Book picks similar to
Annabelle and Lee by Danielle Allen


second-chance
contemporary-romance
black-romance
black-love

Liquor & Laundry (Ampersand Stories)


Tasha L. Harrison - 2020
    The last thing she wants to do is relive that humiliating moment. She’d much rather spend the evening at her family’s laundromat; sweeping and mopping the floor as she reconsiders her life choices.Ahmad Williamson is certain that Hadassah doesn’t remember that night the same way he does. And he’s spent every night since last summer wishing one of them had been brave enough to call. Was it just a fling for her? Was all that flirting she’d done over the years just a joke?Confessions slip from lips and clothes hit the floor in Liquor & Laundry.- high school crush- #BlackRomance- jerked chicken wings- steamy laundromat make out sessions- dirty talkin’ hero!

Love On The Luminous


Chencia C. Higgins - 2020
    Fresh out of a decade long union, she’d rather just pick up the pieces of her life and try to create something she could be proud of again. Random glimpses and a few mind-scrambling encounters with a man who makes her heart beat wildly have her questioning her stance, but she manages to keep her hands to herself and her legs firmly closed until the last day of the trip.When the return to shore is delayed because of health concerns on land, Morgan takes it as a sign to throw her caution into the wind and let that man have what he wants. Spoiler alert: he wants her.Love On The Luminous is part of a short story series dubbed The Luminous Cruise Chronicles. This series is written by a group of authors who found themselves inspired during an otherwise stressful situation.The Luminous Cruise Chronicles:Love On The Luminous - Chencia C. HigginsLove On Deck - AshleyNicoleLove Under Quarantine - Nicole FallsLove Overboard - D. RoseLove On Cruise Control - T. KeyLove Unexpected - TurtleberryLove's False Start - Diana W.Love Lessons - Honesty Price

Getting Schooled


Christina C. Jones - 2016
    She has no intention of doing anything with that discovery – nothing long term, at least. But everybody knows what happens to best laid plans. Jason is a grown man. 28 years old, seasoned and scarred by his real-life experience in the world, he’s at Blakewood State University to finish his degree and move on. The last thing he’s interested in is the female population on campus… but sexy, infuriating Reese might be a notable exception. This isn’t a story of opposites attract. More like counterparts clash. Neither of them is afraid to do battle, and neither is willing to back down. Love and war, win or lose… somebody’s gonna end up getting schooled.

Digging Up Love


Chandra Blumberg - 2022
    Though Alisha relishes the close relationship she has with her family, she can’t help but dream about opening a cookie shop in Chicago. She may be a small-town baker, but Alisha has big ambitions.Then a dinosaur bone turns up in her grandparents’ backyard. When paleontologist Quentin Harris arrives to see the discovery for himself, he’s hoping that the fossil will distract him from a recent painful breakup. Instead, he finds Alisha—and sparks fly. The big-city academic and the hometown baker seem destined for a happily ever after.But Alisha is scared to fall in love. And Quentin’s trying to make a name for himself in a competitive field, which gets even more complicated when the press shows up at the dig site. For love to prevail, the two may have to put old bones aside—and focus on the future.

#birthdaygoals


AshleyNicole - 2020
    They’re the kind you put in work for. Except that one about getting Kammal in her bed…

Let Me Love You


Alexandria House - 2018
    She believes she has all the bases covered in her world. But what about her heart? Rap legend Everett “Big South” McClain is divorced, too, knows all about failed relationships, and has relegated his love life to casual connections rather than pursuing something real. That is, until he lays eyes on Jo. She’s exactly what he never knew he needed. He’s what’s been missing from her world. Will she accept what he has to offer and let him love her? ***This novel contains profanity and sexual content. If you do not like those elements in your romantic reads, this is not the book for you***

Delaney's Desert Sheikh


Brenda Jackson - 2002
    But when she reluctantly agreed to share a secluded cabin with an arrogant sheikh bent on seduction, she found herself enrolled in a crash course in human sexuality. Unfortunately, commitment and love were misplaced pages in her darkly handsome mentor's manual. Jamal Ari Yassir had intended to school Delaney in sensuality for his pleasure, but his plan backfired. Instead of loving and leaving her, he became engulfed by an irresistible passion for his sexy-as-sin cabin mate. Could his convenient summer lover be the woman he was destined to share his life with?

Love's Truth (The Four Letter Word Series Book 1)


K. Lashaun - 2021
    An offer she can’t refuse.Friends with benefits.Backsliding with a man that still honestly held her heart was probably a bad idea, but the chemistry they shared in the bedroom was undeniable and her lack of luck in finding someone new spurred her decision to agree.They were adults and could handle this, right?But the more time she spends with him, she realizes that maybe they’d ended things prematurely. Maybe they hadn’t fought hard enough to stay together.And maybe, just maybe, she was still a little bit in love with Truth.

