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Darcy J.

@dj.is.reading

2.5K

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Black Romance Books Forever 📚
Historical Fiction & Social Justice books are my first loves ✊🏾
📍VA•Wife•Photographer•HBCUs

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🩶Forever here for Black romance. But I’m also a historical fiction girlie through and through.
I was organizing my shelves last week and realized I need an entire bookshelf for historical fiction. Love that. This is just a TINY TINY piece of my collection 🩶🫶🏾

✨What is your favorite historical fiction book to recommend?

#currentlyreading #blackbookstagram #blackhistoricalfiction #historicalfiction #historicalfictionbooks #blackauthors #bookreview #bookrecommendations #bookreels by @dj.is.reading

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72

a year ago

Stars⭐️ & Spice🌶️! These stars have different meanings for all of us. This is just my take on what I feel after reading🫶🏾✌🏾

Thanks for the idea @babes_readbooks by @dj.is.reading

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2 years ago

✨Just here to reintroduce myself now that I have 1,000 followers. (What?! Wow!) And The “AntiTBR” challenge feels like a great way to celebrate this #MoodReader 😂

🩵I am so grateful for this beautiful and supportive community. Thank yall for reading my reviews and dealing with my voice notes, rants, tears, and laughter about books! 🫶🏾📖 by @dj.is.reading

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2 years ago

Back in my Black romance bag! 🤎✨

I’ve been deep in historical fiction lately, but I think it’s time to switch it up.

What genre are yall reading most right now? ❓♥️

#bookstagram #blackbookstagram #blackromancebooks #moodreader #bookishvibes by @dj.is.reading

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4 days ago

The Ladies Hall - 5⭐️

I finished this book crying happy tears. Why? Because…Black women. We have endured so much and given so much to this country. Yet our education, labor, and contributions are still too often undervalued.

Mary Church Terrell, Anna Cooper, and Ida Hunt graduated from Oberlin College in 1884, despite a society that consistently attempted to limit their opportunities. Ms. Miller’s graduation scene made me proud to be a Black woman with a master’s degree. I recognize my own educational opportunities exist partly because of women like them; they paved the way for generations.

This novel made me proud AND angry. At times I wanted to throw the book when Susie McFarland showed her true colors and when Anna had to silence herself in the face of racism and colorism at the supposedly “integrated” and “accepting,” Oberlin College.

Anna was dynamic. I loved her inner monologues. Her truth was in her thoughts. Isn’t that part of our ancestors’ story? Staying quiet to survive another day, to avoid being expelled from their schools, and to avoid becoming strange fruit. Sometimes remaining silent just to…be.

Mary learned difficult lessons about racism, friendships, and class. Coming from a wealthy family, she was confident that the white people at Oberlin would be different, fair, accepting, and willing to know the Black students. But her experiences at Oberlin forced her to confront a different reality.

One thought I couldn’t shake was: “All we ever did was be Black.” Racial domination sustains itself through lies and fear, portraying the oppressed as dangerous, inferior, immoral, and incapable. These women faced those very attitudes at an institution that promised #ADifferentWorld

Their struggles weren’t foreign then, and they aren’t foreign now. This is why I ask questions. Why I vote. Why I read. It’s why I will continue promoting our Black stories, culture, history, and existence…our very being.

Thank you, @thomasnelson & @authorvanessamiller for the ARC review copy. It was a pleasure meeting you at Black Romance Book Festival.

#bookstagram #blackauthor #historicalfictionbooks #blackbookstagram by @dj.is.reading

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5 days ago

Sunday rain. In the house…being cozy.
What are yall reading today/this week?

🧡Slides:
✨Cover: A stack ft. Pumpkins 🎃
✨One of these days I’ll have the Big 3 in OG form 📚
✨I wrote and posted 2 reviews this week…✍🏾
✨Millennials live off the nostalgia. So glad I’m here 🥰
✨My Anti-TBR. I really hope I can accomplish this goal 📚🤓

#sundayvibes #booksbooksbooks #blackbookstagram #bookish #blackauthor by @dj.is.reading

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7 days ago

Banned Books Week.

