Heather Allen

I received this book through Young to Publishing Group’s “Word of Mouth” program for my honest review (Published by Broadway Books, September 9, 2014).

This book was excellent: political intrigue, dead gods, a crumbling city, and a female spy as the main character. Sign me up. Not only is our main character, Shara, a bad-ass woman, she’s also a person of color, specifically: “dark-skinned and petite…with thick glasses.” So imagine my surprise when I read the letter from Mr. Bennett that comes with my Advance Reader Copy, which tells me that he intentionally wrote a woman who is a person of color, only to find the cover has a white dude on it?!?

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

One of the reasons we started this blog is to bring attention to diverse books that are available. Publishers are not helping. If you put a woman on the cover, do you really…