Happy Caribbean American Heritage Month! This year, we’re celebrating with books by Caribbean American authors and/or starring Caribbean characters! For even more recs, check out last year’s post.
Young Adult Fiction
The Lovers, the Liars, and Me by DeAndra Writes
Jaliya Powell has never had a real adventure, a real boyfriend, or spoken up for herself. She’s never even been kissed. Despite being valedictorian of her high school class, Jaliya is used to fading into the background.
But this summer will be different.
This summer, Jaliya is visiting her uncle and his family in Jamaica. Under the guise of one last vacation before college, she plans to find out more about her estranged mother, whose absence has remained an unspoken mystery. But things have changed in the seven years since Jaliya last visited. Her cousin has his own life and is reluctant to let Jaliya in, her childhood crush has only gotten hotter and more unavailable, and her aunt and uncle aren’t everything she remembered, either. Then she meets India, who’s vibrant, gorgeous, and free-spirited. And who makes Jaliya feel something she’s never felt before.
While searching for traces of her mother across the island, Jaliya finds herself entangled in complicated relationships, tricky secrets, and a passionate new love. As she navigates this perfectly complicated summer, Jaliya must choose between who she has always been or who she hopes to become.
Sun Chasers by Kacen Callender (October 27, 2026)
You stood still. Stared out at the ocean. Like you were searching for something. Maybe the same thing I was searching for, too. Something that belongs in my chest. Warm and bright.
Kole has mastered the art of deflection. He explains away the real reason why he had to move to St. Thomas to live with his father and his new family. He makes excuses for any bruises or limps people notice. He starts dating a girl at his new school to avoid questions about who he’s really attracted to.
But he can’t seem to hide how drawn he is to Gabriel.
Gabriel wishes he could disappear. But everywhere he goes on the island he calls home, he can’t escape the people who misgender him, who threaten him. He’s haunted by the memories of a painful past. And with his single mother barely making ends meet, he knows there’s no hope for a better life after high school.
As Kole and Gabriel slowly start to share their struggles with each other, their connection becomes a lifeline. But can a young love survive in a world determined to tear them down? Are there some wounds that can never be healed?
Adult Fiction
Devil of the Deep by Falencia Jean-Francois
Lu watched the love of his life walk the plank and sink into the inky-black depths of the sea. Nnenna was dead . . . or so he thought.
Five years later, Lieutenant “Lu” Ortega, dutiful fleet officer, embarks on a mission to hunt down a powerful talisman now in the hands of a runaway mermaid. On his quest, he discovers the impossible: Nnenna is still alive. Fierce and cunning, and as breathtaking as ever, Nnenna ’s won enough bloody sword fights as a pirate captain to earn the nickname “Devil of the Deep.” She has come to reject the system of order that Lu clings to, and worse, she’s protecting the very quarry he’s tracking: Pearl Highwater, who has defied the all-powerful sea god and might hold a valuable key to finding her people’s lost island.
When the tides and fates bring them together, Nnenna, Lu, and Pearl must choose their loyalties, find their courage, and race to protect the island from false gods and forces of evil—or risk unleashing an ancient curse that could destroy them all.
An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole
Warren University has stood amongst the ivy elite for centuries, built on the bones―and forbidden magic―of its most prized BIPOC students…hiding the rot of a secret society that will do anything to keep their own powers burning bright. No matter who they must sacrifice along the way.
Ellory Morgan is determined to prove that she belongs at Warren University, an ivy league school whose history is deeply linked to occult rumors and dark secrets. But as she settles into her Freshman year, something about the ornate buildings and shadowy paths feels strangely…familiar. And, with every passing day, that sense of déjà vu grows increasingly sinister.
Despite all logic, despite all reason, despite all the rules of reality, Ellory knows one thing to be true: she has been here before. And if she can’t convince brooding legacy student Hudson Graves to help her remember a past that seems determined to slip through her fingers as if by some insidious magic…this time, she may lose herself for good.
Fire Sword & Sea by Vanessa Riley
The Caribbean Sea, 1675. Jacquotte Delahaye is the mixed-race daughter of a wealthy tavern owner on the island of Tortuga. Instead of marriage, Jacquotte dreams of joining the seafarers and smugglers whose tall-masted ships cluster in the turquoise waters around Tortuga. She falls in love with a pirate, but when he returns to the sea, Jacquotte decides to make her own way. In Haiti she becomes Jacques, a dockworker, earning the respect of those around her while hiding her gender.
Jacquotte discovers that secret identities are fairly common in the chaotic world of seafaring, which is full of outsiders and misfits. She forms a deep bond with Bahati, an African-born woman who has escaped slavery and also disguises herself as a man to navigate the world. They join forces with Dirkje De Wulf, a fearless adventurer who also lives as a man at sea. As Jacques, Jacquotte falls in love with Lizzôa d’Erville, a beautiful courtesan who deals in secrets and sex. While others see their work clothes as a disguise, Lizzôa’s true self is as a woman.
For the next twenty years, Jacquotte raids the Caribbean, making enemies and amassing a fortune in stolen gold. When her fellow pirates decide to increase their profits by entering the slave trade, Jacquotte turns away from piracy and the pursuit of riches. Risking her life in one deadly skirmish after another, she instead begins to plot a war of liberation.
The Disappearers by Marlon James (September 1, 2026)
In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play. The men are strangers to one another and each has a different reason for being involved. But they all share one inescapable truth: All of them are gay―a “battyman” in Jamaican argot―and all of them must contend with the dangers that such a truth lays bare.
One night a mob savagely attacks them, killing one of the men. For the survivors, their recovery is as much emotional as it is physical. As their bodies heal, each man grapples with the violence, the hatred, and the rage that the attack made plain. Some try to ignore what the attack has unearthed, while others double down on retribution.
