Author: Zakiya N. Jamal

Zakiya N. Jamal was born in Queens, raised in Long Island, and currently resides in Brooklyn. In other words, she’s a New Yorker through and through. She holds a BA in English from Georgetown University and a MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School. She has been published in Romper, BuzzFeed, People.com, Thought Catalog, and more. Her non-fiction essay about her "Cuban Impostor Syndrome" can be found in the Latinx anthology, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed. You can find her on Twitter at @ZakiyaNJamal.

Man Crush Monday: Raffe

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Books

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Stoic, brooding, and cocky are just three words to describe the angel, Raffe. A warrior angel, Raffe has been through some things in his immortal life. Being in charge of The Watchers, angels living on Earth, he is forced to deal with their half human/half angel children, the Nephilim, who are seen as abominations that eat human flesh.

Besides that Raffe is an archangel putting him a step above other angels and in line to become the next Messenger of God. In summary, Raffe is a boss with a lot of enemies. He’s courageous and strong but he also has a sense of humor and a soft spot for a certain human. He likes crack to corny jokes and knows exactly what to say to make people feel better when they’re moping.

What makes Raffe great is even though he tries to hide his feelings he can’t help but care. This is best evidenced by his friendship/something else with Penryn. He doesn’t want to care about a human but he just can’t seem to help himself.

More than that, Raffe is just plain attractive. He’s got the body of an angel, literally. With abs, strong arms, dark brown (black?) hair, and a hint of danger, he’s the definition of hot. Who wouldn’t want to jump in his arms and have him fly you away?

You can fall in love with Raffe by reading the Angelfall trilogy and trust me you really want to.

Book Review: Angelfall

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

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*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2015 Reading Challenge*

Synopsis from Amazon:

It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. Anything, including making a deal with Raffe, an injured enemy angel. Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco, where Penryn will risk everything to rescue her sister and Raffe will put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

How I’ve neglected to discover this trilogy until now is besides me. This is the first book that has genuinely made me grateful I decided to do the POPSUGAR challenge. I’m hooked and can’t wait to read the next two books.

The novel follows Penryn, a girl who’s had to be strong for her family, which includes her schizophrenic mom and handicapped younger sister, Paige. Feeling like the protector of her strong family, Penryn is devastated when Paige is taken by the enemy angels and is willing to do anything to get her back. That includes making a deal with the devil angel, Raffe, who lost his wings in a battle with the same angel that took Penryn’s little sister.

Teaming up with the understanding that they’re on opposing sides, the two head off to find the Aerie, the angels home on Earth. Along the way they run into Penryn’s mom, a human gang, a human resistance group, creatures neither Penryn or Raffe have ever seen before, and of course, angels. Making friends and enemies the pair begin to realize there may be more in common between humans and angels than they thought.

However, Raffe knows the risks of an angel getting too comfortable with a human and wouldn’t dare let anything beyond a mutually beneficial partnership happen between himself and Penryn. Meanwhile, there’s a battle for power amongst the angels and secret dealings amongst them. While the humans struggle to recover in this post apocalyptic world the angels have their own issues.

Romance, drama, comedic relief, and more violence than I was expecting, this book was fantastic. Obviously, there’s a great similarity between this novel and The Hunger Games (teenage girl taking care of her mother and sister is not a new plot device). However, Susan Ee does an amazing job of creating a new dystopian world. She plays on this idea of what would the rapture really look like. We’re given warring angels who aren’t even particularly sure why they’re attacking the Earth and some who aren’t even sure God exists.

It’s a twist on an idea anyone that’s walked around New York City has heard from someone screaming on a street corner: “The End Is Near!” Ee gives us beautiful angels that are creatures of destruction and blurs the lines between who we believe are the good guys and the bad. Honestly, it made me want to reread the Bible and see if I could glean any knowledge about what the angels could be doing on Earth and if Ee is really drawing from the Bible or if it’s all fiction. Yeah, it’s that good.

Definitely a book you should pick up if you haven’t already. I listened to the audiobook for this one and it was fantastic, however, it doesn’t necessarily add anything to the story that you wouldn’t get from just reading the novel. Either way you read it, just make sure you do.

Favorite Line:

“Sometimes, as we’re stumbling along in the dark, we hit something good.”

Stars: 5 out of 5. I loved it!

Borrow or Buy: Buy! Honestly, I wish I had this on my Kindle instead of just on Audible. I might buy it. For reals.

