A gripping story of strong powerful women using any way to escape their poverty-stricken surroundings, whether legal or not. The two cousins Carmen and Grace are nurtured by a family member who runs an underground drugs ring, and they are given their own roles in the business.
Their stories are not always easy reading, they have to make tough uncompromising decisions - but family loyalty is strong.
Thanks for the chance to read the ARC

thank you netgalley and the publisher for sending an e-arc for review :)

i really loved this book and the last third of it literally grabbed at my heart and wouldn't let go
the ending had me feeling all types of emotions from pure rage and frustration to overwhelming love and heartache (the good kind)
the story closed in the perfect way - it wasn't rushed and it didn't leave me feeling like something was missing which i think is quite rare!

Firstly I would like to than NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Unfortunately, I did not like this book at all. It didn't grab my attention at all. I don't think the story followed well and the characters were under developed in my opinion.

Grace and Carmen are tied by blood but most of all by loyalty. Rising through the ranks of the drugs underworld using their street intelligence and the skills Grace has instilled in their crew, the world becomes smaller and smaller until something's got to give. Lyrical, viseral, and coloured with the sights and smells of the Bronx.

A coming of age story in a world where you make your own destiny.

We begin by meeting Carmen in prison in a lesson. We find out she thinks Grace is the reason she landed there and she wants to get out for Artemis - although we don't know who they are at this point - it certainly made me want to read on and find out

The book goes back in time with Durka, Grace and the crew. 'We had found each other because we belonged nowhere ' Grace, Carmen, Red, Destiny, Sugar and China form most of the girl gang and the books takes us through their story of how and why they ended up in this life.

The story tells us of the love and friendship between them all but mostly Carmen and Grace. 'He knew that whatever name he gave her - homegirl, best friend, comrade, sister, cousin - he could never capture all that she was to me. I loved the way I could get in Carmen's head and thoughts.

I really liked the style and flow of the writing and found I read through the pages quickly. The edition of the Spanish was great. I have a translate option on my phone which was so handy. Fantastic extra i liked finding out what the different words meant and really added to the feel of the book.

I also really enjoyed the character building and until we actually read and heard from Graces side we don't know why she is how she is and we find that she does really care.

The topics cover include - friendship, drugs, murder, bad childhoods, absent mothers and mother figures.

I will be looking out for others from this author and recommending this book.

Compelling, confronting and also addictive reading, Carmen and Grace is beautifully written and gives readers an excellent insight into gang life in New York city.
Both Carmen and Grace are well-structured and believable characters. It was easy to like Carmen and feel for her as she struggled between Grace’s world and the life she wants to create for herself.
My only problem with this story is the amount of Spanish in it. While the language works really well and helped set the scene, I am Australian and struggled to understand exactly what was being said at times.This meant I was often taken out of the story to find out what this character or that meant. Other than that, this is an excellent debut novel and I look forward to seeing more from author Melissa Coss Aquino.

Sadly my first DNF of 2023, 14% in 😞

I had such high hopes for this book, but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. There were lots of characters to get to know and you’re thrown in in quite a confusing way (I found anyway). I struggled to connect with any characters which is a huge deal for me - if I don’t have that connection, I can’t get in the zone. There will definitely be a strong audience for this type of book, unfortunately this wasn’t me 😞

Thank you NetGalley, Head of Zeus and Melissa Coss Aquino for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Carmen and Grace are two young cousins, one feisty and one cautious have decided they don't want to become downtrodden as their mothers by being pregnant with missing husbands while struggling to earn a little money cleaning toilets. As luck would have it, Grace is taken in by Dońa Durka which ables her to hone street smarts while quickly learning a lucrative drug distribution business.
The reader can immerse themselves in this amazing story, only be aware that they will confront many ups and downs playing with their emotions all the way.
Carmen and Grace has to be one of the best books to come along in a long time deserving all the accolades gathered.
An independent review thanks to NetGalley / Head of Zeus

Unfortunately I just couldn't get into this story, I really thought I would enjoy it more but I found it hard to get into.

The outline of this novel really pulled me in, but I found reading the book a real struggle. I didn’t warm to the characters and felt that the different timelines were disjointed and confusing. As a none Spanish speaker I found the amount of Spanish dialogue off putting.However, I do think that it’s one of those books that is like marmite and we’ll have some readers who will absolutely love it. I’m just sorry this unfortunately wasn’t for me at the moment but I may return to it in the future. Many thanks to NetGalley, and the publisher for the ARC of this novel in return for an honest review

There are so many gorgeous quotes in this novel, mostly surrounding the message it kept sharing and returning to: that all girls and women should be able to see the divine in themselves, the value in themselves, and their right to good things, to protection and to the opportunity to thrive.

The explorations of girlhood, womanhood, sisterhood and motherhood were complicated but so satisfying to read. It felt true to life that there were limits to how well all of the secondary characters could be known and understood, and that the main characters could present such conflicting feelings and recollections of the same experiences.

This novel was at its best when it was reflective and meditative, following thought patterns, memories and experiences that were more character and relationship focused, detailed and slow but burning with underlying intensity. It was the action scenes that were key to the plot where the writing started to feel a little weaker or clunky.

