New Release Round-Up August 17th-23rd
Hey Girl!
Check out these new Black Romance releases from August 17th-23rd.
Senior: The Dillinger Chronicles by Kimberly Brown
“Some loves never truly end. They just wait for the right time to come home.”
For as long as he can remember, Stanley Dillinger Sr.’s heart has truly only belonged to one woman. Through young love, painful separations, and years of missed chances, their love was never quite enough to overcome circumstances. Letting her go meant allowing her to chose stability over uncertainty. From a close distance, he watched the love of his life move on while he was left to carry the quiet ache of a future that was never theirs. Or so he thought.
Stephanie Micheals could never forget him. But what else can you do when the man you love isn’t the man you need at that time? You move on. You find love and happiness with another. Everything is perfect… until it isn’t. Now here you are, years later. Old feelings awaken with ease because they had never truly died. Restraint is tested until it becomes something neither of you can deny.
What do you do when given a chance to rediscover a love that has survived decades of heartbreak, distance, and regret? Sometimes the greatest love story isn't the one that begins in youth. Sometimes it’s the one you finally get right when you've lived long enough to understand what truly matters most.
Nyema: Where the Arrow Lands (A Survival Romance) (The Baptiste Sisters Book 5) by Rae Anderson
Nyema Baptiste is a private detective skilled at tracking down information, people, and things others may seek. So when her ex, Hunter Cross, steps over her threshold seeking a family heirloom, she has no problem agreeing to the request.
Finding it requires entering the abandoned Paramour Jubilee, a once-beloved fairground left empty after years of resilience. Rusted rides, shifting winds, and a compass that refuses to point north soon reveal that the missing heirloom carries more than family history. Something inside the Jubilee has been waiting for them both.
When violent weather traps Nyema and Hunter on the grounds, survival forces them into close quarters with the memories of the life they almost built together. Caught between ancestral promises and a love that never fully died, Nyema must decide where the arrow lands—and whether second chances can survive the storm.
Forever Young by Tyra Racquel
He brought flowers. His past brought bullets.
D’Mario Davis worked too hard to leave the streets behind, but when old enemies come looking for him, the peaceful life he’s built is thrown into chaos. The only thing he never planned for was Evette Brooks.
Evette wasn’t looking for love and she certainly wasn’t looking for danger, but falling for D’Mario means accepting both.
As danger closes in, she’ll have to decide if she’s willing to stand beside a man whose past isn’t finished with him and D’Mario is determined to prove them wrong.
This is a novella.
About the Green: A Dark, Age Gap Romance (Shades of Vengeance Book 3) by Zea Kayleigh Galan
I’ve been charged with eliminating any threats. Then evidence made her my biggest liability.
She’s twelve years younger, dressed in pink, and covered in blood I can’t prove she’s spilled. I should remove the threat instead of obsessing over making her mine.
She’s the Queen’s favorite, sweet and charming, like she couldn’t hurt a fly.
But bodies can’t disappear on their own and every instinct I have tells me the tiny woman is hiding something monstrous.
Each time I find bloody hands and suspicious trips in the night, I’m closer to showing how dangerous she is to the security of our family’s reputation.
She’s reckless and messy.
She’s resourceful and mesmerizing.
Her bratty grins and razor-sharp tongue lured me into letting her get away with what she wants.
If only this one time.
I should expose her, except I become the one who helps her hide the evidence.
We’ve been paired up to uncover the traitor threatening our families and that should make everything easier. Instead, I fall deeper into the twisted world that exists behind her doll-like eyes and empty smiles.
Every time I think I’ve figured her out, she shows me just how wrong I am.
The problem isn’t that she won’t stop taking lives, but that I can’t stop protecting her from the consequences of her actions. A fact that is bound to blow up in my face.
But I never questioned protection or destruction until she let me in.
So tell me, Nina.
Are you my safety… or my surrender?
Stone Fruit Summer: A Deliciously Messy Friends to Lovers Summer Romance by Jhéanell Westonberry
He spent seven years feeding everybody but himself.
Chef Dillion Duckworth III can braise an oxtail until it surrenders, run the most exclusive restaurant in Westonberry, and smile for a magazine that just named him Most Eligible Bachelor. What he cannot do is tell his best friend he's been in love with her since the day she walked into his kitchen out of the rain — soaked to the bone, with the wrong order and no apology for it.
