10 Black Romance Novels That Feel Like a Soft Place to Land

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Welcome back to Culture Lit, the podcast where Black love stories get

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the spotlight they've always deserved.

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I'm your host, Octavia Marie,

and I'm so glad you're here.

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I wanna start somewhere

a little tender today.

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I think a lot of us have been

quietly carrying a heaviness.

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The world feels intense right now.

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Life feels uncertain in ways that

make the news hard to watch and the

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group chat hard to keep up with.

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There's so much happening all at once that

sometimes it feels almost strange to let

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yourself laugh in the middle of it, and I

don't think I'm the only one feeling that.

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Like joy is something

you're supposed to earn.

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Like staying worried all the time is

how you prove that you care I want

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to gently push back on that today.

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We're still allowed to live fully, to go

outside and feel the sun on your skin, to

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laugh until your stomach hurts, to gather

with people you love and eat too much, to

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dance in your kitchen, to rest, to flirt,

to travel, to create, to dream out loud.

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None of that makes you shallow.

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None of that means you don't see

what's happening in the world.

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It makes you human, and it's how

Black people have always endured.

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Joy has always been part of how we

survive, not a luxury we earn after the

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work is done, a tradition, a practice, a

choice we make on purpose over and over.

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Because if we only let ourselves

live inside stress and fear and

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exhaustion, we stop feeling fully

alive, and I don't believe we're

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here only to endure this life.

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I believe we're here to experience

it, maybe especially now.

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So if you've been denying yourself joy

because the world feels heavy, if you've

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been postponing your own aliveness until

everything feels safe and settled and

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perfect, let today be your reminder.

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You don't have to choose.

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Both belong in the same week.

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Both belong in the same heart.

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The heaviness out there and your

own deep aliveness in here, both can

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exist at the same time, and both must.

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And that's where today's episode comes in.

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I want to take you back for a moment.

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There was a year of my life when

I had no choice but to be soft.

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I'd spent more than 20 years in corporate

communications becoming a woman who

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didn't break, strong by training,

strong by reflex, strong as a survival

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skill, and then I got sick, and being

unbreakable wasn't on the menu anymore.

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I had to let people feed me,

sit with me, love on me when I

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couldn't do one single thing back.

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That was the year I learned

what I told you a moment ago.

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Softness isn't weakness.

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Softness is the medicine and

aliveness, the laughing, the

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loving, the being held isn't a

betrayal of how serious things are.

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It's the very thing that lets you

stay standing in serious times.

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A lot of that medicine

for me came in book form.

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Black love stories where the woman

gets cherished, where she gets chosen,

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where she gets her aliveness back.

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So today, I'm giving you 10 Black

romance gems for healing your heart.

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And when I say healing, hear me.

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I don't mean heavy.

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I'm not handing you trauma

and calling it a gift.

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I mean healing through joy, through

tenderness, through the radical, beautiful

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act of watching a Black woman get loved

all the way well, even in a hard season.

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These are the stories that feel like

a soft place to land, the ones that

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feel like a deep breath you didn't

know you were holding, the ones

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that say, "Yes, the world is what

it is, and you're still allowed."

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So get cozy, bestie.

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Grab your tea.

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We've got 10 of them.

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Let me start with the one

that's had me losing my whole

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mind, Score by Kennedy Ryan.

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Now, if you've been rocking with

me for a while, you already know

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This is a Kennedy Stan podcast.

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I don't apologize for it,

and I'm not taking questions.

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The woman writes Black love

like it's sacred because it is.

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Score came out on May 19th.

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This book is fresh on the bookstore

shelves, and it's the second book

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in her Hollywood Renaissance series.

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I've been counting down to this one

since Can't Get Enough dropped last year.

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So when I tell you I cleared the

calendar, child, I cleared the calendar.

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Here's the setup.

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Verity Hill and Wright Bellamy,

everybody calls him Monk, meet

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at a Georgia HBCU and fall harder

than either of them planned on.

