3.25✨ 🎧 I know I’m in the minority. I love Ilya & Shane (but honestly Hudson & Connor’s portrayal even more), and I’ll watch S2 of HR, but this one didn’t fully land. Slow until ~75%, wanted way more depth (especially re: mental health). Still a Loon though. Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 #booksky

4.5✨ 🎧 Casey Black, social media influencer, has her life implode when her husband leaves. In searching for her late father’s family, she starts finding herself too. Packed with rich history, warmth, healing & joy. A bit predictable at times, but I couldn’t put it down. #booksky #Blackbooksky

4.75✨ This debut follows Nikki Rose, a Black woman fighting to prove herself in the mostly white magazine industry while giving us a front-row seat to the 90’s hip-hop scene. Zero drag, and the perfect mix of drama, romance, self discovery and sisterhood. 🎧 Spice: 🌶️/5 #Blackbooksky #booksky

4.5✨ Powerful true-crime book about a man, falsely convicted of murder at 17 and imprisoned for 30 years. His exoneration exposed corruption in the police & judicial system. Excellent narration - a few sections dragged. 🎧 Thanks to NetGalley & Dreamscape Media for the ALC. #booksky #Blackbooksky

4.75✨🎧 We follow pianist, Hazel Scott from NYC jazz clubs to a U.S. congressman husband, to Paris and back. Music, joy, pain, loss, renewal, and some familiar and surprising names. Spent the night listening to her music! Thanks to NetGalley & Harper Audio for the ALC. #booksky #blackbooksky

My January reads brought to you by @thestorygraph.com !! Which is the best place to organize your current reads as well as your TBR! It’s also NOT owned by Amazon! 💜💜 #booksky #Blackbooksky #bluesky

3.25✨ Didn’t love the audiobook, narrator felt unnatural and distracting, which dulled the emotional impact. Writing felt technical compared to the show (which I loved). The story is powerful: redefining masculinity and showing love as love. Might retry as a physical book. 🎧 | 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 #booksky

5✨ Most of us are quite familiar with Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a Dream” speech but how many of us know “Letter from Birmingham Jail”? I reread this book yearly and glean more and more each time I read. I hope you pick it up this year as well. #booksky #blackbooksky

4.25✨ This YA book is giving Back to the Future meets 90’s hip hop vibes! Raheem is using a phone from his friend but is it just a phone? Next thing, he has been teleported to the 1990’s where hip-hop is king and he has to get back home while not changing the future! #blackbooksky #booksky

5✨ 🎧A short but powerful book told through letters between two friends, one Jewish man in the U.S. & his German friend living in Germany during Hitler’s rise. Eerily relevant to today’s political climate. Don’t skip the foreword or afterword. Twists: 🌪️ #booksky

4✨ Prudence’s perfect life shatters when a ghost from her past arrives.The story moves between her present day and post-apartheid South Africa (1996), where she worked on apartheid-era cases. A slow-burn thriller & historical fiction with a shocking ending. Version: 🎧 Twists: 🌪️🌪️/5 #💙📚 #blackbooksky

4.5✨ The Princess Bride is an amazing movie and is one of the few movies that does the book justice. Listening to Rob Reiner narrate was heart wrenching but also lovely. You can tell he was not a professional narrator, just someone who loved the book and that was enough for me! Enjoy! #booksky

4.25✨ Nadia, Luke & Aubrey are living life impacted by a secret that won’t stay buried. After losing her mom Nadia searches for love in a fast, doomed romance with Luke and then a friendship with Aubrey. Deeply human characters, messy choices & so much miscommunication. 🎧 Audiobook Spice :🌶️/5

Check out my 2025 bookish year in review from @thestorygraph!!! Be sure to follow me there (Robin1b)! I read books to inspire, educate, and relax me and I hope you do too! Read to grow for yourself and not for others! #booksky #blackbooksky

4.75✨ 🎧 Erivo’s autobiography is heartfelt & inspiring. More than a performer, she’s a runner, daughter, & friend. From her childhood to Jesus Christ Superstar, she invites us to live boldly & be “simply more.” “If it is boring the life out of you, it is not your life.” #booksky #Blackbooksky

4.5✨🎧 Grace and Henry both lost their spouses a year ago. It’s time for the first holiday season without them. A beautiful friendship focused on shared grief blossoms. Full of holiday cheer, a heart wrenching & warming storyline & well developed characters that you will fall in love with! #booksky

