Black Authors + TBR List
Sistah Girls, have you ever wondered what our book club team discusses in our group chat? If you guessed books, then you are correct.
We’re opening up our group chat and spilling the tea on what we’re currently reading or have already read. We’ve got a little bit of everything: romance, urban romance, speculative fiction, and even some nonfiction. So take a scroll through and find your next read.
Book Lover Sistah has entered the chat…
Quiet as Kept by Tracy Gray
The saying goes, “Favor ain’t fair.”
Well, as far as Xarielle Simpson is concerned, the lack of favor ain’t all that fair, either. Xarielle’s always been a dreamer. Even as a little girl, she spent her free-time daydreaming about a life that was much different than the one she was living.
She dreamt of a life where mothers stuck around, families were loving, and opportunities to better your situation with dedication and hard work were actually realistic.
In her real life… her mother left, her family is toxic, and her job, though she loves it, has her on the fast-track to nowhere.
When her best friend tells her about the opportunity to work as a nanny for a wealthy acquaintance in the oceanside town of Jackson Island, Xarielle can’t help but dream about the opportunities. Read the full synopsis HERE.
96 Hours & Forever by Laquana Brumfield
Karina Stevens is Editor-at-Large of LuxRay Magazine and is home for the holidays. When her grandparents pressure her about marriage and kids, she catches the first flight back to Vegas to bury herself in her next story. When she finds out that story is on her high school sweetheart that she never quite got over, she can’t help but get entangled in his world.
Kareem Shaffield is an expert in his field. He’s taken the knowledge he gained as master gunner for the US Army and turned it into a multimillion-dollar AI and weapons integration company. There is nothing he can’t do, except keep his mind off Karina Stevens, the girl who got away and completely disappeared… until now.
The Perfect Manny by Rosè Dior
Alicia Hill thought she was living the life she’d always dreamed of—devoted husband, career, and three beautiful children. From the outside, her world seemed flawless. That was until, on the night she vowed her life to her husband, he delivers a revelation that shatters everything she thought she knew.
With her marriage unraveling and her life now spinning out of control, hiring a nanny becomes a necessity she never anticipated.
Enter Basil Cassidy, the handsome, attentive, and impossible to ignore manny she didn’t know she needed. Keeping things professional suddenly feels like the hardest task she’d ever face. Read the full synopsis HERE.
In Sickness and Amnesia by Chrissie Clay
After a devastating accident, Shauntay Monroe wakes up with no memory of the last few years of her life—including marrying her supposed husband, Dallas Monroe. Released into his care, Shauntay is determined to move forward with optimism.
But Dallas keeps his distance, and Shauntay can’t shake the feeling that he’s hiding something.
Dallas knows the truth about their marriage—the arguments, the heartbreak, and the divorce lawyer waiting in the wings. He knows they were already falling apart long before the accident. So why pretend everything is okay when he can barely look her in the face?
He wants out, but the vows he made won’t let him leave so easily. Should he keep Shauntay in the dark about their failed marriage and pretend everything’s okay, or is this his opportunity to finally walk away?
Sharee has entered the chat…
Joliet by Rae Lyse
Lovie Sinclair is on the run.
After narrowly escaping a volatile relationship, the former NFL WAG is a shell of herself. Her once glamorous life feels like a bad dream. Emotionally numb, broke, and desperate to disappear, she returns home to heal, but something about home feels different. She just can’t put her finger on what’s changed.
Then she meets Rich Lovelace.
Insular and intimidating, Rich is the embodiment of danger. He doesn’t know how to run from anything or anyone. Born into a family of rugged street fighters, he confronts all of his problems head-on—well, all except for one. Read the full synopsis HERE.
Mind Games (Mind, Body, & Soul Book 4) by Netra Antionette
I married my best friend before I finished becoming myself. Fifteen years later, I have everything I prayed for: a beautiful home, a successful husband, a daughter I adore, and a life that looks full from the outside.
Kairo loves me deeply, but through provision, protection, and ambition. He works relentlessly to make sure I never lack anything tangible. He believes love looks like making sure nothing is missing, while I’m realizing that what I crave can’t be bought or scheduled. We aren’t broken, we’re misaligned.
Curiosity and emotional neglect tempted me to look outward, but clarity revealed something else entirely…
Mind Games is a story of what happens when love matures unevenly, when ambition is mistaken for intimacy, and when a woman finally listens to the quiet voice inside her that’s been begging to be acknowledged. Because sometimes the most destructive battles aren’t fought with other people, they’re fought in our own minds.
Dominion: Ascension by D.A. Murray
In post-apocalyptic Dominion, women are in control. After the Great War, chemical weapons made most men infertile and cognitively impaired. Women are the policymakers, law enforcers, captains of industry, spiritual leaders, preservers of history, language, and currency, and still the givers of life.
The roles of men are limited to public works, domestic servitude, and pleasure giving. When males reach the age of twelve, they undergo a cognitive test called Illegis to determine their placement within a caste system, one of which is Breeders.
