Jessica Pryde

Tucson

Contributing Editor at Book Riot

Freelance Journalist at Freelance

Romance enthusiast. Advocate for Black Joy. When in Romance podcast. Librarian. Singer. Writer: BLACK LOVE MATTERS w/ Berkley, available now! she/her 🏳️‍🌈

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Articles

June 2025 Romance Reads to Ring in Summer

3 weeks ago | bookriot.com | Jessica Pryde

Friends, it’s June! Which means we’ve made it almost halfway through the year.
Must-listen audiobooks written by Black, neurodivergent creators

1 month ago | audible.com | Jessica Pryde

Being Black can be difficult in the best of times. Being Black and neurodivergent is even more complex. Due to being medically and socially underserved in so many communities, it has been made significantly more difficult for Black folks to gain the official diagnoses of autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other brain differences that lead to the accommodations that help the more privileged maintain successful lives.
17 of the Best New Romance Books Out in May 2025

1 month ago | bookriot.com | Jessica Pryde

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Happy fifth month, Romance Readers. The horrors persist, but so do we, and thankfully, so do romance authors.
7 Romance Reads Featuring Fanfiction Themes

2 months ago | bookriot.com | Jessica Pryde

8th Note PressBy day, Diana works as a cook. But by night, she escapes into the Sam Raymond fandom, penning smutty real-person fanfiction (RPF) about the dreamy rockstar and dreaming of becoming a professional writer. Meanwhile, the real Sam is privately struggling with panic attacks and a vocal injury. And he's found comfort in an unlikely place: interacting as "S" with a clever fic writer in (embarrassingly) his own fandom.
Where Are All the Basketball Romance Books?

2 months ago | bookriot.com | Jessica Pryde

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Or, more specifically: where are the Black basketball players in romance? Every major American sport has had its heyday in romance. There was a time when you couldn’t throw a stick without running into a football romance. Baseball emerged triumphant a few years ago.
9 of the Best Redemption Rom-Coms to Tug at Your Heartstrings

Mar 11, 2025 | bookriot.com | Jessica Pryde

Brought to you by Bloom Books, an imprint of SourcebooksHazel Hart was a successful romance novelist—until a breakup drove her straight into writer’s block. Desperate for inspiration, she impulse buys a historic home sight unseen and flees Manhattan for tiny Story Lake, PA. When she gets there, she discovers the house is actually a wreck, and she’ll need all six feet three inches of grouchy contractor Campbell Bishop to help renovate it.
9 of the Best Redemption Rom-Coms to Tug at Your Heartstrings

Mar 11, 2025 | flipboard.com | Jessica Pryde

5 hours ago"I cannot believe I bought other bags previously," one reviewer wrote. If you’re in need of a new backpack, stop what you’re doing right now and check out what I think may be one of the most thoughtfully designed, chic and reviewer-beloved backpacks on the market. I’m talking, of course, about the …
The Best New Book Releases Out in March

Mar 4, 2025 | bookriot.com | TJ Alexander |Erica Ezeifedi |Jessica Pryde

Somehow, we are already in the third month of the year. February both felt like it dragged and went by too quickly. What is time, amirite? Temporal musings aside, March has so many books to be excited about. While the featured books have been picked out of this month’s many great releases by our writers—and include everything from the fifth Hunger Games novel to a trans-Regency romance—I also want to highlight a few titles out this week in particular.
15 New March Romances to Get You Ready for Spring

Mar 3, 2025 | bookriot.com | TJ Alexander |Charlotte Dinnis |Jessica Pryde

Well folks, it’s March. If your weather is changing, I hope it’s a hoped-for change. If you’re dealing with the constant change that is happening in other parts of American life right now, I’m hoping these new romances are going to bring you some element of joy.
9 of the Best Black Romance Books (That I Have Read)

Feb 13, 2025 | bookriot.com | Jessica Pryde

Sometimes I hate superlatives. The word “best” really carries a lot of weight, and there’s a difference between “best” and “favorite”—one is supposed to be more objective than the other. And with fiction, you can’t really be objective about what really counts as the best of something. Is it the best, technically speaking? Is it perfectly put together, down to sentence structure and word choice? Does it cause the best emotional reaction, the best reader satisfaction?