Need inspiration for the Indie Voices Read-a-thon? Celebrate the rich variety of stories, perspectives, and experiences that make independent publishing so special with these standout books by BIPOC authors.
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2026 indie read-a-thon recommendations: bipoc authors
The Full Picture
by Jessica Carmichael
Reuniting with her family and partying in Accra until sunrise? Part of the plan. Catching feelings for two very different boys? Definitely not!
When first-year university student Robyn Carter travels to Ghana for winter break, it's the first time she's been back since her mother's passing ten years prior. The trip is the perfect escape from her father's academic expectations and an opportunity to finally learn more about her mother, the one subject he refuses to discuss.
The last person Robyn expects to meet is Osei Mensah, her grandmother's beloved neighbour and a budding photographer. The young creative is a big dreamer who wears his heart on his sleeve and is everything pragmatic Robyn shouldn't want.
Especially not when Osei's childhood friend, Kelvin Williams, is a charming pre-med student also visiting from her hometown and her exact type on paper.
As Robyn uncovers the truth about her late mother's past, logic and emotion begin to clash and she can't help but wonder if following her heart instead of her father's carefully laid-out plan, might be a shot worth taking after all.
Perfect for fans of Bolu Babalola and Jenny Han, this heartfelt YA debut is a coming-of-age story about restoring family, taking risks, and living life on your own terms.
The Fake Boyfriend Fiasco
by Talia Hibbert
He's in love. She's faking it.
Footballing legend Nik Christou leads a charmed life. Rich, successful, and internationally adored, no woman (or man) has ever rejected him-until a tattooed goddess blows his mind and captures his heart with just one kiss.
Distrustful of men and disdainful of love, Aria Granger's tongue is as sharp as her winged eyeliner. She knows from experience that Nik, like any smoking-hot himbo with bags of cash, is too good to be true-so she's determined to send this walking temptation packing.
Fortunately, Nik's devised the perfect strategy to win his woman…
Step 1: Offer her an obscene amount of money to be his fake girlfriend.
Step 2: Whisk her away to a lavish Spanish villa-under the watchful eye of his entire team.
Step 3: Figure out, between all the fake flirtation and phoney PDA, how to make her love him back.
What could possibly go wrong?
Boy: When you find the boy, you discover the man
by Fredi Nwaka - Marcia M Spence
Boy
A true story of love, loss, survival and finding your voice.
Before the roads. Before the raves. Before the reputation. Before the man.
There was just the boy. A black child raised in a white seaside town, searching for somewhere-anywhere-to belong.
This is a journey through the silence, the secrets, and the scars.
From fishing trips and foster care to carnival, sound systems, fistfights, and murders, Boy is a raw, unforgettable memoir of identity, abandonment, and the power of being seen.
Told with brutal honesty, unexpected humour, and deep reflection, this is more than a story about growing up - it's about rising up. A reflective therapy for me, the writer and an invitation for you, the reader, to walk every step of the journey with me.
It's about finding light where there was none, and a voice where there was silence.
When you find the boy.... you will discover the man!
The Grace of Black Mothers
by Martheaus Perkins
Carried within Martheaus Perkins' The Grace of Black Mothers are the many howls of lost children and their martyrized mothers. This debut collection brings a lyrical reckoning on behalf of dismembered dreams by boldly finding grace through our Black mothers, aunties, and grannies. The work invites the reader into a yard where "whisper-thin soul-jazz drips over America" to flip through a Nile-long family album. Mamie Till-Mobley, Sybrina Fulton, Harriet Tubman, and the author's own mothers guide us as we "wander streets like cartographers of poverty" and hold our "promises to come home." Perkins shows his craft by shapeshifting through fighting game menus, optometry charts, screenplays, pirate codes, social media threads, and forms that embody dreams themselves. The Grace of Black Mothers is a collection drenched in complexity and nuance: homemade heroes and villains, justice and fabrication, wit and risk, resurrection and erasure.
I Accidentally Locked Down a Witch
by Jessica Cage
Who has time for crazy ex-girlfriends and witches from new worlds when you're trying to build an empire?
