Life does not unfold like one of the more carefree rom-coms, and that is reflected in this list of romantic fiction featuring Black protagonists. Here are stories of people working towards social change or working towards personal transformation in their own lives. They have families, found or chosen, who are a big part of their lives. They are working to move on from something or working to figure out what will make them happiest, and that doesn’t always necessarily point to romantic love. Still, romance finds its way to these characters, or life finds a way to make them think about romance differently than before, leading to satisfyingly complex portraits of contemporary life.
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Yasmen blew up her marriage to Josiah and left him heartbroken. They’ve finally found a groove in their co-owned business and co-parenting that lets them co-exist without dredging up the hurt, and soon this leads to stolen kisses and confusing (but sexy) feelings.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby and in eAudio on Overdrive/Libby.
A PhD in astronomy is something to celebrate, and Grace Porter goes to Vegas with friends to do so. She gets more than she planned on, however, with a drunken marriage to a woman she met the night before. Is this the worst mistake she’s ever made in her very regimented life or the impetus to examine her lack of fulfillment and happiness?
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby, an eBook on Hoopla, in eAudio on Overdrive/Libby and in eAudio on Hoopla.
As a successful optometrist and homeowner with two grown daughters, Georgia Young has reached the point in her life where she feels justified in setting out on new adventures with the support of friends and family. So, she resigns her job and moves to Canada. One thing she didn’t foresee is possibly finding new love as well.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby and in eAudio on Overdrive/Libby.
Long term partners Benson and Mike face a change in their relationship when Mike must fly to Osaka to visit his dying father – just as Mike’s mother arrives at the couple’s home for a visit (and ends up becoming unconventional housemates with Benson).
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby.
Can you fight soulless condos taking over a Black neighborhood with the power of music and solidarity? Liza B. is going to try her best to do just that. The obstacle in her path? The extremely hot CEO of said soulless condo corporation.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby.
Two bestselling authors who spent a week madly in love as teenagers meet again as adults and must figure out if their lives are worth disrupting for the promise of rekindling that feeling… or if the buried trauma is too much to overcome.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby and in eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
When Yolanda Vance took a stand against covering up corruption in her Wall Street law firm, she became persona non grata in the land of corporate law. Now she’s working for the FBI and her new assignment is to spy on a group of Black environmental activists and get in their good graces. This starts to work too well, and as she is drawn into a romance with one of the activists, she also starts to sniff out shady ethics coming from her employers.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby and in eAudio on Hoopla.
Kennedy Mitchell turned her stressful experience of being the token Black woman in a corporate office from being a microaggression to being the launchpad of a new career. She started her own PR agency to consult on diversity issues for clueless companies. But now her ex needs help and she’s not sure she can handle the conflict of interest.
This title is also available for checkout in eAudio on Hoopla.
Grief is slowly integrating itself into Feyi Adekola’s life five years after her true love was killed. She is ready to seriously consider dating and has even found what seems like the perfect guy. If only she didn’t find his father so attractive. Life is never simple, Feyi is starting to find out.
This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on OverDrive/Libby and in eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.