Seven years of holding the door. Seven years of picking up the phone at 2 a.m. Seven years of watching a woman he'd burn the world for keep choosing a man who wouldn't cross the street for her.
Then one Valentine's night forced his hand, and what's between him and Aurelia has been curdling quietly for four months since.
Now it's summer on Everhart Hollow, the island where the wealthy summer and everybody's grandmother owns a house with a name. Dillion has brought Madeline Dubois to his family's estate. She's beautiful, she's certain about him, and she's asking for the one thing he swore he could finally give somebody: a clean start, with nothing simmering underneath.
He almost believes he can do it.
But summer in Roena County means storm season. And the thing about an island is that the ferry runs both ways.
Stone Fruit Summer is a steamy, food-drenched, all-male-POV Black contemporary romance about the cost of loving somebody right, the mess of loving somebody late, and the summer that finally forced a good man to choose. Guaranteed happily ever after. No cliffhanger.
Turn the first page and take the ferry.
Hooked On Onyx 2 by Adrian Thomas
Onyx thought surviving everything she’d been through meant she finally understood the game. But after one violent night nearly costs her life, the lines between love and obsession begin to blur, forcing Onyx to question who truly loves her and who wants to possess her.
Keen is no longer willing to pretend what he feels for Onyx is temporary. With old feelings turning into something deeper, he’s determined to prove that this time, he’s here to stay. But loving Onyx means facing the history between them, the people they’ve hurt along the way, and secrets that were never meant to come back to light.
Anthony, meanwhile, refuses to accept that Onyx was never truly his. What once looked like protection quickly becomes possession, and the harder Onyx fights to reclaim control of her life, the more dangerous his obsession becomes.
While grief, betrayal, addiction, and old street ties begin pulling everyone in different directions, Onyx is forced to confront the one thing she’s spent years avoiding: sometimes the people who claim to love you the most are the ones capable of hurting you the deepest.
When buried secrets finally surface, the fallout threatens more than just relationships. Because in a world where everybody wants a piece of Onyx, love isn’t always protection. Sometimes, it’s the most dangerous thing of all.
Home Again by Monét Soleil
Three years ago, Zuri Laurent walked away from the man she loved—and the future Xavier King never seemed ready to choose.
Since then, she has rebuilt her life without him. Her career is thriving, her peace is protected, and she has no intention of reopening a door she fought hard to close.
Then, on the crowded night before Thanksgiving, a last-minute grocery run brings her face-to-face with the one person she never expected to see again.
Xavier knows an apology cannot erase the past. He also knows he may never get another chance to prove that he is no longer the man who let fear and silence cost him everything. This time, he is ready to show up, speak clearly, and fight for the woman who has always felt like home.
As old feelings resurface and the holidays draw them closer, Zuri must decide whether Xavier has truly changed—or whether returning to him will cost her the peace she worked so hard to find.
Sometimes love deserves a second chance. But coming home means trusting that you will not be left behind again.
A Promise Covered by Grace: A Christian Romance Novel (This Far By Grace Book 6) by Taretha Jones
She’s done waiting on promises. He’s ready to build something that lasts.…
After getting her heart broken twice, Samantha Avery is done wasting years waiting for someday. Her growing faith has taught her to want more from love—truth, commitment, and a man whose life reflects the God he claims to serve.
Former R&B star Clay Benton has a past he deeply regrets and a future he never expected to share with a woman like Samantha. As their professional connection becomes something far more personal, Samantha discovers a man transformed by faith, while Clay finds himself falling for a woman who refuses to confuse grace with ignoring hard truths.
Then someone from Clay’s past begins revealing painful truths he thought he had already faced, forcing Samantha to decide whether the man Clay once was should determine the future they’re building.
Because sometimes love requires more than forgiveness. It requires truth, wisdom, faith—and a promise covered by grace.
The Trouble With Carter by Michelle Williams-Carroll
Nora Sinclair is bulletproof. As a sharp-witted mergers and acquisitions specialist, she thrives in boardrooms where the rules are written in black and white. After getting burned four years ago by an ex who called her emotionally unavailable, Nora locked the door to her heart and threw away the key. She doesn’t do messy. She doesn’t do romance. And she certainly doesn't play games.
Enter Carter Hayes.
Perpetually charming, dangerously perceptive, and accustomed to getting everything he wants, Carter is high finance’s favorite golden boy. When he spots Nora across a crowded gala, he doesn’t just see an intriguing woman—he sees a challenge. He lays down a bet: in three weeks, he’ll have her falling head over heels. Nora counters with terms of her own, determined to prove that his tailored charm and predictable playbook can’t crack her armor.
