What are we reading?  June 2023 Monthly Book Selection *** Make your donation here! 

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Welcome to Mocha Girls Read book club. Mocha Girls Read is a book club for Black women who love to read, want to read more, and meet like-minded women. We are here to inspire women to read, share literature, fellowship, and encourage others in the joy of reading. We meet monthly in 16 cities across the US. We are an eclectic group of women and so are our reading selections. We don’t limit our reading to release dates, gender, race or genre.  So glad you’re here!

 

Latest from the Blog

Book Tour Tuesday: The Unseelie’s Wallflower by Elisa Rae(Courts of Conflict, #1)

Every week we will introduce to you a new book from various book tour companies. This week’s selection comes from Xpresso Book Tours.

Xpresso Book Tours is run by Giselle of Xpresso Reads. She has been part of the blogging community since September 2011 and launched Xpresso Book Tours in October 2012. Currently, Xpresso Book Tours has successfully completed over 800 blog tours and 3,000 promotional events.

This way we get to find out about new books and the authors are introduced to a new audience. Basically, it’s a win-win kinda situation. And the icing on the bookish cake is the giveaway at the end. I mean who doesn’t love a giveaway?

The Unseelie’s Wallflower
Elisa Rae
(Courts of Conflict, #1)
Publication date: June 6th 2023
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Greyson hides many things from the Unseelie Court when they invade his estate each autumn for the Wild Hunt. During his required appearance as host, he is surprised to find a human among the glittering fae. She can see him even when he is using his stealth magic, which means only one thing—they are soul mates. Can he protect her amidst the swirl of fae politics and a plot against her life?

Lyra has grown up among the fae. She has been trained to be the perfect servant. Then her master brings her to the Unseelie Court event of the year and demands she demonstrate her skills to nobles. With the promise of freedom as a motivator, she willingly agrees. Then she realizes her master’s true plan thanks to the intimidating fae lord hosting the event. Though why he would be invested in her fate is a mystery.

The Unseelie’s Wallflower is a light, fantasy romance novella about a relationship between an Unseelie and a human woman. It features faes, fated mates, and a romance between a noble and a servant, all played out against a backdrop of the peril, politics, and maneuverings of the Unseelie Court.

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

Greyson

Then I noticed her, the singular human. A female, small even for her species, hid among the ferns at the foot of one of the massive pillars supporting the soaring ceiling. Dressed simply, she watched the crowd with wary attention, burrowing deeper into the plants’ accommodating fronds every time a guest wandered near her hiding place.

Curious, I meandered that way. Slipping around the far side of the pillar, I settled in the deepest shadows of the plant next to her fern and set my back against the stone. She had chosen a good spot for spying. Most of the foot traffic flowed around this central point, but few of the passersby glanced in our direction. They ignored the greenery placed around the walls and bracketing the windows of my entryway.

“Bored with eavesdropping?” she asked.

I glanced over at her. Fronds framed her features as her bright eyes scanned the mingling crowd. She hadn’t turned my way, but somehow, I was certain she spoke to me. Assessing our surroundings, I noted no one else stood close enough to overhear or be the object of her query.

“Are you speaking to me?” I asked.

“Who else?” She flicked a glance over her shoulder. Blue eyes focusing on my face and the softening of her mouth hinted at a smile.

“You see me?” Utter surprise brought a great rush of excitement. No one saw me when I wished to be hidden. Not even my own kind could detect my passing. Yet this slender human, magicless and helpless, not only saw me but didn’t hesitate to speak to me. It meant one thing. My breath caught in my chest. She was my soul mate.

“Of course, I see you.” Her mouth deepened into a suppressed smile while hidden laughter brightened her eyes. “You are a bit hard to miss.”

Author Bio:

A reader of fairytales and folklore, Elisa Rae loves a happy ending. Noblebright characters, dastardly villains, and chemistry between characters delight her. When she isn’t writing, she loves to watch superhero movies and literary dramas.

Elisa Rae is the pen name of Rachel Rossano.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / Amazon


GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Nominations for July’s Monthly Book Selection: Cancelled

JULY NOMINATIONS ARE CANCELLED!

Every single month we nominate books based on the theme of the month to help promote diversity in our yearly reading. Yep, we are Mocha Girls and diverse reading is what we do. But this month will be a bit different. There will be no nomination because we have a sponsor who picked our July Monthly Book Selection.

A BIG SHOUT OUT & THANK YOU TO THIS MONTH’S SPONSOR

Simon & Schuster is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of ViacomCBS founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third-largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.

In 1924, Richard Simon‘s aunt, a crossword puzzle enthusiast, asked whether there was a book of New York World crossword puzzles, which were very popular at the time. After discovering that none had been published, Simon and Max Schuster decided to launch a company to exploit the opportunity. At the time, Simon was a piano salesman and Schuster was editor of an automotive trade magazine. They pooled US$8,000, equivalent to $121,000 today, to start a company that published crossword puzzles.

The new publishing house used “fad” publishing to publish books that exploited current fads and trends. Simon called this “planned publishing”. Instead of signing authors with a planned manuscript, they came up with their own ideas and then hired writers to carry them out. -Wikipedia

Follow Simon & Schuster on Social Media

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We will announce the July Monthly Book Selection next week. But since you’re here, check out the other books by Simon & Schuster Publishing.

