his voice rough. The blaze at her cheeks only burned hotter at the discovery he’d been watching her, and she moved away. “Please, Katherine,” he said, such pleading in his voice she stilled. “I’ve longed for you to touch me. I can’t think of anything else. I’m going out of my mind for wanting you. My skin aches to feel your hands on me. I crave your mouth, your kiss, everything. You’ve got me, love, heart and body and soul. I’m yours to do with what you will. So, please don’t go. I can’t bear it when you leave me alone at night.” 

She stilled, staring up at him in astonishment. Had… had he just…. Had he just told her he loved her? 

This was a Kindle Freebie that Random Number Generator pulled out of the pile and was pretty good. The female main character is the adopted daughter of a reverend and with that kind of bringing up, she had some preachy issues to work out/get over. There were a couple moments where I thought it started sounding or was on the path to being Inspirational but I think it was just the character's background. 

Had some sweet moments, some drama, and male main character who couldn't imagine he was good enough for his woman.

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Reading Update: 20%

 

A smile curved over his lips and to her astonishment she noticed that the brute had dimples. He looked like the worst kind of murderous villain, and he had dimples?

Review: When Grumpy Met Sunshine

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

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

“See, I knew this would be a mistake. I could tell you’d be all insufferable with me, saying all your cute things until I’m completely turned around. Well, I’m not having it,” he said all in a big, angry, frustrated rush. 

When Grumpy Met Sunshine was a story about a retired footballer, Alfie, and a writer, Mabel, who is hired to ghostwrite his memoirs. Alfie has built a reputation as a gruff and grumpy guy and has went through seventeen ghostwriters already. At the meeting to see if Mabel should be hired on, the two banter, leaving Alfie drawn to Mabel and Mabel thinking Alfie insulted her weight. After a little stalking on Alfie's part, Mabel realizes that Alfie's comment wasn't saying what she thought it was and she agrees to help write his book. They then are caught by media and social media hanging out a lot and the speculation becomes that they're dating and to shut down some not so nice comments, Alfie blurts out they are dating and the trope fake-dating starts. As Mabel and Alfie pretend to be in love, the attraction between them builds and eventually Mabel is scared that she might have actually foregone the fake part. 

she was enjoying unravelling him. 

This story was written in all first person point-of-view from Mabel and in a stream of conscious narrative with short choppy sentences, this, personally, is a very hard writing voice for me to get into and I struggled mightily with being able to lose myself into the story and follow along with what was being said. A lot of this story is talking back and forth between Mabel and Alfie, the sense of setting is them talking in the car, in a house, and a random quick moment at a Beyonce concert. There were also end of chapter additives from various social media sites, Twitter/X, Reddit, etc., to try and help bring the outer world in but they also didn't work for me, I'm not a big social media person, so I think I missed some of that connection and the funny and/or cuteness it was supposed to bring. With only getting Mabel's voice, Alfie came off very unclear to me as a character, and for being late thirties, pretty immature. Mabel, I had a better understanding of but her constant misinterpreting Alfie's comments and actions began to feel a little forced as, you can take into account her insecurities lying to her, but his words and actions really gave no reason for her to think he thought negatively about her weight. 

But there was something underneath it, she suspected. 

Something else they were saying without really saying it. 

About alcoholic fathers, and the effect they could have on you. 

Sometimes they turned you to the drink. 

And sometimes you went the other way. 

The above quote gives some of that lovely connection between characters, they shared a painful childhood trait of having alcoholic fathers but the way it's laid out, short and choppy, imagine the whole story written that way, it just kills the flow for me. (another example: 

His hair seemed newly trimmed. 

She suspected he’d brushed his beard. 

Or that someone had brushed his beard. 

Most likely a barber who cost more than she spent on rent per month.) 

I also am not sure I fully understood or went along with why they had to start fake-dating at just before the midpoint of the story, it just didn't make sense and felt like a forced popular trope thrown in. 

Because yeah, you weren’t supposed to want violence. But god, sometimes it was good to know someone thought it should happen on your behalf. That you weren’t just weak or nuts or exaggerating. Something didn’t just deserve pity, or whatever else she usually feared she would get, if she dropped some of her Bubbly Girl armor. It was bad, and they would do things about it, if they could. 

Things that made her want to do good by him, in return. 

