Showing results by narrator "Angel Pean" in All Categories

Romantic love has been one of the most essential elements of storytelling for centuries. But for Black people in the United States and across the diaspora, it hasn't often been easy to find Black romance joyfully showcased in entertainment media. In this collection, revered authors and sparkling newcomers, librarians and academicians, and avid fans and reviewers consider the mirrors and windows into Black love as it is depicted in the novels, television shows, and films that have shaped their own stories.

Dane Golden - best friend. Temptation in football cleats. Roommate? I’m screwed. His followers don’t call him Pretty Boy D for nothing. The guy is, literally, God’s gift to women. I should know. I’ve watched chicks throw themselves at him since puberty. Sharing his loft should be simple. Easy. But shortly after I settle in, we realize being "just friends" was so much easier when we weren’t sleeping under the same roof. Seven years of thinking we had this down to a science goes out the window the night Dane sees my “Never Have I Ever” list.

After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids including an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist find themselves in the same evacuation camp. As they cope with the aftermath of having their world upended, they grow curious about the mysterious threat.

Monique is a preacher’s daughter who detests the impossible rules of her religion. Everyone expects her to wait until marriage, so she has no one to turn to when she discovers that she physically can’t have sex. After two years of trying and failing, her boyfriend breaks up with her. To win him back, Monique teams up with straight-laced church girl Sasha—who is surprisingly knowledgeable about Monique’s condition—as well as Reggie, the misunderstood bad boy who always makes a ruckus at church, and together they embark upon a top-secret search for the cure.

War doesn’t scare Jerusalem. She’s a Saint. Thanks to powerful demigod-style reflexes, endurance, and strength, she’s fearless. And she has one goal—revenge. But she never expects to team up with the handsome, arrogant Alexei to accomplish it. He’s one of those Ancient Vampires. And ever since her family was enslaved and murdered by one, Jerusalem hates vampires. But in the year they've been fighting alongside one another against the Confederate Army and the vampires who benefitted off slavery, Alexei’s never done anything but prove he’s on the Union’s side and hers.

Portico Reeves’s superpower is making sure all the other superheroes—like his parents and two best friends—stay super. And safe. Super safe. And he does this all in secret. No one in his civilian life knows he’s actually…Stuntboy! But his regular Portico identity is pretty cool, too. He lives in the biggest house on the block, maybe in the whole city, which basically makes it a castle. His mom calls where they live an apartment building. But a building with fifty doors just in the hallways is definitely a castle.

First Contact has not been going well. The nations of Earth are rapidly militarizing against the arrival of the Superorganism, an alien civilization that promises to destroy humanity before it can develop into a real threat. The Superorganism has done it before–to their distant transient relatives–and they could easily do it again. But the alien Ampersand and his human interpreter Cora Sabino are done with trying to save humanity from both the Superorganism and itself; to them, this is a civilization that does not deserve to be saved.

One Missing Person. Two Rival Detectives. Infinite Chemistry. This rollicking thrill ride told in alternating “he said/she said” perspectives is an irresistible blend of mystery, sexual tension, and humor.

Carlisa “Carli” Henton is a musician and songwriter hoping to follow in her father’s musical footsteps. But, biding her time until she makes it big in the music industry, she works as a junior account manager at a big-name media company to cover her New York City rent. Carli meticulously balances her work with her musical endeavors as a songwriter—until a chance meeting with rising star Tau Anderson sends her calculated world into a frenzy. Their worlds collide and quickly blur the strict lines Carli has drawn between her business and her personal life.

Josephine Thomas has heard every conceivable theory about her mother's disappearance. That she was kidnapped. Murdered. That she took on a new identity to start a new family. That she was a witch. This is the most worrying charge because in a world where witches are real, peculiar behavior raises suspicions and a woman—especially a Black woman—can find herself on trial for witchcraft.

Sixteen-year-old Kellan DuCuivre is the descendant of traitors. She never knew her family members or which one of them betrayed the isle of Nanseau. But like all Du orphaned after the war, Kellan is forbidden by law from practicing makecraft, the trade of carving magic into metal that was perfected by the Guild of Engineers and their maker apprentices. No one can know that Kellan has been using makecraft in secret and that, in the wake of a tragic miscarve, she’s been helping her adoptive father, Edgar, run his celebrated makeshop.

Lamb's family strives to better their lives in Jackson, Mississippi, in the late 1930s. Lamb’s mother is a hard-working, creative seamstress who cannot reveal she's a lesbian. Lamb’s brother has a brilliant mind and has even earned a college scholarship for a black college up north—if only he could curb his impulsiveness and rebellious nature.

Rain is keeping a big secret from everyone around her: She's sad. All the time. Rain struggles with her image and feels inferior to her best friend, Nara. Not even her all-star student-athlete big brother (and personal superhero), Xander, can help Rain with her dark thoughts and low self-esteem. And when Xander becomes the victim of violence at a predominantly white university, Rain’s life and mind take a turn for the worse. But when her favorite teacher, Miss Walia, invites her to an after-school circle group, Rain finds the courage to help herself and her family heal.

A boyband fandom becomes a conduit to coming out. A former bully becomes a first-kiss prospect. One nonbinary kid searches for an inclusive athletic community after quitting gymnastics. Another nonbinary kid, who happens to be a pirate, makes a wish that comes true - but not how they thought it would. A tween girl navigates a crush on her friend's mom. A young witch turns herself into a puppy to win over a new neighbor. A trans girl empowers her online bestie to come out.

Nikki Tate is infamous, even by Las Vegas standards. Her dad is sitting on death row, convicted of killing his best friend in a gambling dispute turned ugly. And for five years, he's maintained his innocence. But Nikki wants no part of that. She's been working on Operation Escape Vegas: playing in illegal card games so she can save up enough money to get out come graduation day.

In his first work for the theater, James Baldwin brought all the fervor and majestic rhetoric of the storefront churches of his childhood along with an unwavering awareness of the price those churches exacted from their worshipers. For years Sister Margaret Alexander has moved her Harlem congregation with a mixture of personal charisma and ferocious piety. But when Margaret's estranged husband, a scapegrace jazz musician, comes home to die, she is in danger of losing both her standing in the church and the son she has tried to keep on the godly path.

Ice-skater Mina is on a one-track path to Olympic gold and glory—that is, until she totally wipes out at her biggest competition, and is kinda-sorta-kidnapped by undead kids on roller skates. Sucked into the high stakes world of Paranormal Roller Derby, she finds herself "recruited" by a squad of vampires who need a human player to complete their team—just in time to save the league from losing it all.

Erykah was looking forward to junior year at East Prep High. She has a cute boyfriend, gets good grades, and has the best bestie. Money is tight, though that’s nothing new in her world. But everything changes when she gets pregnant. Having a baby at sixteen was definitely not part of the plan.

On Wendy Darling's first night in Chicago, a boy called Peter appears at her window. He's dizzying, captivating, beautiful - so she agrees to join him for a night on the town. Wendy thinks they're heading to a party, but instead they're soon running in the city's underground. She makes friends - a punk girl named Tinkerbelle and the lost boys Peter watches over. And she makes enemies - the terrifying Detective Hook, and maybe Peter himself, as his sinister secrets start coming to light. Can Wendy find the courage to survive this night - and make sure everyone else does, too?

Lemonade Mouth meets climate change activism in this enemies-to-lovers YA romance. A tied election throws two rival teen activists together to lead their school’s environmental justice club, and they are taken by surprise when their clashes reveal deeper feelings hidden beneath their antagonism.