As much as I love character-driven novels, the plot needed a little more attention to fine-tune it. Both perspectives were equally interesting but they felt a little out of balance, and I don’t think the novel needed to be so long. I would have liked more attention to have been given to Graces’s relationship with Toro and for the power imbalance to be more explicitly condemned. Despite its minor flaws, this novel was so full and rich and vivid, I know I will be thinking about it for a while.

Wow, I love this book. So well written, I was hooked in from the start. This is more than a story of two cousins, it is a story of friendship, support and solidarity between a group of girls / women who are searching for a way to survive. Their method of survival might not be the best but you can't help wanting them all to succeed in life.

This could be my book of the year.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Carmen and Grace

A wonderful book about female friendship and loyalty, set in the Bronx. Carmen and Grace are cousins with mothers who cannot look after them, so they support one another.
At the beginning of the book, Carmen is in prison. Then Carmen and Grace tell their stories about the past and how she got there.
As they grow up, Grace is mentored by Dona Durka, the leader of a drug distribution gang. She helps Grace, to establish her own network with a group of young women from similar backgrounds, including Carmen. The female characters are wonderful, all the girls in the crew have clear identities, and have had difficult childhoods, yet they are so kind and supportive of one another, Original writing, and a real insight into other lives. Highly recommended.

The more I read the book, the more I wanted to get to know Carmen and Grace. They were both inseparable cousins, who both had troubled lives. The people they hung around with also had troubled lives. I think this book would be good as a film or short drama programme.

A definite slow burner, but one that I could not put down and I enjoyed the dual narrator throughout the book so that we could get an idea of how both Grace and Carmen felt. Although it was a story wracked with exploitation, abuse, and inequalities, the most powerful element of this book was the strong female characters and the loyalty between the women. They were a sisterhood, a dysfunctional family that they had created themselves to become the complete opposite of what they had experienced in their youth with their own families and do what they needed to survive.
I look forward to reading more of Melissa Coss Aquino’s writing, thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the advanced reading copy.

This book is about women’s friendships, told from two cousin’s perspectives, Carmen and Grace. They become swept up in an underground drug empire after being neglected as children. I really enjoyed seeing how it was from both sides. Thank you Netgally for letting me review this book.

👭 REVIEW 👭

Carmen and Grace by Melissa Coss Aquino

Publishing Date: 13th April 2023

⭐️⭐️/5

Carmen and Grace are cousins, but that word can’t begin to sum up what they mean to each other. Growing up in the Bronx with mothers who don’t have the facilities to look after them, they soon find themselves drawn into the lives of drug dealers, with Grace especially under the influence of matriarch Doña Durka. When Durka dies suddenly, Grace is thrust into the leadership position, while Carmen is grappling with her future and that of her unborn child. Carmen and Grace follows each of their experiences of the group they find themselves in, from teenage years through adulthood.

I had very high hopes for this book, I was pulled in by the synopsis and the potential relationship dynamics between all the women involved. While this was done to some extent, and I did appreciate the characters of Carmen and Grace, I found some of the secondary characters to be a bit contrived. What I really struggled with was the writing style; I found it quite disjointed and overly narrative, telling me things that I felt could’ve been inferred more subtly. I also felt that some pieces of information were dropped in for the sake of the storyline and weren’t ever referred to again, or that even slightly contradictory details were given.

Overall a disappointing read for me, though I could definitely see potential.

Content Warning: Drug dealing/trade, Grooming, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Violent death, Descriptive violence, Gang violence, Child neglect and Murder/Assassination

Carmen and Grace explore the complex relationship between families. Carmen and Grace, who is of Puerto Rican descent but have grown up in different worlds. Carmen, is a successful lawyer living in New York City, while Grace is a struggling artist living in Puerto Rico. When tragedy occurs, the sisters must come to terms with their past, their cultural identities, and their strained relationship.

The book touches upon themes of family, identity, cultural differences, and the challenges of navigating the modern world while honouring one’s heritage. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This book is the definition of a slow burner. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it but it took me a while get into it and overall, I think it could’ve been 100 pages shorter.

It follows two cousins, Carmen and Grace who are groomed into becoming part of the underground drugs trade. They have suffered abuse and neglect during their upbringing and find a sense of belonging and sisterhood within Doña Durka’s drug empire. However, after the devastating passing of the cartel leader, Carmen and Grace are faced with opposing views of how they see their futures, which in turn brings tension, turmoil and tough decisions. This is a story of friendship, family and ambition, interwoven with violence and heartbreak.

I really enjoyed the Spanish which was incorporated seamlessly into the writing and I also loved the dual POV. The subject matter/plot was really interesting and I loved the powerful women messaging throughout.

However, I sometimes lost my way and the major climactic moments fell slightly flat. But, I enjoyed the reading journey overall and will definitely look out for Melissa Coss Aquino’s future releases. I think for the right reader, this will be a huge hit.

Thanks to the publisher, Head of Zeus, the author and NetGalley for the e-arc.

Story about friendship and coming together I like this I did find it a bit heavy thoo feel like this book is perfect for children to understand identity and friendship. I would encourage people to read this when they feel strong enough to handle the subject matters.