Shontae Carter has built her fitness sanctuary from the ground up, armed with protein bars, sass, and zero tolerance for diet culture nonsense. She's not just helping women lift weights, she's helping them lift each other up. And with a big TV spot to drum up new business, everything is right on track... until a mysterious (and absurdly gorgeous) new client named Likosa walks through the door with killer cheekbones and an energy that crackles...literally.
Likosa isn't your typical gym-goer. She's a witch from a shadowy realm known as The Bane. Her plan? Cozy up to Shontae, tap into the strange power hidden in her aura, and use it to break open a portal home. But nothing in her ancient practices prepared her for protein smoothies, cardio class, or the devastatingly cute way Shontae blushes when Likosa flirts with her.
As the two women team up for "personal training" (emphasis on personal), sparks fly, spells misfire, and hearts get caught in the crossfire. With demons from The Bane tracking Likosa's every move, and Shontae discovering secrets about her own power, they'll have to decide: fight for their separate homes, or build one together?
Spicy, snarky, and full of heart, I Accidentally Locked Down a Witch is a magical rom-com for anyone who believes strength comes in all sizes. And that love might just be the strongest magic of all.
Butterfly 6: Phase One (Caterpillar): Phase One
by Ashley Antoinette
Butterflies are not born, they are made.
Morgan Atkins has survived heartbreak before, but nothing could prepare her for the season of her life where love is no longer the greatest thing she stands to lose. When Morgan is confronted with a devastating diagnosis, matters of the heart are forced to take a back seat to motherhood. Her children have always been her greatest blessing, but now her motherhood will become her greatest test.
As tragedy closes in from every direction, Morgan finds herself fighting battles no woman should have to face alone. Every answer uncovers another impossible choice. Every victory requires another sacrifice.
And this storm didn't wait until she was ready, it slammed into her reality like a hurricane.
Before a butterfly can spread its wings, it must first endure the long, painful process of becoming. It must crawl through darkness, survive the pressure of transformation, and trust that the suffering has purpose.
Morgan has no choice but to do the same.
Welcome to The Butterfly 6 Experience, a conclusion told in three unforgettable, heart pounding, tear-jerking, immersive phases.
Phase One: Caterpillar is where the metamorphosis begins.
Chemistry: The Chemist
by Grey Huffington
I am not a drug dealer.
I am not a seller...
I am not a handler...
I am not an abuser...
I am not a promoter...
I am not a smuggler...
However, I understand that I can not save the world or the people who have chosen those paths. So, making substances safer, grander, and extremely unique is my life's work. What I have created can't be duplicated, stepped on, or mistaken for anything else. I've curated one thousand eight hundred twenty-seven strands of the purest, rarest white on the market. I am not interested in or addicted to even one of them.
It is not a manufactured substance that I've chosen as my drug. It's a person. A woman. A storm. What she is can't be duplicated, stepped on, or mistaken for anything else. God curated one strand of the purest, rarest woman on the planet. Her name is Egypt Johanson. She's faultless. She is flawless. She is pure. And, not even rehab could cure me of my addiction.
I am Chemistry.
I am a Chemist.
The Chemist.
And, I am, in fact, an addict.
When Forty Blooms
by Jacinta Howard
It was just a birthday. Then everything in her asked, what if.
Simone Harris has always known how to hold it down. For her son. For her clients. For the sports agency she built from scratch. She keeps things running, keeps herself moving, and keeps her heart tucked safely out of reach.
But this birthday feels different. It falls on a leap year, a date that only circles back every so often. A rare kind of day that feels like it arrives exactly when it's meant to. The kind that makes you pause and ask what you have been pushing through just to keep going. In that stillness, something begins to surface alongside it. Fatigue. Questions. The quiet ache she has learned to ignore.
She is not falling apart. Still, something is shifting. The pressure she has lived under feels heavier than it once did. And as she begins to listen to what her spirit has been trying to say, the past reappears, bringing with it a familiar comfort, unfinished conversations, and a quiet invitation to feel again.
