When the Essence Festival of Culture celebrated its 30th anniversary in New Orleans earlier this month, organizers showcased a stellar lineup of Black romance authors — from trailblazing pioneers like Beverly Jenkins and Brenda Jackson to newer stars Kennedy Ryan, Natasha Bishop and Danielle Allen. In spite of barriers, optimistic, swoony love stories by African American authors are an increasingly sought-after commodity, as we’ve been tracking, finding audiences outside of traditional pathways.
This summer’s most exciting new releases take us from the streets of 1816 London to the NASA Space Center in Houston to Athens. The challenge is whittling your reading options down to a manageable number of contenders. Relying on bestseller lists, algorithms and TikTok means you might be missing some of the best the genre has to offer. Fortunately, we love the process of discovery. We’ve compiled a list of some hot new romance novels by Black authors, starting with a timely debut that finds readers at the Olympics.
Let the Games Begin
With the Paris games fast approaching in July, this Olympics set comedy is the perfect prelude. Rufaro Faith Mazarura is a British Zimbabwean writer making her debut with a story about two 20-somethings in Athens. Olivia and Zeke are British citizens and the high achieving offspring of Zimbabwean immigrants. She’s a focused college grad with a dream internship with the Olympics that she hopes to parlay into a permanent position. He’s Team Britain’s popular track star shooting for gold after previously earning silver. While they run headfirst into their attraction, neither one can afford the distraction. Vibe: Sweet and inspiring.
A Love Like the Sun
Beautifully blending beloved tropes and smooth, often lyrical prose, A Love Like The Sun by Riss M. Neilson, centers childhood friends fake dating their way toward a deeper connection. The magic of this convention is in the permission it conveys to go with attraction under the guise of doing it for show. “Always braver together,” Laniah and Issac have been ride-or-die besties since they were little. Now in their 20s, Laniah is struggling and Issac is GenZ’s perfect internet boyfriend: a mixed media artist/model /brand ambassador/influencer with an enviable online following and clout to spare. Part of his appeal is that “people love watching a beautiful shirtless man use his hands to make sculptures while listening to music.” The other ingredient is uniquely Issac: a sweet and handsome guy who “believes firmly in soulmates” and is in touch with the feminine perspective. Facing the loss of her business she runs with her mother, Laniah agrees to give her natural hair care business a boost through their “fake” romantic association. Along the way, the two lovers navigate challenges related to mental health, racial identity, grief, and a chronic illness. Heightening the tension, despite being bffs with an electric attraction, Laniah and Isaac are kind of opposites. She’s a hermit uncomfortable with public attention; he lives his life on the internet and his fans think they own him. I had a hard time letting go of these two! Vibe: Unabashedly swoony, angsty and pining.
A Gamble at Sunset
Blending history and fairy-tale like romance, Vanessa Riley’s latest centers a wealthy Black family teetering on the edge of ruin entangled with England’s most unusual duke. When the 19th-century Black daughters of a self-made “King of Coal” fake an engagement to avoid ruination, their champion is a duke connected to Russia’s Peter the Great. As grand as that sounds, like most of Riley’s work, the first novel in her “Betting Against the Duke” series is sweepingly romantic and grounded in the hidden Black figures of Europe’s past – real people, who, as Riley explains, defy expectations and are often forgotten. Marriage to a titled aristocrat was supposed to be the Wilcox sisters’ golden ticket to respectable London society. Instead, eldest sister Katherine’s noble husband, an inveterate gambler, lay waste to their fortune. On his deathbed, Viscount Hampton tries to turn his vice into virtue, challenging his long lost friend the Duke of Torrance to one last wager: “Jahleel. Bet . . . five pounds you can’t love ’em like I.” The plea draws the part Russian, part British, part African duke (a fictional descendant of the real Gen. Abram Gannibal) and his friend Lord Mark Sebastian close to the family. While the widowed Katherine spars with the duke, Sebastian is fascinated with middle sister Georgina. Mark and Georgina’s risky behavior leads to a fake engagement to save Georgina’s reputation, but there’s nothing false about their attraction. This is striking return to historical romance after Riley’s stint consulting for The Hallmark Channel’s multiracial adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and three critically praised novels including Island Queen. Vibe: Brontes meet Bridgerton: light on steam and high on thought-provoking twists and juicy drama.
