Maame by Jessica George. Wonderful debut!

Maame by Jessica George

 

Maddie is the twenty-five-year-old daughter of Ghanian descent who is the glue supporting her dysfunctional family. As her father slips away with Parkinson’s disease, her brother enjoys independence from all responsibility, since Maame (Maddie) takes care of everything, and even her mother leaves her in charge, to spend every other year in Ghana. So, Maddie stays home and is her father’s caretaker. Stuck in a job that doesn’t value her, with a few close friends from high school and no social life, Maddie bears the burdens of family without reprieve.

When her mother returns, Maddie takes the opportunity to find out how life can be and moves out. And it all falls apart.

The name Maame, what her mother has called her from childhood, means Woman, and implies that she carries the weight of the family on “heavy shoulders.”  Despite the burden, this book is more a tale of discovery and growth than sorrow and shame. George’s voice is fresh and gives a peek inside Ghanian culture as an immigrant, but also the story of how family values mold and guide characters, even when they reject them.

Thank you to St Martins and NetGalley for this ARC. Maame goes on sale January 31,2023.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center. Another win: 5*

 

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

Sadie is a talented, starving young artist living in a not quite ready for habitation apartment owned by friends. She has finally, after years of hard work, placed as a finalist in an international portrait competition. She’s going to get her chance, and then…

She doesn’t remember. She doesn’t remember why she was in the street, or who helped her. She vaguely remembers a kind, handsome man, and she knows her evil stepmother, who may not be so evil, waiting in the hospital.

 With the diagnosis that she has an operable brain injury, Sadie is forced to make a decision that will effect the rest of her life. Will she be able to compete after the surgery? Will she even be able to paint? And who was that kind, handsome, man?

In true Katherine Center form, these questions are answered with humor, empathy and quite a bit of emotion. The things Sadie must go through to reach her own conclusions are heartbreaking, but beautiful. Plus, we get to learn all sorts of new, mostly unknown, facts about the brain and how it works.

Another winner for Katherine Center, who bring joy to literature and isn’t embarrassed to love romance novels---anymore.

Hello Stranger goes on sale July 11, 2023. Thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this copy.