Even as my friends and I enjoyed a fantastic community event yesterday in and around the Bowie Branch of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System, there was envy in my heart for all of the attendees and participants at the Black Romance Book Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Reports of issues of crowding just made me happy for the event organizers' success while they posted apologies and corrective strategies for crowd control during the last day.  In the meantime, the new arrivals shelves at the closest library in the neighboring county offered a variety of books by BRBF authors. "Where the Melanated Are Celebrated" indeed.   [9 books, from left to right: Positive Obsession, Communion, Big Girl Blitz (atop a bookstack), The Started Ex, Fire Sword & Sea, Leave Your Mess at Home, Archangel's Eternity, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, First Sign of Danger]  Currently reading Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Mo...

In addition to making time to express gratitude toward military service members who've made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms, a rainy, cold holiday weekend means more time to read (books from the public library that earlier generations of my family were forbidden to access)!    [a bookstack of 9 books, from top to bottom: Happy Ending, Seven Points, Dog Person, Unbound, Innocence Road, After Hours at Dooryard Books, Dom Com, Accidentally Married to a Werewolf, Cross Your Heart and Hope He Dies; arranged at the edge of a tabletop with bookshelves filled with games in the background]  Happy Ending by Chloe Liese  contemporary romance  Gallery Books, April 2026  a slow burn, friends-to-lovers romance in women's fiction style  from chapter 16:  Maybe, when it comes to telling the stories of our failed relationships, there are only unreliable narrators, too much hurt warping our perspectives, thwarting any chance to land on the truth of w...

Fate has been generous enough to grant me the privilege of face-to-face encounters with a few of my absolute favorite, most respected authors. My goofy geek outs are all on me.  [a 3 in. x 5 in. index card with a heart-shaped inset with 8 authors' names handprinted: Octavia Butler, Jasmine Guillory, Lesley Penelope, (Ms.) Beverly Jenkins, Xio Axelrod, Marita Golden, Nora Roberts, Nikki Giovanni; white tissue paper covered in small gold hearts as backdrop]  Octavia Butler at a Book Con in Chicago 2003 or 2004: Just seeing her from a distance made me too teary-eyed and tongue-twisted to approach her table. She and her work enrich/ed my life and inspired me to write and to publish.     Jasmine Guillory at the Javitz Center in 2015 or 2016: After a lively discussion in which she was one a few panelists, we shared a moment of appreciation for the dad (RIP John Mahoney) in Say Anything (even as my eyes watered with the overwhelming emotions of being within touching cl...

Reading about bumpy, grumpy, dangerous, funny paths to love    [2 trade paperback books, from left to right: The Re-Do List with a German Shepherd sitting on a porch step above a woman and a man seated on the step below while in a kissing clinch; A Ghastly Catastrophe with the silhouette of a man and woman dancing]  The Re-Do List by Denise Williams  contemporary romance  Fundamental themes of Alice Walker's The Same River Twice rendered in poignant romance fiction  A Ghastly Catastrophe (Veronica Speedwell #10) by Deanna Raybourn  historical mystery with romance  Tempting fate, betting against the odds, and a lovers' joyous romp (with a winky nod to this author's first beloved series?)  Better Than a Duke by Suzanne Enoch  historical romance  beleaguered adults + incorrigible children = love that's worth the effort  [Better Than a Duke trade paperback with a man wearing 19th-century attire]  Continuing BAC Issues (Book Ac...

So many books and not enough time to read all of them even while choosing sleep-deprivation and creative interpretations of soft deadlines for works in progress to squeeze in just a few more minutes and pages.  [5 upright books, from left to right: The Librarians, Most Eligible, The Book Tour, Enemies to Lovers, Skate It Till You Make It; a bookstack of 9 books, from top to bottom: After Hours at Dooryard Books, Dom Com, Behind Closed Doors, Accidentally Married to a Werewolf, Cross Your Heart and Hope He Dies, and 4 books showing only the outer page edges, all 14 books arranged on a padded piano bench]  Skate It Till You Make It by Rufaro Faith Mazarura  contemporary romance  February 2026  Regrets and crossroads, Olympic Village edition  Enemies to Lovers by Alisha Rai  contemporary romance  Avon, April 2026  Generational shadiness, redemption, and new possibilities  The Book Tour by Emily Ohanjanians  contemporary romance  D...

Happy endings and happily ever afters for all consenting adults!    ["40 + MORE..." with "and" handwritten across the center of the plus sign]  Struck Speechless by Tati Richardson  The Blessings series by (Ms) Beverly Jenkins  Hot Flash Hookups series by Marika Ray & Sylvie Stewart  Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn  After Happily Ever by Jennifer Safrey  A Fire at Romanticon by H.L  Brooks (my The Bitchy Quill podcast co-host and partner in bookish adventures)  an upcoming PNR release from Bea Paige  > honorable mention Chocolate Chip City by Be Steadwell, a youngster who writes real grown  An idea suggested during a chat with the founder of The Feminine Rebellion has me brainstorming ways to support fun fiction, particularly romance, written by* and about grown women/femme-identifying/non-binary/gender neutral people.  Please share your 40+/and More... authors and titles in the comments!   Halle Be...