Welcome Back, Booklovers! I'm back with some thoughts and some books on my TBR.
Any romance lovers notice how all the buzzed about diverse romance is interracial? I think just about every week on Book Twitter someone mentions loving Black romance yet will mention Get a Life, Chloe Brown or The Wedding Date. And that's fine if those are your faves. But they aren't Black romance. And for the sake of this discussion I'm only concentrating on traditionally published books because the books you find on Kindle Unlimited are a whole different discussion.
I feel like we put out weekly reminders that Black romance is between two Black people. It's not just romance written by a Black author or romance with a Black woman as one half of the couple. But when I'm reading what's labelled as Black romance from a traditional publisher I notice that often one of the characters is mixed race. Which is a different dynamic itself that effects how they navigate the world. And sometimes it feels like the publisher is telling us, "Don't worry that person isn't too Black". Why are publishers so afraid of Black couples? Where are the Black romances with the illustrated covers that Twitter and Booktube and Bookstagram can't stop talking about?
And why is race never a factor? Especially in those ones that are series? So the good sis and all her best friends or all her sisters find them a nice man of a different race and not once does it come up? Most of the ones I see are Black women and white men pairings. There's no microaggressions from his family or friends? I think I read one and a half books where this was clearly addressed.
One book I read recently where racial injustice was a major theme the lead had no problem taking white peen while every other white person in the book was the enemy. We'll go on and on about white people and their microaggressions and then center them in our narratives? Why is that forbidden IR romance so popular? And why are many of these women always fresh off a bad relationship with a Black man?
And let's talk about the language used? Why are the white guys the brooding bad boy while the black guys are players? When I was looking through romance to find books I wanted to read I noticed player came up a lot when it came to Black romance. The player stigma isn't present in these IR romances. The man can just be the town hottie who all the women fall over themselves for.
Why are Harlequin and Dafina the main ones really giving us traditionally Black romance? There are some great reviewers(@trinielf, @BBrReviews, FunmiReadsHEAs, @jazmenvert) on Twitter that are always showing love to self-published and indie published Black romance writers. And that seems to be where you have to go to find good Black romance lately but I want to see more on the bookstore shelves as well.
There's nothing wrong with dating any color, creed, or race you please. I've read plenty of IR books that I've enjoyed. But if we truly want to be more reflective of the world around us we need to acknowledge that Black couples matter too. How many gorgeous Black couples do you see on social media?
So I looked over all my romance reads for the past year. Books specifically marketed as romance not fantasy with a romance in them. And definitely I need more Black romance in my life. I've been strongly promoting Young Adult Black romance here and we need more of that as well but I want to read more adults. So here are 5 Black Romance books I plan on reading by the end of the year. And if you wanna join in they're all affordably priced as well.
If I Don't Have You
Everything here is spot on. Bless indie authors because traditional publishing is lagging behind and really missing out on money. Which, for an industry that wants money, is mind boggling.
ReplyDeleteSome of the offerings that do have two black leads are often stripped down to flat characters who don’t read as black in the least.
That's how I felt reading one billed as Black romance recently with a biracial lead where most emphasis was placed on his other half.
DeleteThis was an informative read.
ReplyDelete