The second half was more talking with adding in dirty talk and some open door scenes but since I had issues with the style, and therefore couldn't connect with the characters, I wasn't feeling the chemistry between them and it all just ending up feeling like more words on the page I was struggling to read. There was a moment of sweetness I liked between these two, Alfie brushing Mabel's hair, but the writing style didn't allow the characters or me the reader to slow down and sink into it, I wanted Mabel to simply breath for a second so we could feel the moment. The last twenty percent had Mabel admitting to herself that she loved Alfie but then getting scared he didn't feel the same way, so after she's done writing the memoir, the story has them parting for a year. The very next chapter is the book launch, which brings them together and misunderstandings are talked through when Mabel reads a passage in the memoir that Alfie wrote himself and she sees his actions and feelings in a different light to deliver the HEA. 

“I am happy, hanging around with a grumpy arse like you. Because you’re not that. You’re sweet, and kind, and most of all, I trust you. So you know what? If we have to kiss, we have to kiss. I know it’ll be all right. I always know everything will be all right when I’m with you,” she said. 

I've read in some other reviews that Alfie seemed based off a tv show Ted Lasso character, I've never watched the show, so I could be missing some connection there and like I said, the narrative style of a character speaking in written word how people talk/think (stream of conscious) is a personal hard style for me to get into, I had to go back and reread so many passages to try and understand what was going on. A personal dislike and some writing that I think needed to be cleaned up, along with talking seemingly ninety percent of the three hundred and twenty-nine pages, made this a story that I could never get into.

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The Roms - Part 4: Favorite Quote

 The Roms

Favorite Quote

*Books eligible could be published in any year, they just had to be read by me in 2023. Clicking on book cover brings you to my review or GoodReads page if I didn't write one

Nominees:

  

  

  

  

1.  A More Perfect Union by Tammy Huf

This is what it looks like when a master holds you special.

A gut punch of a line, it's referring to an enslaved woman that the plantation owner repeatedly rapes but some see as having a better life because she's not working in the fields but the house.

2.  The Book of True Desires by Betina Krahn

[...]a tailored silk dress with a square neckline that bared enough to make the viewer wish it bared even more.

What could probably be considered a little throwaway line, I loved this because of how it evokes sexiness and playfulness. It's showing that attraction and heat in a very word crafting way.

3.  The Secret Lives of Country Gentleman by K.J. Charles

Gareth knew dependency all too well, and he saw it now: the ever-present fear of abandonment, the humiliation of being at another’s whim, the resentment that had to be stifled because to show it could be fatal.

In the midst of a "trade wife" moment on social media and laws in the US clamping down on certain people, just, yeah, this sentence. 

4.  The Making of a Gentleman by Shana Galen

But this man--this aristocrat, whom she had expected to abhor--drew her like no other. The comte said more with his eyes than most men did with a lifetime of words.

Eye talking! I LIVE for. I'm a sucker for eyes showing instead of telling emotions (Don't forget I'm also a sucker for blatant talk, like that Woman on the Run scene, the duality of humans!) and it coming from a comte that you love to hate, nice.

5.  Love Stories by Trent Dalton

Rosie smiles, understandingly, then sums her husband up in three words. 'Seamus is truth,' she says. 'Love is the privilege of being with someone long enough that you're gradually refining the truths that you tell each other. You feel safe enough to keep showing more and more of yourself to each other. To me, that's what love is. It's not the fireworks and the rainbows and the butterflies. We all keep pieces to ourselves. True love is showing up as yourself.' 

And now I know what love is: 

Love is exposing all the pieces.

I'm in a long term relationship and the truth of this! This is why I do believe it's either you grow together or grow apart and if you're lucky enough to grow together, that peeling of an onion is the best. The "refining the truths" and "feel safe enough", yup, that's the love.

6.  An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera

“I don’t need protection from the opinions of morally bankrupt people. Not from the men willing to ravage anything in their path to feed their greed, and not from the women who turn a blind eye to it to protect themselves.” Suddenly everything that had always felt so nebulous for Manuela, about her life, her purpose, seemed to come into perfect clarity. “I was going to be one of those women. My mother has been one for so long she can’t see she’s bartered herself away in the process. But that is not what I want. We don’t have to be pawns in this game anymore, Cora.”

