Set in Prohibition era Chicago, Nelly comes home from the family's horse farm in Kentucky for her brother's funeral, but that is just the tip of the iceberg of a story.. Her family is the wealthiest Black family in American, but wealth doesn't bring peace. There is so much going on in this story: a Cotillion, mob families, murder, flirtations across racial lines, many surprises, and the mysterious Mayor of Maxwell Street. Please read the book summary to get the basics of the story.

I read this book because I love debut novels, it is set in an era I was interested in reading more about, it is set in Chicago, and it was written from the point of view of a well to do African American young woman. I enjoyed many of the characters because they had opinions that made people feel uncomfortable and other characters were just not nice people but I thought they had some depth and purpose to the story. Nelly is a character that you will either love or hate. I happened to like Nelly because she wanted to be a journalist and she didn't let what society and her father wanted to get in her way. Did she make some poor choices? Definitely. Did she stay true to herself? Definitely, until the end. Still processing how I feel about the Epilogue and Nelly's final choice. I was concerned about the length of the book, but I moved faster than I anticipated, so don't let the length put you off.

If you are looking for an interesting Prohibition era book from an African American perspective, I would recommend this book. I was entertained and had to finish to find out what happened to everyone.

Thank you Hyperion Avenue and Net Galley for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Mayor of Maxwell Street is the debut of Avery Cunningham - a story about a Black debutante in 1920s Chicago, who wants to be much more than the dutiful society maven she is expected to be.

So, when I say this book could have used an editor, I mean that an editor would have tightened up the bloated storytelling and unnecessary chapters that turned what could have been a brilliant book into an uneven, 520+ page tale.

Despite the claim on the book, there is no “epic love story” - there is a toxic, manipulative relationship between Nelly and Jay, and a safer, more cerebral relationship between Nelly and Tomas, but neither of these is epic, and as clever as Nelly is, it takes her a long time to figure out the main mystery, which is pretty obvious.

The pacing is problematic - pages and pages are devoted to side characters and details that could have been excised to make a better story, while major developments are brushed over quickly.

I was disappointed when I was finished because I had high hopes for this one.

I was so excited to start this one after reading the synopsis. I love historical fiction that takes you somewhere different than WWII and this book did just that. Chicago is such an interesting city and I loved reading about during this time period. I was not expecting the romance in this book to be so dark and that took away from my enjoyment of reading this one.

A historical fiction set during Prohibition in the early 1920’s, The Mayor of Maxwell Street tells the story of the glamourous and glittery life of Nelly and Jay. Nelly enlists Jay to help her figure out who the Mayor of Maxwell Street is. The story professes to be an epic love story, but I didn’t really feel that to be true.
Thank you NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for my ARC.

I wanted to love this! There was a lot going on here and indeed, a lot to love. I loved the setting. The writing was great. I liked the characters and the progression, but I found myself bored and looking to see how much I had left to read.

Displaying both the glitz and glamour AND the grit of the roaring 20s, we follow Nelly as she is thrust into the spotlight as the new heir to her father’s immense fortune. I loved the focus on Black voices and elite status and how they maneuver through racial injustice in the world. All aspects that were so powerful! And it worked so well with Nelly’s demeanor and attitude. She was a strong woman with ideals and goals surpassing what not only society thrust on her, but her family as well. She has aspirations and viewpoints I really liked!

This is a pretty long book, but it was worth it in the end.

Thank you to the author for sending me a NetGalley widget. Maybe I will try this one again at a different time and get more from it. I think it’s a headspace issue for me at this moment in time. I don’t know if I have this book the time and attention it deserved… but as of now, this is how I feel about The Mayor of Maxwell Street.

