Nicholas McCane

I literally just closed the book, then rushed to give my review. Wow, is the first word that comes to mind. I feel ashamed as an African living in America that I waited so long to read this. I was one of those ignorant people who allowed the American school system to teach me about him. Well, that and the movie “Malcolm X” directed and co-written by Spike Lee.

I couldn’t put this book down. And while I read it, I listened along to Laurence Fishburne who narrated it. The minister’s words, with Fishburne’s voice, created a masterpiece.

Malcolm X began serving a prison sentence in 1946. While inside, he read everything possible and ended up educating himself. In prison is also where he converted to the Nation of Islam. Man, oh man, I wish that the holy city of Mecca would have taught him Islam instead.

I truly believe that Malcolm X was a sponge who was only attempting to soak up the truth. All he wanted to do was build an all black organization whose ultimate aim was to help create a society in which there could exist honest white-black brotherhood. Unfortunately, the Nation of Islam did him in. I learned plenty of things from this book, but one of them is this:

Put your trust in God, not man, because man can never be a god.

To be honest, I didn’t like this book. I stuck it out because it’s one of my book club picks. I really enjoyed the first chapter. I was 100% invested. But then the book got extremely boring. I found myself not connecting with any of the characters. The protagonist was unlikable and a little annoying to me. The antagonist was meh and didn’t scare me. The twist at the end was predictable. I just wanted it to end, but unfortunately, it just kept going.

I wanted to love this so bad. The Perfect Marriage was my book club’s first book. Our club loved it and most of them ranked it 4 to 5 stars (I gave it 5). We own her entire catalog and couldn’t wait for The Perfect Divorce. I had it preordered and everything. My wife bought the blood red version, and I got the signed copy with sprayed edges. We also got the audiobook. We wanted the full experience. WELP, that was a mistake.

Let’s start with what I like:

1. Adam Lazarre-White narrated Sheriff Hudson’s character (He does S.A. Cosby’s Books).

2. Short Chapters

3. Quick read

What I disliked:

1. The all men are idiots and/or cheaters trope. Authors really need to develop male characters. There are a million ways to make your reader hate a character.

2. The all police are idiots trope. I believe these tropes are only used to make Sarah's character appear extremely intelligent. In one scene, Sarah’s husband (Bob Miller), who is a successful lawyer, has to be interviewed by law enforcement. Bob and his attorney agreed to the interview (which would never happen). While speaking with law enforcement, Bob makes incriminating statements. He also has text message conversations with a killer about a murder he set up (including incriminating photos).

3. No character development. A decade has passed in the book and Bob and Sarah are the same people they were in The Perfect Marriage.

4. Predictable ending.

5. And of course, Bob and Sarah’s rich ass hired a guy to do some work around their home. You probably already pictured him. If not, let me help. A Hispanic male named Alejandro. He’s full of tattoos and an ex-inmate. Rich people stereotype of Hispanics.

6. Sarah said that during the case with her ex-husband (Adam), Sheriff Stevens gave her sensitive information. She said that the new sheriff (Hudson) wouldn’t do that because he’s professional. For the rest of the book, Sheriff Hudson shared sensitive information with her.

7. There were multiple POVs which I have no issues with. But all the characters had the same voice. It was like they were all Jeneva Rose. It was ridiculous. Sheriff Hudson, Sarah Morgan, and Bob Miller all talked the same. It was this one phase that they all used repeatedly, “Matched my gaze”. OMG, it was so annoying. “He met my gaze,” “She met my gaze”, “he matched my gaze”, “she matched my gaze”. This was almost in every chapter of the beginning and middle of the book. Why is everyone saying the same thing? I’ve heard no one say that in real life, so I find it hard to believe that everyone speaks like that. Anyway, I DNF’d multiple times. I only continued reading so I could discuss it with the book club.

The sequel proved unnecessary, and hopefully, there won’t be a third one.

Dear authors: Women readers don’t like to read about women being overly sexualized and made to look unintelligent in books. And men don’t like to be stereotyped as being all cheaters and lack common sense. That is all.

I’m giving it a generous ⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ARC Review: NetGalley

Release Date: 6-15-25

Author: S.A. Cosby

No Spoilers: (Whatever I mention is in the book’s summary)

Yes, I realize how lucky I am, lol. I’m a huge fan of this author and have read his entire catalog. On 2-7-25, I preordered the physical copy. I couldn’t wait any longer, so I requested an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This crime thriller novel features a Virginia man (Roman), who has to come home and help his brother, who has gotten into some trouble. Roman ends up getting involved with two brothers (Torrent and Tranquil) who are leaders of a gang. Torrent is my favorite character, by the way.

