Now that there are two series in this Black Hamptons world- Sag Harbor Black Romances and Explore Men of the Hamptons– if you’re new to the saga, here’s the order in which you can read it.
- Brown Sugar This Christmas
- Hot Chocolate This Winter
- Flinging All Spring
- Overheated for Summer
- One Tasty Night
- Explore You
- Taste You
- Rouse Family Christmas
- Christmas Down Under
- Drink You
- See Through You
- Find You
This series started off with the Sag Harbor Black Romances, a trilogy in which three childhood friends–Maddy, Chrissy, and Adella- reunited after years being apart in their twenties while they established their fledgling careers and families.
Brown Sugar This Christmas was an enemies-to-lovers clash between Jerrell and Maddy, both stubborn and pigheaded, which oddly fires up their attraction. Maddy reminds me very much of a young Hillary Clinton. You either like her or you don’t, but she’s had to work hard to get where she is on Capitol Hill and she’s done with trying to be “soft” to please other people. Jerrell is at odds with his family over quitting Wall Street to become an entrepreneur. This was such a sweet and tart love match, and as the inaugural couple, they’ll always be special.
In Hot Chocolate This Winter came Chrissy and Sheldon, a single-parent, divorcee, steamy read. Oh, my goodness! Once I got into them, it took off and they now own my heart. They are my favorite couple.
Then, there was Adella and Desmond in Flinging All Spring, an arranged marriage of convenience, bad boy romance that grew on me as I wrote it. I love love love Adella. In my next life I will be as smart as she is. But as is always the case, the smartest and most talented of us are usually the most insecure. While I could have made this character louder, more confident and bombastic, that was never who I saw in her. From the very beginning, she was grace, elegance, a statement in restraint, even whilst a storm raged inside her.
The original plan was to quit after three, but I had so much fun, and I loved Chrissy and Sheldon so much, I wasn’t ready to put this group down. So I added a fourth book – Overheated for Summer. Man, oh man, though I love every one of these couples and put my soul into every one, that still might be my favorite book. Maybe it’s the drama. Maybe it’s the undeniable sexual tension between them. Maybe it’s them coming together against all odds. I have no idea, but it’s my fave.
When I wrapped that up, I still wasn’t ready to stop and I noticed a few of you were enjoying this bunch also.
It seems we loved reading about educated professionals enduring the havoc of life’s ups and downs. We love the nuance of their tough decisions, their sacrifices and struggles–the rivalries, the friends they lose, the friends they make on the way up– the pressure that comes with success, and often the loneliness, as well as the triumphs when they finally prevail. They are coming to grips with the reality that education and degrees don’t always give us the fantasy most of us were raised to expect. And sometimes, prestigious positions that look good on paper or on television only bring us bigger problems.
In that regard, I moved on to Explore Men of the Hamptons.
I wondered if I could take the villains from the first series and turn them around. And soften their hearts with love. So I would be continuing the saga of Sag Harbor, but the “bad guys” would be the focus this time.
I wrote One Tasty Night, a quick read between Solomon and Chaitra that served as the jump-off to this series. I had so much fun with this. Chaitra is like so many of us big sisters who are frustrated at how baby brothers always get a pass. Solomon helps her work out that irritation. 😉
Then, in Explore You I tackled the biggest villain of the series…Kevin Middleton. Kevin, Kevin, Kevin. He’s an Alpha-hole, plain and simple. Then again, so is feisty Cher. He had to be powerful and magnetic, not just some rich, spoiled lightweight. And this was perfect. People would not expect a handsome, personable, wealthy black boy to be a tech genius who takes no prisoners and makes no apologies. A young, black Bill Gates. With a life-altering secret.
I missed the Rouse family and I saw some of you did too, so I dropped Rouse Family Christmas, a quick read, as a sort of goodbye to the Rouse bunch.
In Taste You, Solomon and Chaitra got their full book- a steamy slow-burn. I’m still deciding if they could beat out Chrissy and Sheldon as my favorite couple. They might come closest. Chaitra is so many of us–tough and loud because she has to be, not because she wants to. And Solomon is so elegant, but sneaky.
In Drink You, a forced proximity romance, Lion and Kamilah jump off quickly, in the second chapter. Both single, no kids, they don’t have too many serious problems but they’ve been thrown into working together with their personal hangups. Internal forces– Lion’s thirst for revenge against his brother and Kamilah’s desire to please her brother- are what bring their working relationship and feelings to a head.
Oh, the fun I had writing single-parent, second chance romance See Through You. Keenan is an absolute riot who I could write about forever and ever, who has fallen for an older woman with a son, Eugenia. Of course, she is Sheldon’s ex-wife from Overheated, and she can’t afford to screw up again, especially not with some flagrant, young kid who hasn’t fully grown up yet. This read requires them to take a lot of risks. It’s the fastest story I’ve written in a while because I had sooo much fun.
Finally, Find You, Roland and Neeraja, in which the oldest member of the Rouse clan loses his wife, and his will to live. While Neeraja is trying to figure out what she has to live for when life didn’t deliver to her all she’d hoped and prepared herself for. I’m going to cry just thinking about this one.
It’s 11:53 p.m., and I’m actually going to do a little more writing before bed. I’ll post more soon about what’s coming for fall 2022, and expanding what I bring you all. In the meantime, have a blessed weekend.
🤎
Lula
Lula White 