Summer Reads 2024

Reading in the summertime is such a vibe! This warm weather and these long days have provided the perfect backdrop for relaxing outdoors with a good book. Whether you're lounging on the beach, sitting in a park, or relaxing in your backyard, the pleasant atmosphere adds to the enjoyment of reading. I wanted to share a few books that I have read so far on my reading list. What books are you reading this summer? Let me know in the comment section below!

Curvy Girl Summer

Danielle Allen

“There’s got to be an easier way than dating. I want the shortcut. I just want to find my person and start our lives together.”

After a one-night stand with her clingy ex, Aaliyah James has an epiphany: this ain’t it. She knows what she wants, and she’s ready to move past casual hookups, flings, and situationships.

But for her family, the clock is ticking after all, she’s almost thirty. And when they imply that her personality (and her body) might be too big to land a man, she lets them know they’ve gone too far and her (nonexistent) man loves her curves, thank you very much. Now, she has seven weeks to find the perfect boyfriend to rub in their faces at the big, fancy birthday celebration she’s been planning.

After her first blind date goes wrong, charming local bartender Ahmad Williamson consoles her with a drink and some playful banter. Aaliyah takes him up on his suggestion to use a dating app but the more she sees of his warm, funny, and easygoing nature, the less she wants to check her DMs. Will her next swipe bring her closer to true love or is her real match closer than she thinks?

Heat of the Moment

Brian Danae

Fueled by her impulsive desire to create a memorable night, Sovanna approaches the finest man in the club. Boldly, she introduces herself to Zahir, confident he won't reject her... and he doesn't. Instead, he exceeds her expectations, making it clear that a mere one-night stand was just the beginning for them and the least she could’ve asked for. With Zahir, Sovanna realizes that she means much more to him than a fleeting, passionate encounter.

Please note: Heat Of The Moment is book 1 in the Evermore series and does not include a cliffhanger.

All About Love: New Visions

Bell Hooks

A New York Times bestseller and enduring classic, All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' "Love Song to the Nation" trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces.

“The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessnessm not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love.

As Bell Hooks uses her incisive mind to explore the question “What is love?” her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.” All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly her revelations can change hearts and minds for the better.

Just Right: A Why Choose Romance

Shon

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have broken into their house.

Maybe I shouldn’t have made myself at home and eaten through enough food for two people in twenty minutes.

But after being lost for half the day, I was hungry. And I needed their electricity to charge my phone so I could use the GPS to make it back to my car.

So, I did what I had to do. Besides, it didn’t look like anyone was home. I’d be gone in thirty minutes, tops. And I’d leave a note apologizing about the broken window.

Except, that food knocked me out. And when I woke up it was with a gun to my forehead and three unnecessarily attractive men staring down at me.

Naturally, I expect them to want answers and kick me out. But instead I end up with a proposition I can't refuse

Going Toe to Toe: A Romance

Yahrah St. John

After their no-strings fling in paradise, Lyric and Devon never thought they’d see each other again. Until they did. Now they have very different ideas about what the future holds…

Sometimes you just have to take the leap…

What happens in Aruba, stays in Aruba…That’s what former ballerina Lyric Taylor keeps telling herself, at least. After all, now that the curtain has closed on her ballet career, and with the search for her biological parents stalling, she could use a little distraction. So when a lodging mix-up leads to an unexpected fling in paradise with her sexy bunkmate, Devon, Lyric takes the plunge. Seven days of sun, sand and plenty of sizzle and when it’s time to go home, their no-strings sitch will come to an end…Right?

Single dad Devon Masters spent the last eight years shielding his daughter, Kianna, from life’s disappointments and he’s gotten pretty good at cutting pain off at the pass. But nothing can prepare him for this latest bombshell: discovering Lyric Taylor is Kianna’s new dance teacher. What happened in Aruba seems to have followed them home, but they’ll have to keep it under wraps for as long as they can. Soon, however, new feelings take hold and old wounds resurface. Will they finally find the rhythm they need to redefine what belonging truly means?

Power Moves: Power Moves: Ignite Your Confidence and Become a Force

Sarah Jakes Roberts

Instant New York Times Bestseller! Stripping our minds of the expectations that inundate our world has never been more difficult. One quick scroll of our phones and we're consumed by other people's projections of how we should be feeling or responding.

The ability to determine your truth without judgment is the beginning of harnessing authentic power in Christ. When we do the work of embracing where we are, we create space for God's love to meet us in our most raw form and then polish us to shine like never before. Power does not lie in success, achievement, or performance. Power rests in humility, honesty, and the commitment to continuous growth.

Power Moves will help you to qualify whether you're living life authentically or if you've found a way to maintain status quo. It will reveal the principles required to tap into the most powerful version of who you are, then lead you in how to introduce your authentic self to the world around you.

This Could Be Us

Kennedy Ryan

Soledad Barnes has her life all planned out. Because, of course, she does. She plans everything. She designs everything. She fixes everything. She’s a domestic goddess who's never met a party she couldn't host or a charge she couldn't lead. The one with all the answers and the perfect vinaigrette for that summer salad. But none of her varied talents can save her when catastrophe strikes, and the life she built with the man who was supposed to be her forever, goes poof in a cloud of betrayal and disillusion.

But there is no time to pout or sulk, or even grieve the life she lost. She's too busy keeping a roof over her daughters' heads and food on the table. And in the process of saving them all, Soledad rediscovers herself. From the ashes of a life burned to the ground, something bold and new can rise.

But then an unlikely man enters the picture the forbidden one, the one she shouldn't want but can't seem to resist. She's lost it all before and refuses to repeat her mistakes. Can she trust him? Can she trust herself?

After all she's lost…and found…can she be brave enough to make room for what could be?

Nirvana: A Friends To Lovers Story

Quardeay

“A gift may not always come in the package that you wanted, but that doesn’t mean it still can’t be unwrapped.”

Welcome to Nirvana AVE.

A place where peace & happiness reside in close proximity. Where temptation meets danger, eroticism reaches its pinnacle, lust lurks around every corner and best friends make the greatest of lovers