What begins as a battle of wits—complete with anonymous roses, covert coffee drops, and electric near-misses on the ice—quickly shifts. The line between calculated strategy and undeniable sincerity begins to blur, and both Nora and Carter find themselves caught in a game where winning might mean risking it all.
Can Nora let down her walls for a man who turned her into a wager, or will the ghosts of her past keep her safe and alone forever?
The Panther King's Mate (The Hybrid Wars Series Book 4) by Mika B.
Branson Cantun has resigned himself to his fate. One that he never wanted, but it would seem that the universe was not giving him a choice. Wallowing in his misery was never something he entertained, but he’d make an exception, this one time, because it has led him to her. His mate. A mate he never thought he wanted until she stepped into that bar and promptly fainted. Now that she’s in the picture, he isn’t sure he can claim his destiny without her. And according to the Ancient One, Branson doesn’t have a choice.
Shanell’s two-year relationship was a lie, and she needs distance, and fast. A spontaneous trip to her cousin’s new pack should’ve been a reset, not a collision with the silent panther shifter watching over her when she wakes. Learning he’s her mate is only the beginning. A new animal inside her, a crown she never asked for, and a bond she doesn’t fully understand hit all at once. When she finds out he’s her mate, things take a turn she never expected. A new animal to navigate, a throne to claim and a new relationship was a lot to handle in a short amount of days.
With fate throwing every obstacle their way, Shanell and Branson must decide if they can hold their fragile bond together and embrace the role she was born to claim as the Panther King’s Mate.
Grounded in Love by Kelly Cain
He’s a Texas player with a red-hot career and her best friend’s ‘baby brother.’ Definitely off-limits, right?
Donovan Hawthorne is the golden boy of the Houston oil and gas industry, a self-made powerhouse who walked away from his family’s legacy to carve his own path. Charming, successful, and infamously noncommittal, Donovan has built a reputation as a man who plays hard—both in the c-suite and in situationships.
Entrepreneur Jaymes Bandeaux has always played by the rules. For half her life, she’s harbored an unwavering and unrequited love for Donovan that she’s buried under layers of loyalty, fear of getting hurt, and knowing that if she acts on her feelings or lust, she risks far more than her heart.
But when a family emergency pulls Donovan back into the Hawthorne orbit and Jaymes’ daily life, their worlds collide. Donovan needs her help. Seeing him vulnerable cracks her steely resolve, especially when he looks at her with a scorching desire she’s utterly unprepared to fight.
As family secrets surface and personal ambitions clash, Jaymes and Donovan must decide: is love worth risking everything?
A best friend’s brother, long-time unrequited love, forced proximity romance with a commitment-phobic hero and a heroine who refuses to be his next mistake.
Beacon Grove Chronicles: Hassan & Sylvia by Dandridge Monroe
Welcome to Beacon Grove. A sleepy Georgia town founded by bootleggers that provided a safe space for freedmen. These stories chronicle the lives between the headliners. Enjoy your time in the Grove.
The Promised Bride 3: Mrs. Stone by Ciara Nashae
The altar was supposed to be the beginning of their forever.
Instead, Devyn Stone watched the man she loved fall in front of her, turning their wedding day into a bloodbath.
They honored the promise. They said the vows. But the truth that followed them down the aisle proved that some secrets don’t stay buried just because forgiveness has been given.
Azani is fighting to survive, and Devyn is left with more questions than answers. The enemy they thought they understood is only one piece of something much bigger, and the families responsible for the promise that bound them together are still carrying secrets capable of destroying everything they’ve fought to rebuild. But Devyn isn’t the same woman she was when this began.
She has spent her life being promised, protected, and kept in the dark. She survived the blood oath, betrayal, and loving a man whose secrets nearly cost them everything. Now, with her marriage, her family, and the future she never expected hanging in the balance, surviving isn’t enough anymore.
Her grandmother once taught her that women wield power differently. They don’t always announce themselves. They don’t have to charge into war to win one. Sometimes the most dangerous moves are made quietly, long before anyone realizes the game has changed. Devyn has finally learned how to play.
As old enemies resurface, buried loyalties are exposed, and generations of choices come due, Devyn and Azani must decide what they’re willing to sacrifice for the life they’ve fought so hard to have. Because this time, love isn’t the only thing worth protecting.