I enjoyed this book. I loved the main character Nellie and the fact that she was a rich black girl in 1920's Chicago. I also loved the seedy side of Chicago also represented in the book. I probably could of done without the romance. It felt like Nellie could do better. A little long. Could make a great movie visually.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to Net Galley, Hyperion Avenue, and Avery Cunningham for the opportunity to read The Mayor of Maxwell Street. The title of the book intrigued me as I grew up surrounded by Chicago history and politics. I wanted a more in depth historical fiction story to go with my background knowledge. The novel was well written with interesting characters but there were only bits and pieces of a solid story until the very end. I found it hard to connect all the various characters and multiple story lines. I became invested in one chapter and then another aspect would take over the next chapter. It was difficult to stay invested in all the stories, truths and lies. The ending was excellent, I just had a hard time getting there.

This is such a hard book for me to rate! I thought there were some really great moments and for sure transported me to 1920s Chicago. Plus it had some real depth on themes in a new and fresh way. However, I was going in expecting romance and it really didn’t feel like that romantic at all. The pacing was also pretty rough as the first half is so slow I almost DNFed. Overall I just think the book should have been trimmed down a lot and then the story would have hit harder.

While this book was interesting, I probably wouldn't recommend it. My recommendation, or lack thereof, isn't because the book is "bad," but it's nothing remarkable. I typically only recommend books that I would buy physical copies of to display on my own personal library.

Rating: 2.75 stars (rounded up).

"A shadowy figure showed up in conversation a couple years ago and has inspired all kinds of stories ever since. No one knows exactly where he lays his head, but on the beat, he's called the Mayor of Maxwell Street."

When I saw that this book proclaimed to be a Gatsby-esque love story/investigative mystery from the perspective of a wealthy young Black woman wanting nothing more than to make a name for herself rather than play the part of the dutiful debutante entrenched in a classist and racist society, I was SO intrigued.

The portrayal of the gritty Prohibition-era atmosphere and the focus on race and class was laudable; I thoroughly enjoyed the dichotomy between the roaring '20s glitz and the glam, and the glimpse into the main characters' experiences of being Black during that era (even in the North, and even with staggering wealth). Compounded with the mafia drama, the story had a depth and feeling of historical accuracy that was captivating and illuminating.

However, as noted above, The Mayor of Maxwell Street was slated to be an 'epic love story' and a 'dangerous' adventure of investigative journalism, and I found both of these aspects to be lacking. Beyond Nelly being in her season of coming out & having two men vying for her affection at sporadic points, any aspect of romance felt like an afterthought, a piece shoved in after the mystery. Not only that, but if I felt like the epic love story was an afterthought, Nelly's moonlighting as an anonymous journalist felt like barely a breeze of a thought. I would have loved for more focus to have been on this side of her, as overall, I found Nelly to be fairly insufferable. Every time a character scoffed at her for being a plucky, well-to-do young woman with restless legs, I had to admit that I saw their point. Her actions lacked consequence, even her guilt when an action led to extreme consequences was glossed over and tossed aside. And, when the going got tough, she essentially dropped all pretense of caring about the journalism and moved on.

Finally, the timeline was clunky at best... every major plot point was over & done in flash, while the less 'important' pieces dragged on. Moments of romance, intense danger -- these only seemed to last as long as it took to write them, and it cheapened the effect overall. I found parts of the book dragging (despite it being a quick read overall), and other times, I would turn back pages, sure I'd missing something as a major event was gone in a flash.

Overall, it was a quick read & I'll always jump to read a Prohibition/Gatsby-esque story, but I won't feel any pull to read this one again. The characters could have used more depth, and the plot and timeline needed more shaping. There's high potential & I'll look forward to the next book(s) this author writes, but this one fell flat for me.

Thanks to NetGalley & Hyperion Avenue for the ARC!

... As an aside, there were so many typos & it definitely detracted from the experience of the book... I hope these get fixed for publication, because I would normally drop my rating lower if reading a book with this many typos!

2.5 rounded down.

I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more. I really like the setting and time period and the start of the book kept my interest but that's about it.

I thought it was a bit too long but any of the big plot events (<spoiler>Jay getting shot, Nelly effectively being held hostage and tortured, the actual unveiling of the Mayor </spoiler>) were brushed over and quickly moved on. I struggled to stay invested and found myself bored. I also wish the ending wasn't so abrupt.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

Not really a love story. At all. It’s a historical mystery detective novel themed around classism, racism and hatred all mixed into a mess from which rise our plucky protags. Thanks for the arc

The premise of this book was a good one, unfortunately I despised the character of Nelly. She was ready to sacrifice others to get what she wanted and her reasons for doing so didn’t come across as very compelling.

