Month: April 2022

Podcast 5 Show Notes

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The 5th book is Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant

About the Author

Elise Bryant was born and raised in Southern California. She graduated from California State with a B.A. in Africana studies. She also has a Masters in Special Education from Loyola Marymount University. Prior to her writing career, she was a special education teacher. Happily Ever Afters is her debut novel and her follow up One True Loves has also been published (our next read!).

Book Look

Felicia and Sam talk about how the cover of Happily Ever Afters captivated them right away. They wanted to know what the girl with the cute mini afro was thinking and loved all the stickers on her laptop. The sisters love beautiful black hair on display and the foreshadowing that all the designs provided for. 

Bookmark

Most of their favorite quotes came at the end of the book, but Sam did share a sweet moment between the main character Tessa and her new friend as he tried to help make sure the cream from her wash and go was properly worked in. 

  • “Don’t worry, I won’t touch your hair, I know that’s not kosher” pg. 50 
  • “You need to get out of this mindset that you don’t deserve to be here. You’re here for a reason. As a writer, an artist, you belong here. And nothing, not some mean girl, or even your own inner critic, can take that away from you.” pg. 303
  • “I thought I needed a real-life love story of my own to start writing again… but what I really needed, to find my own words and my voice again was to love myself. And I do” pg. 373 

POV

Sam’s favorite character was – Sam (the character). How fitting! She loved how he made an effort to be an ally without overstepping. He was a great listener and a great friend – Felicia completely agreed. They both also really liked Lenore who was a helpful friend to Tessa starting on day 1 at the art school. 

Their least favorite characters were Nico and Poppy. Poppy was clearly set up to be the mean girl and easy to dislike. Poppy’s distaste for Tessa was understandable, but Poppy just took it too far in Sam’s opinion. Nico just wasn’t the one and was never the one (Felicia’s words!). He was your typical bad boy and was clearly self absorbed. 

Deep Dive


Sam and Felicia absolutely adored Elise Bryant’s debut novel. The story was charming, funny, and took them back to their own high school days in some ways. The novel touches on young romance, friendship, and family. The book reminds the main character and you that your creativity has always been inside you and you are right where you belong – you just have to believe and be open to it! Happily Ever Afters is about self-love as much as it is about falling in love for the first time. This book is for every romance lover and should be on your TBR if you haven’t read it already.  Watch the full video to get more details on their thoughts or read Felicia’s book review. The sisters can’t wait to read One True Loves!

Happily Ever Afters | Book Review by Felicia

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Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant is a fresh, funny, and fantastic read.  I’m giving this novel a 3.5 because I wasn’t locked in and loving it all the way through. But, I still highly suggest you get a copy and read it for yourself. 

About:

Happily Ever Afters is  a novel about Tessa, a young high school girl with a passion and gift to write. She attends a new school where she can learn in an environment dedicated to the arts. But, at this new school she struggles with writing new material and starts to doubt her place at school.  In order to regain her writing spirit Tessa and her best friend create a plan for Tessa to experience her own love story in hopes that real life experiences will help Tessa to write again. 

Review:

Elise Bryant is a very talented writer. I enjoyed her style of writing and the voice she gave Tessa. I wasn’t super into the actual storyline but I did find delight in the character development and the care/ detail descriptions in certain scenes. 

I think that the energy Tessa gave certain people in the book who did not deserve her attention was frustrating. Tessa is such an amazing, chill, and artistic young girl who becomes enamored by the popular crowd despite having a solid friend group of her own. At the end of the day she acted like a typical young girl who needs to build up her confidence. Elise definitely succeeded in capturing the tone and struggles of the young Black girl experience. 

There is no doubt in my mind that Sam, Tessa’s new friend, was my favorite character. I am team Sam everyday, allday and I wish I could read more scenes with him and Tessa. His ability to be such a wholesome person was so refreshing.  He was just a young boy working on his cooking craft. There were other great characters but I really like the way Elise placed Sam as such a good friend and ally for Tessa to have in her life. 

Again, I wasn’t too into the storyline because it didn’t excite me or make me want to keep on turning the page. I did appreciate that Elise touches on themes related to  disability, friendship, mental health, and anxiety. This book did remind me of what it was like to be in high school. I was just like Tessa, an antsy girl who had talent but doubted her own skills and was up to crazy antics. Elise also touches on themes related to  disability, friendship, mental health, and anxiety.  

I would suggest reading this book and I am planning to read the next book in the series.

Hey, Brown Girl | Book Review by Sam

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About:

Hey, Brown Girl  by Janay Harden is a coming of age young adult novel that focuses on 17 year old Raven as she navigates her family and school drama, anxiety, and transitions within friendship groups. While the main focus is on Raven, each member of the family has at least one chapter in which their personal thoughts and feelings are captured.  It was a quick read but does touch on adult themes although it is marketed as a young adult novel. In fact, there are moments where I wondered if this book should come along with a trigger warning for certain themes the author chose to touch on. 

Review:

Janay Harden is a licensed social worker and therapist. It is clear from the book that Ms. Harden has a background in mental health in the way that all of the problems in the book seem to be solved by therapy and self-love. The book presents several different relatable issues such as anxiety, resentment towards parents, child neglect, and drug abuse. If you have not experienced one of these issues, you’re often not too far removed from someone who has. 

The friendship that Raven has built with three other black girls in her neighborhood is beautiful to read about and it makes you think fondly of your own friendships or desire that type of friendship. However, the friendship is tested when Raven is challenged to reflect on her behavior and consider whether she is always being the best friend she can be to her girls or if she is centering herself. 

This challenge is amidst several other challenges – Raven’s cousin has come to live with her, she is challenged for her spot as dance team captain, and she is battling anxiety. As Raven contends with each of these issues with the help of her school assigned counselor it’s like reading therapy in book form. She learns to cope with each issue and learns to have confidence within herself to know she can be triumphant in the face of all these issues. 

Ms. Harden follows along with the other family members and this is where keeping up with the plot gets tricky. I understand that the author was looking to give everyone a happily ever after and perhaps even demonstrate how each family issue can be worked out in a healthy manner, but I think it would have been best to fully develop Raven’s story and maybe make a book series out of each family member’s story. 

We learn about the racial identity challenges of Raven’s mother, Blair. The abuse Phoenix (Raven’s grandmother) suffered. The neglect Carter (her cousin) experiences and more. These are all tough issues to work through and I don’t know that the happily ever after that is achieved in just a few chapters is realistic. 

Overall, the book was a solid read and could be useful for anyone looking for positive ways to deal with the challenges the book touches on. It is filled with both therapeutic lessons as well as generational wisdom.

Podcast Episode 4 Show Notes

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The 4th book is Hey, Brown Girl, a  young adult novel, by Janay Harden.

About the Author

Janay attended Rutgers University where she received a Bachelor and Master’s Degree in Social Work. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, School Social Worker and Mental Health Therapist. To date, she has held many titles but her favorites are mentor, mental health advocate, and melanin story teller. Janay is native to South Jersey where she resides with her daughter. Her interests include Astrology, spa days, and crabs. She is the Author of Hey, Brown Girl, Forty-two Minutes, and Someone More Like Myself.

Book Look

The book cover makes a bold statement with vibrant colors and a distinct style that highlights the young adult essence of the novel. The co-hosts discuss how this book reminded them of the cool girl group aesthetic and old school reading days with their friends. 

Bookmark

This time around the book didn’t have a strong narrative or storyline. Instead for the co-host the book felt like one large therapy session due to characters constantly dealing with trauma. But, Sam and Felicia still found a few good quotes to share. 

  • Exhale the stress, the anger. The things that keep our body in survival mode. Let’s exhale those things. We are loved, we are honored, we are celebrated…just breathe pg 127
  • – they taught their daughter to be good enough for White people. They taught her to demand an opportunity at their table, and when she finally got that opportunity, she had to be better than them. Blair just wanted to build her own table. […] Blair didn’t want to beat them. She wanted to create her own path and something that would last. For her, that started first with a strong foundation and family. Pg 136 
  • When you build a circle of women who protect you and make you better, well, what’s greater than support, baby? Keep them around, they your people. Pg 182 

POV

This time around neither co-host felt a strong connection to the characters. Written from different points of view, the novel included too many points of view. In general Sam selected the entire family unit and how they functioned as her favorite part. Especially being able to see how they all receive happiness ever after. Felicua chose Blaire the mother as her favorite character due to the fact that they had similar upbringings. 

Deep Dive

This novel clearly conveys the way trauma affects the entire family. From the very beginning symptoms of trauma are introduced. In addition, this novel incorporates a message about the power of friendship, Black pride, and family dynamics into the story of a young Black girl growing up. The co-host wished for more character development and the ability to properly unpack all of the generational trauma. This wasn’t Sam and Felicia’s favorite novel but it does a good job of normalizing therapy for Black people and families.