The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

This year I have set a couple reading goals, one of them being to read all of the past & future Reese Witherspoon's book club picks. Why? Because I've noticed that I have this tendency to reread books over and over again (nothing wrong with that) or I get stuck reading the same kinds of books. I enjoy expanding my horizons and seeing what other kinds of works are out there. I also like that Reese's picks are women authors & also from diverse authors. This does mean that a handful of my reviews coming up will be from her picks. Just giving a warning.

Before knowing that this was a Reese's book pick, I had seen this cover and was intrigued by the book. I know the saying is "don't judge a book by its cover" but I can't help but be drawn towards the covers of books. The House of Eve just spoke to me that this would feature a sophisticated woman of color as a main character. However, that's not all that this book is. In fact, I would say the cover only tells a fraction of the story.

The first chapter, titled Mommies & Dragons had me intrigued. Set in the 1950's, this chapter introduces the reader to Ruby, one of the main characters of the novel. I felt for her. She's a poor colored teenager who just wants to escape her life & be the first in her family to attend college. She finds herself in a tricky situation and is put through circumstances that no one should have to go through.

The novel alternates perspectives to the other main character, Eleanor, a colored college student who desires to fit in and worked hard to be able to attend Howard University. Both main characters meet and fall for men. The consequences of their actions lead to this beautiful blending of lives together in a somewhat predictable way. Yet the unsurprising way the stories come together doesn't take away from the beauty of the prose.

While I gave this book a 3 star rating (to see how I rate books, follow me on Instagram), it is an enjoyable novel. To me, it just didn't have anything in it that made it stand out. Most of the books that I read, I give 3 stars to.