4✨ Speculative fiction that made me 🤔. A “post-racial” America where white people disappear, centered on a bi-racial daughter & her Black father meeting for the first time after his wrongful incarceration. Raises big questions about power, trauma, healing & community. 🎧 #Blackbooksky #booksky

3.75✨ Super cute Christmas novella set in the town of Candy Cane Hollow, near London. When Holly Wood arrives a young woman is found dead and Mrs. Clause is the prime suspect! Full of Christmas cheer, a mystery, a few twists & a budding romance! Version: 🎧 Twists: 🌪️ #booksky

4.25✨ Two business executives used to be childhood friends. Their parents owned a business together but after that went south so did their friendship. Now, they are competing for the same job and end up in the same town in the same hotel room! Thanks to NetGalley (ALC) Version: 🎧 Spice: 🌶️🌶️/5

3.75✨ An author who is struggling with inspiration, a firefighter who struggles with his past and a small town called Santa Clause! Good story but lost me a bit in the middle due to focus on the spicy scenes and less on the actual story. 🎧 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 Holiday: 🎄🎄🎄/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

3.5✨ Bee and Clover swap apartments as both are looking to get away from home for the holidays and find a fresh start across the country. This book fell flat and didn’t bring me the Christmas vibes I was looking for. 💪🏾 LGBTQIA+ rep! Version: 🎧 Spice: 🔥 Holiday cheer: 🎄 #booksky #Blackbooksky

4✨ Christmasy Noel rents out her apartment for the holidays. In walks Kanton, a business man (Scrooge) with a plan. Much to his surprise Noel is home when he arrives and they must coexist for the week. Predictable but cute! Version: 🎧 Spice: 🔥🔥.5/5 Holiday Cheer: 🎄🎄🎄🎄/5 #blackbooksky #booksky

I knew it’d be tough to read, and it was. It’s well structured, essy to read, and doesn’t drop huge bombs, but it does share some surprising political moments. What stands out most is her genuine concern for the country and her willingness to own her mistakes. Version: 🎧 #booksky #Blackbooksky

The last month I’ve been moving a bit slower. Taking time to reflect and breath. I read my books a little slower and that’s ok. Here are my November reads brought to you by @thestorygraph.com . An independent company that is doing this book thing on their own. #booksky #Blackbooksky

3.0✨ The book focuses on a wedding in the family. The bride finds out that an assassination is set to happen and she can’t tell anyone except her funny aunties! Some of the laughs are there but it dragged. Not as good as the first in the series. Version: 🎧 Twists: 🌪️🌪️ #booksky #bluesky

4.0✨ It gave full-on “how did we get here?” energy, involving one daughter, four Chinese-Indonesian aunties, a dead body, a wedding, and a second-chance romance - all in one book! Sometimes you just need a ridiculous, feel-good escape. Version: 🎧 via Libby Twists: 🌪️🌪️🌪️/5 #booksky #bluesky

3.5✨This bio is thorough, messy, and honest. Pearlman digs deep, sometimes too deep, and the audiobook drags. He covers Afeni, the Panthers, Pac’s brilliance, contradictions, and the harm he caused. Main critique: the cultural and systemic context is often missed. Version: 🎧 ALC from NetGalley

3.75✨ Well written? Did it pull me in? Major twists? YES! But, there was one big storyline element that just didn’t work for me. Can’t say more without spoilers, but definitely Google the trigger warnings before diving in. Version: 🎧 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 Twists: 🌪️🌪️🌪️.5/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

4✨ Dark. Twisty. Intense. Jane is in a loveless marriage, in a house she hates, with a career that has never gotten off the ground. But all this is about to change when she finds out her college friend Thalia is going to be at a writers con. Read it! Version: 🎧 Twists: 🌪️🌪️🌪️/5 #booksky #bluesky

3.50✨ Summer’s Echo is a story of friends to lovers, lost love, and a whole lot of slow burn. The story flips between Summer and Echo, both as teens and then as adults, right after Summer’s wedding goes up in smoke. Moved way too slow. Not my fave. Version: 🎧 Spice: 🌶️🌶️/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

4.5✨ Natasha Bishop has officially become one of my go-to romance authors, and the final book in her “Lost and Found” series did not disappoint! We’ve got a second-chance romance, a demanding father, and women’s sports all in one book! Read the series Version: 🎧 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA. I’ve been busy becoming an official half marathoner! Back to your regularly scheduled reading programming #booksky #Blackbooksky