"bartered herself away in the process". Sometimes it feels like it's a no-win situation and Manuela breaking free from bartering herself away was a moment.

Honorable Mention:

“You deserve more than what you’ve been told you can have.”

7.  Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun

I don't know why I'm explaining anything to him. Perhaps there's a part of me---a tiny, minuscule part---that wants to see him sorry. Have him apologize. But what would that really change? If he needs to see the beauty and diversity of our magic to consider us worthy of existing, what happens when we are imperfect? Blemished?

Realizing that if acceptance comes on someone else terms, it's only acceptance without true freedom. 

Honorable Mention:

Èrù jé ògá àjèji. Ó si leso aláimòkan èdá di ehànà. 

Fear is a strange master. It makes monsters from the simplest of men.

8.  Between Us by Mhairi McFarlane

Dismal male fantasies really get a pass, don’t they? Let me help you, Niall Thingy: yes, it does matter if you hide your shagging around. Where are “Becca’s” rights not to be shagged on? It’s not about what society asks of him, it’s what he promised her.

It's that last line. 

9.  The Duke Gets Desperate by Diana Quincy

“Don't be thick blooded.” Auntie made a moue of distaste. “Nobody likes a girl with a big head.” 

“What you mean is that nobody likes a girl who knows her worth.”

Dropping that truth bomb.

10.  Things to See in Arizona by Mary Vensel White

“[...] As you get older, Tuesday; you'll find that much of life is wasted in the space where we don't say what we're feeling.”

Oh yes, the myriad of reasons why we don't say what we feel and how that can eat away and take away from you.

11.  A River of Golden Bones by A.K. Mulford

Wolves clung to tradition and, for some reason, I’d thought those traditions would keep us safe. Yet as soon as I stepped outside of that world, I realized how hollow it all was. It wasn’t for safety. It was for power. And not my power.

I'm a sucker for underling and hidden truths that should get you thinking, that authors incorporate into their stories and Mulford is saying a whole lot here.

12.  Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn

My sister and I shared quarters the size of my room on the ship. Back then, I’d complained of suffocation. Now, I choke on the emptiness.

"Now, I choke on the emptiness." 

I mean, my god, the grief packed into six little words. 

13.  What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

I offered Denton my hand, because Americans will shake hands with the table if you don’t stop them. 

and 

Sometimes it’s hard to know if someone is insulting or just an American.

I laughed so hard at the first line and then to be hit with the second, dang! Taking the piss out of us Americans, can't help but salute at these sentiments. 

Winner:

I don't know what to say other than this line is still reverberating in me months after I read this. Just, "Now, I choke on the emptiness." It's an aching steal your breath, gut punch and makes you think of anyone you've ever lost and that empty feeling of them being gone. That line goes hard.

2022 Winner

2021 Winner

2020 Winner

2018 Winner

2017 Winner

2016 Winner

2015 Winner

2014 Winner

What's a quote you read in 2023 that still lingers in your mind? 

 Next time Favorite Leads.....

The Roms - Part 3: Favorite Scene

 The Roms

Favorite Scene

*Books eligible could be published in any year, they just had to be read by me in 2023.  

Clicking on book cover brings you to my review or GoodReads page if I didn't write one

Nominees:

  

  

  

  



1.  Starting Over on Sunshine Corner - by Phoebe Mills

He gripped the railing on either side of her, his chest against her back. As he leaned in she could feel the thud of his heartbeat against her spine. Before she could react, his lips were against her ear. "You're my best friend, but if you think I have never noticed you are a woman, then you haven't been paying attention."

Just picturing this scene in my mind, with the "gripping the railing" and "his lips were against her ear", the physical shiver inducing of this and then the mental of letting her know, he has the hots for her, perfect romance scene. 

2.  The Book of True Desires by Betina Krahn

With a hostile gleam in her eye she stepped in front of him, hiked her skirts above her knee, and propped her stocking-clad leg against the corner of the building, blocking his way. Under his widening eyes, she removed a small revolver from the holster strapped to her thigh and inspected the chambers. As she lowered her leg and her skirts fell back into place, she heard him suck two partial breaths in quick succession. "You'd better stay behind me," she ordered, giving him an incendiary glance while stroking the gun's trigger with her finger. "Oh, and in case you get shot," she said with vengeful earnestness, "you better tell me where you keep our money."

