BookCase.Club is a monthly book subscription box offering different genres: Children’s, Young Adult, Mystery/Thriller, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Romance, and Historical/New Age/Contemporary Fiction. Each box contains 2 hand-picked books, except for the Children’s box which includes 3 books. It costs $9.99 per month, making it one of the most inexpensive book subscriptions out there.
This is the review of Surprise-Me Fiction, a new offering that includes two engaging debuts and stand-alone fiction titles which may include historical, family saga, new age, literary, and contemporary.
DEAL: Save 50% on your first month! Use coupon code HELLOSUB501M. OR Get 10% off your entire order! Use coupon code HELLOSUB10.
When you sign up, you’ll pick the genre.
The books came with a card on top.
They were also wrapped with Bookcase.club-printed tissue paper.
This month’s Surprise Me Fiction book picks are Promise by Minrose Gwin and The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson.
The card features cute conversation hearts.
Everything in my box!
Promise by Minrose Gwin ($12.40)
In the aftermath of a devastating tornado that rips through the town of Tupelo, Mississippi, at the height of the Great Depression, two women worlds apart—one black, one white; one a great-grandmother, the other a teenager—fight for their families’ survival in this lyrical and powerful novel
“Gwin’s gift shines in the complexity of her characters and their fraught relationships with each other, their capacity for courage and hope, coupled with their passion for justice.” — Jonis Agee, bestselling author of The River Wife
A few minutes after 9 p.m. on Palm Sunday, April 5, 1936, a massive funnel cloud flashing a giant fireball and roaring like a runaway train careened into the thriving cotton-mill town of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing more than 200 people, not counting an unknown number of black citizens, one-third of Tupelo’s population, who were not included in the official casualty figures.
When the tornado hits, Dovey, a local laundress, is flung by the terrifying winds into a nearby lake. Bruised and nearly drowned, she makes her way across Tupelo to find her small family—her hardworking husband, Virgil, her clever sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Dreama, and Promise, Dreama’s beautiful light-skinned three-month-old son.
Slowly navigating the broken streets of Tupelo, Dovey stops at the house of the despised McNabb family. Inside, she discovers that the tornado has spared no one, including Jo, the McNabbs’ dutiful teenage daughter, who has suffered a terrible head wound. When Jo later discovers a baby in the wreckage, she is certain that she’s found her baby brother, Tommy, and vows to protect him.
During the harrowing hours and days of the chaos that follows, Jo and Dovey will struggle to navigate a landscape of disaster and to battle both the demons and the history that link and haunt them. Drawing on historical events, Minrose Gwin beautifully imagines natural and human destruction in the deep South of the 1930s through the experiences of two remarkable women whose lives are indelibly connected by forces beyond their control. A story of loss, hope, despair, grit, courage, and race, Promise reminds us of the transformative power and promise that come from confronting our most troubled relations with one another.
This fictional story was based on a true event, when a tornado hit Tupelo, Mississippi in 1936. It also tackles issues about race.
The book synopsis is printed on the flap of the dust jacket.
Although it was slow-paced, I really didn’t mind. The author has an excellent storytelling style. She described everything so well, we could easily imagine how devastating the situation was.
Another thing that got me hooked is the strong characters: Dovey, an African-American washwoman, and Jo McNabb (a white teenager and the daughter of a judge.
The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson ($19.51)
With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of gods in Alabama pens a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality—the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.
Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs’ weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.
It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She’s having a baby boy—an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old’s life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel’s marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she’s been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.
Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother’s affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she’s pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she’s got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie’s been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family’s freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.
Just like the first book, this one is a Southern fiction as it’s set in Alabama.
It’s a great read for any chick lit and contemporary fiction fan.
It has Southern charm all over it! The author’s style is also remarkable because she’s able to keep things lighthearted and tackle important and serious issues in one story.
It got me hooked since the first page! The characters are relatable and the pacing was just right.
BookCase.Club is a wonderful subscription! It makes my book-loving heart happy with every single package. Their book choices are always on point, like this month’s historical fiction and chick-lit books. Both were very hard to put down and they also contained great life lessons. I’m pleased overall, and I’m also excited about the future boxes. If you’re interested in other genres, you might want to check out their Romance, YA, and Sci-Fi offerings as well
What did you think of this month’s choices? Have you tried any of the BookCase.Club subscriptions?
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