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julez202's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
readingintheether's review
4.0
3.5 rounded up. I was into how this story jumped around in the timeline, and I loved both of their perspectives, but I was rooting for more action given the exciting premise of the story. The last few chapters really brought the heat, and I was here for it.
klreadsalot's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Very hard book to read. Drug dealing of young women is not something I have read much about. The author has some amazing sentences and observations about drugs, money, poverty and relationships
ka_cam's review
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Fast paced (with some lulls), themes of feminine power, women’s relationships, mothers (absent, adopted, spiritual), and street/politics. Vivid descriptions and complicated main characters, sometimes the side characters were little more than props but an engaging read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Addiction, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Car accident, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Blood, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Racism, Death of parent, and Violence
theablibrary's review
5.0
I was soo excited when I received this book in the mail!! I won this ARC in a Goodreads book giveaway. Let me just say that whoever did the book design needs a raise. This was well written the author did such a good job with this story that I couldn’t put the book down!! I wish it was longer I didn’t want to have to say bye to the characters just yet! I laughed and cried so much! Can’t wait to read what’s next from this author. :)
ebonyutley's review
4.0
I enjoyed Carmen and Grace because I hated Carmen and Grace.
I hated Carmen because she was a good person who made terrible, terrible, terrible decisions despite every sign under the sun telling her not to. Her blind loyalty to Grace was abhorrent. Her inability to speak up for herself was disheartening. Her disrespect of Pete was disgusting. For hundreds of pages we listen to Carmen whine and refuse to take responsibility for herself. It was laborious, but my disgust of Carmen’s choices and failure to keep her own motherhood scared was because of the repetitive care with which Coss Aquino wrote her.
Grace’s segments of the book had more movement, more nuance because Grace was a more dynamic character who was a terrible person who did good things. There are reviewers who would argue with me here, but Grace was irredeemable. [SPOILER ALERT]. When she admitted on stalling on the call that sent Carmen to jail, I was done, done with her. I don’t care that she bought a house or is going to send her cousin/niece to school or Carmen has money for life. She was a motherless child who stole a mother and all she had to say was “I’m sorry.” Yes, I felt for Grace. Any 14-year-old who moves in with a grown man is in for a harder life than the one she was escaping when she left with him, but it didn’t seem so to her when she had food and shelter and love. And yes, she was smart, and she loved her sisters and she wanted them to know the world and she protected them and she was a psychopath.
Grace was a product of her environment; she’s also a figment of Coss Aquino’s imagination. I think there might have been a bit too much fiction. The fact that she took out two grown men with guns by shooting them in the groin in the dark is some serious markswomanship. The fact that she was the legal wife of a murdered husband with no alibi, and no one suspected her in his death is implausible. The fact that Grace walked in on bloodbath and then just walked right out in the middle of New York city when the police were already on their way seems unreal. The fact that she faked her death and then showed up in the bathroom of her attorney’s office is like, okay. Coss Aquino writes Grace with a lot of undeserved grace.
And Dona Durka gets a lot of grace from Grace. I’m torn about her. I love the mother in her. I’m also disgusted by her mothering. I suppose that’s why Coss Aquino writes so much about the divine feminine and the divine mothers because the wild mothers stay getting lost. Descriptions like that are the hallmark of the novel. I can’t remember when I highlighted so much because the phrasing deserved to live off the page. I loved the blending of spiritual traditions without the rigidity of religion.
There’s a lot to love and hate about this novel. Even with the spoilers here, I haven’t really spoiled anything because of the beauty of the book is the line by line reading on the page and the emotions effortlessly stirred by an author who understands how to activate the fierce feminine in all of her characters and also in me as a reader. Chapter after chapter, the fierce feminine in me simultaneously wanted to protect and abandon Carmen and Grace not unlike the ways the protected and abandoned each other over and over again.
I hated Carmen because she was a good person who made terrible, terrible, terrible decisions despite every sign under the sun telling her not to. Her blind loyalty to Grace was abhorrent. Her inability to speak up for herself was disheartening. Her disrespect of Pete was disgusting. For hundreds of pages we listen to Carmen whine and refuse to take responsibility for herself. It was laborious, but my disgust of Carmen’s choices and failure to keep her own motherhood scared was because of the repetitive care with which Coss Aquino wrote her.
Grace’s segments of the book had more movement, more nuance because Grace was a more dynamic character who was a terrible person who did good things. There are reviewers who would argue with me here, but Grace was irredeemable. [SPOILER ALERT]. When she admitted on stalling on the call that sent Carmen to jail, I was done, done with her. I don’t care that she bought a house or is going to send her cousin/niece to school or Carmen has money for life. She was a motherless child who stole a mother and all she had to say was “I’m sorry.” Yes, I felt for Grace. Any 14-year-old who moves in with a grown man is in for a harder life than the one she was escaping when she left with him, but it didn’t seem so to her when she had food and shelter and love. And yes, she was smart, and she loved her sisters and she wanted them to know the world and she protected them and she was a psychopath.
