Jasmine Guillory

Jasmine Guillory is a New York Times bestselling author of novels including The Wedding Date, the Reese's Book Club selection The Proposal, and Drunk on Love. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, and Time, and she is a frequent book contributor on The Today Show.

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend...

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about each other...

They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century—or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want...

Jasmine's book The Wedding Date was my introduction into the adult romance genre. Up until that point, I had pretty much stayed in the YA genre and my impression of adult romance had always been cheesy paperbacks that featured a half naked Fabio holding steady a Damsel in Distress. Despite liking romance novels, it just never felt like a genre I would be interested in.

After reading Everything, Everything I was craving more and more books that weren't so unnecessarily white. Now that I had a taste of representation and what that felt like, I desperately needed more books that featured women who looked like me that I could identify with for once.

I found that Jasmine's books follow the typical Romance Novel Plot formula, but they're so much fun and they gave me a new appreciation and love for the adult romance genre.

Talia Hibbert

Talia Hibbert is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author who writes spicy, diverse romance because she believes that people of marginalised identities need honest and positive representation.

Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong—so she’s given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself—even though she’s not entirely sure how…

Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner’s on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry—and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car—supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.

Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she’s infiltrated his work, his kitchen—and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should.

Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore—and it’s melting Jacob’s frosty exterior.

Out of the Brown Sisters trilogy, Eve Brown and her story was by far my favourite (with Chloe being second ((Dani and her personality I struggled to vibe with, but I enjoyed her story nonetheless))).
Talia Hibbert's Brown Sisters trilogy demonstrates that Black women are not a monolith—we can have chronic illnesses; we can be dark-skinned, fat, and desirable (that isn't rooted within fetishism); we can come from wealth; we can be incredibly intelligent, driven, snarky, soft, and so much more—we can be whatever we want and we can find true love.

Shauna Robinson

Shauna Robinson writes contemporary fiction with humor and heart. I discovered The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks at the beginning of the year, and I can't remember the last time I devoured a book in less than 48 hours. I simply couldn't put it down! And once I was done, I immediately went back to the library and grabbed Must Love Books.

When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy.

Bell River's literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.

To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything. 

One thing I love about Shauna Robinson's books is that she writes flawed, failing Black heroines who make morally questionable choices (that have well-meaning origins) that eventually catch up to them and they must deal with the consequences. Life isn't perfect, and no matter how well-meaning our actions have consequences and I like that her books reflect that side of life.
I'm very excited for her upcoming novel The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster!

Liselle Sambury

Liselle Sambury is a Trinidadian-Canadian author who writes genre-blended speculative fiction with dark themes, complicated families, and edges of hope.
Much like Olivia Stephens, Liselle’s Blood Like duology (Blood Like Magic and Blood Like Fate) takes a unique and innovative approach to the supernatural and witchcraft that has roots inspired by her Trinidadian heritage.

After years of waiting for her Calling—a trial every witch must pass in order to come into their powers—the one thing Voya Thomas didn’t expect was to fail. When Voya’s ancestor gives her an unprecedented second chance to complete her Calling, she agrees—and then is horrified when her task is to kill her first love. And this time, failure means every Thomas witch will be stripped of their magic.

Voya is determined to save her family’s magic no matter the cost. The problem is, Voya has never been in love, so for her to succeed, she’ll first have to find the perfect guy—and fast. Fortunately, a genetic matchmaking program has just hit the market. Her plan is to join the program, fall in love, and complete her task before the deadline. What she doesn’t count on is being paired with the infuriating Luc—how can she fall in love with a guy who seemingly wants nothing to do with her?

I truly thought I was done with the YA genre, but her books ended up being some of my top books for 2022 and 2023. Liselle also has a youtube channel where she shares much of her process and honesty when it comes to the world of publishing. And though I'm not an author, I find what she shares really insightful as a creative.

Olivia Stephens

Olivia Stephens is an award winning graphic novelist, illustrator, and writer from the Pacific Northwest.
Olivia's work really caught my attention because she's a fellow Black woman who absolutely loves werewolves, and approaches werewolf story and lore from a Black perspective. Her approach to werewolves and werewolf origin lore is probably my favourite out of any I've ever heard—I've never seen it done before and it's one that deeply resonates with me.

After sneaking out against her mother's wishes, Artie Irvin spots a massive wolf―then watches it don a bathrobe and transform into her mom. Thrilled to discover she comes from a line of werewolves, Artie asks her mom to share everything―including the story of Artie's late father. Her mom reluctantly agrees. And to help Artie figure out her own wolflike abilities, her mom recruits some old family friends.

Artie thrives in her new community and even develops a crush on her new friend Maya. But as she learns the history of werewolves and her own parents' past, she'll find that wolves aren't the scariest thing in the woods―vampires are.

One thing I really enjoy is following along with her process for her current WIP—Darlin' and Her Other Names over on her Patreon. Her perspective on the world around her, and how she incorporates her inspiration, lived experiences, and research into her work is very inspiring to me and my own creative practice.

Nicola Yoon

Nicola Yoon has so many accolades under her belt! She is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author and the first Black woman to hit #1 on the New York Times Young Adult bestseller list!
Two of her novels have been made into major motion pictures. She’s also the co-publisher of Joy Revolution, a Random House young adult imprint dedicated to love stories starring people of color.

Madeline Whittier is allergic to the outside world. So allergic, in fact, that she has never left the house in all of her seventeen years. She is content enough—until a boy with eyes the color of the Atlantic Ocean moves in next door.

Their complicated romance begins over IM and grows through a wunderkammer of vignettes, illustrations, charts, and more.Everything, Everything is about the thrill and heartbreak that happens when we break out of our shell to do crazy, sometimes death-defying things for love.

Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything was the first book where I truly saw myself in a story.
Her leading heroine was also Black/Asian and at the time I struggled to feel or believe that I could have romance in my life. It felt so good and inspiring to see a love story bloom for a mixed Black girl, and gave me hope that I could have a happily-ever-after.

She also wrote one of my favourite articles that I hold near and dear to my heart about Black joy and the importance for marginalised people to see themselves in stories that aren't just about racism, violence, struggle, or poverty.