The Kiss Countdown
In this sweet and steamy romance by first-time author Etta Easton, the sparks are undeniable as a nerdy, sexy astronaut enters into a mutually beneficial arrangement with an event planner in need of a fresh start. When Houstonite Amerie Price loses her boyfriend and her job in a dismally short space of time and runs into that ex at a cafe with his shiny new girlfriend, she’s so desperate to save face that she pretends to be dating the nearest handsome stranger. The cooperative bystander turns out to be a real life hero, who needs his own kind of rescue. Their town is home to the billion-dollar Johnson Center, NASA‘s Mission Control headquarters, and every guy in Houston seems to claim he’s an association. But Ahmad is really an astronaut. They strike up a friendship and a bargain– she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend to thwart his matchmaking mama while he preps for a major mission, and he’ll provide a rent-free refuge where she can get her event planning business off the ground. That win-win situation gets complicated when red hot attraction and feelings get involved. Vibe: Sweet and sexy — fake dating and close proximity are a stellar recipe for love.
A Little Kissing Between Friends
Chencia Higgins (The Vow and Wolves of West Texas) is a dynamic young writer who has amassed a following and a healthy backlist as an indie author of contemporary and paranormal romance. Her lauded traditionally published debut D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding featured two women faking an engagement and falling in love on a reality TV show. In A Little Kissing Between Friends, longtime friends are reluctant to risk their connection on a chance at love. Cyn is a successful Houston-based music producer with a big supportive family. Single mom “Jucee” Juleesa is the best friend Cyn has been crushing on. Having seen each other through health crises and breakups, there’s a lot on the line. That said, this is a quintessentially summery read — more heart and positive vibes than conflict. Vibe: Sweet and steamy. Undistilled Black joy.
Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
At Hennessy House guests are greeted with five rules. One is a warning: “Do not explore the house for any reason.” To secure her dream job on the set of a haunted house reality show, Lucky Hart has to survive in the eerie dwelling, adhere to those five simple prohibitions, and avoid catching feelings for the show’s empathetic star Maverick Phillips. That’s easier said than done when “meeting him felt like the thrill of a lifetime.” Lucky is gifted; she has a kind of extra sensory perception that enables her to read people, and her reaction to him is shocking: “Hearing him say her name like that threatened to send her gasping into the afterlife. So strange. So bizarre. So dangerously against her nature that she felt a little lightheaded…” Claire Kann’s first adult contemporary romance, The Romantic Agenda, was equal parts poignant and frothy and frequently named as one of the best romances of 2022. A tender and specific writer with broad appeal, Kann explored the challenge of finding love when you’re deeply romantic and also asexual. Her new novel recreates that winning formula while adding a haunted house setting and magic to the mix. Vibe: Swoony and spooky.
Curvy Girl Summer
Indie publishing’s Black romance queen Danielle Allen is among the best and most beloved to wield a pen or laptop. Hotter than the sands of Negril, her first traditionally published novel delivers big — big spice, big hair, big hips, big laughs and BIG heart. More Michelle Buteau than Bridget Jones, Curvy Girl Summer is fat-positive and complicated. When IT professional Aaliyah makes it her mission to find a long term romantic partner and squash her family’s constant carping on her single status before her 30th birthday, her parade of dates are more comic relief than romantic connection. Great for a laugh; not so much for the heart. More and more, what she looks forward to is what happens after the dates are done: spending time with her favorite bartender and friend Ahmad. Vibe: Unabashedly sexy and grown. The literary Survival of The Thickest.
One and Done
Determined to be America’s first openly gay Black university president, the last thing Dr. Taylor James needed was a handsome, sharp-dressed diversion from his goals. A one time only, no-strings attached tryst is what the doctor wants, and the guy hitting on him at his usual brunch spot is giving all the wrong signals. Dustin McMillan is handsome, professional and complicated. He has a tortured relationship with the Oakland family he worked so hard to escape. But hiding that past cost him a chance with this man who seems tailor made for him. With this romance set in academia, author Frederick Smith is writing what he knows. By day he’s a senior university administrator and it shows in the convincing characterization of the workplace and consistently crisp writing. This Bay Area romance is addictive reading. Vibe: Deliciously messy. A wry grown-up take on academia by way of The Office: It’s Looking meets The Chair.
Carole V. Bell is a cultural critic, researcher of media, politics and identity, and co-host of Season Four of the Black Romance Podcast.
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