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African American Fiction June 2026 |
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The Revelation of Dionne Daphne
by Mara Brock Akil
Mara Brock Akil, the award-winning creator of Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane, Love Is, and Forever, pens an emotionally enthralling debut novel about enduring love, world-shattering secrets, and self-awakening.What happens when one knock at your door sends your entire world into chaos? When a stranger becomes a lifeline? When the reality you've meticulously curated seems to be a mirage? From the outside looking in, one might say that Dionne Daphne had it all: being the beauty editor at a prestigious New York magazine, a boyfriend who could have been plucked out of its model pages, the social life of the upper echelon, and a girlhood steeped in debutant balls. But that is from the outside. When the now ex-boyfriend arrives at her Brooklyn doorstep Dionne imagines reconciliation, going back to the good life brimming with the possibility of marriage; the life her mother always wanted for her. Instead, he delivers life-threatening news that creates a crack in her picture-perfect world. A crack that grows legs and runs her right into her past, unearthing a secret that she has hidden since childhood. In an effort to run toward the truth and away from a lie, Dionne sets out on a spur-of-the-moment road trip with an unlikely stranger to confront the long-buried darkness of her past and the family who made it so. As Dionne comes to a final reckoning, she begins to unravel new layers of herself and fresh possibilities for her life, her family, and even her love.The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is at once a deeply moving and provocatively gripping novel that shows when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life, light can be revealed. It's a novel of broken lovers, a fractured family, and distant friendships all making their way back to one another.
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A Pair of Aces
by Marie Benedict
A gripping novel about two trailblazing women on opposite sides of the law--a prosecutor and a madam--who team up to bring down notorious Mob boss Lucky Luciano in 1930s New York, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the million-copy bestseller The Personal Librarian. Eunice Carter, assistant district attorney for the City of New York and Manhattan's first Black female prosecutor, has her sights set on the one and only Lucky Luciano, head of New York City's five largest organized crime families. Other prosectors have tried to bring down Lucky, but they've all focused on the crime syndicate's traditional businesses--bootlegging, gambling, loan sharking, and drug dealing--or tax evasion. No one has thought to approach the mob through its role in prostitution. Until Eunice. But she can't get Luciano alone. Polly Adler has worked long and hard to build up her high-class brothel business. Her client list is filled with well-known names, both the famous and the infamous, who all know her booze is top-notch, her music first-rate, her food exquisite, and her girls the best. But Lucky has gone too far, putting her girls in danger, and Polly finally sees the chance to end his reign once and for all. Together, Eunice and Polly fashion a case utilizing a network of women. Bridging the enormous divide between them and risking their own lives, they assemble evidence bit by bit, under the nose of the man they're trying to convict. It is this very alliance--of two women from vastly different worlds--that launches the most sensational trial New York City has ever seen.
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They All Fall in Love at the End
by Haili Blassingame
Cat St. Clair is ready for her messy love triangle era now that she's in an open relationship. But she didn't foresee a forbidden love triangle with the only two people who are off-limits: her boyfriend's best friend and his girlfriend. Being a twenty-something writer who lives for plot, she falls for them anyway, with deliciously disastrous consequences, in this electric literary debut for fans of Xochitl Gonzalez, Coco Mellors, Lily King, and Raven Leilani. It's the fall of 2024, and twenty-four-year-old Cat isn't asking for too much: all she wants is three boyfriends, to write her little novels, and to survive another chaotic presidential election. She's in an open relationship with her college sweetheart Jay, but nonmonogamy isn't just a hot trend she's trying. It's her sliver of freedom in a world eager to wrestle it from her for being a Black woman going after what she wants with reckless abandon. While political tensions roil the campus where Cat is slowly earning her creative writing degree, she finds herself drawn to Jay's best friend, Tristan, who's smart, super hot, and...in a monogamous relationship. And then she meets Tristan's girlfriend, Nia, a captivating art student with her own gravitational pull. Friends and family urge her to just be happy with Jay, but Cat is determined to have it all--or blow up her life trying. As she falls for all the wrong people, racking up lies, betrayals, and terrible drafts of her novel, she tries to write her way to a happy ending. But in art, politics, and love, true liberation may take more than rewriting the old scripts. It may mean inventing something entirely new.
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The Summer Girlfriend
by Kristina Forest
A fake summer fling between a stand-in girlfriend and a handsome business heir becomes way too real in this glittering new romance by USA Today bestselling author Kristina Forest. Noelle Lewis doesn't have time for long walks on the beach, brunch with the girls, or summer vacations. She's too busy saving up to go back to college. After recently getting laid off from her bookseller job, her main gig is now serving as a stand-in bridesmaid, which doesn't pay enough for the upcoming semester's tuition. But then the perfect, if not unconventional, opportunity arises... Jeremiah Smith II, grandson of the founder of Smith's Sweets--a well-known baked goods company--once lived a life of frivolity. Since his grandfather's death, Jeremiah's tried to clean up his act, but it's hard to focus when his family requests that he join them at their summer house in Heart Beach, New Jersey, where his most painful memory lies. To avoid going there, Jeremiah claims he already has plans with his girlfriend, and of course, his family tells him to bring her. The problem? Jeremiah doesn't have a girlfriend. After a chance meeting, Noelle and Jeremiah come to an agreement. He'll hire her to be his stand-in girlfriend for the weekend, and she'll use that money toward her tuition. She figures it will be quick, easy money, but as it turns out, Jeremiah's family is lovely, and Jeremiah is even lovelier. Soon, a weekend agreement turns into an entire summer, and Noelle and Jeremiah will have to keep their hearts in check, or else it's sink or swim for them both.
