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Chocolate Burnout
Emunah La-Paz. HSP, $15.99 trade paper (332p) ISBN 978-0-578-99485-7
La-Paz (Memoir of a Jaded Woman) explores the nuances of interracial romance from the perspective of humorous but capricious heroine Chantel Reed. Black human resources manager Chantel stays in a rocky relationship with her drifter boyfriend, Cameron, in hopes of getting married. But when she walks in on him making dinner for another woman, it’s the last straw. Hating being single, Chantel falls into her first interracial relationship with white jazz club owner Brandon. But her controlling older sister, Daria, whom Chantel calls mom after their parents’ death, is opposed to their romance and sets out to break them up. Daria sends an attractive Black man across Chantel’s path to test her relationship, and, just as Daria engineered, Chantel cheats on Brandon. Their subsequent breakup causes Chantel to spiral emotionally as she goes on a series of lackluster dates just to avoid being single, straining her relationships with her friends Astrid and Serenity, who think she needs to take a break from dating. The author handles the subtleties of race, love, and friendship well, but Chantel’s fickleness proves frustrating. Thankfully, Chantel’s friends add some much needed balance. Readers might be confused by the heroine’s choices, but her search for love is entertaining. (Self-published)

Reviewed by Publishers Weekly on 01/28/2022

Release date 06/07/2022

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