Just couldn't get through this, tried a number of times. I didn't care for the characters, the writing, and/or the story

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. I had so many mixed feelings about this book and I would say it's 3.5 stars but I rounded up because I did genuinely enjoy it. To me, the best part about this book was the atmosphere of the period and setting: 1920's Chicago, with a mix of dazzling parties and seedy underground bars, multiple ethnicities co-mingling and of course, the mafia. It made for a fun and fascinating read.
The protagonist is Nelly, a woman coming from the richest black family in America, tied to social and family obligation of coming out at the cotillion and marrying rich. She wants nothing more than to be a journalist and in order to do that, she has to get involved in discovering the Mayor of Maxwell Street. I loved her grit and determination, though she often wreaked havoc with her naivete. Nelly's love interests could have been written better, and I found myself very conflicted with how that turned out. I understand why she was drawn to Jay Shorey, but he just frustrated the hell out of me. Additionally, I was confused by a lot of the events that transpired and while I think Cunningham's writing is sublime, some stuff was a little unclear. Her vivid descriptions and dialogue were awesome though and I felt as though I was right there with the characters.
I think the overall concept of this book was amazing and I really enjoyed it. I can't wait to see what else Cunningham has in store because she definitely drew me in!

This book is so much fun! The setting is a dazzling-yet-dirty 1920's Chicago. I really love all the set pieces and descriptions of parties and the underground nightlife, it's all so vivid you can really see yourself there in the moment. There's also an intriguing blend of romance and suspense, that keeps you guessing from page to page. My favorite part, though, were the allusions to The Great Gatsby and exploring its themes via a lens of Black American history and the tenuous relationship between wealth, class and race.

And oh, my God! That opening scene? No spoilers but I'm still thinking about it days later.

Can't wait to see what this author puts out next!

A very intriguing book.

I enjoyed the story, the setting and the history - but it dragged on a bit and took a long time to get into the meaty bits of the story. Set in 1920's Chicago, Nelly's the main character - her family is part of the upper class, wealthy rich Black families that are in town for her brother's funeral and stay for the big debutante ball. However, the story really revolves around Nelly and her passion for writing news articles. This leads her into the seedy parts of town. It's a little unrealistic how she disappears for long periods of time and her parents never question it. I've read this book is billed as an epic love story -- I didn't find that here. There is romantic interests, but it's all skirted around and you have to imagine it happening.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

Nelly is strong willed, independent and curious which really drives this story- you want to see what her next act or discovery will be. I enjoyed how the Jazz Age was embedded in this story about Black society in 1920s Chicago. It did not all come together for me overall but it was a compelling read.

I don't really know how to rate this book. It was historical and set in the 1920s. Being set in the 1920s, there's a lot of gangs, hidden identities, greed and racism. I'm still not sure how to rate this because it was a hard read for me.

I got through the first half of the book and I couldn't decide whether to finish it or not. Maybe I'll try and finish it later on, but it's worth the read if you're into the roaring 20's where you want the point of view of POC during that time.

This book is set in the prohibition era with the POV of a young up and coming woman who is from the richest black family. She's originally from the south but finds herself in Chicago, with her family who has decided there is no better time for her to enter into society.

I think a book from this perspective is something I've been yearning to read. Historical fiction should be written and read from all different pov's. In regards to the main character and her likableness I believe she earns 5 stars. She's rough, yet elegant, determined to stay true to herself even if that means going against everything society instills in young women. However, the plot at times fell flat for me. I found myself intrigued with the concept of the book more than I was by the book itself. A little past the half way mark the book's speed begins to pick up with many loose ends, which made reading this portion of the book far more enjoyable.

Overall, this book is a good read. It's not as memorable as it could be, but a few days after finishing it I am still thinking about it.

*3.5 star rating