Other Reviews

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Man Crush Monday: Adrian Ivashkov

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

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When I think about Adrian Ivashkov I immediately picture a hot guy with a bad boy attitude who’s too cool for school leaning against a wall, smoking his cigarettes. Adrian is the definition of swag. He’s a rich boy who’s basically had everything handed to him his whole life.

Normally, this is the kind of guy I would hate but Richelle Mead doesn’t make one-dimensional characters so there’s more to Adrian than first meets the eye. The truth is Adrian is a very caring guy who loves hard. He’s an artist who sometimes lets his emotions get the best of him but it’s his inability to keep his feelings in control that makes him so lovable. When he falls for someone it’s not an easy fall. He gives the person he loves everything he has and then some and that’s both breathtaking and heartbreaking, depending on how it works out for him.

Besides that Adrian is a funny guy. He brushes off serious topics with little quips and is always flirting. Even so, when it’s time to step up and help his friends and family, Adrian is there doing what he needs to do. He goes above and beyond to help out when he can, sometimes pushing himself too far in terms of using his abilities (he’s a vampire with an affinity for spirit; if you don’t know what that is read the books!).

Overall, Adrian is an attractive guy with a great, loving personality who provides comic relief in serious situations. He often speaks in poetry and is one of the most loving characters I’ve ever read about. Check him out in the Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series.

[Adrian] was too perfect, despite being one of the most imperfect people I knew.’ – The Indigo Spell

Women Crush Wednesday: Sydney Sage

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

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Although Bloodlines, the spin off to the Vampire Academy series, wasn’t as great as the original series of books it was still pretty fantastic. The heroine of the novels is Sydney Sage, an Alchemist whose sole task is to make sure other humans like herself never find out about the world of vampires. Of course that’s easier said than done.

At first meeting Sydney didn’t seem like an important character, much less one I could like. She first appeared in Blood Promise, the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series, and was deadly afraid of Rose Hathaway and all the other dhamphirs and vampires.

However, what was great about the Bloodlines series is we got to see a whole other side to Sydney and see her grow into a person I could actually like. It turns out Sydney is in fact a very brave person who goes above and beyond to help her older sister who was hurt by someone in the Alchemist community. Sydney’s also fiercely loyal, which is difficult because her loyalty is trapped between the Alchemists and her friends, the dhampirs and vampires she’s supposed to fear.

More than anything, though, what makes Sydney a wonderful character is her ability to empathize with other people. She doesn’t shy away when someone is going through something difficult. She forces herself to stay by their side and does everything in her power to help them even when they don’t want to help themselves. It’s this compassion that often puts her into trouble with her father, a fellow Alchemist, but it’s also what makes Sydney one of my favorite characters.

Besides all this, she’s also beautiful although she often struggles to see this herself. Always comparing herself to the vampires and dhampirs she’s often surrounded by Sydney struggles to feel her body is good enough just the way it is. Thankfully, there’s a certain vampire who’s determined to make her feel beautiful every single day.

‘[Sydney], you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen walking this earth. And you don’t even know it. You have no clue how beautiful you are or how brightly you shine.’ – The Golden Lily

Book Review: Fall With Me

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

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*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2015 Reading Challenge*

Synopsis from Amazon:

Eleven months ago, bartender and weird-shirt-wearing extraordinaire Roxy and Officer Reece Anders had a one night stand. Well, kind of. She’s been in love with him since she was fifteen, and he wishes that night they shared never happened. She’s sworn him off forever, but the past and future collide, forcing her to rely on the one man who broke her heart not once, but twice.
Her best friend since birth has been in a long-term care facility since he became a victim of a hate crime years ago, and the person who put him in there is out of prison and wanting to make amends with him and Roxy. She’s not sure she has room for forgiveness in her and when she begins to receive frightening messages and is on the receiving end of escalating violence, she thinks she knows who is to blame. The man who already destroyed one life already.

But Reece isn’t convinced. The threats are too personal, and even if Roxy doesn’t believe him, he’s not willing to let anyone hurt her. Including himself. He’s already messed up more than once when it comes to Roxy and he’s not going to let history repeat itself.

Maybe I should’ve been clued in by the cover but I didn’t expect this book to be as erotic as it was. I guess I had low expectations for how hot and heavy this book would get because the only other books I’ve read by Jennifer L. Armentrout is the Lux series which are teen books. Regardless, once I realized the level of adult content I was reading (actually listening to) I changed my mindset of the book and I actually enjoyed it.

For this book I listened to the audiobook, courtesy of Audible credits. I didn’t expect to get sucked into the story as much as I did but the relationship between Roxy and Reece kept be enthralled. Roxy, who’s loved Reece since the age of 15, let’s her pride get in the way of telling Reece the truth about their “one night stand” and they both let foolish ideas stop them from speaking to each other for almost a year.