The female main character was the one handling the business in this story most the time and it ended up creating such a fun dynamic. The turning him on with hiking her skirts up and showing some leg and then blowing his mind with having a gun strapped to her thigh, leaving this poor man sucking air.

3.  Too Hot to Handle by Victoria Dahl

The last glimmer of evening light caught his face, the shadows making his jaw even harder, and Merry watched him for a dozen heartbeats. More. This was a scene from someone else’s life. A handsome man in a cowboy hat driving a pickup truck through the mountains. His hand on the thigh of his lover. The moonless night hiding their secrets.

How perfect does this set the scene and the emotion!? I can "see" and feel this moment, dusk shadows on his face, the hand on her thigh, just gah, this is writing. Nothing overly written, raw and real.

4.  Wings Once Cursed and Bound by Piper J. Drake

This was an urban fantasy story with romance in it and when the female main character gets lead into a cave to meet a dragon, the descriptive moment sucked me right in. Fascinating and cool in the way fantasy worlds can be. 

5.  Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby

A scifi mystery thriller that starts readers off with the main character waking up in a wrecked ship on a different planet alone and looking around the room to see what looks like a made bedding for someone and bloody handprints up and down the halls. It deliciously eerie and creepy.

6.  A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall

"And it wasn't nothing." The words rushed through her like the waves at their feet. "Don't you dare believe it was nothing. I know what I did, and I know what it cost---I know what it cost us both, and I did it anyway." And all at once, the fury was gone, leaving her shipwrecked on the shores of her choices. Hardly knowing what she was doing, she pressed her hands against his chest. "You were everything to me, Gracewood. My oldest, closest, most beloved friend. Your happiness was my happiness. Where you led, I followed with all my heart. I would have died for you---and I nearly did---but I could not live for you."

Oof, this scene, it's an accumulation of pent up emotions, fear, pride, and love where she's trying to tell her bestfriend why she had to lie to him, even though she knew it'd hurt him deeply. The balancing act of trying not to hurt anyone but also taking care of yourself laid bare.

7.  Capture the Sun by Jessie Mihalik 

"Then I'd say today was a success." I glanced up at him through my eyelashes and decided to play with fire. "How should we celebrate?" 

He stilled, his muscles taut, and the gold in his eyes expanded. A groan tore itself free from somewhere deep in his chest. "Ask for what you want, taro, and I will give it to you." 

My fingers tightened around the edge of the counter.

If you couldn't tell by now, I live for that gritting emotion and love the "My fingers tightened around the edge". It represents that leashed up emotion that is about to rip free, barely hanging on, and I love when it characters finally lose those emotions they were scared to show. 

8.  The Evergreen Heir by A.K. Mulford

"I could like dancing," Neelo hedged. "If people weren't watching me, maybe." 

"We need to find a dark corner some time to test out that theory," Talhan said with a grin. He swirled his bread in his stew again, before adding more quietly, "I like being touched." 

Neelo frowned, staring straight down at their bowl and they knew Talhan's statement was, in fact, a question. A thought popped into their mind and before they could think better of it, the words came spilling out. "I don't like being touched...by most people." Neelo's hands stilled and they whispered, "But...I think I'd like it if you touched me." 

Talhan paused for so long that Neelo's stomach sank and embarrassment burned through them. But Talhan finally flashed a shy smirk and bit into his bread. "I think so too." 

Neelo's toes curled in their boots.

I loved this scene because it shows that one character deeply understanding the other and gently trying to telling them. Talhan's gently getting Neelo to open up to him, letting them know they're safe with him and in turn, that allows Neelo to feel and give into their desires for Talhan. 

9.  A Rogue at Stonecliffe by Candace Camp

He started to leave, but at the door, he turned back and said, "There's a lock on the door." He pointed to the key sitting in the keyhole. 

"I told you, I'm not afraid of you, Sloane," she said tartly. 

"No, you wouldn't be." He looked at her for a long moment, then gave her a sardonic smile. "Maybe it's me that's afraid."

Underling talk hinting at those secret emotions, I LIVE for. It's seeping out that he wants her but he doesn't think he should with the "sardonic smile". 