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The Quarter Queen
by Kayla Hardy
A Voodoo witch must navigate a magically and racially divided nineteenth-century New Orleans to save her mother--and the soul of the city itself--in this lush debut novel inspired by the life of Marie Laveau. A riveting read that does not shy away from both the light and the dark aspects of the supernatural.--Essence (Most Anticipated Books of 2026) An edgy, intoxicating novel pulsing with the dark heartbeat of 1840s New Orleans and a fiery mother-daughter dynamic I won't soon forget.--Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary A Book Rio, Reactor, and Read Between the Spines Best Book of the Month Pick In 1843 New Orleans, the reigning Voodoo queen is Marie Laveau, feared by her enemies and followers alike. Her daughter, Marie Ree Laveau the Second, is everything her cutthroat and principled mother is not--spoiled and entitled, with a wickedly rebellious streak--and defies her mother at every turn. But Ree's world is turned upside down when she finds Marie comatose in the bayou, cursed by exiled Voodoo king Jon the Conjurer--Marie's former teacher, lover, and greatest enemy. As Marie hovers on the brink of death, Ree races to uncover the secrets of her mother's life in search of a cure and gradually uncovers a web of alliances, dangers, and deception. What's worse, Henryk Broussard, Ree's long-missing childhood best friend, returns as a witch hunter of the Church, tasked with investigating her. With so many enemies circling, including a puritanical-minded Brotherhood of alchemists and the slave-holding mayor of the city, Ree must confront the past and face her mother's demons that have now become her own--or die trying. Told in alternating timelines between Ree in the present and Marie's rise to power twenty-five years earlier, The Quarter Queen is an intimate yet epic portrait of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand one another, and a captivating exploration of racism, family, and womanhood.
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There's Only One Sin in Hollywood
by Rasheed Newson
A cinematic, razor-sharp novel following a backlot fixer's daring investigation into the suspicious death of a closeted Black actor within the glamorous world of Hollywood, from the bestselling author of My Government Means to Kill Me. Xavier C. Barlow, one of Hollywood's young Black stars taking the industry by storm in the late 1950s, is Skyline Studios's ambitious attempt to rival Sidney Poitier's burgeoning success. His arrival into the industry is calculated, his charm is magnetic, and his seductive screen presence appeals to both audiences and celebrities across generations. But years later, after Xavier dies at the height of his fame, Aaron Touissant-Skyline's designated backlot fixer who helps the studio's stars stay as deep in the closet as humanly possible-is finally ready to expose the powerful culprits responsible for his untimely death. Written as part-confessional, part-cris de coeur from Aaron's panoramic lens, There's Only One Sin in Hollywood is a searing portrait of the movie industry as a manicured minefield and a compelling journey into the queer history of Los Angeles-- Provided by publisher.
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Witch Queen Rising
by Savannah Stephens
A reclusive witch who fled the burden of her bloodline rises to be the greatest among them in this lush and haunting fantasy debut. For New Orleans witchkin, there is no greater honor than to become the Prime-chosen to rule. But the title is meant to pass between two rival Houses of magic. Not to the prodigal daughter of the former Prime who died under mysterious circumstances. As a girl, Seraphine Barreau was dubbed the Tick Witch for her ability to feed on magic and make it her own. Even among those who alter fate and manipulate reality, she was a powerful outcast feared and misunderstood by her people. Now dragged back to continue the legacy that nearly destroyed her, Phine has her work cut out for her. She must earn the respect of her people, navigate the politics of the paranormal communities residing in her city, and heal a broken heart all the while battling a parasitic curse poisoning witchkin. Between her werewolf ex, power-hungry vampires, and the skeletons in her family's closet, Phine must learn to make peace with her past to save her-and all of witchkin's-future-- Provided by publisher.
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The Missed Connection
by Tia Williams
Tia Williams is one of the very best romance writers we have. A forever auto-buy for me. - Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author New York Times bestselling author Tia Williams returns with an intensely romantic, deliciously sexy tale about a woman searching for her handsome seatmate on a European flight--and the unexpected places her hunt for love leads her. Sasha Cruz knows types. As a booked-and-busy casting agent, she's always casting--at happy hour, the grocery store, everywhere. She's all about finding the perfect person to slot into the perfect role. What she doesn't do, however, is relationships. Too much energy, not enough time. On a flight to Paris for work, a chance encounter with her type changes everything. Sasha's seated next to a broodingly attractive mystery man, and sparks fly--but they never exchange contact information. Convinced she's lost out on her soulmate, Sasha emails her work friend for help, but accidentally writes to the entire company worldwide The international manhunt to find Seat F begins. Meanwhile Sasha takes matters into her own hands. She hires a smoldering detective she knew in another lifetime--who complicates matters in unforeseen (and irresistible) ways. With a worldwide search underway, will love take flight for Sasha?
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