Watching them end their long stand off and come back together as friends and then something more was entertaining. Roxy’s a little on the quirky side, wearing shirts with funny sayings that usually have to do with books, and she’s an artist. However, Roxy’s also dealing with taking care of her best friend, Charlie, who’s staying in a long term care facility and facing the guilt she feels over what happened to him. At the same time, Reece, a cop who also served in the military, has his own ghosts that he struggles to deal with. Basically, they both come into the relationship with issues.

On top of all of that, Roxy also has a stalker and there’s a mystery of who her stalker could be (although, honestly, it was pretty obvious to me who it was early on). With all these factors in play Armentrout writes a pretty interesting book that kept me drawn in. However, I did have a few issues with it. Overall, I liked Reece but his use of “babe” in reference to Roxy was too much for me. Additionally, the whole premise for why Reece and Roxy stopped speaking seemed a bit ridiculous and then easily resolved for something that made them stop speaking for 11 months.

Lastly, as I previously mentioned, the whole stalker mystery wasn’t really that much of a mystery but that could just be me. Maybe others were shocked by the “twist” but I was not. Even so, I still really liked this story. I fell for Reece and Roxy’s relationship and the relationships of the other supporting characters. Plus, I really liked Roxy. She’s smart, funny, and although she makes a lot of mistakes she eventually gets it together.

Favorite Line:

‘I’m scared, too. And there are times I question what I deserve, but we’re in this together. So fall with me.’

Stars: 3 out of 5. In terms of keeping me entertained this was a good book. Like I said, I was hooked. However, if I’m being honest, writing and plot wise it wasn’t that great. The idea of Roxy taking so long to realize someone had been in her house was a bit far fetched. As was the whole premise of Roxy and Reece’s reasoning for not speaking.

Borrow or Buy: Borrow. It’s not a book I could see myself rereading.

Man Crush Monday: Dimitri Belikov

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

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If you haven’t figured this out yet I’m obsessed with the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. It’s no surprise then that the male lead in the series, Dimitri Belikov, is today’s man crush Monday.

He’s hot, strong, protective, and extremely loyal. As a dhampir guardian he’s considered a god with his great strength and speed. Beside that he’s the quiet, brooding type of guy. He walks around wearing a cowboy duster and loves old westerns but he’s also fierce and a force to be reckoned.

What I love most about this character, however, is underneath all of that is this really sweet, loving guy who cares deeply about people. This is most clear in his relationship with Rose Hathaway but it’s also seen by how fiercely he tries to protect the people he guards. Dimitri is also the kind of guy that wants to be married and have a family. He’s the only boy in a family of women and he’s protective of his family and loves them dearly.

I could go on and on about how perfect Dimitri is but honestly you should read these books and see for yourself. Trust me, you’ll be in love with by the end of the first book if not sooner.

“My immediate associations with Dimitri were always intense and fierce; it was his sexy, battle-god persona that came to mind. Yet, it had been Dimitri’s gentleness and thoughtfulness mixed with that deadliness that made him so wonderful.” – Blood Promise

Who Will Win Eadlyn’s Heart?

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in More

Alright so now that a good lot of you have read The Heir, I think it’s time we talked about what’s most important: who will win the Selection? It seems the general consensus is between Erik and Kile but of course there’s still other options. To see just where everywhere stands on the issue let’s vote on it. Who do you think will win Eadlyn’s heart in the next book? Feel free to say why your choice is the right choice in the comments below.

Woman Crush Wednesday: Rose Hathaway

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Blog

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The Vampire Academy series has a bunch of amazing characters but my fave will forever and always be Rose Hathway. She’s fierce, snarky, protective, and loyal. And she’s hella fine. As a dhamphir (a mix breed between human and vampire) she has great strength and can kick butt.

She attends St. Vladmir’s Boarding School where she learns to become a guardian, a protector of vampires. For Rose, she plans on protecting her best friend, Princess Lissa Dragomir, who lost her family in a terrible car crash and brought Rose back from the dead giving Rose some interesting abilities.

Rose comes off as a bad girl who doesn’t follow the rules, and although she technically does start off that way everything she does is to protect Lissa and do what she feels is right. When Rose gets something in her head she doesn’t let anyone or anything stand in her way and that’s what makes her so awesome.

Besides all this Rose comes from two pretty bad a** parents. Her mom is a fierce guardian in her own right and her father is a mob type vampire who doesn’t take crap from anyone. I guess we know where Rose get’s it from.

