WHAT'S MINE AND YOURS will quench your thirst for a multi-generational familial novel - I know it did mine! I was not familiar with Naima Coster's writing before, but it is clear that she is on her way to stardom. This novel is lyrical, sweeping, and full of family drama. It is also about gentrification, race, and poverty in North Carolina. The story starts with a gut punch as the father of one of our main characters dies from a gunshot in front of him, and this single act ripples through 2 decades and 2 families.

I think I could have used a little more drama and plot, but I really loved delving deep into all of the many characters, and getting a taste of their lives and how they relate back to the other characters we already know. The chapter on Margarita, a sister who is trying to make it as an influencer in LA, was a stand-out section in particular. There is also a pretty great twist at the end, which I admit I did see coming and was obsessed trying to figure out if I was right or not. As we move forward and back from 2002-2020, we get a full picture of this town and these families, and I think it will stay with me.

Also, interesting to note, Coster ends the book specifically during February of 2020. I wonder if books in the coming years will also do this to avoid the murky waters of stories set during COVID times!

What’s Mines and Yours will definitely get a lot of talk once published! It is one of those books that makes you think about how would you react if faced with the same situations. I love family stories that span decades and what I loved about this story is how it intersects. I’ve seen lots of books that intersect families but this book did it in a unique way that I enjoyed. . I had mixed feelings about most of the characters and that was a good thing because it kept me emotionally invested the whole time.

I loved the author’s earlier novel, Halsey Street. But, I was not as enamored with her latest offering. The characters and many scenes were wonderful. However, the narrative alternates both time and point of view and one of the plot points is kept “secret” for no reason that I could ascertain. The overall story lacked cohesion for me.

Oh, I wanted to like this. Giving it such a low rating pains me. Recommended for fans of <i>Ask Again, Yes</i> and <i>A Good Neighborhood</i>—books I love, both—this is a multi-generational contemporary story that covers race and racism, family, love, class, consequences.

I have to be honest: this book is a structural mess. The synopsis makes a point of the local high school opening up to poorer students from the “wrong side of the tracks” so to speak, but this plot-point doesn’t come into play until the 33% mark. A THIRD of the way. That third is spent messily setting up these characters’ (oh-so many characters, too) predicaments and dramas in a few different eras. Most of the characters don’t even interact with each other until the 70% mark. Seriously. Most of this book feels like unrelated, inconsequential side-stories featuring characters I simply never grew to care about.

Aside from Gee: I cared about Gee. We meet him in the first chapter, as a child, and it’s damn unfortunate he’s not given more time to shine. Instead the reader is treated to the nearly insufferable woes of Lisa-May and her daughters, all of them pretty damn unlikable and certainly not sympathetic. Gee is the only reason this book is getting 2 stars from me, instead of 1.

I almost feel like this book tries to do too much, and it’s just not long enough (not that I’d want it to be any longer: God no!) We get the scant story promised in the synopsis, the school letting in poor and (mostly) latinx students, and the tensions that causes, but there are also affairs, and a character trying to make it in Hollywood, and another character concealing her lesbian relationship, and another character fighting cancer. Etc. None of it ever comes together in any cohesive way.

This book is getting fantastic reviews, and I’m sure it’ll be quite popular upon its release. I usually love books like this, but this one just didn’t hit the mark. At all. They can’t all be winners, but this didn’t come close. Alas.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this early.

Naima Coster’s storytelling is so natural in this book, weaving together two families in a way that opens up surprises along the way. Lacey May tries to raise her daughters Noelle, Denise and Margarita after her true love, Robbie falls into drugs—-holding a flame for him through her life, often to her daughters’ disdain. We get the voice of each of the daughters, carving out an identity for themselves. Most compelling is Noelle, recovering from a miscarriage and navigating a tenuous marriage. The other family, mother Jade and son Gee, deal with their own tragedy that keeps their relationship rocky through Gee’s adolescence.

Moving back and forth in time, Coster reveals the right details at the right time, allowing us to watch each character wrestle with their flaws, and does not rush to resolve them. What’s Mine and Yours reminds us of how certain life events, the bonds we create and the actions we take echo through the lives of everyone around us.

This multigenerational story looks at complicated family relationships, loss, race, and so much more. When I read the description, it seemed as if the story was going to revolve mainly around the conflict that arises around the integration of a North Carolina high school, but that isn't the main event. It explains some of the connections between the various viewpoints. I do think the author was overly ambitious in how many characters' perspectives she wrote from, and that left a few of them coming across emptier than others. I wonder if that was purposeful and if there was a reason for that. I left me wondering if I had missed something crucial, or if perhaps I was supposed to fill in the blank with my own imagination. In any case, it was a good read even if it wasn't my all-time favorite.

I really enjoyed this book, cannot wait for more persons to read this. Coster did a great job of creating engaging characters and a plot that made for compulsive reading. I loved the issue of race and how it was executed. I did feel as if the end wrapped up too quickly.

What’s Mine and Yours is an all-encompassing novel that moves through the years and follows the lives of a diverse cast of characters. It took a few chapters for me to understand the time jumps and learn the different characters, but I’m so glad I stuck it out because this story was amazing!

Set in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, we follow two generations of families from the 90s to present day. Lacey is raising her three children on her own, Noelle, Margarita, and Diane after her husband ends up in jail. And while her daughters are half-latina, Lacey would rather believe they didn’t inherit anything from their father. Jade is a single mother to Gee and after a tragic personal loss, she is determined to give her son everything he needs to be a successful black man.

Lacey and Jade collide when the predominantly white high schools on the west start accepting students from the largely black east side of town. Parents from the high school where Lacey’s daughter Noelle goes are outraged and they are determined to keep their school how it used to be. Jade only wants what is best for Gee and is determined to make sure the other parents don’t get their way. Gee and Noelle start to bond while rehearsing for the school play which leads to some messy family relationships. In the future chapters, we follow Noelle and her sisters living on their own until they must return home to tend to a sick family member.

I loved this story so much and it brings up a lot of important conversations around race, class, and sex. When the mostly white school started accepting kids from the other side of town, many of the white parents were complaining of crime and how it wasn’t fair for their kids to have their futures taken away by the black kids. This is an argument I’ve heard from white people in my real life when they talk about affirmative action and getting into college (when in fact affirmative action has benefited white women the most). There is also subtle commentary about the stigma of abortion and immigration which I enjoyed. I loved all the characters because they felt real. They had flaws and they made mistakes, but that’s what made this story so interesting. I would recommend this book for fans of Brit Bennett or Kiley Reid.

I really enjoyed this story! How it moves through the years and the different perspectives flowed and was easy to follow along.
I enjoyed the characters and the storyline.

Calling it now - this one is going to be popular when it debuts in March 2021 (for good reason!)

What's Mine and Yours features multiple POVs spanning the early 90s to the present. We're introduced to two families in the Piedmont area of North Carolina and we subtly see how gentrification, class, and race impact the courses of their lives. At its heart, it's a story about family, and it's not short on family drama.

Loved Naima Coster's writing style and loved how quickly the story flowed thanks to the switching perspectives. A solid novel I'd definitely recommend.