A new school year has begun, and I thought it would be cool to spotlight some books that have school as a backdrop. Here are a few to check out:
Elise Bryant
A fast-paced, completely delightful new mystery about what happens when parents get a little too involved in their kids’ schools, from NAACP Image Award nominee Elise Bryant.
Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, an exhausting job at a nonprofit, and the complexities of a multigenerational household. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee.
As one of the few Black parents at this California elementary school, Mavis tries to convince herself this is an opportunity for real change. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal’s plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day.
Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning, and has been MIA since the meeting. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Mavis, along with the school psychologist with the great forearms (look, it’s worth noting), launches an investigation that will challenge her views on parenting, friendship, and elementary school politics.
Angela Henry
You trusted her like a sister. Now they think you killed her…
The paramedics tell me I’m in shock as they load the body bag into the ambulance.
Only days ago, I had everything. A man I wanted to marry. A prestigious fellowship for graduate school. A perfect new apartment. I’m a psychology student. I should have known she was hiding something from the start…
Now I’m shivering under a foil blanket wondering how my life became a nightmare.
And when the paramedics check me over, it’s not concern I see on their faces. It’s fear.
Alexandria House
Stable, safe, predictable—all words that aptly describe Professor Nadia Day’s life. An existence she’s carefully crafted for herself despite her unconventional upbringing and what, to her, is an unseemly past. More than anything, she wants to forget her unstable history, and the last thing she would ever do is rock the boat when it comes to her life and livelihood.
When retired football player and single dad, Nathan Moore, walks into her psychology classroom, all fine and dreadlocked, he does more than rock her boat—he rocks her world and causes her to question her buttoned-up existence.
Will the professor give in to her desires and become a student of love?
Jacinta Howard
From Book 1: The only thing in Jersey Kincaid’s world that she has time for are keeping her grades up so that she doesn’t lose her scholarship to South Texas University, playing the bass in her band, The Prototype, and satisfying her coffee addiction. Oh, and the occasional random hook-up she indulges in to pass the time.
Love? Eh, not so much. Save that crap for a Katherine Heigl or Natalie Portman movie.
Jersey’s seen enough in life (courtesy of her Pops) to realize that undying romance is nothing more than a myth used to sell books and movie tickets. As she knows too well, the only thing inevitable in life is death— love is definitely not promised.
That’s why when Jersey meets Isaiah “Zay” Broussard with his soulful gray eyes, quick wit and easy charm, she’s determined to remain aloof. She doesn’t have time to get sidetracked by fleeting fantasies, even if she does feel an unexplainable connection to Zay she’s never experienced before.
But when his interest in her only seems to intensify, despite her attempts to brush him off, she gets to see a side of him and herself she didn’t expect…
Tiffany D. Jackson
Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable—more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried.
When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t just leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Not after last year’s rumors and not with her grades on the line. Now Claudia needs her best—and only—friend more than ever. But Monday’s mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday’s sister April is even less help.
J. Nichole
Of all the lessons to learn in college —
Who to love and who to avoid is one of the toughest.
When Laila met Chris at a frat party she should have stayed away. What could a senior want with a freshman anyway? Trouble?
Not exactly. Chris was sort of a playboy. But for Laila, he didn’t want to play games.
Can Laila and Chris become college sweethearts? Or will this be a failed test for Laila?
Read Freshmen Fifteen, book one in the Love 101 Series, today!
Kennedy Ryan
They got everything they wanted…but never had each other.
Touré Wallace and Niomi Spencer were close friends at Finley College, the prestigious HBCU they attended. The attraction that simmered between them every semester was a question they never got to ask or answer before soaring ambitions launched them to opposite corners of the world. Both chased their dreams of grit and glamor as high-profile journalists. They got it all…except a shot at being more than friends.
Years later, Touré is an award-winning investigative journalist and Niomi is America’s most popular morning-show host, but they both feel like something’s missing. When their alma mater recruits its most famous alums for an interview during homecoming, every look, every touch is electric. The air hums with what could have been, and they’re tempted by what they could have right now, if only for one weekend. Have they traveled the world, chasing something special, when all it took was coming home?
Featuring the musical stylings of Southern University’s marching band, Human Jukebox!
Tanisha Stewart
Nicholas always strived for perfection, but he never could measure up to his mother’s unreasonable demands. His hopes of passing the prerequisites for the pre-med program at the prestigious Plankton University are dashed when he fails out.
He has almost lost hope, but maybe he can find it in psychology?
Until he encounters Professor Jackson. For an introductory class, her standards are way too high. As time wears on, Nicholas feels like he’s in over his head. His mother doesn’t know his secret, Professor Jackson won’t let up on his grades, and sooner or later, the walls will come crashing down around him.
Maybe Nicholas can reason with Professor Jackson. Maybe he can make her see his point of view.
Maybe they can come to an agreement about his grades?
Because the only other alternative is to kill her.
J.B. Vample
Leaving home for the first time to attend college is stressful enough. But when the roommate lottery of Paradise Valley University strikes, it produces couples who have absolutely nothing in common; causing personality clashes which takes the stress to a whole new level. Dismay hits Sidra Howard, the prim and proper princess, when she contemplates spending an entire semester with Chasity Parker, the troubled beauty with a sharp tongue and even sharper claws. Malajia Simmons, a boy crazed, attention seeking diva, is no happier. Not only does she get stuck with the upper bunk bed, she has to share a triple room with Alexandra Chisolm, a nosey and overbearing, self proclaimed “know-it-all”. But even the meddling Alexandra isn’t as bad as Emily Harris, the shy, mommy’s girl with a non-existent backbone.
Coming to college to escape her home life, Chasity hopes to get through the semester without any problems. Her hopes are tainted once she begins to have to resist the advances of a determined football star, on top of dealing with family drama which seems to have followed her. Alexandra’s need to fix everyone’s problems not only rubs her roommates the wrong way, it also causes her to fall blind to the problems brewing with the boyfriend that she left behind. Eventually she’ll be forced to face the issues head on. Emily’s refusal to come out of her shell is too much to handle for party girl Malajia, whose main purpose is to have fun and be seen. The same doesn’t apply to Sidra, who’s more concerned with trying to keep her over-the-top stress level under control.
These five young women try to handle family drama, pressure, and conflicts; all while trying to maintain their grades. They quickly learn that college life isn’t what they expected and must adapt to their new environment if they ever hope to make it through their first semester.