Title: Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters Author: Jessica P. Pryde, Carole V. Bell, Sarah Hannah Gómez, Jasmine Guillory, Da’Shaun Harrison, Margo Hendricks, Adriana Herrera, Piper Huguley, Kosoko Jackson, Nicole M. Jackson, Christina C. Jones, Julie Moody-Freeman, Allie Parker
Source: NetGalley
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:
Summary: This was a great bland of touching personal stories, history, and thoughtful analysis.
When I first starting reading romance, I immediately loved how light and enjoyable the genre can be. Unlike nonfiction, where I’m often working to learn and retain new knowledge, I let myself relax into a romance, swept away by the characters’ emotions. However, I also immediately recognized that there was a lot of interesting content to discuss in a romance. This included topics like consent, equality, and respect in relationships. This book showed me that I was more right than I knew. This was an incredible collection of essays by people who write romance and/or professionally analyze romance novels, specifically those by or about Black people. I think it made a strong case for the value of romance and of representation within romance novels. It also highlighted the depth to be found if you take the time to really think about these apparently “light” novels.
Now, don’t get me wrong – this book isn’t all academic and the authors’ certainly appreciate the joy and escapism of romance. In fact, this book included a great mix of stories about the authors’ personal connections to the romance genre; the history of the genre; and analysis of specific books and trends. It made me think about romance in new ways and highlighted trends I hadn’t noticed or hadn’t thought about before.
Some of the essays were more optimistic about Black representation in romance and others less so. Sometimes we got several different perspectives on the same topic – interracial romances, for example. The collection felt quite well rounded. And – it’s always a wonderful surprise to say this about a multi-author collection – there wasn’t a single essay I disliked in the whole book. There were a ton of recommendations for books and authors to check out. I thought about highlighting them all, but was thrilled to see that these recommendations are already collected in a list at the end of the book. I must say, it’s been a great year already for essay collections and this is another one that I highly recommend!
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