The Education of Kia Greer (2025) Alanna Bennett "At once warm and incisive, meticulously exploring first love, heartbreaks, and joy with a gentle tenderness that belies a vigorous understanding of the nuances of a heart. A coming of age must read."
The Three of Us (2023) Ore Agbaje-Williams "A treat of a debut. Agbaje-Williams has a gift of gliding between the sharpest driest humour and damning emotional revelations that incisively exposes the vulnerabilities, fallacies and messiness that line the relationships with those we are closest to. Dazzling, dextrous and droll, this millennial noir is a taut exploration of culture and the politics of relationships."
Rosewater (2023) Liv Little "Frank, sexy, and so tender. Little's pen shines."
Really Good, Actually (2023) Monica Heisey "The kind of book you miss when you finish but that also leaves you feeling so deliciously content and satisfied. Heisey's pen is by turns relentlessly sharp, incisively funny, sneakily disarming and heartbreakingly tender. This is a wonderful story about love, loss, friendship, rediscovering yourself and the hope that after coming messily apart it is possible to come back together fuller again. Maggie felt like a chaotic friend I adore and Heisey tells her story beautifully."
Someday, Maybe (2022) Onyi Nwabineli "A masterfully woven exposition on love and loss, of the undoing of us, of what it takes to heal. Nwabineli is magic with words, and manages to be at turns bitingly funny and heart-breakingly gutting. A book that acknowledges despair whilst encouraging hope."
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty (2022) Akwaeke Emezi "Emezi is a dream of a writer. My heart soared and shook and panted. A rich, complex, beautiful love story, exquisitely told. Emezi builds worlds and characters that you just want to marinate in."
Hope and Glory (2022) Jendella Benson "A sweeping, rich tale that explores family, secrets, loss, love and redemption within the context of a tessellation of cultures - written with a beautiful texture, Benson pulls you in to a deftly-woven story with tautly-written sentences, and before you know it you find yourself in too deep to get out, too deep to want to get out, wanting to know more."
A Lot Like Adios (2021) (Primas of Power, book 2) Alexis Daria "A sexy and sweet tale that tells us that home is more than a place, but rather where our heart lives."
Open Water (2021) Caleb Azumah Nelson "Open Water encapsulates what it means to fall in love, explores what it means to move through the world whilst black, and explores the beautiful melding of the two. I will always remember it, and I will always return to this novel. A stunning piece of art."
