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...

Blog Tour: Unexpected Love

Unexpected Love. Casey Clipper. 2014.  213 pages.  Amazon Digital Publishing.   [Source: ARC provided courtesy of The Book Gurus.] Unexpected Love is the second installment in Clipper’s “Love Series.”  As far as I can tell, the series revolves around a group of cousins in the Millen family.   Close-knit to a fault, the family is filled with ex-military alpha males who protect the women in their families at all costs.  T...

Blog Tour: Always Yours

Always Yours. Kari March. 2014. Amazon Digital Publishing.  281 pages.  [Source: ARC provided courtesy of The Book Gurus.] I’m pretty excited to be taking part in a blog tour for Kari March’s latest release,  Always Yours,  her second release of 2014.  Always Yours is a standalone sequel to March’s debut novel, Promise Me Always.   I tend to prefer starting interrelated books with the first in the “series,” so I fel...

The Opposite of Maybe

The Opposite of Maybe. Maddie Dawson. 2014. Broadway Books. 400 pages. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of Edelweiss.] When I started reading The Opposite of Maybe, I wasn’t immediately drawn in. I wasn’t sure I’d relate to the characters, Rosie and Jonathan, because they seemed like such anomalies. They’re middle-aged, seemingly commitment-phobic, and generally not what you expect of people their age. Then I kept reading. Instea...

An April Bride

An April Bride. Lenora Worth. 2014. 102 pages. Zondervan. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] This was an emotional, yet inspiring book. Stella and Marshall have a love straight from a fairy tale. Everyone knows they should end up together … except Marshall. When he returns from combat, he’s lost his memory of those close to him, including his fiance Stella. The book follows their struggle to bring back Marshall...

The Eternal Engagement

The Eternal Engagement. Mary B. Morrison. 2012. Dafina Books. 288 pages. [Source: personal copy.] I took a chance on The Eternal Engagement because I wanted to take advantage of it being on audio book.  So this review will reflect both the book itself as well as the audio production.  My experience with audio books has generally been positive.  It’s an easy way to get some “reading” done while you physically can’t put your n...