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And that matters because both

of them grew up watching love

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go wrong in their own homes.

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They had every reason to keep

their hearts on lockdown.

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They fell anyway.

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The relationship only lasted a few

months, but some loves are short and

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still rearrange your entire life.

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Fast-forward more than ten years.

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Verity is an award-winning

screenwriter now.

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Monk is a musical prodigy

turned household name.

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And a film pulls them back into the

same room, a Harlem Renaissance biopic.

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If you read Real, you

know exactly the one.

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Yes, Desi Blue.

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Here's what wrecked me.

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Back when they were young, their

love was fast and big and fearless

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until Verity started moving

in a way that wasn't like her.

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Things escalated, and she ended up hurting

Monk while she was deep in a mental health

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crisis he knew nothing about, a crisis

she was facing for the first time herself.

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My heart ached for this woman.

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She's grieving the greatest love of

her life and learning how to live

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with a new diagnosis at the same time.

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And then this once in a lifetime project

lands in her lap, and the catch is

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she has to do it with Monk, her Monk.

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What stayed with me after

I closed this book was how

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scared Verity was to be loved.

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With her diagnosis, she decided she'd be

too much for somebody, so it felt safer to

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keep everybody at arm's length until Monk.

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I love so much in here.

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Getting to read the Desi Blue

screenplay, seeing Canon and Neva from

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a brand new angle, the creativity, the

artistry, the way Kennedy holds mental

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health with such care, and the love.

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Always the love.

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This story will hold you if you're

living with a chronic illness.

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It says, right out loud, you

still deserve a big love.

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You still deserve your dreams.

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You deserve care, and you deserve support.

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Full stop.

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Score is beautiful.

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It's tender, and whew, it's spicy

The epilogue had me in real tears.

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Verity and Monk fought for their love,

and I'm going to be thinking about

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the two of them for a long, long time.

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Let's switch the energy all the way up.

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Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola,

smart, funny, and so full of life.

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Meet Kiki Banjo.

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Kiki hosts a hit student radio show where

she hands out relationship advice to

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everybody on campus while being dead set

on avoiding a relationship of her own.

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Then she gets publicly humiliated,

her reputation is suddenly on the

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line, and she ends up in a fake

relationship with the exact man she

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warned every girl on campus about,

the charming, infuriating Malachi.

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You already know where a fake

relationship goes, but here's why this

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one earns its place on a healing list.

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It's a love letter to Black

British culture set on a university

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campus that feels so alive

you can practically hear it.

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The chemistry between Kiki and

Malachi will have you grinning.

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But the real medicine is the

friendship, the community.

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A young woman slowly learning she doesn't

have to armor up against being known.

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It's funny, it's warm, and

it leaves you feeling held.

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And yeah, yes We're right

back with Kennedy Ryan.

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I told you, Kennedy Stan podcast.

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Before I Let Go is a second

chance romance, and it'll put

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its whole hand around your heart.

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Yasmin and Josiah are divorced, but

they're still tangled all the way up

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in each other's lives, co-parenting

their kids, running a business together,

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orbiting a love that technically

ended and somehow never died.

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Their marriage broke after a string

of devastating losses, and what

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Kennedy does here is so honest.

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She doesn't rush their healing.

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She sits in the grief with them.

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She lets them do the real unglamorous

work, therapy, accountability,

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learning how to trust hands

that have dropped you before.

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Yes, this one carries some weight, but

what you walk away holding is hope.

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It's restoration.

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It's the reminder that the people

who broke can also rebuild,

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sometimes with each other.

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Now, every single book I'm naming

today you can find at my bookshop.

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That's

bookshop.org/shop/culturelitpodcast.

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When you buy there, you're supporting

independent bookstores and this

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little show at the same time.

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The link is sitting right

in the show notes for you.

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If you want a romance that's charming and

few and easy on your spirit, By The Book

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by Jasmine Guillory is calling your name.

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This one is a modern Beauty and the

Beast retelling, and it's a delight.