The Unfluencer
by Mia Heintzelman
Whitney Graves didn't build Ellswood's most respected gallery by playing it safe. She's spent years cultivating the perfect reputation-and keeping her heart firmly out of frame. What her gallery needs is a masterpiece to cement her legacy. So when whispers surface about a highly coveted private collection, she's determined to claim it. She just didn't expect Warner Easton, six-foot-infinity stunner, enigmatic billionaire, reclusive widower, and the estate representative. Warner isn't just another powerful man with deep pockets. He's rebuilding his life, and parting with his late wife's art is another step toward healing. So when a local gallery's brochure is hand-delivered along with an invitation to an upcoming exhibit, it feels like a sign. A fresh start. A chance to meet the captivating woman featured inside... not so much the scandalous "Restroom Rendezvous" that makes the next day's headlines. Now no other gallery will touch him. And Whit may be his only option. Soon, Warner asks her to venture to his remote Caribbean island to assess the collection. There's just one catch: isolation changes everything. Alone in paradise with an unfairly beautiful man as guarded as she is, Whit finds herself entangled in more than brushstrokes and contracts. As secrets surface and an unexpected art thief closes in, what begins as a high-stakes acquisition turns dangerous. And if they're not careful, surviving may be the least of their worries-a second chance at love could leave their hearts in ruins.
Nawlins: YA Black Fantasy (Original)
by Deric Augustine - Robin Benjamin - Elizabeth Thurmond
Welcome to Nawlins School of the Gifted, a prestigious academy for gifted young wizards, where the vibrant culture of New Orleans intertwines with ancient powers. Hidden from the world, this magical institution is where legacies are forged, and young wizards uncover their destinies.
For fifteen-year-old Donna Marie Guillory from the Bronx, life has always been a battle, fighting for her mother's health, her family's survival, and against a world that often seems stacked against her. But when a letter arrives inviting her to Nawlins, Donna discovers a hidden part of herself, a power she never knew she possessed.
At Nawlins, Donna finds more than a community; she uncovers a rich history and strength unlike anything she's ever known. However, as she delves into her family's mysterious past, she finds herself at the heart of a centuries-old conflict that threatens the very foundation of the school and possibly the fate of the entire world. Armed with her newfound abilities and unyielding determination, Donna must navigate treacherous alliances and confront a darkness that once tore her family apart. But she won't do it alone. An unexpected ally, someone she believed lost forever, will stand by her side.
Nawlins is more than a story of magic; it celebrates resilience, heritage, and the power of self-discovery. Step into a world where the past shapes the present, and every choice carries the weight of generations.
Sweet Like Honey: A Black Sapphic Romance (Alternate Cover)
by Aricka Alexander
When Drew Honey moved into a shared house with 5 other girls, all she wanted was to get through her last semester of college and start living the life she always dreamed of. However, the universe had other plans when a charismatic and kind-hearted woman named Adrian Jackson slid her way into the picture.
From that first day, the two of them were drawn to each other, easily becoming closer as the months passed. Their feelings grew and as graduation approached, they both decided to confess to each other, but of course, the universe once again threw them a curveball. Because of this, they both reluctantly went their separate ways after graduation, clinging to the hope that they'd one day be reunited.
Fast forward 5 years later, Adrian finally relocates back to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The city where she spent 4 years of her life. The city where she met the only woman she ever loved. The city where she had to let that woman go.
She never planned to run into her again, but when a random trip to a clothing store brings these two lovers back together, they realize that the universe has given them yet another chance, so they take it.
This story is full of love, but also full of grief. With past traumas and anxieties starting to rear their nasty heads, these two realize that the only thing that can help them heal is each other. Thus a love that is sweet like honey starts to blossom.
Live for Me, Nkem
by Nneka Oluoha
"A moving story with realistic and well-drawn characters." -Kirkus Reviews
"A powerful exploration of the consequences of mental health issues being silenced due to cultural expectations and trauma comparison." -Paria Hassouri, award-winning author of Harvesting Rosewater and Found in Transition
How do you ask for help when your whole life has been built around pretending you're fine?
Nkem Nzenwa has everything that should make a woman happy: a successful husband, beautiful, intelligent children, and a carefully built life in suburban America. To everyone around her, and especially to the Nigerian immigrant community, her marriage to Chima looks steady, loving, even enviable.
But appearances are fragile.
Behind closed doors, Nkem is unraveling under the weight of depression, intrusive thoughts, and an overwhelming certainty that her family would be better off without her. Terrified of being judged, pitied, or seen as broken, Nkem hides her worsening depression behind smiles and silences.
