Church Girl. Naima Simone. 2024. Afterglow Books. 264 pages. [Source: ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.] Admittedly, the cover of Church Girl drew me in, and the story held my interest. Aaliyah is a runaway bride who left her small Alabama hometown to get out from under the thumb of her bishop father. She convinces her cousin to take her back to Chicago, where she’s planning to reinvent herself without the overbearing pressure she’s always subject to. Von, however, is basically Aaliyah’s polar opposite. He’s a well-known tattoo artist with a booming business, but is in the midst of a contentious divorce battle with the mother of his young daughter. Their paths cross when Aaliyah interviews to be nanny to Von’s daughter, and they’re at odds almost from the start. Unsurprisingly, Aaliyah grew up very sheltered and has toed the line of expectation her entire life. She’s never been independent and Von immediately picks on her naivete and inexperience. She doesn’t exactly inspire confidence as a nanny, but when Von is forced to give her a chance, they’re both struggling with the antagonistic interactions. They very much fit into the grumpy/sunshine trope, and give…

Stuck Wit’ Chu. Olivia Shaw-Reel. 2020. 149 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] Stuck Wit’ Chu is essentially a story about a broken marriage and a couple at a crossroads. Keith and Marlow have been married over a decade, are parents to three young children, and have somehow lost their way. They’re navigating the Covid-19 pandemic while facing their own crisis at home, and the book follows their attempt to figure otu whether to salvage their life together or if a divorce is the only path forward. The premise of the story is realistic enough. After so many years of marriage, it’s easy to understand how a couple gets into a routine; the excitement of newlywed life morphs after parenthood and other new responsibilities. Marlow has to reckon with her role as wife and mother taking precedent over her career in dancing, which presents a central conflict. Their existing problems are compounded by poor communication, distrust, and a lack of transparency — throughout the book, these three issues in particular are the root of multiple blowups. In all honesty, I didn’t connect with either main character much. This could be due in part to how short the book is overall — it…

Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known. George M. Johnson. 2024. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 127 pages. [Source: Public library.] The Harlem Renaissance was a remarkable period in American history, but was pivotal within Black America. The “New Negro Movement” launched the careers of countless scholars, photographers, musicians, and dancers and ushered in a rebirth of racial pride and solidarity, in addition to leaving a treasure trove of art reflecting this new attitude. While many of the central figures’ names are easily recalled, the fullness of their identities is not always centered in conversations about their impact. Indeed, the fact that many of these artists were queer was often ignored or outright hidden while they navigated the social mores of the time. It is only more recently that some of these figures have shifted from being symbols only in relation to the Harlem Renaissance to being recognized also members of the LGBTQ/queer community. With Flamboyants, George M. Johnson shines a light on twelve prominent — and queer — figures within the Harlem Renaissance and explores their lives and legacies in a series of essays. The majority of those featured are well-known for their association with the movement, regardless…

Twenty-four Seconds from Now … Jason Reynolds. 2024. Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books. 253 pages. [Source: ARC provided by the publisher courtesy of Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.] How many times do Black boys get to be the center of a love story? I don’t mean a coming of age novel with hints of dating among the minutiae of teen life. I mean a story that is completely focused on the evolution of a romantic relationship and its growth over time into new depths and discoveries. With Twenty-four Seconds from Now, Jason Reynolds has created an ode to the complexities of love with all its myriad questions, feelings, and fears, and centers a character that is too often ignored when considering how teens understand and engage around romantic relationships. What immediately stood out to me about this book is that it’s a love story told in reverse. It actually starts with the main character, seventeen year old Neon, psyching himself up for his first time with his girlfriend Aria. From wondering why nobody warned him about the sensory overload he’d experience to questioning if he lotioned his legs, Neon allows the reader an glimpse into the inner world of a…

Share My Life: A Journey of Love, Faith, and Redemption. Kem, with David Ritz. 2023. Simon & Schuster. 272 pages. [Source: ARC provided by the publisher courtesy of Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.] Before reading Share My Life, I wouldn’t have called myself a die-hard Kem fan. I was certainly familiar with some of his larger hits, but I had little familiarity with his overall career or his persona as an artist.  That unfamiliarity allowed me to come into this book with no expectations or assumptions about Kem or his life experiences. Taking its title from one of Kem’s chart-topping hit singles, Share My Life is the story of Kem’s life.  Central to his retelling are themes of family, relationships, work, and faith. The timeline is robust, and actually begins significantly with his mother’s upbringing and the circumstances of his birth. The structure then follows chronologically, following as he moves from Tennessee to Detroit, his discovery of family secrets, and eventual spiral into substance abuse. Share My Life clocks in with 59 chapters, but Kem’s conversational style and thematic chapters make the book very engaging and difficult to put down. What I found especially appealing about this book…