A PTA mom, Summer Peerman, falls seriously ill from aconite (wolfsbane) poisoning at an elementary school, and PTA president Kira Grant, who handed her the cup and grows wolfsbane in her backyard, is the prime suspect. Defense attorney Allison Brown takes the case, desperate to earn enough wealth and fame to leave her misogynist boss and start up her own practice.

The Darkest Flower was just so much fun to read! I absolutely love the battle of wits between Kira and Allison, and I loved jumping between both their perspectives. Allison is a sympathetic character, too street-smart to believe all her clients are innocent, yet still clinging desperately on to the ideals that prompted her to go into law school in the first place. She’s suspicious of Kira, and turned off by the other woman’s arrogance, but the commonwealth’s case is weak, and Allison needs to pay the bills. She’s also a single mother who can’t afford the piano lessons her daughter wants, so I like seeing that tension play out as she investigates the wealthy, overbearing moms in Kira’s circle.

And Kira is just the best kind of anti-hero — manipulative, scheming, and arrogant. Yet also, oddly enough, possibly innocent? Summer herself admits she can’t think of a reason why Kira may want to kill her, whereas Allison’s investigation unearths at least three other women in the PTA who had more obvious motives. It was a blast watching Kira butt heads with Allison over the defense strategy, especially since Kira pulls no punches in needling Allison about her (illicit, unethical) affair with opposing counsel, and in one fantastic scene, went downright nuclear and threatened to take the case to Allison’s a-hole boss instead.

An intriguing point of contention between them is the racism that one of the other PTA moms displayed towards Summer. (Summer is Black; Kira and all the other PTA moms are white.) Kira wants Allison to use this in her defense, but Allison is uncomfortable with Kira’s eagerness to use Summer’s Blackness to boost her own white privilege, and also with Kira’s eagerness to use her privilege of wealth against the much less wealthy other suspect. It’s a dilemma that’s wonderfully complex, and I love how Allison grapples with her client’s right to the best defense versus how ethically icky this strategy makes her feel.

The ending was one that I didn’t see coming, but it also felt absolutely fitting given everything else that happened. This is my first book by this author, and with these characters, but I would absolutely pick up a sequel, and I look forward to reading her future books.

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Thank you to Thomas Allen for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you read only one book this year, let it be Hana Khan Carries On. You’ve Got Mail set in two competing halal restaurants, Hana Khan is a sparkling, heartwarming, laugh-out-loud hilarious rom com that is an absolute pleasure to read. Hana is a podcaster and aspiring radio producer whose mom has run the Three Sisters Biryani Poutine in Golden Crescent, Scarborough for fifteen years. Aydin is an aspiring restauranteur with a wealthy, domineering father determined to make his mark with an upscale halal restaurant across the street.

Hana and Aydin’s banter is witty and clever — sparks practically fly off the page. From the very first page, where we meet them as anonymous podcaster AnaBGR and her first fan / avid commenter StanleyP, I was hooked, and I wanted more. Their enemies-to-lovers relationship stays prickly sweet throughout — you see how much they’re growing to care for each other, even as they can’t help their impulse to keep hurting each other’s business. Much like the equally prickly sweet rambutan, it’s a pleasure to see the sharp outer layers peel away, and reveal the soft squishy heart within.

Beyond the romance, Jalaluddin has created an entire world within Golden Crescent, populated by a cast of characters who have my heart. Foremost is Hana’s eighteen-year-old cousin Rashid, visiting from India and plunging headfirst into all the intrigues at Golden Crescent. A cheerful and mischievous Machiavelli whose family of accountants may or may not have ties to the New Delhi Mafia, Rashid stole the show when he joins Hana at the business owners’ association meeting, and enthusiastically joins in a drama confrontation, while of course cheekily confirming with his cousin that this was indeed the drama his cousin had warned him about. I love the way his story unfolded, and I would so very much love a spinoff novel all about him, please and thank you.

Then of course, there is Kawkab Khala, who is a force of nature, and just the badass mentor Hana needed. The story behind her being nicknamed after a cat is absolutely fantastic, and if Hana’s podcast were real, I would totally eat it all up. Both Hana and Aydin’s families are richly imagined, and revealed with so much depth and heart that I don’t know how Jalaluddin managed to keep it all contained within 300+ pages. I feel like I know these people, and feel very strongly about them and their futures, and all I can say is that I very much invite you to get to know them as well. Even the side characters are drawn with spare but vivid strokes; I would totally be down to reading more about Hana’s friends Yusuf and Lily, and Aydin’s friend Zulfa. And the imam, who barely appeared at all — I won’t say anything more, but a scene featuring a pink Hawaiian shirt with two flamingoes almost made me cry.

