On the surface, “Until Summer” follows Kyle on his final summer before he and his core group of very rich and privileged friends, leave their summer island homes behind for college. This is the last summer they can play their games and catch up and live carefree and wild lives together. Some more than others, like Trent who seems to make a sport out of making the local girls fall for him and then breaking their hearts and destroying their lives. There’s very much a “Dirty” Dancing” kind of vibe between the rich visitors that come every year, and the locals that wait upon them. Kyle is more sensitive than his friends, a closeted gay boy who isn’t looking for the same kind of sexual conquests as his friends, until The Boy appears and suddenly all of Kyle’s attention, his purpose for breathing and thinking, becomes Jack. When the author says this is a book about obsessive first love, he wasn’t kidding.

“An American Marriage” is multiple stories wrapped together, and I don’t say that because there are three POV characters. You have the messy relationships of Celestial and Roy, Andre and Celestial, and then the relationships between them and their parents all under a magnifying lens highlighting every flaw. Then you have the story of the gross injustice in our justice system that incarcerates a disproportionate amount of Black and Brown men, and how that incarceration upends not just their lives, but the lives of their families and disrupts a whole community. Sometimes, these two stories came together, and other times they didn’t, which made this book hard for me to put my finger on if I liked it in its entirety, or just certain parts. So, let’s talk about the characters first and the “romance” aspect. Beware, this is a long one!

This book took me a minute to get really immersed into it. I blame that mainly on the start of the story focusing a lot on the High School social politics that Darius is dealing with. I have a hard time connecting to a lot of High School drama as an adult these days. But the voice with which the author uses to portray Darius, how Darius’ depression is always there, but not the loudest thing in the room, how the author portrayed the relationship between Darius and his dad, and how Darius struggles to fit into a heritage he always felt on the periphery from… now THAT really got to me. I probably should have been more mindful of what I was going through emotionally before picking up this book, because the end had me in tears. But that’s a good thing, I promise!

What a perfect little novella! I was immediately enmeshed in the characters lives and their predicaments and felt like I knew them for much longer than the short novella actually allowed for. This sapphic, regency story included so many great tropes, too: one bed, forbidden romance, plus a nice little revenge plot for good measure.

I first fell in love with Axelrod’s work through “The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes”, the first book in the Lillys contemporary romance series, all featuring absolute rock star women. In this book, we follow the best drummer around—Kayla—as she tries to stay one step ahead of her secret identity getting out, and their booknerd, kilt wearing tour driver—Ty—as he tries to reclaim his life after being falsely accused of a crime. Both of them are trying to live their truth, while still hiding aspects of themselves that don’t represent the people they are. It was that connection—plus an absolute love of literature and the same taste in alt-rock music—that became the basis for this instant attraction, and slow burn romance where authenticity and consent are key.