The Summer of Me by Angela Benson
352 p. (Fiction; African-American)
As a single mother, Destiny makes sacrifices for her children-including saying goodbye for the summer so they can spend time with their father and stepmother. Though she’ll miss them with all her heart, the time alone gives her an opportunity to address her own needs, like finish getting her college degree. But Destiny’s friends think her summer should include some romance.
Destiny doesn’t want to be set up…until she meets Daniel. The handsome, warm and charming pastor soon sweeps Destiny off her feet. But is romance what she really wants? Or needs?
As the days pass, Destiny will make new discoveries—about herself, the man she’s fallen for, and the people around her. And she’ll face challenging choices. But most of all, she’ll grow in ways she never imagined, learning unexpected lessons about trust, forgiveness, and the price of motherhood…and truly become the woman she wants to be.
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Before We Visit the Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
224 p. (Fiction; India)
The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family’s situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single, unforgivable misstep. Years later, Sabitri’s own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother’s choices, flees abroad with her political refugee lover—but the America she finds is vastly different from the country she’d imagined. As the marriage crumbles and Bela is forced to forge her own path, she unwittingly imprints her own child, Tara, with indelible lessons about freedom, heartbreak, and loyalty that will take a lifetime to unravel.
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The Blackbirds by Eric Jerome Dickey
528 p. (Fiction; African-American)
They call themselves the Blackbirds. Kwanzaa Browne, Indigo Abdulrahaman, Destiny Jones, and Ericka Stockwell are four best friends who are closer than sisters, and will go to the ends of the earth for one another. Yet even their deep bond can’t heal all wounds from their individual pasts, as the collegiate and post-collegiate women struggle with their own demons, drama, and desires.
Trying to forget her cheating ex-fiancé, Kwanzaa becomes entangled with a wicked one-night stand—a man who turns out to be one in five million. Indigo is in an endless on-again, off-again relationship with her footballer boyfriend, and in her time between dysfunctional relationships she purses other naughty desires. Destiny, readjusting to normal life, struggles to control her own anger after avenging a deep wrong landed her in juvi, while at the same time trying to have her first real relationship—one she has initiated using an alias to hide her past from her lover. Divorced Ericka is in remission from cancer and trying to deal with two decades of animosity with her radical mother, while keeping the desperate crush she has always had on Destiny’s father a secret…a passion with an older man that just may be reciprocated.
As the women try to overcome—or give into—their impulses, they find not only themselves tested, but the one thing they always considered unbreakable: their friendship.
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Under the Bali Moon by Octavia Grace
224 p. (Romance; African-American)
Exotic Bali is the perfect place to stage a wedding. If ambitious attorney Zena Shaw has her way, it'll also be the perfect place to prevent one. Zena loves her younger sister too much to watch her rush into a marriage she'll later regret. But Zena's mission hits an obstacle in the form of gorgeous Adan Douglass, the groom-to-be's brother—and the man who once broke Zena's heart.
Adan was just a college kid when he chose career ambition over love, but years later he regrets it. Now he's hoping to persuade the beautiful workaholic to join him at their siblings' union…and think about rekindling their own. From stunning beaches to magnificent temples, he'll show her everything this lush island has to offer—and hope these magical nights are only the beginning of forever…
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When I Fall in Love by Bridget Anderson
224 p. (Romance; African-American)
Ascending the corporate ladder has consumed most of Tayler Carter's adult life. Now the savvy Atlanta VP and female-empowerment speaker is ready for a well-deserved retreat. A fabulous antebellum mansion turned B and B in rural Kentucky is the perfect change of pace. But her host is no unsophisticated farm boy. Rugged hunk Rollin Coleman is educating Tayler in the wonders of natural food and down-home passion.
Transforming his family's struggling homestead into an organic cooperative is starting to pay off for Rollin. But without the right woman, it's a lonely existence. Until he introduces his alluring new guest to the pleasures of the countryside. And once his small-town community embraces her, can Rollin count on Tayler to leave her fast-paced world behind and together create a place they can both call home?
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As much as I love Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s writing, I struggled to figure out what was the message in her latest, Before We Visit the Goddess. The story is centered around three women: Sabitri, Bela and Tara. Generations and distance (both physical and emotional) separate them.