As you can imagine, all kinds of crazy stuff happens which translates to action for us readers. I could not put this book down. There’s also a twist at the end. This author gets better and better every time. King of Ashes have taken over my top spot. Here’s my new rankings.

1. King of Ashes ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

2. Razorblade Tears ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

3. All the Sinners Bleed ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

4. Blacktop Wasteland ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

5. Brokedown Prophets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

6. My Darkest Prayer ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let me start by saying, S.A. Cosby does it again. This is a quick audiobook, 4 hours and 9 minutes. This book is about three hustles who are in possession of a bad of money. The money belongs to a Russian mob boss. And yes, all kinds of stuff goes wrong. I didn’t immediately take to it because it felt corny, and one character (Digit) was annoying. But that quickly changes and the writing dramatically improves. I was hooked. If you’re looking for something quick, action packed, and feel like a movie, look no further. The actors did amazing. An easy 4 stars. I recommend it!

This book was right on time. I just started writing a crime thriller novel and I’m finishing up on the first draft of my memoir. Walter Mosley addressed what I needed help with, but more importantly, motivated the hell out of me. I will take everything I’ve learned and apply it. Outstanding book. It was short and to the point. No complaints.

I try my hardest to give honest reviews of everything I read, even if it’s from my favorite author. If you know me, I’m a huge fan of S.A. Cosby and have rated none of his books less than four stars. That changes today. The only thing I enjoyed about the book was the plot.

A pastor dies from an alleged suicide. Suspecting murder, some church members hire an ex-cop to investigate. There’s action, violence, murder, and everything else I love about his books.

So what’s the problem you may ask?

Now, this might be odd for some women who think all men are alike, but hear me out. The protagonist who is an ex-cop spoke and behaved like a juvenile. His attitude towards women was stereotypical of men. Most of us don’t talk like this. The author overly sexualize every female character in this book. It’s pretty cringy, and I absolutely hated it. It occurred too often and took away from the story. For the people thinking I’m describing smut, I’m not. Just creepy juvenile BS. I almost DNF’d several times because of it. It made the plot take a hit. The only reason I kept reading was because I knew it was his first novel. I repeatedly had to tell myself that this is the guy who wrote Razorblade Tears, All the Sinners Bleed, and Blacktop Wasteland. I’m still a huge fan and can’t wait for King of Ashes. With all that be being said, I’m giving this book three stars, and it's clearly my least favorite.

This is the last book in this emotional roller coaster of a series. Although it was 614 pages, It didn’t feel like it. The book is dark, very dark. I remember only one scene that wasn’t, but it was right after a mass killing so…With that being said, I have such a love/hate relationship with Rin. Just so you know, you will not laugh once while reading this book (not if you’re normal), and you’ll probably end up being frustrated with Rin a lot. Overall, I really enjoyed the series. I will probably think of Rin for years to come. Here is my breakdown.

The Poppy War: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Dragon Republic: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

The Burning God: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The entire series: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I Love R.F. Kuang

I Love Kitay

I Love/hate Rin

And🖕🏾 Nezha

Let me start off by saying I am a collector of books. When I first saw this book, the cover sold me. A cool-looking brother leaning out of the front passenger seat of a police cruiser. He’s wearing the traditional black leather jacket and beret they wore in all the movies and documentaries I’ve seen growing up. “Great cover!” I thought, then told the cashier, “I’ll take it.”

Schools did a horrible job teaching us about this part of American history, so I spent my entire life thinking that the movie “Panther” by Mario Van Peebles was their complete story. Earlier this year, I read Assata Shakur’s autobiography and loved it (5 stars). I learned plenty from her. But this book gives you much more. You will learn more from this book than you will in any textbook, movie, or documentary I’ve seen.

Aaron Dixon was the Captain of the Seattle chapter. In this memoir, he tells you about how life was before joining, why he joined, gives vivid descriptions of his time as a Panther (which is action packed and reads like a movie), what destroyed their organization, and finally his life afterwards. I have other books on the Panthers, but for right now, this book will serve as my reference guide. I’m giving it four and a half stars. 