3.5✨ Two POVs: a 1930s actress and a 1950s ballerina dealing with her father’s death. Their stories intertwine, but I never felt fully pulled in. Clocked the culprit early, which made the rest feel like a slow march. Thanks to NetGalley for the ALC. Version: 🎧 Spice: 🌶️/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

3.25✨ Mafia romance wasn’t quite for me. 1️⃣Spice? Very morally grey. Felt like it was steering the plot more than supporting it 2️⃣Story itself needed more meat. 3️⃣SO many pop culture references. Easy listen and great narrators Thanks to NetGalley for ALC. Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 #Blackbooksky #booksky

5✨Did y’all know there was a Black king & queen on US soil, who were formerly enslaved? Me neither. A real town built by formerly enslaved folks, determined to build a life on their own terms. They called it The Happy Land. History we should have learned in school. #Blackbooksky #booksky #Bluesky

September reads: @thestorygraph.com #booksky #Blackbooksky

4✨ A rollercoaster ride. Deep-state vibes, a Supreme Court justice in a coma, and his legal clerk suddenly thrust into some high-stakes political chaos. She’s dodging operatives, unraveling secrets, & can’t trust anyone, especially not the government. 🎧 Twists: 🌪️🌪️🌪️/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

4.75✨ We finally get Sophie’s story. In book one she came off as a privileged socialite. Enter Trevor Bishop. He sees Sophie, not just the beauty and chaos, but the soul underneath. A love story that’s hot, heartfelt, and deep. Trigger warning: Rape Version: 🎧 Spice:🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

4.5✨ Cam + Jo’s story was just wow. Their love is epic. Ryan digs deep, and what unfolds is one of the most layered, beautiful stories I’ve ever read. I’m still processing. Topics-child abuse & addiction -handled with care and purpose. Version: 🎧 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

4.5✨ This second book pulled me in way more than the first. Walsh and Kerris’ story continues, complicated, emotional, and real. It’s not just about love, it’s heartbreak, healing, and hope. All the big stuff. Definitely sticking with this series. Version: 🎧 Spice: 🌶️🌶️/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

4.25⭐ 🎧 She Didn’t See It Coming kept me up way too late. A wife vanishes, suddenly everyone in her life is a suspect. Devoted husband? Best friend? Sister? Stranger? The twists had me second-guessing everyone to the last page. 🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️ twists / 🌶️ spice #booksky #bluesky

Kerris is dating Cam, but her heart belongs to his best friend, Walsh. That’s the story. I wanted to love this, but the miscommunication wore me down. Didn’t connect with the characters, but I’ll keep reading the series, I’m in too deep. #booksky #Blackbooksky

TW: Harm to children ⭐️ 2.5/5 | 🌪️ Twists: 4/5 Solid twists & I didn’t guess the ending but it dragged. Each chapter introduced a new suspect, with flat characters. Gets graphic near the end, felt uncomfortable. The ending? No closure. Also, basically a JonBenét Ramsey copy. #booksky #bluesky

4✨ Where We Found Our Heart is a sequel. It is a romance novel, and while I did miss the suspenseful edge of the first, it delivered on sweetness, swoon, and spice. Heartfelt romance, emotionally available men, and feels like a hug. Version: 🎧 Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/5 #booksky #Blackbooksky

4✨ The new neighbors have moved in and Miranda is trying to make friends with the wife, Anna but has concerns about her husband Frazier though. She knows someone is in danger, but who? Great narration & twists!! I need a neck brace! Thanks to NetGalley and Bookoture for the ALC. 🌶️🌶️ 🌪️🌪️🌪️ #booksky

3.5✨ Was super excited but ended up struggling a bit. I think reading the physical copy may have worked better for me.⁠ I loved the romance between Raphael & Neto, and the uprisings had me wanting to dig deep. But the dual timelines were a bit hard to follow. Version: 🎧 Spice: 🌶️/5 #booksky

August reads via @thestorygraph.com ! I actually DNF’d three books this month. Life is too short to not enjoy books. #booksky #Blackbooksky #bluesky

5✨ READ THIS 📕. This powerful historical fiction novel brings you back to 1921, Greenwood, Oklahoma. A thriving Black community, wiped out overnight after a white mob attacks in response to a false accusation. This story captures the fear, strength & heartbreak. Version: 🎧 #booksky #Blackbooksky

4✨ A widowed small-town author picks up a stranger with amnesia from the side of the road and I was SCREAMING at her from page one! Should’ve known better, with KM, nothing is ever what it seems. This novella had twists on twists on twists! Version: 🎧 Twists: 🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️/5 #booksky #bluesky