Old Flames: A Novel by Nadine Gonzalez
Author Jules Levy Jones is running—from her past, from her grief, and from the only man who ever really sparked her interest. Drawn to Key West for a prestigious literary festival, she finds herself back in Leo White’s orbit, and she knows she can’t run any more.
A brooding horror writer with demons of his own, Leo is more captivating than ever—and he’s determined not to let Jules walk away from him again. Not even when she confesses she’s being haunted by eerie whispers and chilling visions.
As the tropical heat rises, so does the tension between them. But Key West’s historic Aurora Inn holds more than just romance: Could the ghosts following Jules be echoes from her past? Or are they part of something more sinister?
Caught between a love they’re scared to embrace and a supernatural mystery that demands to be solved, Jules and Leo must face the ghosts of the past that threaten to consume them both.
Henny & Honey by Anniee Bee
Honey has her life mapped out...love isn't on the itinerary.
Then she meets Henny.
What starts as effortless flirting over drinks quickly turns into an undeniable attraction neither of them saw coming. With every stolen moment, lingering glance, and late-night conversation, the chemistry between them becomes impossible to ignore.
But when desire collides with real life, they'll have to decide if what they're feeling is just another intoxicating night... or something worth sobering up for.
Sometimes the sweetest temptation comes with a little burn.
Inexperienced (Inexperienced Series Book 1) by Karmen Scott
Kyrah is freshman in college who lacks the experience of what some would call a "normal" college girl. She's never had sex, she doesn't drink; she just focuses on her studies and her relationship with God. However, all of that changes once she meets her very first boyfriend. He changes her life and introduces her to a new life she'd never even thought of. But it isn't all good.
Kyrah experiences a great deal of love, disappointment, heartbreak, and some new experiences as she navigates her new young adulthood. While she's excited to experience new things, she eventually realizes that it's not worth it if she loses herself and neglects the most important relationship in her life. Will she find her way back?
Love Like This: A Second Chance, Friends-to-Lovers Romance by Rianna Reid
Anna-Kay Pryer has spent years putting herself and her daughter first. As a single mother, she's learned not to depend on anyone—and certainly not to fall in love.
Until Jeremy Makinson, her childhood friend, walks back into her life.
What starts as a rekindled friendship quickly becomes something neither of them can deny. But Anna-Kay's past isn't willing to stay buried, and the closer Jeremy gets, the more she fears that loving him could put everything she cherishes at risk.
As old wounds resurface and danger threatens the life she's built, Anna-Kay must decide if she's willing to trust again—and if Jeremy is the man who can finally give her the love, safety, and family she's always deserved.
Sometimes, the greatest love stories are the ones that find their way back home.
Session 25 by Theresa Reese
Koi has always been the loyal one.
Through every rumor, every late night, every woman who swore they had proof she stayed. She loved him harder than he deserved and defended him louder than he defended himself. But when she catches him in a betrayal that hits way too close to home, something inside her finally breaks.
Fed up and humiliated, Koi walks away from the only man she’s ever truly loved, determined to rebuild her life and her peace. What she doesn’t expect is how hard it is to let go of history or how messy things can get when family is involved.
Then she meets Roman.
He’s older, calm, intentional, and nothing like the chaos she’s used to, Roman makes Koi wonder if maybe love was never supposed to be that damn hard. But starting over sounds a lot easier when the past isn’t still knocking at your door, boundaries aren’t getting crossed, and everybody around you isn’t carrying secrets of their own.
Koi thought leaving would be the hardest part.
She was wrong.
Because by Session 25, the truth has a funny way of finding its way to the couch.
Unmasked & Broken by Tiamoya Grier
Does love taste better than habit? What note is the key to her life?
Tiyah is on an emotional rollercoaster, riding a hook-filled heartache mixtape, skipping between the tracks of where she will go and whom she will love. There are two men in her life. Jasari is the beatmaker of her heart, with a Big Love for her bridges, and wants to give her the standing ovation she deserves. CJ is the off-key chorus she keeps replaying, leaving an echo of toxicity, hurt, and lies, because she thinks that is all she deserves. Tiyah is loudly falling down a rabbit hole on the slippery slope of alcoholism, low self-esteem, and low self-worth, and she can't turn down the volume. She has to decide: will she drown her verse in another drink, or finally switch the track?
If there are any new releases that we missed, please feel free to send them our way and we will share them ASAP.