This is the third book in this series. I thought it was fine. Although it was a quick read, it wasn’t a lot of action. This one has a sad ending. Out of the three I’ve read, I liked the 2nd book the best. On to the next ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Everything in this book should’ve been in the first book. Seems unrealistic that anyone could be manipulated to this extent. To sum up the series. The father is an idiot in book one. His son is a bigger idiot in book two 🤷🏾‍♂️

This is the second book I’ve read by Lucinda Berry. The first being Saving Noah. You can check my review on that one if interested. This one has a great plot and will keep most people reading. In my reviews, I don’t like to summarize the book, you can read the cover for that. I like to talk about what I liked/disliked, and about my overall view of the book. No spoilers.

What I liked: I liked the mother and protagonist character development. The rivalry between them kept me reading. I also enjoyed the mother and the Child Protective Investigator’s point of view.

What I disliked: I’m so over the dumb husband trope. Yeah, I understand that it’s used to help the reader emphasize with the female character. Makes her look more competent, believable, and/or intelligent. But it must be another way to accomplish this. You want the reader to believe the husband is intelligent enough to be an orthopedic surgeon, yet he lacks common sense, is easily manipulated, and repeatedly puts his family in immediate danger for no logical reason? Enough already!

In the author’s defense, this is one of her earlier books. So maybe books from 2019 were like this lol. I still love this author and will keep reading her work. Hell, I purchased her entire collection, so I have little choice.

The book has an unsatisfying ending, but I heard she followed up with a short story titled, “A Welcome Reunion” which I will read next. I’m giving this book three-and-a-half stars.

Just like millions of other African Americans in this country, crack cocaine devastated my family. In Chicago, in 1980, I was born into a large, beautiful family. I remember being surrounded by love. Then, suddenly, most of the adults in my family (including my parents) turned into zombies. At 8 or 9 years old, we went from children straight into adulthood. It was like something out of a movie. Our own apocalypse. That story is not being told. Crack destroyed everything. It turned us kids into monsters. We were abused by adults, beat up by law enforcement, ignored by teachers, exploited by the government (even called super predators), repeatedly falsely arrested, kicked out of school, treated as stupid, starved by the system, and many other things.

I had already read “The Cook Up” by D. Watkins and “Buck” by M.K. Asante. So, when I heard about this book, I was ready. “When Crack was King” follows four individuals. The son of a crack addicted father, a female crack addict/sex worker, a former mayor of Baltimore, and a community activist who used to be a drug trafficker. Sounds interesting, right?

What I loved about the book:

It’s a history book, so you’ll find out everything you ever wanted to know about the drug itself, the government’s involvement, cover-ups, statistics, etc. It’s a brilliant book to have if you are looking for a reference book.

What I didn’t enjoy so much:

The stories of the four individuals mentioned above are told by the author. I wanted so badly for the stories to be told by the individuals who experienced them. You may think, well Nick, it’s the same story. Maybe so, but I believe my story can only be told by me so.

This book feels like the author wrote it for people knowing little or nothing about the crack epidemic. I’m looking for a book written for/by someone who lived it. Stories from the dope man and/or the addict. I appreciate the author for telling this story, but I need the needy, greedy. Not the washed down version. I’m given this book four stars. It accomplished what it said it would do.

This was my first Riley Sager book. It wasn’t what I expected, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It had some creepy scenes but not really scary. I’ll give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. It kept my attention and had several twists at the end. I will be reading more from him.

I couldn’t wait to read this one, and it didn’t disappoint. As an investigator (in real life) I was all over this. I enjoyed the hidden clues, hidden messages, and relevant stories thrown in at the end of the chapters. This book had me working lol. For example: The Morse Codes message, map, website, the messages I had to translate from Norwegian to English, and symbols we had to decipher using a keyboard.

So what is this story about. It’s about a complicated network of passages that spreads across space and time. It traps people in a maze of never-ending terror. I believe it’s levels to it depending on how long you have entered into it. I think If you’re just a “Host” or “Trespasser”, you can make it out of it. But if you’re there for longer than a month, you can never leave. The longer you’re there, you can earn titles such as, Guest, Guide, Tourists, and Anchor (which is a demon). Or maybe I’m completely wrong and it’s just a variation of Capgras syndrome like Dr. Bjorn Erikson said (who apparently never worked at Hvit Fjell University) 🤷🏾‍♂️

There are a bunch or unanswered questions here which I love. Gives the readers opportunities to discuss.

One of my questions would be this. According to Elijah Faust’s obituary. He married Vera Krauss and they had one child together, Alison Faust.

So where did Thomas Faust come from? He’s claiming that he and Alison are siblings?

Anyway, I can go on and on. I’m giving this a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Hopefully this turns into a movie or something.

