My gateway drug into romance writer Kennedy Ryan’s creative world came via one of the author’s first published works: Until I’m Yours. The book and series are unique amid Ryan’s portfolio that features the voices and lives of Black women — Until I’m Yours (Book 4 in the “Bennett” series) follows a blonde hair, green-eyed protagonist named Sophie who is the heir to her father’s empire, a model, a lifestyle Guru (think fictional GOOP), and a certified b*tch.
During an intimate Q&A hosted by Amazon Books at the luxe Maxwell social club in TriBeCa, Ryan told HelloBeautiful that this book series, almost 13 years old now, marks her foray into nationwide circulation — and the Sophie spin off (she was an ancillary character in other books in the series) almost didn’t happen, simply because as a character, Sophie’s not likable. But beneath the unexpected heroine’s steely sarcasm and superficiality, I found parts of myself, which is remarkable when you think about it. How is it that I, a dark-skinned woman with an extremely humble origin story, am able to find parallels with a character who is so phenotypically and culturally different than me? That character resonance speaks to the dexterity and believable word-building abilities of Ryan’s pen. Layered beneath the billboard ads and risqué Playboy covers, Sophie is a woman with a deeply layered past, a survivor, and an alchemist, whose walls fall brick by brick when she encounters Trevor, a philanthropic tech guru who really sees her.
Ryan said the hallmark of her books is making the unseen, visible, as she delves deeply throughout the rest of her literary catalogue into the lives of Black women that are often side-lined and side-kicked. In Ryan’s world, we are all the main character in a fantasy unfolding of our wildest dreams.
“Whether you are black or fat or disabled you get to be pursued; you get to be the focus,” Ryan said.
Soon, readers will find the characters they fell in love with on the page living out their stories on film. Ryan’s book, “Before I Let Go,” (A book in the “Skyland” series that follows three friends who live in the same Atlanta enclave) is currently in production with Peacock as a TV-series adaptation. The evolution of her work from book to screen is another opportunity to spotlight Black women on a bigger stage — and that specificity is intentional. Ryan sees romance for Black women not as escapism but as a dimension of life that we all deserve to see ourselves as a part of.
“It’s the genre that guarantees joy,” Ryan said of her work.
“When you call it an escape. it makes it like it’s dissociated from reality; but romance is a part of reality,” she said.
Her latest work, “This Could Be Us” follows an Afro Latina woman named Soledad, who is plunged into life as a single mom after a devastating betrayal uproots her life. The character finds solace in bell hooks’ classic, All About Love, which ultimately invites Soledad into a love story with her self….before an unlikely suitor sweeps her off her feet. The book was selected as Amazon’s best romance novel of 2024.
Ryan said telling Soledad’s story was important to her, because she wanted to respect the “vocational validity” of Black stay-at-home moms, a choice that was historically denied to us.
In her research for the book, Ryan said during World War II, while many Black men were away fighting, they sent money home which enabled Black women, for the first time, to focus on the domestic duties of their own household. But legislation shifted quickly, where it literally became illegal for Black women to be stay-at-home wives and mothers.
“Black women, even if they could stay home were forced to work as domestics and as nannies,” Ryan said.
“Literally it was a crime in that part of South Carolina, for a Black woman to stay home. Soledad talks about that, and she talks about the redemptive arc of a Black Latina woman who came make the choice to stay home.”
That intersection of history, reality, and fantasy is the sweet pocket Ryan’s work lives and breathes in, and the best part is, we are all invited as Black women into her world of happily ever after as esteemed guests.
Source: NewsOne