Brittney Threatt

Good Christian Fiction

Revisado: 01-14-23

And I say that as a full compliment. This is my first book by the author, but it won't be my last. Relatable characters, irritating characters, hilarious characters. This book's cast, community, and circumstance are so compelling that you'll listen every chance you get and say "amen" a few times along the way. Give it a try.

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Prepare Yourself to Be Annoyed but otherwise...

Revisado: 10-17-22

The story is strong overall. Ji Hoon is so sweet and honest. His flaws were really well developed as was his arc.
Arri's arc was very well developed also. We get to see so much of her life. Family, friends, work. It makes it so fulfilling when she takes a step forward each time.
But... ARRI WAS SO ANNOYING. FOR 95% OF THE BOOK. Stubbornly logical even when it was paradoxically asinine. Self-righteous. Saving every offense, big or small. Woman. You made mistakes too.
But.
This is very realistic and Arri was true to her character. Her change took as long as it would take for a stubborn logic lover 🤷🏾‍♀️ Plus, all these flaws are called out over the story by either Arri or other characters which made it bearable.
It's well produced and a well told story. I'm glad to see Audible investing more in the quality of their Originals.

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It's the consistency for me

Revisado: 10-06-22

I really love this series! Every story is fresh and compelling, adding to characters we care more and more about each installment.

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One of my favorite in the series

Revisado: 11-12-21

This book was everything! I love how Forthy lets us see characters grow across books and the Rogue's storyline has been a strong throughline. How things come together in this book is chef's kiss and it will have you desperate for the next installment! This is so much we've been waiting for with the promise of more!

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Everything I Wanted and Needed

Revisado: 10-08-21

We've all seen anticipated reads flop or disappoint. Have no fear of that with Beasts of Prey. Between Koffi, Ekon, and Adiah, we get a story that addresses loss, repression, childhood trauma, love, betrayal, forgiveness, and acceptance.
I so appreciate that BOP is not only the hardness of life. It's softness. It's excitement. It's exploration. Adventure. Faith. Discovery.
Koffi and Ekon are a hilarious enemies to lover and Adiah gives a STRONG redemption arc. Gray invites questions on monstrosity, history, and blind allegiance in such a natural and careful way that you'll be talking about this book for days after.
-I will say that I didn’t like the voice actor for Adiah AT ALL but if you can get past her parts (way less than Koffi and Ekon), you're good.-
Otherwise, with as many plot twists and secrets as there are fantastical monsters, BOP will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't be scared. Let the hunt begin!

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It's the spiritual connection

Revisado: 03-14-21

I loved Let Me Free You, the last book in The McClain Brothers series because of Sage and Neil's spiritual connection; I love Touch Me for the exact same reason. Ms. House gives us a story with historical resonances in this one and it just makes Sharla and Jovani's relationship so much richer. I've read four House series and each one is 5 stars so it gets hard for me to have favorite books and couples but Let Me Free is definite one and this is definite two. It's a great writer who can give you favorites without having to short the stock with mediocre work to give you obvious choices. A must read of trauma, healing, love, and Spirit.

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Finally

Revisado: 01-28-21

THE Caveat: First, all the Black books we have are wins. From Toni Morrison to Tracy Deonn. It’s always a win. The things I say in this review are specifically in reference to 1) ya fantasy 2) a very particular story being called worthy, so it’s truly no shade to any other Black author or book. This is MY truth based on MY life so leave me be. I’m saying this here because I’m not about to put a bunch of qualifiers throughout this review. They’re here. I love a variety of Black stories. We need diversity in the TYPES of stories told. I’ve been waiting for this kind and I’m gonna celebrate it without restraint below.
RATING: 6/5. Yeah, 6, because J.Elle is exceeding the bar and critiquing it all at the same time and you’re just gonna have to stay mad.
Review!!!
So there’s a scene in Wings where Rue rushes back home for reasons I won’t say here to avoid spoilers but it’s tense. She’s scared; you’re scared. She opens The Door and Etta James’s “At Last” drifts out of the crack. That’s how I felt opening this book (well, pressing play on the audiobook ;). I have never read an Urban Contemporary Fantasy that takes up the real conditions of Black life in this country so unflinchingly. I haven’t. I mean not using retellings or stepping away to magical kingdoms but gazing at the harshness of home and making YOUR conflict the STORY’s conflict. This storytelling is elaborate in its simplicity: it’s Black life. Because J. Elle honors that, storying her experiences fantastic, Wings has so many departures and I don’t want this review to be unreasonably long so-- actually I’ve been waiting for this book for 9 years. This review will be as long as I want. Tap out when you need to.
The fact that Rue is offered a magical island-- offered magic itself-- and its like “nah, bruh. I want home” is already a major departure from the norm of what fantasy does. She’s not trying to escape. Her stakes are the stakes of Black people in real life. That is not in any way the norm. This book empowers a Black teen to worldmake in THIS world-- in the AMERICAN SOUTH. That’s. Not. The. Norm.
The focus on community in this book gave me such life. Rue’s so uncompromising with it. She’s loyal to fam and fam is the block. She risks it all for them because they’re WORTHY. This story elevates people who are so often erased. Black Americans ain’t popping. Anywhere-- just our culture and accomplishments. But us? Those of us who don’t know where in Africa or the Caribbean we were stolen from and only have our region, our state, our neighborhood to say that’s where we’re “from.” They don’t call us beautiful. But Wings is gorgeous. The people in it are gorgeous. The sisterhood between Rue and Tasha is gorgeous. Julian’s “You know I got you” is stunning. JULIAN is stunning because let me drop this too: we need more Black boys in fantasy. MORE. Their absence is erasure of frightening proportions. They’re here. ALL the love tensions/interests were with Black boys. BLACK LOVE FOR THE CHILDREN. I love it so. Oh! I love it so.
Pacing is wonderful. It’s very fast and I had to pace the reading myself because whooooo J. Elle tried to kill me. My heart almost stopped a couple of times and I was literally curled up in bed like “I need an out or a safe word or something.” She hits you. You’re not about to get comfortable or feel too settled or safe-- and the danger is familiar. Drugs, guns, beatings. Not light sabers or even swords. Most of us have never seen a real life sword. Oh, you have? Just me then, fine. Gun violence, though, is a familiar cross we bear in this country even if it didn’t riddle the communities we grew up in specifically. It’s all we hear about. It’s rocked this country from church shootings to school shootings to gang shootings to police shootings. You get triggered right along with Rue and tremble along with her.
Which leads me to trauma. Rue probably has PTSD from witnessing her mom’s murder but we don’t get a diagnosis, we get the reality of how she lives with it. The paralyzing fear, the random memories, the sudden onset muteness. It’s not spectacular. It’s quiet and easily overlooked from the outside but it’s everything for Rue (and that’s whose perspective we’re made to experience from). Which is another thing: the reader, whoever they are, HAS to get right up and personal with racism. Yeah.
The last thing I’ll talk about is just naming the themes that show up in this book because this review couldn’t possibly get it all. That’s what dissertations are for. Family, community, police brutality, state disinvestment, gun violence, drugs, antiblackness, devaluation of Black life, Black Lives Matter, white fragility, racial allyship, forgiveness, teamwork, fortitude, colonialism, historical deletions, ancestry. I’m sure I’m missing many things that will come to me as I continue to reflect but these are just some that popped out to me immediately. If you’ve gotten nothing else from this review, go read this book. We all need it.