Grace was a product of her environment; she’s also a figment of Coss Aquino’s imagination. I think there might have been a bit too much fiction. The fact that she took out two grown men with guns by shooting them in the groin in the dark is some serious markswomanship. The fact that she was the legal wife of a murdered husband with no alibi, and no one suspected her in his death is implausible. The fact that Grace walked in on bloodbath and then just walked right out in the middle of New York city when the police were already on their way seems unreal. The fact that she faked her death and then showed up in the bathroom of her attorney’s office is like, okay. Coss Aquino writes Grace with a lot of undeserved grace.
And Dona Durka gets a lot of grace from Grace. I’m torn about her. I love the mother in her. I’m also disgusted by her mothering. I suppose that’s why Coss Aquino writes so much about the divine feminine and the divine mothers because the wild mothers stay getting lost. Descriptions like that are the hallmark of the novel. I can’t remember when I highlighted so much because the phrasing deserved to live off the page. I loved the blending of spiritual traditions without the rigidity of religion.
There’s a lot to love and hate about this novel. Even with the spoilers here, I haven’t really spoiled anything because of the beauty of the book is the line by line reading on the page and the emotions effortlessly stirred by an author who understands how to activate the fierce feminine in all of her characters and also in me as a reader. Chapter after chapter, the fierce feminine in me simultaneously wanted to protect and abandon Carmen and Grace not unlike the ways the protected and abandoned each other over and over again.
angelfish257's review
4.0
This is a powerful tale of female friendship as we follow the story of Carmen and Grace, cousins who feel more like sisters due to their difficult upbringings.
The trajectory of their lives changes when Toro, a local drug boss goes in search of Grace's addict mother and instead meets 14-year-old Grace. She ends up adopted by his mother who controls the drug business in their area, living in her house and being groomed as a future successor.
The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Carmen and Grace, from when they were children through to the present day. It is at times stark, harrowing and brutal although there is a lot of positive too as the 'lost girls' of the DoD realise their potential and come to find their own strengths through the further education and development enforced by Grace.
Carmen has dreams of walking away and being free, whereas Grace dreams of expansion and making the girl's business a bigger success. Carmen becomes pregnant, which creates distance between the two - she feels unable to confide her situation and what she wants her future to be while Grace views it as almost a failure, following in their mother's footsteps when they had vowed to be different and make new lives for themselves.
The unexpected death of Dona Durka sets the wheels in motion for a new future for them both, as the battle for control of her empire drags them all in with some expected and some unexpected consequences.
I found this story really absorbing and I was really invested in both character's stories, the author has done a brilliant job of building a complex and detailed world with characters who are flawed but ultimately trying to find their way and make the best of what they have.
The trajectory of their lives changes when Toro, a local drug boss goes in search of Grace's addict mother and instead meets 14-year-old Grace. She ends up adopted by his mother who controls the drug business in their area, living in her house and being groomed as a future successor.
The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Carmen and Grace, from when they were children through to the present day. It is at times stark, harrowing and brutal although there is a lot of positive too as the 'lost girls' of the DoD realise their potential and come to find their own strengths through the further education and development enforced by Grace.
Carmen has dreams of walking away and being free, whereas Grace dreams of expansion and making the girl's business a bigger success. Carmen becomes pregnant, which creates distance between the two - she feels unable to confide her situation and what she wants her future to be while Grace views it as almost a failure, following in their mother's footsteps when they had vowed to be different and make new lives for themselves.
The unexpected death of Dona Durka sets the wheels in motion for a new future for them both, as the battle for control of her empire drags them all in with some expected and some unexpected consequences.
I found this story really absorbing and I was really invested in both character's stories, the author has done a brilliant job of building a complex and detailed world with characters who are flawed but ultimately trying to find their way and make the best of what they have.
jesspoemape's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
alicesp's review
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
lilyreads01's review
3.0
Carmen and Grace by Melissa Coss Aquino is an engaging and powerful novel. The narrative alternates between the two central characters and best friends, Carmen and Grace. They are both survivors of childhoods of neglect, abuse and addiction, all they had was each other and their own personal strength. Then Doña Durka comes into their lives, a matriarch, leader of a drug empire and mother figure to both girls. When Doña dies it is the catalyst for trouble, doubt and violence. Grace becomes the leader of the empire and Carmen looks to escape this life with a baby on the way but in this world choosing a different future isn’t easy. I liked the rawness and tender portrayal of female friendships in this novel. I would have preferred a singular, chronological narrative as I feel this would have had a greater impact on the reader experience and heightened key moments in the story. It is an emotional and adrenaline fuelled read that explores injustice, ambition and the family we create. For fans of contemporary literature 3.5 Stars ✨.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book in exchange for honest feedback.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy of this book in exchange for honest feedback.