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 herse...

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 s...

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 le...

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 i...

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 unfami...

The Replacements

The Replacements. Shae Sanders. 2022. 223 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] When Savannah finds out, quite unceremoniously, that her husband of more than a decade is cheating on her, she knows exactly how to respond. She immediately goes into planning mode so she can get a divorce and move on to a replacement.  Using the connections she’s honed as a CEO’s wife, she lands herself as assistant to another CEO, the ever-brusque an...

Love & War

Love and War. Shae Sanders. 2020. 56 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] This short-and-sweet novella is a blast from the not-so-recent past. Covid-19 just started to wreak havoc on the world, and that includes Jade’s home and work life. Her job is newly remote, her kids have switched to homeschool, and the cherry on top is that her estranged husband wants to move back in so he won’t have to quarantine away from their young sons.&nbs...

Candidly Yours

Candidly Yours. Reese Ryan. 2020. Sinfully Sweet Publishing.174 pages. [Source: Personal Copy.] Layla St. John is the quintessential example of a woman who lives for others. She gave up her college experience to return home and care for her younger siblings when their father fell into grief after their mother’s untimely death.  The following 20 years have followed the same sacrificial pattern, with Layla frequently rescuing her y...

Her Exception

Her Exception. B. Love. 2023. 188 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] Shalom and Mecca thought that at 18, they were ready to take on the world and its obstacles together. But when reality dropped into their laps, they ended up on separate paths, each nursing their own confusion and anger at losing the version of forever they’d imagined. Fifteen years later, they’re thrust together when Shalom’s specialized experience is key to Mec...

Before I Let Go

Before I Let Go. Kennedy Ryan. 2022. Forever. 400 pages. [Source: Public library.] Before I Let Go isn’t the first book I’ve read by Kennedy Ryan, but it is absolutely the one that’s solidified her among the authors whose releases I’ll run to. This story of a newly divorced couple finding a new normal is an emotive read that pulls back a curtain on grief and healing. Yasmen and Josiah Wade thought they’d be...