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Izzy is an editorial assistant at

a publishing house, hardworking,

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underappreciated, burnt out, and

feeling completely invisible,

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so she makes a bold move.

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She volunteers to go out to a

mansion in Santa Barbara and pry

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a long overdue manuscript out of

a famously difficult reclusive

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celebrity author named Beau Towers.

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And what she finds isn't a monster.

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She finds a man who's as lost as she is.

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You get the witty banter and the warm

chemistry Jasmine Guillory is known for.

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It's a feel-good read that

loves books as much as you do.

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Pick this one up when you need

something light, escapist, and soft.

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Next up, pure unfiltered

joy, Highly Suspicious and

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Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert.

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Now, this one is technically a

YA romance, but trust me, the

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charm is for grown women too.

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It's a friends to enemies to lovers

story between Celine, a sharp-tongued

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conspiracy theorist with a real online

following, and Bradley, a star athlete

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who's quietly managing his OCD.

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They used to be best friends.

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Now they can't stand

the sight of each other.

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Then they get forced together on an

outdoor survival course, competing

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for the same scholarship, and they

have to face their history and the

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feelings that clearly never left.

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Talia Hibbert writes people who

are funny and flawed and so real.

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She handles personal growth and

mental health with the gentlest touch.

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This book feels like

sunshine, plain and simple.

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All right, we're halfway home.

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One question for you, is any

book on this list already

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sitting on your to-be-read pile?

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Tell me in the comments.

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I wanna know which one

you're running to first.

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And if this list is doing something

for you, go ahead and follow

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the show so the next one finds

you without you having to look.

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Now let me hand you something a

little magical 'A Love Song for

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Ricky Wilde' by Tia Williams.

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If Seven Days in June shows off the

sharp, sexy side of Tia Williams, and

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we're getting to that one in a minute,

this book is the dreamy, atmospheric,

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slightly enchanted other side of her.

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Ricky Wilde is the artistic one, the

dandelion growing up in a family of roses.

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So she leaves Atlanta behind and opens a

little flower shop in Harlem, and there

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she meets a musician who feels like he

stepped out of another era entirely.

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Their connection feels like it was

written in the stars long before

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the two of them ever got there.

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It's a modern fairy tale woven

through with the real history

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of the Harlem Renaissance.

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Two artists pulled together

by a kind of magic.

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Read this one when you want

a love story that's elegant,

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soulful, and a little enchanted.

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And you can't make a list about healing

Black love without this one, Seven

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Days in June by Tia Williams, a modern

classic, and I don't say that lightly.

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Eva Mercy is a single mom and a

best-selling erotica author, and

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one day she has a chance run-in

with Shane Hall, an award-winning

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author she shared one whirlwind,

life-altering week with 15 years ago.

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Over the next seven days, the two of

them reconnect, and they're forced to

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face the secrets and the trauma that have

been trailing both of them ever since.

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This book is smart and sexy and so witty.

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But underneath all of that, it's a

deep look at generational trauma,

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at living with chronic pain,

and at what forgiveness can do.

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Two people who got broken

finding their way back to whole.

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At its core, it's a love

letter to Black joy.

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If your soul is craving something that

feels like a warm blanket and nothing

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else, Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson.

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This one is comfort

reading in its purest form.

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After the sudden death of the woman

who adopted them, Jesse Strong and his

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brothers have to decide what happens

to her beloved Harlem knitting shop.

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Jesse wants to keep it open.

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The small problem?

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He has no earthly idea how to run it.

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Lucky for him, his part-time

employee, Carrie, who's had a

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quiet crush on him for years, steps

up to help him save the store.

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What you get is a slow burn wrapped

inside a tight-knit, big-hearted

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community, found family, neighborhood

warmth, the quiet joy of building

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something with people who love you.

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You'll close this book

feeling completely restored.

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Our ninth gem is a YA novel with a

message that lands hard at any age,

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Love Is A Revolution by Renée Watson.

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This book is built on one beautiful idea:

the most important love story you’ll

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ever have is the one with yourself.

