Spring has sprung. In addition to warmer temperatures, there are lots of new releases by some of your favorite and soon-to-be favorite black authors. Here are a few I’m excited about.
Stacey Abrams
Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene is back, trying to get her feet on solid ground after unraveling an international conspiracy in While Justice Sleeps. But as the sparks of Congressional hearings and political skirmishes swirl around her, Avery is approached at a legal conference by Preston Davies, an unassuming young man and fellow law clerk to a federal judge in Idaho. Davies believes his boss, Judge Francesca Whitner, was being blackmailed in the days before she died. Desperate to understand what happened, he gives Avery a file, a burner phone, and a fearful warning that there are highly dangerous people involved.
Another shocking murder leads Avery to a list of names – all federal judges – and, alarmingly, all judges on the FISA Court (the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court), also known as America’s “secret court.” It is this body which grants permission to the government to wiretap Americans or spy on corporations suspected of terrorism. As Avery digs deeper, she begins to see a frightening pattern – and she worries that something far more sinister may be unfolding inside the nation’s third branch of government. With lives at stake, Avery must race the clock and an unexpected enemy to find the answer.
Aja
Reina has wanted Blaze since they were children but Blaze’s conviction stood in the way of it going beyond looks filled with longing. Until one forbidden night. Now, trying to get over what was declared a mistake, fate and a bit of highhandedness, force these two to see that there is never a mistake when love is at play.
Needful Noor
Takerra Allen
A two-part mega novel coming this May.
Love Belvin
What do you do with a marriage that was never supposed to be, and a passionate connection that refuses to die?
Let’s be honest, fidelity isn’t black and white. When the foundation of nuptials is weak, misleading, or forced, it’s only a matter of time before the vows become undone. Lennox Curry and Tobias Elliott are not giving into their weaknesses; they’re succumbing to what’s been owed to them since they met nearly ten years ago.
Belle Calhoune
His runaway bride is back… With twins!
The last person Gabriel Lawson expects to find in town is Rachel Marshall—especially with twin toddlers in tow. Gabriel refuses to risk his heart again on the woman who left him at the altar years ago. But working to renovate her mother’s house means he must spend time with Rachel and her adorable twins…and soon he can’t help but wish they were his family.
S.A. Crosby
After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, land of moonshine and cornbread, fist fights and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires him to run for sheriff. He wins, and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county.
Then a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies.
Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever it leads. But no one expected he would unearth a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon.
Now, Titus must pull off the impossible: stay true to his instincts, prevent outright panic, and investigate a shocking crime in a small town where everyone knows everyone yet secrets flourish. All while also breaking up backroads bar fights and being forced to protect racist Confederate pride marchers.
For a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South, that’s no easy feat. But Charon is Titus’s home and his heart, and he won’t let the darkness overtake it. Even as it threatens to consume him…
Kathy Douglass
Unexpectedly named guardian of a baby girl, rancher Isaac Montgomery gamely steps up for daddy duty. Fatherhood keeps him on his toes, but luckily new neighbor Savannah Rogers offers to help. Savannah’s beauty isn’t lost on this ladies’ man, either. Yet she’s reserved even as their feelings heat up. Are Isaac and his baby too painful a reminder of her heartbreaking loss? Or do they hold the key to healing?
Donna Hill
Alessandra Fleming has spent most of her life running from her past. Her budding photography career, her life in Manhattan, all serve to distract from the secrets and guilt she’s never been able to face. Then the call. Her estranged father is in the hospital…and Alessandra must return home to Sag Harbor, crumbling the first wall between her past and her present.
For some, coming home is a relief. For Alessandra, it’s a reminder of the family she’s lost, of the time she’ll never regain. But the answers—the secrets—of her family are hidden in the house, waiting for her. And the only one who may be able to help her uncover them is her father’s neighbor, Zach, who brings with him an attraction that’s intense and instantaneous, yet oddly familiar.
Now Alessandra is being pulled back not only into her own complex family history, but into the richly documented lives of four extraordinary women. Generations touched by tragedy and triumph, despair and hope. And it’s in these aching echoes of the past that Alessandra’s own story—her mistakes and her capacity to love—will take shape, guiding her to the life she’s meant to live…and the extraordinary person she will become.
Christina C. Jones
For Nalani Stark, legacy matters… maybe more than most things.
Important enough that when that legacy — inextricably tied to her mother’s memory – is challenged, she’s forced to consider even the most undesirable options…
Such as a match made in hell with Orion Sterling.
The heir to the competitor she grew up being warned about.
Orion is a man well-accustomed to getting exactly what he wants. Other than opportunities to grow the family business, he’s moved by very few things.
One of which happens to be Nalani Stark.
They each have something the other needs, and only one way to get it : a contract that delineates exactly what each person takes from the arrangement.
Simple enough…
Unless feelings get brought into the exchange.
