Celebrating Black History Month 2022 : All About Romance %

In the United States, Black History Month is observed in February. At AAR, we’re celebrating this month by revisiting the books by Black authors we’ve awarded DIK status since February last year. While Black History Month is an American event, we consider books by Black authors from around the world. Also, these are books we reviewed in 2021, so they’re not necessarily 2021 releases. .

One True Loves by Elise Bryant

Sweet, honest and touching in its portrayal of that space between being a teenager and becoming an independent college student, it’s an opposites-attract romance that will lift the reader’s heart.

Buy it at Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer

The Love Con by Seressia Glass

A fun, funny, and tender contemporary romance that takes on geek culture, con culture, and gives us best friends in a pretend-dating-to-really-dating romance. It’s delightful and warm-hearted.

Buy it at Amazon, Audible or your local independent retailer

A Thorn in the Saddle by Rebekah Weatherspoon

A fresh modernized take on Beauty and the Beast, it’s smart about people, warm, and filled with thoughtful commentary about how to accept growth and change.

Buy it at: Amazon or your local independent retailer

Island Fling with the Surgeon by Ann McIntosh: a wonderful blend of romantic comedy moments and serious issues, Island Fling With the Surgeon mixes warmth, humor and drama to create a solid romance.

Buy it at Amazon or your local independent retailer

So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow

A Little Women retelling that stands head and shoulders above the rest, So Many Beginnings is a wonderful book – heartbreaking, enlivening, and delightful in turns.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer

The Dating Playbook by Farah Rochon

Great characters, solid writing and a charming fake-dating love story.

Buy it at Amazon

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Filled with richly-plotted worldbuilding and complex magical hierarchies, it’s a full-tabled banquet loaded with treats – most of them of a rather chilling flavor.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer

While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory
The love story of a Hollywood actress who only dates actors because they are “all as self-involved and devoid of real human emotion” as she is, and a playboy with deep commitment issues who finally meets the woman of his dreams only to discover she has the same problem.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon

Deep and thought-provoking, yet it also has a deft, gentle touch. It is a heavy book; it hurts the reader’s heart but lifts them up, and will provide young readers with a signpost toward understanding the bumps and heartbreaks ahead of them.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer

Island Queen by Vanessa Riley

A very good novel about a very extraordinary woman that feels like a return to epic sagas about strong women persevering against the impossible, Island Queen is based on the real life of a very real woman, and Vanessa Riley largely succeeds in bringing her to life.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer

When Stars Rain Down by Angela Jackson-Brown

A lyrical tale of family, friendship and romance. Taking place during the Jim Crow Era South, it celebrates how love can bloom even under the most difficult of circumstances.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer

An Earl, The Girl, and a Toddler by Vanessa Riley

The heartbreaking but ultimately exhilarating story of lady’s maid Jemima St. Maur, An Earl, The Girl, and a Toddler is a thought-provoking and touching romance that’s bracing, beguiling, and emotionally satisfying.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer

Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce

A treat of historical fiction, Wild Women and the Blues is a dual timeline novel about Jazz Age Chicago with its beautiful, fun but dark and dangerous world of juice joints, dance girls and racketeering, and a young man searching for redemption.