Winner Fiction: African-American Fiction 2022 Best Book Awards
Friendship Matters, is a splashy and spicy novel that demonstrates the staying power of friendship.
Meet Saisha (pronounced “say-sha”) who spends her days selling real estate and her nights with sundry men, some otherwise entangled, some not. But to what end?
Her friend Euniqé (pronounced “unique”), a widowed psychologist with her own private practice, has no interest in a love life. She’s quite satisfied with raising her son, Tyree, until she’s confronted with a gentleman who is committed to gaining her time and attention.
Rounding out the trio is Kandace, a stay-at-home mom who has many talents but sacrificed her dreams for her not-so-perfect husband, is raising two beautiful children and has access to buy anything and everything she desires. However, what she desires most can’t be bought.
By turns moving, funny, and inspirational, Friendship Matters is a timeless, charming story about three women who need each other just as much as they need the very air they breathe.
Finalist Fiction: African-American 2022 Best Book Awards
There is nothing ordinary about the journey we take in life, or the people in it.
A tale of starting over and an unforgettable odyssey of healing.
How We Healed follows Drunetta Brown, an oppressed black housewife desperate to escape her drunkard husband and small-town southern life. After fleeing with her youngest children to New York City in 1957, she finds unlikely friendship with Sister Rose, a church secretary, and Miss “Raycie” Rayceen, a boisterous bar singer. These women prove to be the right friends at the right time as they help Drunetta navigate her journey of self-discovery. With a determination uncharacteristic of her time, Drunetta ultimately learns what’s worth sacrificing—and, more importantly, what isn’t—to secure her place in a changing world.
Finalist Fiction: African-American 2022 Best Book Awards
Is the past always how it appears?
Trey Dalton is charismatic, thoughtful, and accomplished, but every year, he’s sorely reminded of how he left the love of his life, Tristyn Miller, without so much as a goodbye. Now, due to a healthy dose of fate and his mama’s prayers, he’s run into Tristyn and is determined to prove to her that she’s the one. Will he be able to convince her that he’s changed or will his past keep him from his future?
Tristyn’s life is practically perfect. She has a good job, great friends, and an incredible boyfriend that she’s kind of in love with. But now that coincidence has plopped her ex boyfriend, Trey, right in front of her, she’s second guessing everything. Life with Trey was always fun, steamy, and felt right, but fears of him leaving again plague her thoughts. Will she stick with her safe life, or will she give into her feelings so things can be just like old times?
Finalist Fiction: African-American Fiction 2022 Best Book Awards
Nate survived a brutal conversion therapy attempt, but can she survive her family reunion? After fourteen years away from home, she’s back in Montego Bay to find out.
Written in five parts, "Pum Pum Rock—There's No Place Like Homo" delves deep into orthodox Caribbean thinking. From Jamaica's white sandy beaches and savory local cuisine to the institutionalized homophobia rampant in the island's rhythmic culture, the novel gives readers a very real look at the hypocrisies embedded within the Caribbean's most popular destination.
The story follows Natalia Higgins (Nate). The daughter of a diplomat, she's a teen of means; however, readers quickly learn that living as a homosexual in paradise comes with a hefty price. They're called Buggery Laws, and in Jamaica, breaking them either lands you in jail or causes you to suffer a fate one hundred times worse. In Nate's case, that fate is corrective rape. And while she survives the brutal failed attempt, her coming out divides the family.
Finalist Fiction: African-American 2022 Best Book Awards
Mahalia and Malcolm know that they do not belong to the typical African American family, but that doesn't stop them from loving their family and just being kids. After their home is invaded by a masked stranger, the siblings set off on a brave and daring adventure to rescue their family. Plunged into an incredible battle to save the family, the kids struggle with the normal fears and anxieties, but they soon discover the enormous range of their superpowers! They also discover incredible secrets about their family: like Douglass: the family's robot and RedTail1, the family's aircraft. The most important discovery they uncover is the courage that it takes to keep a superhero family together. Filled with excitement and riveting escapades, The Adventures of Mahalia and Malcolm: the Robinsons, is the perfect book to show young readers that superheroes come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages!
Finalist Fiction: African-American 2022 Best Book Awards
The Sickness, a disease with unknown origins, is killing white children in the antebellum South, but Perpetua, a Black enslaved woman, is facing something much more devastating: Her daughter Meenie is missing. What she finds in her search for her child will change her life forever.
By fusing the past and present with the power of prose and poetry, Leslie T. Grover poignantly explores the ripple effect of history and the nature of love and family and the ties that bind.
