Y'all I tried...This was supposed to be the search for a 5 star fantasy romance by a Black author and that was an epic fail. I'm very disappointed by this. I debated putting up this video but at the end, I have a discussion that has been on my mind for at least a year at this point. If you want to skip around, I left timestamps below. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts about anything I talked about. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding something so feel free to correct me in the comments.
Time Stamps:
00:00 Preview
00:09 Intro
01:32 What I'm Looking For
04:28 Book 1
10:42 Book 2
15:28 Book 3
19:22 Book 4
24:53 Questioning if I like fantasy romance
28:14 Book 5
30:38 Intro to Discussion Points
31:12 Smut vs Romantic Chemistry
33:56 Same Love Interests
35:34 Writing for a Mainstream Audience
40:10 White women in Black Skin
42:02 Fantasy could be better
42:58 Book Recommendations
48:36 Closing
Books Mentioned:
⚪️ The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall
⚪️ Rise of a Dark Throne by LIgia N. Cushman
⚪️ The Coven of Ruin by TK Tucker
⚪️ Celestial Bodies by RA Moreau
⚪️ Cindered Glass by Chalan Johnson
⚪️ A Noble's Eternal Heart by Yvonne Nicolas
⚪️ Heavy is the Head: Love and War by Katrina N. Lewis
⚪️ Heavy is the Head: Kingdom Come by Katrina N. Lewis
⚪️ The Duchess's Bodyguard by @Dreacwrites
⚪️ Brace the Tide by Avril N. Sun
⚪️ The Orc Prince by Qua Hudson
⚪️ Angela J. Ford
⚪️ A Fate of Onyx and Ivory by O'Junea Brown
⚪️ The Book of Cin by HM Wolfe
⚪️ The House of Glass and Night by TL Combs
⚪️ Twin Blades by Noelle Upton
⚪️ Bright by McMillian
⚪️ A Saga of Shields and Shadows by AJ Shirley
⚪️ A Certain Slant of Light by CP Du Toit
⚪️ When the Stars Alight by Camilla Andrew
Upcoming Speculative Romance Authors to Check Out:
⚪️ Nova Jameson (Me!) https://www.instagram.com/authornovajameson/
⚪️ Kat https://www.instagram.com/wordsorceries/
⚪️ La Purvis https://www.instagram.com/purviswrites/
⚪️ Dartanyan Johnson https://www.instagram.com/author3djohnson/
⚪️ Christina C. Zell https://www.instagram.com/authorchristinaczell/
⚪️ Samantha Devereaux https://www.instagram.com/samantha.devereaux/
⚪️ Tonja K Johnson https://www.instagram.com/tonjakjohnson/
⚪️ Omari Richards https://www.instagram.com/omari_a_richards/
⚪️ N. Sonia Nkera https://www.instagram.com/sony_books/
⚪️ Minesha Carter https://www.instagram.com/mineshacarterwrites/?next=%2Favaferferii%2Ffeed%2F&locale=en_US%2Cen_US
⚪️ Samantha Marie https://www.instagram.com/smryanthewriter/
⚪️ Charlotte Murphy https://www.instagram.com/charliauthor/#
⚪️ TMA King https://www.instagram.com/t.m.a.king/
People/Resources Mentioned:
⚪️ @MelaninLibrary and https://www.melaninlibrary.com/
⚪️ Fantasy Romance Article https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/01/13/did-a-best-selling-romantasy-novelist-steal-another-writers-story
⚪️ Didn't mention this but still a great video https://youtu.be/15ZZkzDbm18?si=0Zy8nbPFyAwIgrG7
Connect with me on Social Media!
⚪️ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/drouxelle