FOLD 2026

January - Cozy Fiction by a Marginalized Author

I recently read Moonlight Murder by @uzmajalaluddin - the second book in the Detective Aunty series. We pick up shortly after where we left off in the first book, Kausar is still in Toronto and has recently moved into her own apartment not too far from her daugther, Sana and two granddaughters. When her eldest granddaughter, Maleeha, begs Kausar to look into the circumstances around her close friend's death, she begins to think her prior role as detective may need to have a reprise. At the same time, Kauser begins to look into her son Ali's death, an 18 year cold case that was marked as a hit-and-run accident, and she quickly finds that there are more similarities between both tragic teen deaths than she expected.

Moonlight Murder is a well written story that features several diverse and slightly-quirky characters, and is set in a small community called the Golden Crescent in Toronto. Even more than in the first story, Jalaluddin shows how connected a community can be even in a city as large and bustling as Toronto. I love that Kausar and her family are made up of strong, independent women, challenging stereotypes of muslim women being meek, subservient or forced to defer to men. Jalaluddin weaves in culture throughout the story, describing food and traditions (particularly around death), and incorporating language into these descriptions.

As far as the cozy mystery piece, I did find some parts a bit repetitive, though I also appreciated the refreshers at times. The pace and length were both good, and while I personally liked the first book a bit more, I would definitely recommend this one! If you haven't read the first book, you might want to read it before picking this one up as it is referenced quite a bit, but reading it as a stand alone would probably be ok too.

Thanks to @netgalley and @harpercollinsca for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

February - Romance by a Queer Author

Musical Theatre Mondays, by @marieincontrera was such a fun read! This short novel follows Sol (Soliel) as she debuts her first musical, Away and begins to write her second musical, Musical Theatre Mondays. Sol is a queer woman who is trying to find love, and be true to herself, while being insanely busy bringing her musical to the stage. The story features several other queer characters as well as a wonderful LGBTQ+ space, Vers, a bar that hosts Musical Theatre Mondays - basically Saturday night for anyone who works in the Musical Theatre industry. As her friends and community come together around her for the highs and lows of her first show's run, Sol begins to learn what matters most is the people who support her and help her follow her dreams.

This one is a must read for Musical Theatre Nerds. If you've been in a show, run a show or always wanted to be in one, the true community of a musical family is very real in this story and will speak to you. While not all theatre people are part of the LGBTQ community, it can often be a safe and welcoming space, and that is essentially what this story is all about. My only downsides in this book were 1) there was a bit of time hopping and a little more clarification of days and times would have been helpful for me and 2)it was quite short and I wanted more! I hope the author decides to go on and write more musical related novels as this is an area that I think could use more stories!

I chose to read this book as @the_fold's February Reading Challenge: A Romance by a Queer Author. Technically the category was Male Queer Author but I decided that if we really want to read diverse, does gender really matter? I'd rather highlight an awesome new author, no matter their gender, so I took the qualifier out, hopefully that's ok!

Musical Theatre Mondays is out now so go grab your copy! Thanks to @netgalley and @boldstrokesbooks for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

March - A Non-Fiction Featuring Food by a Marginalized Author

I read Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You by Candice Chung.

This memoir follows a young woman who is a food critique as she explores her relationship with her parents as well as what love means to her in a variety of contexts such as her dating life and her feelings towards food. The writing is interesting, it doesn't read fully like a memoir, more a literary exploration of love (and sometimes food), but it didn't quite work for me. The story was winding and with an unclear purpose it was hard to stick with it. There are some nice themes and the premise is good, but unfortunately it was not quite what it wanted to be. Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher, Elliott & Thompson, for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

November - book that celebrates fat bodies - Fat Girls Dance - Netgalley