I keep thinking about how our people were punished for reading, learning, questioning, and voting. So yes, I’m going to read. I’m going to ask questions. I’m in that voting line every time. And I’m going to keep books people have tried to silence on my shelves.

A few banned and challenged books I own. 🤎📚

#BannedBooksWeek #ReadBannedBooks #FreedomToRead #BlackBookstagram #Books by @dj.is.reading

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12 days ago

Yall rock with Christina C. Jones heavy?! Because I do! 😂🤎

I read SO much of CCJ’s backlist years ago, long before I was reviewing books on here, and lately I’ve been thinking about how much of her work I never got to talk about.

So we’re going back to Mahogany Heights. 🤎

I started with A Crazy Little Thing Called Love, the first book in the Serendipitous Love series. It’s short, cozy, and takes us right into the all-Black world CCJ created—with Black-owned businesses, familiar faces that pop up across books, and Urban Grind, the coffee shop that basically deserves its own character credit at this point. 😂☕️

CCJ really built a whole WORLD, and I think her backlist deserves some love in 2026. So don’t be surprised if you see me digging through it for a while.

If you’ve read CCJ, what’s YOUR favorite? And if you haven’t…maybe it’s time. 👀🍁🏠

#ChristinaCJones #BlackRomance #BlackRomanceBooks #BlackBookstagram #blacklovestories by @dj.is.reading

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14 days ago

Just get me to Sunday. A new month starts this week! Fall Darcy has arrived 🤎🩶

What are yall reading and watching? 👀♥️

🩶Slides:
✨Cover: Sundays
✨This. On. Repeat!! I’m so glad I went to an HBCU!
✨First Editions. *I’m* excited about them!
✨I’m in Ganton Hills now.
✨I live in Stars Hollow. Yes, I think I’m all that and a bag of chips bc of this blanket.
✨The tote bag addiction is very real.

#SundayVibes #BlackBookstagram #BlackAndBookish #BlackBooksMatter #Bookstagram by @dj.is.reading

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21 days ago

If only I could meet them for the first time again. 🥹🤎

#blackromance #blackromancebooks #blackbookstagram #blackbooksession #romancebooks by @dj.is.reading

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a month ago

Writer in Residence — 4⭐️ 1.5🌶️

Lowcountry. Comfort Southern food. Books. Romance books. When I say, “Make me a Black Southern woman in every lifetime,” this is what I’m talking about. And let’s not forget the topics that will pull me in every time—Black land ownership and generational conflict? I’m present.

Rhonda gave us Alex, a romance writer who has written 29 books and has a best friend who writes historical fiction. What?! My two great book loves. Put me in the story, Rhonda! 😂

Alex immediately lets us into the search for her family member. There was grief, trauma, and a lot of questions standing between close relatives. Add in a family from the other side of town, their land, their money, and even more conflict, and we have a backstory that needs unfolding.

Meanwhile, Alex is serving as the writer in residence for Gabe Scott. As she works on her own book, she gets to know the kids in the summer writing program. I loved watching those relationships develop. Neither Alex nor the kids knew exactly what to expect from each other, but apparently writing challenges with sweets as prizes will pull the kids in every time. 😂

And then there’s Gabe. 👀 This man knew what he wanted and didn’t back down. As their relationship deepened, I also loved seeing Alex change. The relationships she formed on the island shifted her perspective about herself, her family, and how she approached situations compared to when she arrived.

Overall, this was a solid story with a beautiful cast of characters that made you cheer for them until the end.

✨ Generational Conflict
✨ He Falls First
✨ Black Land Ownership

Thank you Thomas Nelson @thomasnelson and Rhonda McKnight @authorrhondamcknight for the gifted ARC. 🤍🤎

#BlackBookstagram #BlackBooksMatter #BlackReaders #BlackRomanceBooks #BookReview by @dj.is.reading

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a month ago

A little shelf tour of some of the Black romance books I love staring at most days. 😌 Some of my trophies🤎📚

Which shelf are you browsing first? 📚

#BlackBookstagram #BlackRomanceBooks #BlackReaders #BlackIndieAuthors #BlackBooksMatter by @dj.is.reading

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a month ago