While I love reading across genres and cultures, I’m especially drawn to stories that reflect my personal background, where characters are centered, fully realized, and complex. Rooted is where I share books and short stories that explore joy, grief, legacy, love, resistance, and imagination through the voices of Black, Afro-German, and
German voices.
These stories honor where we’ve been, examine where we are, and imagine what’s possible; across time, place, and genre. I hope you enjoy these journeys.
~RR
🦸🏾♂️ All Super Heroes Need PR
All Superheroes Need PR is the kind of story that feels like a fresh breeze, unexpected, fun, and just a little bit bold in all the right ways. Elizabeth Stephens delivers a vibrant and entertaining narrative that blends romance, fantasy, and sharp humor into something that feels both modern and refreshingly different. It’s one of those books…
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🏙️ If I Ruled The World
If I Ruled the World is a nostalgic, emotionally grounded story that gently pulls you back into a season of life where everything felt possible and just a little uncertain. From the very first chapter, I was transported back to my high school and early college years. The music, the fashion, the energy all felt so…
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⚖️ Judge Stone
Judge Stone is a compelling and immersive read, elevated even further by its audiobook performance. From the very beginning, it draws you in, not just with its storyline, but with the feeling that you’re about to hear something meaningful, something lived-in. Narrated by Viola Davis, the story takes on a powerful and deeply personal dimension. Davis does…
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🩺 Revive Me
There is something special about a series that doesn’t just entertain you, it pulls you in and refuses to let go. And right now, JL Seeger’s second installment of the New Haven series, Revive Me, has me in a full-on chokehold. I accidentally left my next physical read at home this weekend, but thankfully, I had already…
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🎢 WDNCC Handbook
I’ll just say it plainly: this book met me exactly where I am. For those who may not know, I have two college-aged kids. That alone places me squarely in what the doctors politely call the “perimenopause range.” My Instagram tag, your fave auntie, probably gave that away too. Enter Melani Sanders. If you haven’t…
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❤️ Restore Me
I actually read Restore Me by J.L. Seegars ahead of Valentine’s Day. I had every intention of sharing it on time. I even envisioned the post as soft and romantic, fitting for February 14th. But grad school, work, and life did what they do best, and the 14th came and went before I could press publish. Still,…
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🌿 This Poison Heart
Every now and then, I crave a story that blends mystery, myth, and just a touch of magic; and Kalynn Bayron’s This Poison Heart duology delivers all that and more. These two books, This Poison Heart and its sequel, This Wicked Fate, are lush, dramatic fantasies that pull you into a world where nature, ancestry, and destiny are deeply…
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📖 Harlem Rhapsody
Harlem Rhapsody is a beautifully immersive work of historical fiction centered on Jessie Redmon Fauset, a literary force whose influence on the Harlem Renaissance has too often been minimized or overlooked. Victoria Christopher Murray transports the reader into the sights, sounds, and intellectual ferment of Harlem between 1910 and the mid-1920s. This book is grounded in the world…
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