GIVEAWAY: Berry Good Giveaway Hop (06/01/2023-06/15/2023)

Welcome to the Berry Good Giveaway Hop hosted by Mama The Fox. This hop runs from 9:00 AM ET on June 1, 2023 thru June 15, 2023 at 11:59 pm ET. The winners will be selected on June 16, 2023.

 

Mocha Girls Read is pleased to offer the following prizes:

  • 2 (two) Winners will receive a hardback copy of The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro.

To enter, use the Rafflecopter form below. This giveaway is open to residents of the United States. All entries from non-US residents will be disqualified. Void where prohibited by law. (Please check your SPAM/Junk email folder periodically so that you can respond to “you’ve won” emails from the authors/publishers/Mocha Girls Read.)

 

Prize:

THE FIVE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES OF ANDY AFRICA by Stephen Buoro book cover; blue-gray checkerboard background with side view of young Black male in bright pink highlighted by an orange glow The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro

Crackling with energy and intelligence, this debut is the “smart, subversive, funny, heartbreaking” (Kamila Shamsie) story of an exceptional teenager coming of age in the shadow of colonialism and communal violence in Nigeria.

Andrew Aziza is an unusually smart fifteen-year-old in Kontagora, Nigeria. He lives with his fiercely protective mother, Gloria, and fantasizes obsessively about white girls-especially blondes. When he’s not in church, at school, or hanging about town with his droogs wishing to become one of “Africa’s first superheroes,” he’s contemplating the larger questions with his teacher Zahrah and his equally brilliant friend Fatima, a Hausa-Fulani girl who has feelings for him. Together they discuss mathematical theorems, Black power, and what Andy has deemed the Curse of Africa.

Sure enough, the reluctantly nicknamed Andy Africa soon falls hopelessly and inappropriately in love with the first white girl he lays eyes on: Eileen. But at the church party held to celebrate her arrival, multiple crises loom. An unfamiliar man there claims, despite his mother’s denials, to be Andy’s father, and an anti-Christian mob has gathered, headed for the church. In the ensuing havoc and its aftermath, Andy is forced to reckon with his identity and desires and determine how to live on the so-called Cursed Continent.

The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa announces a dazzlingly unique literary voice. Crackling with energy, this tragicomic novel provides a stunning lens into contemporary African life, the complicity of the West, and the impossible challenges of growing up in a turbulent world.

 

To enter this giveaway, use the Rafflecopter form below or click here. This giveaway is open to residents of the United States. All entries from non-US residents will be disqualified. Void where prohibited by law.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

MamatheFox and all participating blogs are not held responsible for sponsors who fail to fulfill their prize obligations.

 

Please visit these other Berry Good Giveaway Hop participants for more chances to win!

Book Tour Tuesday: Broken Dreams by Abbie Roads(Beautiful Nightmare, #2)

Every week we will introduce to you a new book from various book tour companies. This week’s selection comes from Xpresso Book Tours.

Xpresso Book Tours is run by Giselle of Xpresso Reads. She has been part of the blogging community since September 2011 and launched Xpresso Book Tours in October 2012. Currently, Xpresso Book Tours has successfully completed over 800 blog tours and 3,000 promotional events.

This way we get to find out about new books and the authors are introduced to a new audience. Basically, it’s a win-win kinda situation. And the icing on the bookish cake is the giveaway at the end. I mean who doesn’t love a giveaway?

Broken Dreams
Abbie Roads
(Beautiful Nightmare, #2)
Publication date: May 9th 2023
Genres: Adult, Dark Romance, Romance

A stalker. A killer. A v!rg!n hero who will sacrifice himself to save the woman he loves.

FBI Special Skills Consultant Lathan Montgomery has a genetic anomaly that he uses to solve cold cases, but it forces him to live in seclusion. When he saves a woman from a roadside attack, instead of her presence causing him to lose control, she soothes him. For the first time in his life, he experiences love.

But someone is watching them and planning to make them both suffer.

Broken Dreams is the second book in Abbie Roads’ Beautiful Nightmare Series of dark romantic thrillers. It features a v!rg!n hero who never thought he’d find love. If you devour true crime and romance novels then you’ll love a series that combines both in a roller-coaster ride of danger, mind games, and swoon worthy love.

Buy this dangerously dark romance today!

Trigger warning: Depictions of SA and violence.

Previously published under the title Hunt the Dawn

Goodreads / Amazon


Author Bio:

Abbie Roads is the best-selling author of the Fatal Dreams Series and the Fatal Truth Series. Her novels have been finalists in many prestigious contests including The Golden Heart, The Greater Detroit Booksellers Best, The Oklahoma National Readers’ Choice Award, The Write Touch, The Strut Your Stuff Contest, The Aspen Gold Contest, The Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, The Heart of Excellence Readers’ Choice Award, The Midnight Sun, The Kathryn Hayes Contest, The Chanticleer, The Daphne du Maurier, The National Readers’ Choice Award, The New England Readers’ Choice Contest, The Beverly Award, and The Maggie Award. Her debut novel Race the Darkness was Publishers Weekly Top 10 Pick for Fall and Never Let Me Fall is an Amazon Editor’s Pick.

By day Abbie Roads is a mental health counselor always focusing on the bright side. By night she writes on the dark side, putting her characters through the wringer before she gives them their happily-ever-after. She loves a good inspirational quote and is a fan of true crime.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter


GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway