Even though it looked, and by all accounts was, awful.

I was intrigued by the leads, but I felt that the writing was kind of clunky and was trying a little bit too hard, and then I got into a crisis of “am I unconsciously doing that thing where because the author is black she therefore must be twice as good to be considered half as acceptable? Am I just a cranky bitch today? Or should I buy and review this book that I’m not impressed with so far because that demonstrates there’s an audience for romances with minority leads written by minority authors, and that will help the market for minority writers?” (Seriously, if I had the $11 to spare, I would have gone to see Abduction with Taylor Lautner to encourage the idea that a Native American actor can be a marketable lead in a blockbuster movie. The sticker said African-American fiction, in African American Fiction it went.Īnyway, I saw this book, and was vaguely intrigued, but it was during an impoverished spell, so I couldn’t get it, and then I forgot about it because my head was full of other things, and then the pirate book discussion in November happened, and someone mentioned it, and a lightbulb went off so I went and downloaded the sample. It was shelved in African-American Fiction, but wouldn’t have been out of place in the regular Romance section, and I did have this thought process about where it should really go- but that wasn’t my call to make.

We have a standing date at our local pub on the 14th of every month so we don’t lose touch with each other and our facebook group is in honor of our favorite manager).

I first noticed this book in Borders when I was working there as a bookseller (I miss my Borders, and I really miss my fellow employees.

Captured by beverly jenkins