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Nala meets Tai, a cute,

deeply community-minded boy.

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He’s an activist, an organizer,

out there doing the work.

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Nala?

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Nala would honestly rather be home

on the couch watching a movie.

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So to impress him, she tells a few small

lies, and then she has to keep performing

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a version of herself that isn’t her.

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As she falls for Tai, she figures out

the thing the whole book has been quietly

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teaching her: real love can’t grow on top

of a person you’re only pretending to be.

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It’s gentle, it’s affirming, and

it’ll remind you that loving yourself

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exactly as you are is the most

revolutionary thing on this whole list.

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And our tenth gem?

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This one is more women’s fiction with

strong romance running through it, but

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the theme sits so close to the heart

of healing that I had to bring it in.

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Black Girls Must Die

Exhausted by Jayne Allen.

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That title alone, right?

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It speaks straight to the burnout, to

the impossible pressure on Black women

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to carry it all and smile while we do it

Tabitha Walker is a successful broadcast

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journalist whose whole life tilts sideways

when she gets a medical diagnosis that

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threatens her dream of having a family.

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From there, the story follows her

through her career, her friendships,

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her love life, and the hard choices

she has to make about her future.

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It’s honest.

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It’s so relatable it almost stings.

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And in the end, it’s a book about

resilience, about self-discovery,

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and about the quiet power of choosing

yourself—the perfect read for anyone

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healing from the sheer pressure

of being a woman in this world.

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So there they are—ten soft,

healing Black romance gems.

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Can we sit with one thing

before I let you go?

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What I love most about these books

is how each one quietly redraws what

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healing is even allowed to look like.

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Because somewhere along the way, a lot of

us got taught that healing has to be hard.

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That it only counts if it hurts.

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That you have to earn your rest

by suffering correctly first.

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These stories say something different.

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They say healing can be joy.

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It can be tenderness.

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It can be a Black woman letting herself

be soft, letting herself be cared for,

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letting herself be loved well—and not

having to bleed for the privilege.

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I learned that the hard way.

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I told you at the top of this

episode about the year I got sick.

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The thing nobody warns you about is how

hard it is to be loved when you’ve spent

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your whole life being the strong one.

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Verity in Score was scared her diagnosis

made her too much for anybody I

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understood that fear in my body, and

watching her get loved anyway, fully

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on purpose, did something for me.

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That's what the right book can do.

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The right story at the right time

hands you permission you didn't

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know you were allowed to ask for.

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And remember what I said at the top?

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Joy has always been

part of how we survive.

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So picking one of these books up,

sinking into a love story while the

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world is doing whatever it's doing

out there, that isn't you tuning out.

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That's you tuning back in.

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That's the practice.

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That's the tradition.

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That's choosing aliveness on purpose

on a Tuesday with a book in your lap.

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So that's what I want

you to take with you.

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You don't have to be strong every

hour of every day, especially now.

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You're allowed to be soft.

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You're allowed to be cherished.

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You're allowed to be deeply

alive in a heavy season.

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You're worthy of a love that feels

like a warm hug for your whole soul.

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Romantic love, the love of your

community, the brave ordinary work of

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finally being gentle with yourself.

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So pick one, only one off this

list, and give your heart the soft

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place to land it's been needing.

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If this episode met you somewhere

today, do me a kindness.

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Follow Culture Lit and leave a review

so the next tired heart can find us too.

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Come find me on Instagram and

Threads at Becoming Octavia.

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: 00:19:27

That's B-E-C-O-M-I-N-G Octavia.

305

: 00:19:32

And every book from today is

waiting for you at my bookshop,

306

: 00:19:35

bookshop.org/shop/culturelitpodcast.

307

: 00:19:41

All of it is linked in the show notes.

308

: 00:19:43

Thank you for spending this time with me.

309

: 00:19:45

I don't take it lightly.

310

: 00:19:47

Until next time, be soft, be bold, be

visible, and remember, your story matters.

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