The Chai Factor by Farah Heron

* * * *

Thirty-year-old engineer Amira Khan has set one rule for herself: no dating until her grad-school thesis is done. Nothing can distract her from completing a paper that is so good her boss will give her the promotion she deserves when she returns to work in the city. Amira leaves campus early, planning to work in the quiet basement apartment of her family’s house. But she arrives home to find that her grandmother has rented the basement to . . . a barbershop quartet. Seriously? The living situation is awkward: Amira needs silence; the quartet needs to rehearse for a competition; and Duncan, the small-town baritone with the flannel shirts, is driving her up the wall.

As Amira and Duncan clash, she is surprised to feel a simmering attraction for him. How can she be interested in someone who doesn’t get her, or her family’s culture? This is not a complication she needs when her future is at stake. But when intolerance rears its ugly head and people who are close to Amira get hurt, she learns that there is more to Duncan than meets the eye. Now she must decide what she is willing to fight for. In the end, it may be that this small-town singer is the only person who sees her at all.

Source: purchased copy

Amira decides to return home to finish her graduate thesis from the comfort of her home and finds that there's now a barbershop quartet residing there. Can you even imagine? It sounds so ridiculous but it is the setup for one of the most endearing stories I've read this year. The unexpected renters in her home upend her calm sanctuary and it turns out to be not  a bad thing. As much as she's unwilling to admit it, being around these oddballs is shaking things up for her. She's been so consumed with school and getting her paper done that she hasn't exactly allowed herself to take a breath. Being forced to recognize that there's life happening beyond her is an eye-opener which eventually leads to her viewing her future differently. 

I enjoyed the heck out of this story and seeing Amira grow from an insulated character to one that sees and feels along with others around her. She transitions from being always on the defensive to some willing to giving the benefit of the doubt. I did take delight in her sparring often with Duncan, the gorgeous ginger of the barbershop quartet. They can't quite figure each other out but still have fun needling the other, nonetheless. I liked that Amira was confused by her feelings for him because it shattered her orderly black and white way of looking at life. And Duncan of all people gives it to her straight even if he doesn't know her as well. Amira also helps Duncan open his eyes to new experiences and certain tough realities about his own family. Sometimes an outsider or someone new to the situation offers a different angle that you haven't considered before. On the home front, Amira reconnecting with her family was very sweet. This is where her own awakening comes in handy as she starts seeing below the surface of things especially with regards to familial and cultural expectations within their tight knit community. Amira does a lot of growing up in the little time she's been home.

I had been looking forward to The Chai Factor for months and it didn't disappoint. Heron tackles current headlines such as bigotry and sexism through Amira's evolution. This is a marvelous debut from Farah Heron and I can't wait to read more from her!

~ Bel

Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham

* * * * 

Some bodies won’t stay buried. Some stories need to be told.

When seventeen-year-old Rowan Chase finds a skeleton on her family’s property, she has no idea that investigating the brutal century-old murder will lead to a summer of painful discoveries about the past, the present, and herself.

One hundred years earlier, a single violent encounter propels seventeen-year-old Will Tillman into a racial firestorm. In a country rife with violence against blacks and a hometown segregated by Jim Crow, Will must make hard choices on a painful journey towards self discovery and face his inner demons in order to do what’s right the night Tulsa burns.


As I get older I find that I don't read YA books as often as I used to so were it not for a venture into a local bookstore where I wound up chatting with one of the booksellers, I wouldn't have been made aware of what has turned out to be one of my favourite books of 2017.

Dreamland Burning is a suspenseful part murder mystery, part history lesson told through dual timelines. How Jennifer Latham connected all the dots still astounds me. Not only was she able to create a mystery that I couldn't get enough of, she also drew parallels between the highly combustible atmosphere of a city on the brink of self-destruction and today's current social climate. The story is split between POVs - that of Will in 1921 and Rowan today. Rowan, who decides to take on the mystery of the skeletal remains found on her property, couldn't have known how uncovering the truth from the past would impact her own life in the present. 

