“Things Every Southern Woman Should Know How to Make”

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Alice clicked on the headline, mildly curious about what yet another stranger thought should be in her kitchen repertoire. Pictures of China plates mounded with crispy fried chicken, greens, cobbler, and a pile of biscuits a mile high flooded the screen, all set off with a pitcher of sweet tea beaded with condensation. The table was set; an apron draped off to the side next to a box labeled “Gramma’s Recipes” in fine calligraphy. She closed the browser and put away her tablet. She was born a Georgia peach, but she couldn’t make a cobbler to save her life. Did that mean she wasn’t southern? Or maybe just not “Southern.” For Alice, there was no recipe box full of family traditions. Her younger years were filled with rental homes in different states and her father’s voice coaxing her toward a text book rather than a cookbook. Metalworking and fabrication held more interest than learning to flambé or sauté. Did it make her less of a woman that her cooking skills consisted of fresh salads...
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Book Recs: A BLADE SO BLACK by L.L. McKinney


Alison “Alice” Kingston suffers the worst night of her life when her father dies. Overcome with grief, she flees into the dark, and trips down the rabbit hole. Only, the rabbit hole doesn’t take her to a brightly colored world filled with odd wonders and a disappearing cat; it instead threatens her with a monster—a Nightmare—and introduces her to Addison Hatta, who recruits her to fight the Nightmares plaguing Wonderland and encroaching on the human world.

A BLADE SO BLACK is a magnificent twist on Alice in Wonderland, where Alice is a dual-blade wielding Dreamwalker badass backed up by her mentor, the mysterious Addison Hatta and the sleepy-eyed Maddie, a Poet who keeps them going with her potions. She’s got a healthy fear of her mom, who worries about her and wants her to stay safe in a world that’s not always safe for a black girl going about her business.

I really like Alice and her friends. Even though she was a skilled fighter, she didn’t come out on top in every battle, and she wasn’t fearless. She struggles with helping Hatta as a Dreamwalker and the chance she might not come home, and she has a hard time juggling her regular life and friendships and her Wonderland adventures.

The story is engaging and action-packed, and the Wonderland details are masterfully interwoven into the story without becoming a simple rehash of a classic tale, and the Sailor Moon references accent the magical and action aspects nicely. The characters, both heroes and villains, are well-rounded with complex personalities and histories. 
There’s so much going on, and the book leaves the reader with a doozey of a cliffhanger, so it’s a good thing the second book in the Nightmare Verse, A DREAM SO DARK, comes out September 24th, 2019.

Definitely check out A BLADE SO BLACK, and to learn more about L.L. McKinney, visit her website at www.llmckinney.com.

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