This week, we asked Jemma Murat (Digital Publicity Manager at Mills & Boon) to join us for What We’re Reading! At the top of her reading list at the moment is Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, winner of the Book of the Year award at this year’s British Book Awards!
What’s it about?
Meet Queenie.
She just can’t cut a break. Well, apart from one from her long term boyfriend, Tom. That’s just a break though. Definitely not a break up. Stuck between a boss who doesn’t seem to 
see her, a family who don’t seem to listen (if it’s not Jesus or water rates, they’re not interested), and trying to fit in two worlds that don’t really understand her, it’s no wonder she’s struggling.
She was named to be queen of everything. So why is she finding it so hard to rule her own life?
A darkly comic and bitingly subversive take on life, love, race and family, Queenie will have you nodding in recognition, crying in solidarity and rooting for this unforgettable character every step of the way.
What did Jemma think?
‘I’ve just finished reading Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams and I absolutely loved it. It tackles the micro-aggressions and outward racism that black people suffer everyday from white people and other POC, as well as cultural taboos within the black community itself (such as seeking help for mental health). The character of Queenie is endearing (if not frustrating!) to read. A well deserved Book of The Year winner!’
If you liked this, we think you’ll love:
Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie
On an ordinary Saturday morning in 1996, the residents of Nightingale Point wake up to their normal lives and worries.
Mary has a secret life that no one knows about, not even Malachi and Tristan, the brothers she vowed to look after.
Malachi had to grow up too quickly. Between looking after Tristan and nursing a broken heart, he feels older than his twenty-one years.
Tristan wishes Malachi would stop pining for Pamela. No wonder he’s falling in with the wrong crowd, without Malachi to keep him straight.
Elvis is trying hard to remember to the instructions his care worker gave him, but sometimes he gets confused and forgets things.
Pamela wants to run back to Malachi but her overprotective father has locked her in and there’s no way out.
It’s a day like any other, until something extraordinary happens. When the sun sets, Nightingale Point is irrevocably changed and somehow, through the darkness, the residents must find a way back to lightness, and back to each other.
Nightingale Point is currently just 99p!