Seven Days in June


Tia Williams - 2021
    Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award-winning literary author who, to everyone's surprise, shows up in New York.When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas, but the eyebrows of New York's Black literati. What no one knows is that twenty years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can't deny their chemistry - or the fact that they've been secretly writing to each other in their books ever since.Over the next seven days in the middle of a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect, but Eva's not sure how she can trust the man who broke her heart, and she needs to get him out of New York so that her life can return to normal. But before Shane disappears again, there are a few questions she needs answered...With its keen observations of Black life and the condition of modern motherhood, as well as the consequences of motherless-ness, Seven Days in June is by turns humorous, warm and deeply sensual.Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781538719107.

Lay Your Head On My Pillow


Tanzania Glover - 2020
    "If the love doesn't feel like '90s R&B, I don't want it!"To avoid being let down Toni Riley doesn’t ever make birthday plans, but a once in a lifetime private lesson with famed artist Arlan Parks just might be worth breaking the rules for.‘90s Kinda Love is an R&B inspired, erotic romance novella series that takes some of our favorite songs from our favorite decade and gives a whole new meaning to going “behind the music”.Lay Your Head On My Pillow - Tanzania GloverPretty Brown Eyes - Tia LoveLet’s Chill - Elle JayeIf I Ever Fall In Love - Sam StrahanFreak Me - Black Cherrie

If I Could Stay


Stephanie Nicole Norris - 2018
    Then, her only mission was to attend college, pursue her modeling career, and leave her past hurts behind. But when Carmen receives some startling news, she decides the time to make her final appearance has arrived; however, reemerging could open old wounds and the obstacle of facing the man she left behind presents the biggest challenge of them all. Dominic Johnson has long since put thoughts of Carmen Mitchell out of sight and out of mind. Circumstances would bring her back to Brunswick, but there was no repartee to be spoken to the woman who’d left him years ago without so much as a goodbye. It isn’t until Dominic gains a first-hand glimpse of Carmen that old memories spark and a detonation of what was, and what could be, set off a myriad of images in his mind. Now Dominic is faced with a battle that’s waging internally, to stay out of her way or to succumb to Carmen Mitchell, again.

Thou Shall Not Run


Sabrina B. Scales - 2019
    This much could definitely be said for the Fold Family’s middle child, Jadalynn. Having met when they were just twelve years old, Jadalynn and Andrew experienced some of their best and worst moments together. Falling in love was inevitable as they grew older and remained close. And falling out of love was just as certain when the two finally bumped heads. After a lengthy separation based on a lack of communication, fate and the hand of God himself brought the two back together, forcing them to either continue running from love or stop and surrender to it. Take this journey of heartbreak, laughter and everything in between in this story of love lost and found in the first installment of The Fold!

A Cowboy to Remember


Rebekah Weatherspoon - 2020
    . . With a headline spot on a hit morning show and truly mouth-watering culinary skills, chef Evie Buchanan is perched on the edge of stardom. But at an industry party, a fall lands Evie in the hospital—with no memory of who she is. Scrambling to help, Evie’s assistant contacts the only “family” Evie has left, close friends who run the luxury dude ranch in California where Evie grew up. Evie has no recollection of them—until former rodeo champion Zach Pleasant walks into her hospital room, and she realizes his handsome face has been haunting her dreams . . . Zach hasn’t seen Evie in years—not since their families conducted a campaign to make sure their childhood friendship never turned into anything more. When the young cowboy refused to admit the feelings between them were real, Evie left California, making it clear she never wanted to see Zach again. Now he refuses to make the same mistake twice. Starting fresh is a risk when they have a history she can’t recall, but Zach can’t bear to let go of her now. Can he awaken the sleeping beauty inside her who might still love him?

Love on Repeat


D. Rose - 2020
    After years of late nights and periods of self-doubt, their careers were finally on track and they were doing what they loved.They had the perfect lives, right?They thought having successful careers was everything until they met each other.Their love for music brought them together. The love they shared became the soundtrack to their lives.Will the love they shared be enough to keep them together when life threw unexpected curveballs in the forms of probing mothers and unrelenting exes?

Wins & Losses


Alexandra Warren - 2018
    But when his team captain’s father is murdered just before the start of the season, he quickly learns coaching high school basketball in the inner city is a lot more than just drawing numbers and arrows on a dry erase board. Struck by the tragedy of her father’s murder, Carmen Wellington is faced with the tough decision of keeping her life away from home or coming back to her hometown to support her little brother through his senior year of high school. It’s a decision that will change her life in more ways than one, especially with her brother’s handsome basketball coach in the picture. Carmen is supposed to be focused on what’s best for her and her family. Nasir is supposed to be focused on what’s best for him and his team. But with those two worlds colliding and an undeniable attraction developing because of it, the two can only hope for more wins than losses...