mills and boon - for black people

[stainesmassif]

my best friend at work has a guilty pleasure - mills and boon. she is afro carribean and finds it hard to get story of this type - they don't have to be m&b - with black lead characters. i've managed to track a few books down for her in the past, generally from the us. does anyone have any recommendations?

it would be a really lovely christmas gift for her, she has had a particularly bad year that i think she needs to escape from.

[nighbynight]

I don't know, but am watching with interest. M+B have quite a following in Africa, but they remain uniformly white. I don't really understand why.

[DanDruff]

it is odd they are all white but how odd to htink you ned to read books with balck characters

[nighbynight]

Dan, I have passed on a few M+Bs to African friends and acquaintances, and it has occurred to me.

I would enjoy reading a romance with black lead characters, but surely it's not hard to understand that you'd like at least sometimes, to read about someone who is physically a bit like you?

Eg I get a bit pissed off if every book has petite, slim blonde heroines.

[stainesmassif]

it's down to identification i guess. i can't really speak on her behalf. any ideas??? just an author name would help to search amazon with

[epithet]

Harlequin (the US arm of M&B) has a whole line of these. Check these out

[stainesmassif]

well done epithet! also found 'arabesque' publishers now on amazon nighbynight here

[stainesmassif]

and now i have loads to choose from.....

[nighbynight]

thanks for that! never seen them in charity shops in the uk though, guess they are not sold much over here.

[elkiedee]

A lot of bookshops have sections here of fiction by black writers including a lot of commercial stuff - black chicklit etc.

Not Mills and Boon but two black American writers whose work I've enjoyed, and with a bit of romantic storyline etc involving African-American characters, are Terri McMillan and Pearl Cleage. Amazon also suggests Bebe Moore Campbell.