Will's POV was a tough read and honestly, I was unsure about him initially. I thought he was a knucklehead but the fact of the matter is that he was simply naive and inexperienced. He did have the most dramatic character development where his inherited beliefs gradually evolved. His growth from that of a self-absorbed teen to that of someone with a conscience and desire to do that decent thing is perhaps my favourite part of the book. And it all happened because of an unlikely friendship.

Rowan goes through her own growth as well. Being the daughter of a black woman and a white father, she's observant of how people respond to her and her mother. As she's attempting to uncover who the skeleton was, she becomes embroiled in her own controversy. Drawing back the layers of the mysterious skeleton's history makes her reevaluate her sense of social justice.

While Will and Rowan are indeed fictional, Latham does reference the real event that incited the Race Riot that took place in Tulsa from May 31 to June 1, 1921. I looked it up and found disturbing images that made my stomach churn. Not many people know of this horrible event but I am thankful to Latham for bringing it to light in such a bold, engrossing and thoughtful story. 

~ Bel

South of Sunshine by Dana Elmendorf

* * * *


What is Kaycee willing to risk for the sake of love? 
And what will she risk for acceptance?

In Sunshine, Tennessee, the main event in town is Friday night football, the biggest party of the year is held in a field filled with pickup trucks, and church attendance is mandatory. For Kaycee Jean McCoy, life in Sunshine means dating guys she has no interest in, saying only “yes, ma’am” when the local bigots gossip at her mom’s cosmetics salon, and avoiding certain girls at all costs. Girls like Bren Dawson.

Unlike Kaycee, Bren doesn’t really conceal who she is. But as the cool, worldly new girl, nobody at school seems to give her any trouble. Maybe there’s no harm if Kaycee gets closer to her too, as long as she can keep that part of her life a secret, especially from her family and her best friend. But the more serious things get with Bren, the harder it is to hide from everyone else. Kaycee knows Sunshine has a darker side for people like her, and she’s risking everything for the chance to truly be herself.

South of Sunshine was one of those books I noticed on the library's display shelf because of its cover. But underneath the endearing title and picturesque cover is a troubling story about how denying your true self can be destructive.

Kaycee is in her senior year of high school and itching to get out of her small town so she can drop the pretence. She has dated guys but mostly to deflect attention away from the fact that she really likes girls. This is a community that hasn't met the 21st century yet. Their narrow minds about different ethnicities and homosexuality keep Kaycee in the closet. When Bren shows up at the high school she's like a shiny, exotic new toy. She's automatically different because she's part Hispanic and she also happens to be gay. Kaycee feels a strong pull towards her but tries her best to deny any of it. 

"Because once again, just like I did last night and like I've done for all these years of denial, 

I think if I ignore it, it doesn't exist. That's what I have to do to survive this town."

~ Kaycee, p. 174

Reading this book was both maddening and eye-opening. Thank goodness Kaycee is a charming and sweet kid, otherwise this read would have been harder. Sunshine is a judgmental town, superficial to the core. You know it's bad when the churches are segregated and then there's segregation within the church based on social status. Here, within this dysfunction, is where Kaycee has to come to terms with who she is. No wonder her head and her heart are a mess! Religious bigotry is one of my few triggers. I can't ever grasp how any institution that should stand for love and caring can be so cruel to those who are at their most vulnerable. The town's bigoted attitude about anything they're unfamiliar with had me in a foul mood so imagine my surprise when Kaycee's mom and her best friend take the story in a different direction by making important revelations! It taught me an invaluable lesson that I don't always know where someone's fears stem from. It's easy to assume that intolerance can be boiled down to ignorance but those two showed me that there's more to that theory. 

"I remind myself that God loves me ..."

 ~ Kaycee, p. 123

That passage from self-awareness to self-acceptance can be intimidating depending on the level of support that is available. Elmendorf wrote Kaycee's gradual coming out so beautifully. She also gives us a glimpse of what coming out means to a teen - the joy it can bring, the toll it can levy, the love it can let in but also the weight of disappointment and hurt when someone you love refuses to acknowledge your truth. I hate that anyone has to even go through this simply because they want to be true to who they are. And it's unfair to have that person carry the guilt for anyone's lack of acceptance or understanding. When it comes to LGBTQ novels, I find it's the coming of age ones like this that I respond to the most. Therefore, I'm so glad I picked up South of Sunshine.  

~ Bel