Honorable Mention:

A groan sounded deep in his throat and he turned, setting her on the dresser, sweeping away the objects atop it and sending them tumbling to the floor.

10.  Woman on the Run by Lisa Marie Rice

He’s magnificent, was all Julia could think as Cooper approached her slowly, broad shoulders blocking out the rest of the room. Moisture—condensation? rain?—clung to his inky hair and Julia’s hands itched to run her fingers through the thick dark pelt. His expression was stern as always. She wanted to touch his face, see if she could make the frown lines go away, trace that hard, beautiful mouth with her finger. Cooper came up so close to her that she had to tilt her head. He looked down at her and his face had never seemed more harsh, more angular. 

 “Come with me,” he said. “Now.” 

 “Yes, Cooper,” Julia whispered, and put her curried drumstick down on the tablecloth, missing her plate by a good ten inches. Cooper grabbed her hand and dragged her through the door and towards a black pickup. “Where are we going?” Julia cried. 

Cooper practically threw her into the cab, got in and pulled away with a squeal of tires. “To your house,” he said tightly. “This time we’re going to get it right. We’re going to fuck all night.”

To hell with that curried drumstick! Look, I feel like I complain about instalust a fair amount but when you deliver compelling evidence for it, the moisture clinging to him, her almost losing her voice, and him losing his mind to one track get your ass in that truck, I suddenly find myself all for it. These two were hot as hell and I believed in and felt it because the writing crafted emotions and moments to support it. 

Honorable Mention:

Up to now, she would have sworn that all her sex hormones were in her head. Her three affairs had started because she’d found that the man shared her taste in literature or had interesting reasons why not, or because he was a witty conversationalist or because he made her laugh. Definitely not because his large, strong hands, which had a light dusting of black hairs on the backs, rested with easy, elegant competence on the wheel, or because the muscles in his forearm did a fascinating dance every time he shifted gears or because when he popped the clutch, thick muscles played under the jeans from his knees to his groin… Julia whipped her head around and stared blindly out the window.

11.  What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

It did not try to escape. That was somehow the most horrible part of all. It crawled back to its position in the circle of hares and it sat up, despite half its skull being missing. It turned its head so that its remaining eye pointed at me and tucked its paws against its chest like all the others. Whatever looked out at me through that eye was not a hare. My nerve broke and I ran.

This was such a make the hairs on your arms raise scene. The creepy factor of not knowing what is going on, to the grossness of a mutilated bunny, and finally to the fear of a bunny that should, by the laws of nature be dead, staring you in the eye. Chilling.

12.  It Had to be a Duke by Vivienne Lorret

Pushing back the chair, he stood in front of her. “You’ve made me waste a lot of ink, I hope you know.”

I'm always a fan of a good desk scene but this also had the sweetness with the hotness. The female main character finds out about some keepsakes the male main character has and this finally clues her in to what his feelings truly are for her and then leading to the hero physically showing her. Sweet and steamy!

Winner:

It was a little bit of a struggle for me to pick between this, The Evergreen Heir and It Had to be a Duke. I think this one takes it, though, because the writing and scene seem so simple and quick but gawd! the way it makes me smile and drums up that emotion of first falling in love and being in that one perfect moment and time. It makes me smile and comes close to making my eyes water because of that feeling that I don't even know if I can express. Dahl, please come back to the romance genre!

2022 Winner

2021 Winner

2020 Winner

2018 Winner

2017 Winner

2016 Winner

2015 Winner

2014 Winner

What's a favorite scene that is still sticking with you from 2023? 

 Next time, Favorite Quote...

The Roms - Part 2: Favorite Secondary Character

 The Roms

Favorite Secondary Character

*Books eligible could be published in any year, they just had to be read by me in 2023 Clicking on book cover brings you to my review 

Nominees:

  

  

  

1.  Maple - A More Perfect Union by Tammy Huf

Maple is the half-sister of the master's wife of the plantation that the story takes place on. After years of her ancestors being raped by their self-imposed masters, she could pass for white and when younger, was "favored" by her first enslaver. Maple grew-up with and raised her half-sister and when the half-sister got married, their father gave Maple to her, and Maple was forced to leave behind her mother, husband, and daughter Rose. 

Maple comes off hateful and mean to Sarah, the female lead character, but readers get Maple's inner thoughts through her pov and her boiling rage and PTSD from her enslavement experiences had me understanding her more. 