As the cracks in her carefully controlled life begin to show, her marriage strains under the weight of things left unsaid. Her children sense her withdrawal. Her husband, Chima, struggles to understand the woman he loves as she slips further away from him. And buried beneath it all are painful truths about family, identity, and a lifetime spent suppressing her own needs in order to survive.
Told with emotional intimacy and unflinching honesty, Live for Me, Nkem is an emotionally suspenseful exploration of depression, motherhood, marriage, intergenerational trauma, cultural expectations, and the quiet ways people learn to keep living when they no longer recognize themselves.
The Close-Up
by Kennedy Ryan
Set in the dynamic worlds of professional basketball and entertainment, two of Kennedy Ryan's most critically-acclaimed series-Hollywood Renaissance and HOOPs-collide in this tale of forbidden romance.
I met Nazareth Armstrong when I was eighteen years old. From the beginning, my brother warned me to stay away from him. Told Naz to stay away from me.
Our hearts didn't listen.
I shared one magical night under the stars with my brother's rival, thinking it was the start of a once-in-a-lifetime something.
But one awful moment ended it all.
Years later when we meet again, we've both pursued our dreams, lived a little, found success...but never found love. What began as a tiny flame when we were young now threatens to consume us. I'm more drawn to Naz than ever, but his complicated history with my brother makes whatever this could be...nearly impossible.
But Naz accepts impossible as a dare.
Through his clever maneuvering and dogged determination, I find myself on a yacht with him and his friends cruising through the Mediterranean. It's a whirlwind set ablaze. Away from reality, surrendering to the tender heat of his touch, I forget that everything could burn.
2026 IngramSpark® Editorial Selection - Romance
The Healing You Hear
by Morgan Richard Olivier
With words of empathy and lessons learned-Morgan Richard Olivier guides readers through the season of life when your body and mind begin to react to what you haven't released. When healing becomes less about what once hurt you and more about addressing what still affects you, what needs to be said, and who you've become through it all.
The Healing You Hear poetry and prose collection is for the person regaining their sense of self and striving to live in the present without bracing for potential pain. For the one tired of living in survival mode, people-pleasing, and staying silent to keep the peace around them-yet unsure how to welcome joy, safety, and wholeness within themselves.
To know true peace, you must accept all you've experienced, speak what you've suppressed, and give yourself permission to live in your truth, purpose, and power.
There's a kind of healing you can only hear. It shifts how you speak to yourself, how you perceive the world, and how you respond to what once overwhelmed you. So, let it out and listen. Your voice and validation not only matter-they reset and release you.
They Wouldn't Dare
by Deanna Grey
Three simple words changed everything between us: I dare you.
David Evans is a thorn in my side. A smart-mouthed, egotistical, philosophizing know-it-all who wants nothing more than to beat me at our silly little game.
I come from a family of five, so shying away from the competition isn't in my DNA. I will win anything he throws my way.
The game was harmless at first. Dare you to skip class, dare you to take a shot, dare you to tell a stranger last night's dream. Child's play. I should have known that wouldn't be enough for him. David seems determined to bring out the worst in me.
Once again, he uses five words that force me to question everything: Be mine for the night.
It's a challenge that someone with any common sense would refuse. Especially since I'm familiar with all his tricks. But I lost my common sense a long time ago.
So I accept, because playing his girlfriend can't be that hard.
They Wouldn't Dare is a fake dating college sports romance featuring an optimist student org president and a cynical tight end who have been frenemies since middle school. This book is intended for 18+ readers.
Streams and Schemes: A Spicy Romantic Comedy
by Rebecca Kinkade
A sizzling neighbors-to-lovers romantic comedy about two strangers who waited until their final minutes to act on their feelings...and then lived. Awkward.
Emergency Alert: Ballistic threat inbound to DC. Valeria Fuentes and Lander Dawson have fifteen minutes left to live. One last chance to tie up loose ends and live out their wildest dreams. So...they screw each other's brains out, naturally.
Except Valeria and Lander are strangers. This headstrong camgirl and hotshot lawyer may be neighbors, but they've barely spoken. Tonight, it doesn't matter. Going out with a bang (literally) is the perfect ending...until they learn the emergency alert was a mistake.