Lastly, one of my favorite aspects of Rose is how hard she loves people. Her love for Lissa is something fierce but her love for Dimitri, her teacher turned something else, might be even stronger. Rose loves hard and when she cares about someone she’ll go to the end of the world and back just to save them.

If you haven’t read the Vampire Academy series yet I’d definitely recommend it.

‘Rose,” he said, forcibly trying to keep a serious tone, “I can think of many words to describe you, sexy and hot being at the top of the list. You know what’s not on the list? Sane.’

Book Review: The Heir

Posted on by Zakiya N. Jamal in Book Reviews

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*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2015 Reading Challenge*

Synopsis from Amazon:

Kiera Cass’s #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series has enchanted readers from the very first page. In this fourth romantic novel, follow Illéa’s royal family into a whole new Selection—and find out what happens after happily ever after.

Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won Prince Maxon’s heart. Now the time has come for Princess Eadlyn to hold a Selection of her own. Eadlyn doesn’t expect her Selection to be anything like her parents’ fairy-tale love story…but as the competition begins, she may discover that finding her own happily ever after isn’t as impossible as she’s always thought.

A new generation of swoonworthy characters and captivating romance awaits in the fourth book of the Selection series!

I got this book at 12:40 AM this morning, started reading at noon and finished at 8 PM. Yeah, it was that good. I won’t spoil anything in this review because I know sane people haven’t finished it yet (but I know A LOT of you have). Let’s begin.

This novel begins 20 years after The One ended, and it’s now time for Princess Eadlyn, the daughter of Maxon and America, to have her own Selection. Except she doesn’t want it. After Maxon worked so hard to disband the castes in Illéa, the people are rioting and rebelling and Maxon is struggling to understand why. Therefore as a distraction they’re bringing back the Selection but with a twist.

Because Eadlyn’s not really in support of the idea she has some conditions, mainly if she doesn’t find love in three months she doesn’t have to choose anyone to marry but instead can go on her own way and be the independent Queen she wants to be.

And so the Selection begins and Eadlyn is introduced to 35 guys from throughout Illéa, including one much closer to home than she’d prefer, and finds herself actually considering these men as potential suitors. Maybe.

However, the Selection has it’s ups and downs and Eadlyn’s not sure if she’s really helping or hurting her country. Even so, she’s determined to stick with the Selection for the three months she promised whether it works for her or not. She wants to help her father, King Maxon, in anyway she can and this is the only way she knows how.

Although I wasn’t a fan of Eadlyn (she’s pretty bratty, to be honest) I was a fan of a lot of the other characters. Maxon and America are still my OTP. Their love for each other knows no bounds and it means the world to me. Their son, and Eadlyn’s twin brother, Ahern is so cute and his love for the French princess, Camilla, also knows no bounds. I ship it!

Kile, the son of America’s friend Marlee, is fantastic and I love that he tells Eadlyn exactly what he’s thinking and doesn’t care that she’s going to be the next queen. He doesn’t have time for her nonsense and I appreciate that.

Lastly, and this may be a little bit of a spoiler so if you don’t want to know I’d say stop here.

I LOVE ERIK (Eikkio)!!! Erik is the translator for one of the selected and although technically he can’t win the Selection himself I want Eadlyn to pick him. He’s super sweet, nice, and supportive to Eadlyn. I think he would make a perfect match for her and I ship it like FedEx. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be mad if she ended up with Kile. But I think she should be with Erik. He’s seems like the better match for her and I think she would see that if she let herself fall for him.

Of course that’s easier said than done because it’s complicated but still, I want Erik to win (and if you agree you can vote for him here).

Overall, I love this book. The ending … it was a good cliffhanger. I can’t say I was happy about it because it left me in tears but such a good cliffhanger, writing wise. I need to know what happens next and ASAP. If I have to wait a year for this next book I think I’ll lose it. Honestly. How Kiera Cass could do this to all of us is mind blowing.

If you haven’t read the Selection series yet please do so ASAP. It’s definitely worth a read.

Favorite Line:

‘Sometimes the very thing you’ve been hoping for will walk through the door, determined to fend you off. And still, somehow, you will find that you are enough.’

Stars: 5 out of 5. Honestly, Eadlyn definitely annoyed me throughout the book but she did grow on me. Plus, I loved the other characters so much it made up for Eadlyn’s bad behavior.

Borrow or Buy: Are you kidding? Buy this. Buy it right now if you haven’t already. You need this on your bookshelf. Trust me.