Update, it’s been two days since I’ve finished this book. I can’t stop thinking about it and for that reason, I have edited the ranking from 4 stars to a solid 5. I absolutely loved this book!

Great read. It’s an excellent story about a priest who recounts a confession from a vampire named Good Stab. This book is ridiculously satisfying for those who love gory detailed chapters of vampire slaying people and animals to satisfy their appetite for blood 🩸 🩸 🩸. It reads like historical fiction, and can be very slow a times. Also, the language used is from the 1800s and early 1900s. It also contains words used by early Native Americans. Meaning that you may reread sentences, paragraphs, pages, and sometimes entire chapters. I think this book is a masterpiece (especially if you’re used to the author’s writing). Since it was my first book by him, I used the dictionary a lot. For that reason, I’m giving it four and a half stars instead of the five it probably deserves.

I don’t know what to say. I guess I’ll be ready if I ever fight a war 🤣🤷🏾‍♂️. At least I’ve read it.

Wow 😮. This book will have your emotions all over the place. It was crazy from the beginning and only got worse. Book two is clearly a masterpiece. I felt like I was lost in this world and I don’t trust anyone. Betrayal is heavy. Rin is the strongest character I’ve ever read and I would like to be part of The Cike. I enjoyed The Poppy War, but this book was better. I’m giving it 4.5 stars. Chen Kitay is my favorite character and I hate Kezha, That is all 🤣.

I loved it! I was disappointed with the first book and almost didn’t read this one. I gave the series another chance and it did not disappoint. It was everything that I was looking for in the first one. I laughed, gasped, then started clapping at the end. I am officially a Murderbot fan 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾.

I had a good time with this book. This book takes place in Macon, Georgia (where I currently live). It was fun being able to visualize the neighborhoods and streets that were mentioned. The story is original, I love the mix of historical fiction and fantasy. And it’s always great seeing racist people/monsters get their butts kicked. I loved the ending and decision making. The only reason I didn’t give it five stars was because of the slow middle.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

ARC Review: From NetGalley

Release Date: 9-16-25

Authors: Mason Coile; Andrew Pyper

No Spoilers

First, I want to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this in advance. As promised, I will give you my honest review.

This book is amazing! The book hooked me from the beginning. It held my attention the entire time. This is a fast-paced science fiction quick read. The book is about a crew sent to Mars to prepare the first-ever colony. Once they arrive, they find their base half-destroyed, and their three robots sent to set up in disarray. All kinds of stuff are going on y’all. We got aliens, murders, alliances, and other kinds of stuff. It’s a who done it Sci-Fi, and it’s exceptional! The end is very satisfying too. I will definitely purchase a physical copy.

In my opinion, this book was overhyped. I felt like instead of creating a great story for this dystopian world, the author focused mostly on how to make the next chapter more disturbing/disgusting than the last. Although I didn’t completely hate it, I didn’t love it either 🤷🏾‍♂️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was outstanding. The first page will grab you and never let go. I learned so much about her childhood as well as once she became an adult. I also felt like I had front row seats inside both the Black Liberation Army and The Black Panther Party. American Schools will only teach us about Rosa Parks and MLK. It’s up to us to teach ourselves about the hundreds (possibly thousands) of other heroes that the government keeps from us. Next up for me is An Autobiography by Angela Davis and Black Prophet by Nat Turner. Did you know that she is Tupac’s Godmother 🤯

ARC Review: From NetGalley

Release Date: 8-12-25

Author: Katie Bishop

This was my first ARC review and let’s just say that I was super geeked that I was given the opportunity. “High Season” is a who done it murder mystery. The plot is great, and I love the twist at the end. However, I felt like there was a lot of over-describing in the beginning and a lot of over-explaining in the middle. Sometimes it dragged on and I felt like there were parts that could have been left out. There is also a lot of jumping around between POVs and times, but it is not too difficult to keep up with. Overall, I liked it but didn’t love it. I’m giving it three and a half stars!

The Poppy War was my first fantasy book. Unfortunately it starts off extremely slow. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great as far as world and character building, but still really slow. The book lacked action. I waited and waited. Somewhere near the 200th page it picked up, but quickly slowed back down. I still enjoyed it but to be honest, it was kind of a let down. I buddy read it and my buddy DNF. Since I’m invested, I will be completing the series. Maybe the other two books are full of action. I’m giving it four stars for the world building, some of the fighting scenes, and the graphic depictions of what war looks like. Those parts were really satisfying 🤷🏾‍♂️