Reading While Black

I have Beverly Jenkins’ latest Wild Sweet Love sitting on my desk. So far, it’s pretty good–tight, clean writing and an engaging heroine. Then I look at my pile of keepers crammed on the floor of my closet and notice that 95% of the pile is made up of historical romances, the other 5% made up of urban fantasy and a few contemporary romances. I’m certain my pile mimics many other black readers of romance novels, and I wonder: where are the “black” historical romances at? Patricia Vaughan wrote a few (Mumur of Rain & Shadows on the Bayou are in my amazon shopping cart), and RRAH has a list of African-American historical romances, but none of them are current and most seem to fall under the “historical saga/fiction” umbrella.

So where are they at? Is there no market for them? Have no other black romance writers shown interest in writing them? Or have we fallen into the trap of believing that to be black (American, British, Russian, etc) in historical times only consists of “ugliness“? (as amusingly spoofed in Dr. Who)

Egypt & Egyptology is a perennial favorite of historical romance readers, so why wouldn’t a black Egyptologist exist? Norbert Rillieux worked with the Champollion family to decipher the Rosetta Stone.

Dido Elizabeth Belle lived with her paternal family in 18th century England and presumably married an Englishman.

What of the wonderful and talented Aleksandr Pushkin?

The African-Italian de Medici duke, Alessandro and his daughter Guilia–both of whom whose descendants number within many European royal houses.

And the many other nameless black people populating the Americas and Europe in a variety of social and economic levels to this day.

I know that Lacey Kaye is writing “romance with color” and Kalen Hughes has expressed interest in writing a romance between gens de couleur in 18th century Paris, but what about black authors?

I’ve never read The Nanny Diaries, nor did I read their follow-up Citizen Girl, but I have a thing for reunited lovers and stories that incorporate flashbacks, so I eagerly scoped Dedication.

Summary:

What if your ex was famous and adored by millions? What would you do if you had one chance to make him regret his entire existence? How much would you risk?

Kate Hollis’s ex-boyfriend’s face plasters newsstands and TV, the Internet, and the multiplex. Jake Sharpe is one of the biggest recording stars on the planet, and every song he’s famous for is about Kate. For over a decade his soundtrack has chased her — from the gym to the supermarket, from the dentist’s office to the bars. Now thirty-year-old Kate gets the call that Jake has finally landed back in their Vermont hometown for an MTV special. The moment she has been waiting for has arrived.

On the eve of their prom, Jake Sharpe vanished, resurfacing when his song “Losing” — about his and Kate’s first sexual experience — shot to the top of the Billboard charts. And the hits kept coming, each more personal than the one before.

Now Kate gets her chance to confront Jake and reclaim her past. But after eleven years of enduring protracted and far-from-private heartbreak, everyone in Kate’s life has a stake in how this plays out. Kate must risk betraying the friends Jake abandoned, the bandmates whose songs he plundered, and her own parents, who fear this will dredge up a shared past more painful than any of them want to acknowledge. But after getting the call in the dead of night and jumping on a plane, can she turn back now?

Dedication starts with a phone call to Katie from her best friend Laura informing her of Jake Sharpe’s return to their hometown. The romance between Katie and Jake begins when, goaded by the popular girl in school, she picks a random guy to crush on. In the present time (2005), Katie–Kate–seemingly has it all put-together: beauty, brains and a high-powered job. The only thing nagging her? The high-school sweetheart whose songs of their adolescent love has haunted her entire adult years.

McLaughin and Kraus’ writing style is a bit dense and scattered for chick-lit. There were times when I was forced to re-read a passage two or three times before I could picture the scene in my head. I’m always a sucker for flashbacks and as used in Dedication, they plucked and strummed my emotions precisely how the authors planned. The angst of being the new kid in school, of being in and out of the in-crowd, the tentative longing between you and the guy you like whom you hope likes you back, the first kiss, and all the tumult and tempest of adults were absolutely heartbreaking and catapulted me back into my adolescent years (granted, they weren’t that long ago, but still…*g*).

Dedication went above and beyond most reunion chick-lit stories in that everyone had varying reactions to Jake’s betrayal–everyone didn’t hate him, nor did everyone fall over themselves to get in good with the celebrity he’d become. While 30-yr old Katie–Kate–didn’t seem that different from teenage Katie, I see now that that was the point: she was still 17 year old Katie when it came to Jake and her reaction to him was entirely selfish in spite of his past behavior. The story seemed destined to ascend into cliche-land when Katie followed Jake to Hollywood, but McLaughin and Kraus piloted the story to an apt and bittersweet finish that lingered with me long after closing the book. While not entirely perfect, Dedication made me laugh, made me cry and it made me think. B