At the End of It All
Rae Lyse
Brandon Massey
HE OWNS YOUR HOUSE…
When Cam and Desiree Woodson find the luxurious rental home in a quiet, suburban Atlanta neighborhood, they believe they’ve discovered the perfect place for their growing young family—and for their tight budget, the price is too good to be true. But what starts as a bargain soon turns into a nightmare when the landlord’s unusual lease terms become more suffocating than they ever imagined…
HE OWNS YOUR FAMILY…
A struggling writer desperate to make ends meet, Cam is lured into a dangerous deal by the landlord, offering more lenient terms and great money in exchange for shady favors. But when things spiral out of control, Cam and Desiree find themselves trapped in a chilling web of lies, blackmail, and violence.
HE OWNS YOU…
As tensions rise and danger looms, the Woodsons must fight to keep their family safe from the landlord’s tightening grip. Will they unravel the sinister truth behind the landlord and escape…or will they become his latest victims in a twisted game of life and death?
Tay Mo’Nae
Dealing with her boyfriend’s infidelities leads Nicolette into the arms of an ex. Soon she learns that all actions have consequences. Now she’s stuck between two men with a belly in the mix.
Mary Monroe
With mysterious serial murders putting peaceful Lexington, Alabama, on edge, Jessie and Hubert Wiggins’ steadfast calm and devotion to each other reassures everyone that faith will see them through. But Jessie and Hubert have paid a terrible hidden cost to maintain their devout facade and respectable standing. Nothing can allay the guilt they feel—or stop the growing distrust between them .
Hubert thought he and his secret lover, Leroy, could continue seeing each other on the down-low in peace. But when Leroy’s ex-wife moves back in with him, a heartbroken Hubert is driven to distraction trying to keep Jessie in the dark—and quell his mounting jealousy. And his need for satisfaction is driving Hubert to reckless extremes—and desperate risks . . .
Jessie believes the struggles between her and Hubert will all be worth it if she can connive him to finally consummate their marriage—no matter what she has to do. But his erratic behavior and her frustration soon has her trying yet another new lover, who is as charming as he is unreliable—and unexpectedly dangerous . . .
Now with their secrets out of control—and the police perilously near—Jessie and Hubert discover who might be behind the deaths plaguing their town. But can they risk a pursuit that could expose their own web of lies? When their only choice pits them and their suspicions against each other, their next move will either bury their deceptions deep for good—or reveal the one truth they can’t escape . . .
Catching the Carling Lake Killer
K.D. Richards
She’s kept her secret for years…
But now a killer knows.
Journalist Simone Jarrett and Carling Lake sheriff Lance Webb have kept their casual affair clandestine to avoid gossip. But as his feelings for Simone deepen, Lance is troubled by the knowledge that she’s hiding something. Then, after twenty years, the Card Killer strikes again. And Simone’s secret puts her in the killer’s sights. Now the two must team up to find the murderer…and save Simone’s life.
Kennedy Ryan
In a world of haves and have-nots, Maxim Cade’s family and their oil empire have it all…and he wants nothing to do with it. At odds with his mogul father, he’s determined to build his own empire, even if it means traveling far from home, painted as the black sheep.
Lennix Hunter is the exception to every one of Maxim’s rules. At a protest for the oil pipeline that threatens to mar her ancestral land forever, they meet in a flurry of stars and sparks, and that one moment changes everything. But Maxim’s family is the one stealing from hers, and his father is the man she hates most. He has to lie in order to have her once, and despite the truth, he’ll do anything to keep her.
Even though Lennix tries to hate Maxim, too, their hearts are pointed in the same direction. The inexorable pull between them, across miles and years, will not be denied.
And neither will Maxim.
Reese Ryan
Ambitious real estate agent Sinclair Buchanan is ecstatic to be her best friend’s maid-of-honor—until she discovers the best man is Garrett Davenport. Sin and Rett’s mutual hate crush ignited when they were teens and hasn’t let up since . . . except for that one extremely hot (and extremely regrettable) night they shared five years ago.
Nothing gets Rett fired up like going toe-to-toe with Sinclair. She’s as infuriatingly stubborn, and as absolutely gorgeous, as when he fell for her back in high school. Working together to plan their best friends’ last-minute wedding is one thing, but when his matchmaking grandmother gets involved Rett knows he’s in deep. Attraction has always simmered between them, but this time, they’re both in danger of losing their hearts.
Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy
Angie Thomas
It’s not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool—like getting a pet hellhound for your twelfth birthday. Others, not so much—like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor.
All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic tool she’s never heard of…to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed.
Jacquelin Thomas
An unsolved homicide. Old secrets.
And investigators with a past.
Cold Case Unit supervisor Phillipa Stevenson is willing to investigate an unsolved murder for her ex-fiancé—without his help. Detective Kyle Rossi broke her heart years ago, but she’ll find justice for his sister-in-law. Only, the victim isn’t who they thought she was. And working with Kyle becomes Phillipa’s best chance. As they follow a decade-long trail of betrayal and murder, Phillipa must put aside her heartache to uncover the truth…about the victim’s past and their own.
Denise N. Wheatley
With a serial killer terrorizing her desert town, Sergeant Charlotte Bowman needs the savviest partner she can find—fast! Enter hotshot California detective Miles Love. Together Charlotte and Miles make a formidable team despite their fiery past. But with the stakes as intense as their chemistry, can the pair outwit a ruthless murderer—who might just have River Valley’s newest sergeant next in his sights?