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I waited for it to get better so you don't have to

Revisado: 09-29-20

Wow, I hated this story and I do not say that lightly at all. I was so disappointed that I was having such an opposite experience from other reviewers but in case another reader like me comes along, I thought I'd offer a different perspective.
The Black women in this book deserve a better story. I didn't like a single one of these characters in any active way and some I actively disliked. This could be a dissertation but let me be brief. It all kept coming back to the fact that I could tell a man wrote this. Now, I knew that when I chose it so clearly that isn't an issue in itself. It's the masculinist undertones that plagued this story that made me upset. Let's count the ways:
1. Imperfections are realistic but why are the overwhelming majority of these women trifling? Trifling 👏🏾 trifling 👏🏾 trifling👏🏾. It began to feel like mudslinging on the author's part.
2. Character development. There was none. This exacerbated the trifling behavior because if you can grow from it, okay but Coco and Tammy went through a whole alphabet of drama to learn little to nothing and we get very little emotional register from them. Ridiculous. Like hearing a trope tell me about its day.
3. These women needed friends. There were no good friendships in this book, full stop. Where are the homegirl interventions that call you IN from your mess? Where are the difficult but necessary conversations to prompt critical reflection? Where is the sharing of life's struggles? Nowhere because the BGBC was a dumpster fire of mess and nothing else.
I can't stand to see Black women written this way, like cardboard cutouts. The men were just as bad but I don't have time to get into that.
Narrators: Eh, they were okay but one of them kept swallowing into the mic and smacking and I don't want to hear your mouth sounds. That should have been edited out in post. Overall, very displeased. First and last Carl Webber book for me.

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A new kind of man lfor Ms. House

Revisado: 09-22-20

I'm used to the McClain men mold: direct, honest, and quick to cuff. Clearly the Mitchell Brothers will be a little different. No solid home life, extensive trauma, loooong courtship. Set is a Mitchell but he's still a House man: protective, stubborn, and savage in the sheets.
This isn't my first novella from House so I'm not surprised she can make two hours so full. The quick progression actually felt like a part of Set's character at some points so it didn't feel as jarring or rushed as it could have felt.
Still, I didn't love the two time lines or see a need for it. I also wish we dealt with Tori more in the conclusion because her behavior pattern was not resolved at all. Once again, she just did what her man said and though this isnt her story, her destructive tendencies have a direct result on Karima and her business so it seemed worth it to unpack.
Ultimately though, I'm eager to meet Jah and Shu so I'm hooked per usual.

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A Just Reward

Revisado: 06-22-20

I don't usually do historical fiction, especially with Black characters because the trauma just becomes too much for me. I am so glad I took a chance on Dread Nation. The story concept was so amazing that I had to override my own rule. Oh the rewards we reap for being brave! It was a sweeping narrative by Ms. Ireland with entrancing narration by Ms. Turpin.
I absolutely adore Jane McKenne (perhaps because our instinct to throttle annoying people is so aligned that I can live a quite successful vicarious life through her?) that I often found myself vocally cheering her along, laughing aloud, and vigorously nodding my head in agreement. It's not every day one gets to be so transported-- and to such a thoroughly terrible historical moment. All in all, I definitely recommend. The actions is consistent, plot fascinating, characters unique, and villains so marvelously hate-able. Do come reap your reward. Just be careful of shamblers.

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