Leaning into Autumn
Books written by Black authors featuring cozy prose and football-playing main characters.
It’s officially fall, even if the weather hasn’t caught up, and the perfect time to embrace all the autumn vibes. From Sunday football to curling up in your coziest blanket, this week’s roundup sets the mood with the categories: Gridiron Focus and Cozy Prose.
To help you cross off these categories, here are some books you can add to your reading list!
Gridiron Focus
Category Description
This category invites you to sit on the sidelines as you read books featuring a football-playing main character. Selecting one of these books will give you a break from the action and dive deep into swoonworthy romances on my reading list!
Reading List
Fumble. Pass. Repeat by T’Lyn
Contemporary Romance
A quarterback is traded and develops an explosive connection with his team's assigned liaison.
This book is available in Kindle Unlimited, physical, digital, and audio formats.
The Connecticut Kings Series by Love Belvin & Christina C. Jones
Contemporary Romance
A ten-book series chronicling the lives and loves of the fictional Connecticut Kings football team.
Love in the Red Zone (Book 1): A player gets a second chance at his career, but his focus is shaken when he meets a single mother and her son.
Love on the Highlight Reel (Book 2): A player and a team trainer risk their reputations and careers for a chance at love.
The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon
Contemporary Romance
The second book in The Dating Project Series centers on a personal trainer who enters a fake relationship with a former NFL player trying to get back into the league.
This book is available in Kindle Unlimited, physical, digital, and audio formats.
Unexpected Pass by A. Blossom
Contemporary Romance
A barber and a Super Bowl MVP have an instant connection and navigate past baggage.
This book is available in Kindle Unlimited, digital, and audio (available on October 7) formats.
Fake It Till You Bake It by Jamie Wesley
Contemporary Romance
A reality star and a cupcake-baking football player pretend to be a couple to save his bakery.
This book is available in Kindle Unlimited, physical, digital, and audio formats.
✨ Special Shout Out: For more options, follow Jalessa Reads’s Sidelines & Storylines series on IG and TikTok! She curates a Black romance recommendation that aligns with upcoming football games during the NFL season. ✨
Cozy Prose
Category Description
This category invites you to embrace the coziness of the season by reading books that are heartwarming, charming, and help level out your nervous system. This category goes across genres, and anything you feel exudes coziness counts!
This list focuses on cozy mysteries and fantasies that are at the top of my reading list.
Reading List
The Ice Cream Parlor Mysteries by Abby Collette
Cozy Mysteries
An MBA graduate takes over her family’s ice cream parlor and intends to reclaim its former glory and is thrust into a murder investigations within her small town.
A Deadly Inside Scoop: Bronwyn juggles her new business with solving a crime.
A Game of Cones: A developer’s murder implicates Bronwyn’s friend in murder.
A Killer Sundae: A festivalgoesr is poisoned and Bronwyn is implicated.
Elemental Love Series by Celestine Martin
Cozy Romantic Fantasy
A family of witches in a cozy, seaside town full of other magic beings find love.
Witchful Thinking: A high school teacher acidentally casts a spell leading to unexpected encounters with her crush.
Kiss and Spell: A witch helps a socially akward prince find his true love’s kiss.
Deja Brew: A festivalgoesr is poisoned and Bronwyn is implicated.
Debate and Decadence by Sula Sullivan
Cozy Romantic Fantasy
A reclusive with’s peaceful life is disruptued when a chaotic runaway bride appears at her door.
This book is available in Kindle Unlimited, physical and digital formats.
The Plot is Murder by V.M. Burns
Cozy Mystery
The first in the Mystery Bookshop series, after opening a new mystery bookstore, the owner becomes a murder suspect.
This book is available in physical, digital, and audio formats.
Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett
Cozy Mystery
The first in the Detective by Day Mystery, a C-list actress becomes an amateur detective to solve a hit-and-run.
This book is available in physical, digital, and audio formats.
Adding any of these books to your reading list? Any books I should add?
Comment below!
🚨September Bingo Winner Drawing
The Shelf-tember Star will be selected on October 3! To be eligible, you need to get bingo and submit your reads. The winner will be randomly selected from those who submit their reads.
Track your bingo progress using the links below!
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