"Janae Sanders’ Second Time Around" is book two in LaQuette's Savvy, Sexy, and Single Club series. Check out the interview below.
What was your inspiration behind your most recent book?
So often, romances focus on people in their twenties or younger. I wanted a series that focused on heroines in their forties who were finding their second chances at love. Each woman is a forty-something divorcee who is navigating love, and all that comes with it. Janae is a divorced single mother who has no time for anything other than work and her son. Then she reconnects with her high-school crush/rival Adam, and suddenly, she wants to make time for him, and all he can bring to her life.
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you? This question is all about loving to read, being proud of your stories, being an advocate for diversity.
I read romance because I love tagging along for the journey when folks fall in love. I write romance with the explicit purpose of celebrating Black women. My goal is to dispel the struggle narrative that often is the acceptable version of stories featuring Black women and write stories where my Black heroines are treasured by their romantic partners, experiencing joy in all aspects of their lives.
Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?
First, it’s the world we live in. All types of people exist in the world. In my opinion, it should be the expectation that diversity shows up in our media. My second reason is that by only writing books where white, cis-het, abled people find love, the romance genre is telling the world that everyone else who can’t fit into that very narrow categorization doesn’t deserve love. Thirdly, I’m currently in my third year of a Ph.D. program where I am studying Black feminism with a focus on how Black women are portrayed in popular media and that informs my writing in a significant way. It means I’m always looking to uplift Black women and Black people in my books, depicting us fulfilling our dreams and aspirations, including love.
Historically, the only thing associated with Blackness and Black womanhood was struggle, pain, hypersexuality, victimization, criminality, immorality, impoverishment, and infantilization. If these are the only stories society sees regarding Blackness and Black womanhood, the collective then believes these are the only accurate representations of Blackness and Black womanhood. So, when I come along writing Black folks who are dynamic, competent, educated, gainfully employed with loving intact families, and supportive friend groups, the public looks at my work as unrealistic. This happens because popular media has only provided representation of people who look like me in very negative and limited ways.
When you consistently write Black characters with struggle narratives, especially in a romance novel, what you’re saying is Black people cannot be loved without the condition of societal struggle. I don’t subscribe to that very outdated, and problematic perspective. Instead, I write with the understanding that Black people and Black women aren’t a monolith. We deserve love because our humanity dictates it, not because we must rise above our societal difficulties to prove we are worthy of love.
Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.
"Janae Sanders’ Second Time Around" is book two in my Savvy, Sexy, and Single Club series. It features a forty-something plus size, single Black mother who while climbing the heights of her medical career and taking care of her teenaged son, she’s forgotten about the vibrant woman inside of her who needs attention too. Reconnecting with her high-school crush/rival, Adam Henderson, makes her take a pause and focus on her needs, desires, and hopes and dreams.
For Janae’s story, I wanted to challenge the idea that Black women can’t have it all while also challenging body-size bias. This book rejects the expectation that motherhood is the most important part of a person’s identity, and once someone becomes a mother, they should not want anything else for themselves. Mothers are whole people too. Adam reminds Janae of that in very sweet, sexy, supportive and honest ways. This story also proudly celebrates larger bodies. Big girls get love too. However, you’d never know that by what we see in all forms of popular media. Janae loves all her curves, and Adam is enchanted by them. Her weight isn’t part of her struggle, and the hero sees her body as perfection from the first time he lays eyes on her (IMO, as is right and proper).
What can fans expect from your book?
A fun and familiar friend group that holds each other down during the rough times while encouraging each other to be the best version of themselves. You’ll see Black women living their best lives and being adored by their romantic partners as all people should be. But most importantly, you’ll find two people who do the hard work to grow emotionally so that they can show up for themselves, their partners, and their friends and families.
What's up next for you in the bookish world?
I’m currently working on book three in the Savvy, Sexy, and Single Club series titled, "Cree Brennan’s Man Next Door." It’s a friends-to-lovers story where the heroine, a former foster child, must decide if the love she feels for her life-long best friend is worth risking the friendship that brought her family and community. It’s gonna be fun. But like all my books, it’s also gonna tug on those heartstrings and make you think about life and identity in nuanced ways.