Being a hijab-wearing Muslim woman like Hana unfortunately comes with its share of racism. I am blown away by the breadth and depth of Jalaluddin’s handling of this aspect of Hana’s life. In Hana’s boss Marisa, we see how microaggressions operate in the workplace, from people who mean well but seem to not realize — and not care to realize — how their words and actions hurt. In Hana’s co-worker Thomas, we see how some Brown people attempt to assimilate, and how much they may need to sacrifice in order to do so. 

And then there’s an incident of racist violence that leads into a whole series of even more racist hate crimes. There are so many ways an author can choose to handle this kind of content, and I should note that many of them are equally valid, but I am downright awestruck with the mastery and skill that Jalaluddin displayed in these chapters. She incorporates such depth of nuance, and such a broad diversity of responses within Hana’s community — from the combination of street smarts and naivete in Rashid’s response as someone who didn’t grow up in North America, to the combination of privileged outrage and weary apprehension in Hana and Aydin’s responses as young adults who did; from the more mature caution of Hana’s older sister and brother-in-law who carry more years of experience than Hana and Aydin do, to the completely different views of Hana’s mother, whose experiences of racism as an immigrant have shaped a completely different worldview.

Hana captures it well when she says that on one hand, her immigrant parents did experience racism to a much worse extent, but on the other, those experiences have conditioned them to accept less than what Hana and her sister are willing to live with. These chapters are just all so incredibly rich and textured, and yet handled with such a light and delicate touch that Jalaluddin manages to maintain the rom com feel. As a reader, all I can say is that I feel the need to sit with these chapters, perhaps read them again later on. I don’t know if I can ever fully absorb or express the thoughts and feelings they inspire, but all the kudos and admiration to Uzma Jalaluddin for her ability to put all of this on the page.

Hana Khan Carries On was just an absolute joy to read. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and by the end of the book, it filled me with joy. How much do I love that scene at the Golden Crescent festival? I love Hana, I love Aydin, and I love so many of the wonderful people Jalaluddin has brought to life. This book is by far the best one I have read all year, and I urge all of you: do yourself a favour and read it for yourself.

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This book comes to me courtesy of Another Story Bookshop and a gift card from Penguin Random House Canada, which I won at an online contest to celebrate independent bookstores and the important work they do. In gratitude for this opportunity to read such a wonderful story as Hana Khan, I invite you to check out this map that Penguin Random House Canada has compiled of independent bookstores across Canada. Find your local indie and show it some love!

Popular high school kid Griffin is dead, and Clara’s sister Emily has been arrested for murder. Only Clara knows why Emily may have hated Griffin enough to kill him, and it’s all because of something Clara told her.

What Happened that Night is an intense, at times disturbing, book, and I’m glad the author was thoughtful enough to give a trigger warning and list of supports at the beginning. The novel alternates between timelines: before Griffin was murdered, and four months after Emily was arrested. 

I like how Cameron takes us into Clara’s mind. We see her struggle to return to some semblance of normalcy, and her alienation from her peers as she realizes most of them have already moved on. There’s a scene where she notices that the school has reassigned Emily’s locker to someone else that didn’t really dwell on the moment, but I found her reaction really moving. 

While there is a mystery component to the book — what really happened on the night of Griffin’s murder? — it was more the kind of mystery that somewhat unfolded alongside Clara’s emotional journey through both timelines, rather than a mystery that the characters actively solve. There is a ‘detective’ character in the form of the girl who inherits Emily’s locker, who also happens to be an aspiring journalist interested in the case. There are some clues dropped about disturbing events from Griffin’s past, and other clues dropped in conversations with other characters.

But ultimately, this is a story about Clara, and how she grapples with her relationships to significant people in her life. Griffin’s death totally upends her life, but so does the event she believes to be the cause, and so too does the things she learns as the mystery unravels. I like how her character grows over the story, and how she ends up reclaiming her life by the end. She’s been through a lot, but Cameron uses just a light enough touch that the story remains captivating and entertaining despite some dark topics.

Content Warnings: The novel includes at least one graphic (though not gratuitous) scene of rape, mentions of other instances of violence (including rape, murder, and one instance of animal mutilation that thankfully is light on details). There are also a few incidents of stalking and verbal abuse. 

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Thank you to Wattpad Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.