This small segment of the male population is the most revered. The Breeders reside in The Colony, a place where controlled reproduction and scientific advancements of Dominion occur.
Dani Matthews is an investigative reporter and the daughter of a high-ranking official. She is determined to uncover Dominion’s sinister architecture. Read the full synopsis HERE.
Phases: A Memoir by Brandy
From the moment she first sang at church in McComb, Mississippi, Brandy knew her voice was special. At fourteen she landed her first record deal. At fifteen her first album went platinum. At sixteen she was starring in the hit sitcom Moesha and became the first Black actress to play Cinderella on screen alongside fairy godmother, Whitney Houston.
Yet as the accolades piled up, so too did the pressure to maintain a flawless image. To onlookers, she had crafted the blueprint for the teenage “it” girl. But behind closed doors “The Vocal Bible” as she was known, was struggling.
Read the full synopsis HERE.
Lissa-Marie has entered the chat…
Part TWo by Nina
It was love at first sight-at least for Adair-the moment he saw Sabine dancing across the room, completely offbeat, without a hint of shame. From that first awkward sway, something clicked.
Their love moved fast, full of promise and plans, certain they’d last forever but life doesn’t always honor our timelines.
Somewhere between ambition, grief, and growing apart, everything shifted. What once felt unbreakable became unspeakable. Words went unspoken. Needs unmet. The silence between them grew louder than any fight.
Their marriage didn’t just end, it unraveled. Quietly. Cruelly. Beneath the weight of everything they couldn’t say out loud.
Now, years later, they’re no longer husband and wife, but they’re still tethered-by the son they raised together and the grief that never fully left.
The Hermès Family by Rae Anderson
This renowned, musically gifted family navigates love and the remnants of a gritty past in the city of Paramour. If you love urban romance with a bit of crime and suspense, this series is for you.
Book One: The Saxophonist (The Hermès Family Book 1)
Prime
The depths of my pain were profound. An abyss so vast that people couldn’t comprehend it. Anger was a mere facade. The truth was in the hurt. Cursed, it was to be an emotionally intelligent man. My emotional memory was astute.
Often, suffering was experienced on a spiritual level. Often, I felt my ancient hurt as if it had just occurred. Often, I spiraled, dissociating into the past, reliving my betrayals. Often, that whirlwind caused me to dissociate, jumping timelines into the future. Tasting the diabetic sweetness of revenge.
Winter
Sure, he was rugged, but he was also docile. A gentle soul, complex with many layers beneath it all. Dangerous, his depth was. The kind capable of suffocation. The kind capable of ruination. The kind capable of issuing heart palpitations.
But I was an astute swimmer willing to plunge deep. After ten years of sitting with the weight of crime he didn’t commit, he deserved to feel slighted. He deserved to feel rage. Deserved to feel… The physical freedom was only the tip of the iceberg. The mental and emotional freedom would take patience—an abundance of it paired with love and understanding. For him, I’d swim.
Watercolors by Evelyn Latrice
Luminous Brooks had mastered surviving in gray.
Gray paintings. Gray routines. Gray love. Gray versions of herself that never asked for too much and never felt too loud. After losing her job, falling behind on rent, and watching life close in around her piece by piece, the last thing she expected was an inheritance from a grandmother that failed her decades ago—a massive old-money lake house sitting in the middle of Lynn Beach.
Beautiful.
Quiet.
And filled with memories she spent years trying not to touch.
The rules are simple: live there or lose it.
So Lumi does what she’s always done. She stays small. Minds her business. Keeps her head down. Pretends the water surrounding the property doesn’t make her chest tighten every time she looks at it.
Then there’s her neighbor. Read the full synopsis HERE.
That’s All Me: Blaze & Chanel by Cion Lee
Blaze Kingston is in his last year of college, and his life is exactly where he wants it to be. From the class room, to track & field, and his booming social life; he’s having his way. His commitment to graduating college and making it to the Olympics made him swear off relationships.
He only has time for friends with benefits and casual hookups. He views love as a distraction, and he’s done a good job of avoiding it in his 21 years of living.
That was until a freshman cheerleader entered his word and changed everything. Chanel’s only goal as a freshman at the University of Baton Rouge is to keep her head above water while she juggles being a full time student and athlete.
Squeezing a boyfriend into that tight schedule wasn’t on her agenda. For Blaze Kingston she’s willing to make it work, but there are several red flags telling her to run for the hills.
Love U Down by ML Bash
Drix: Music is his life. He’s focused, determined and destined to be crowned the best. Aside from the drama attached, Drix has a love for the beats and lyrics that live in his soul.
Myome: History says she’s doomed to fail. As the daughter of a failed musician, Myome knows that good will never be enough. She has to be the best in order to make her dreams a reality.
When a business opportunity leads to a wild night, things between Drix and Myome become complicated. Unfortunately, navigating their mishap in the public eye leaves little room for mistakes.
With crazy exes and industry pressures looming, Myome and Drix have the world on their shoulders but are determined to prove they’re built to rise to greatness.