Maple's fraught to save her daughter and this means she'll throw some under the bus to try and gain favor to try and get her new enslaver to buy her daughter from her previous. I'm someone that doesn't mind when characters show their rage, and Maple certainly does. Her situation will break your heart and infuriate you.

2. Capoeira - Playing With Fire by Shonel Jackson

 

A Brazilian fighting art form that incorporates music and dance like movements into it's style, utilizing capoeira as an element, a tournament and an activity the characters engaged in, at times gave a great fun, competitive, and push and pull atmosphere that worked fantastic for a romance.

3.  South American jungle - The Book of True Desires by Betina Krahn

Anytime a story utilizes a setting that brings Indiana Jones and The Mummy vibes, I'm going to love it. I loved the adventure the setting provided for this and it made me feel like I traveled there. 

4.  Paranormal and fantasy world - Not Your Ex's Hexes by April Asher

A lighter toned magical realism and urban fantasy world, this had witches, demons, and other paranormal creatures. There's a larger cast of characters but the author did a great job incorporating them and helping the reader understand and care about this world. I felt like this was a real place and I could visualize everything and everyone, making it a really fun place to visit. 

5.  World-building/Doomsday family - The Secret Lives of Country Gentleman by K.J. Charles

One of the main male characters is a part of the Doomsday family and each and every member brings something to the table. They helped to fill out the character and give him depth and also brought, comedic relief, love, grief, and danger to the story. Taking place on The Marsh, this insular setting was felt and helped to provide a tone to the story, quiet, cozy, and resolute. The author not only provided an amazing setting but used it in a way that provided tone and almost a character unto itself.

6.  Political world-building - Tell Me No Lies by Elizabeth Lowell

I mean, oof, this story had one hell of a intricate web weaved with strands of politics and characters. It was 570 pages of layers upon layers with the reader peeling the onion and I felt wrung out after I finished but my god, what a Story. 

7.  The Tower of London - Falling Hard for the Royal Guard by Megan Clawson

The female main character lived in a section of the Tower (the author in real life did too!) and it provided a really cool setting that delivered tidbit after tidbit that this history nerd loved. If you enjoy coffee table books on historical places, you'd probably want to pick this up because the setting was trivia delightful.

8.  Mythology fantasy characters/elements - The Thorns Remain by J.J.A. Harwood

Taking place in 1919 Scotland, in this fantasy and magical realism world I loved how all  different kinds of fae folk were added in, kelpie, brownies, changelings, glaistig, etc and The Lord of Land Under the Hill, a.ka. The Dreamer, didn't sparkle so much as be painful to look upon because of his beauty that bordered on and could shift to grotesque. A lot of times fae are just incorporated as one of a kind beings that just look all beautiful, this was enjoyable how it shook things up a bit in that department. 

9.  Hank - Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn

You all knew I had to add a dog in somewhere and I can't think of a better pooch than the male main character's dog Hank. An irresistibly cute pittie, Hank, had me bumping up the rating a half point because of how adorable and scene stealing he was. 

10.  Rudi - Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

The main female character's sister's nanny, Rudi brought light, laughter, and sweetness to a story I thought was lacking in those traits. He really was a character that stole the show for me with his charm and how he treated the other characters around him, plus he came off hot, probably because of his kindness. 

Winner:

Maple 

I read this all the way back in January of 2023 and I was already sure I'd read the winner for this category. I was right. Some people don't have the luxury of showing their rage and some just think they shouldn't. Maple didn't have the luxury to truly rage against the people she wanted to and was surrounded by people who in survival thought rage shouldn't be shown, as a consequence of all this, she sometimes vented on people that didn't deserve it and I can see some thinking her hateful because of it. She was hateful and bitter and most importantly, angry. But as the story goes on, it's revealed it's all because she was taken from her daughter and she fears her fate will be her daughters (raped by the plantation owner). I felt the desperation and helplessness that bred the rage in her heart, making her a character that will stick with me. 

2022 Winner

2021 Winner

2020 Winner

2018 Winner

2017 Winner 

2016 Winner

2015 Winner

2014 Winner

Who or what stole the spotlight as your favorite secondary character in 2023? 

 Next award, Favorite Scene...