Now, neither can forget their scorching hot hookup. Valeria wants to pretend it never happened. There's no future for a guy trying to make partner at a prestigious firm and a girl who performs for strangers every night...
But Lander disagrees. And he'll do whatever it takes to prove he doesn't just support Valeria's lifestyle-he loves it.
STREAMS AND SCHEMES is a steamy, full-length, standalone romcom about a camgirl who hates lawyers and a lawyer who low-key doesn't care. HEA guaranteed!
Benefits Included
by Chantal Bookal
Deeper than the physical.
Kennedy Donovan and Dreux Edwards secretly yearned for each other since high school, but neither of them was ready to take the leap from friendship into something more.
Until one summer night in college changed everything. And they cut ties with each other.
When fate brings them back together years later, the feelings they thought had faded came rushing back to the surface. Despite Kennedy being married to her college sweetheart and Dreux navigating a budding relationship of his own, nothing can extinguish the fire that sparked between them long ago.
But when the timing has always been wrong, will Kennedy and Dreux finally take the risk? Or will they let history repeat itself, letting each other go for good?
Willow Rose
by M Kevin Hayden
For lovers of Stephen Graham Jones, Jeff VanderMeer, and Nick Cutter, Willow Rose is a compulsively readable, literary ode to the terror of the unknown that comes for all of us in the depths of night.
A knock on the cabin door on indigenous land in the wintry woods of Minnesota.
Tap tap tap.
Driving down the boreal roads of rural Minnesota to his one-room cabin after a long ER shift, Dr. Alder's eyes snap open, his old Civic screaming to a stop in front of a massive bull elk, its head tilting back unnaturally, its maw open. Comet Goodwin, the closest comet to Earth in history, lights up the sky in an otherworldly greenish tint with its long, jagged tail of fire.
Tap tap tap.
Alder's world ignites in a blinding white flash. The car windows shatter inward. The elk is gone.
If he can get the car started again and get back to his cabin, maybe he can make sense of all this...but first he must survive the frozen silence of the night and the evil that stalks within it.
We must stay together always.
American Love Song
by Britt Middleton
Together, they'll save their reputations-if they can survive the scandal.
When her panic attack on the Grammys red carpet goes viral and obliterates her credibility, journalist Brinton Shaw must prove she's not a "diversity hire" at her prestigious (but pretentious) New York City magazine. She agrees to reunite with charismatic Jamie Crawford Jr. (a.k.a. The Heartbreak Prince), the country music legacy heartthrob she unintentionally dragged into her meltdown, for a new interview in his idyllic Tennessee hometown.
Nobody at work thinks Brinton will come out with a prize story angle, and neither does she...until Jamie reveals his career is a well-coordinated sham. Jamie needs Brinton's help to get his controlling, country-icon father off his back. Meanwhile, Brinton sees an opportunity to break the biggest music story of the decade.
Teaming up, they agree to help each other escape the complicated reputations they're desperate to shed. But as he shows her his world, Brinton is taken by Jamie's sincerity. He's compelled by her courage. Soon, their smoldering attraction threatens to two-step over their professional arrangement, jeopardizing Jamie's fresh start and Brinton's perfect cover story.
AMERICAN LOVE SONG by Britt Middleton is a country music and rom-com retelling of Taylor Swift's "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince" for fans of Talia Hibbert, Tia Williams, Abby Jimenez, Jasmine Guillory and Elisa Sussman.
2026 IngramSpark® Editorial Selection - Romance
Counting Descent
by Clint Smith
Within the pages of Counting Descent a captivating coming-of-age narrative unfolds - that challenges, complicates, and ultimately enriches our understanding of lineage, tradition, and the multifaceted nature of identity.
In the intricate tapestry of Counting Descent, Clint Smith expertly navigates the nuances of belonging and dissonance. Through his poetic lens, he guides us through the labyrinthine experience of being part of a community that fiercely and unapologetically celebrates the richness of black humanity. Yet, this celebration exists in juxtaposition with the world outside, a world that often distorts blackness into a distorted and unwarranted caricature of fear.
Smith's poems move fluidly across personal and political histories, all the while reflecting on the social construction of our lived experiences. Smith brings the reader on a powerful journey forcing us to reflect on all that we learn growing up, and all that we seek to unlearn moving forward.