This summer, step into the warm, soulful world of Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland series: a trilogy that redefines what romance can do when it’s written with both fire and finesse. Set in a tight-knit Atlanta neighborhood pulsing with community, culture, and care, the Skyland novels go beyond mere escapism. They are deeply felt portraits of love, healing, and the quiet revolutions that happen when Black women choose themselves and find joy anyway.

Ryan, a RITA Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author, writes with the nuance of literary fiction and the emotional gut-punch of the best romance. Each novel stands on its own, but together they form a mosaic of contemporary Black life where therapy is sacred, family is complex, and desire is both political and poetic.

1. Before I Let Go (2022)

Theme: Divorce, grief, second chances

Summer mood: Bittersweet, steamy, and deeply redemptive

The novel that launched the series and made Obama’s 2023 Summer Reading List Before I Let Go follows Yasmen and Josiah Wade, a divorced couple navigating the messy, magnetic pull of their shared history. The emotional terrain is raw: postpartum depression, the death of a child, mental health, and the impossibility of pretending everything’s fine. But Ryan never lets the darkness consume the light. What emerges is a second-chance romance that is tender, sexy, and life-affirming.

Summer pairing: Read this with tissues and a glass of red wine under a thunderstorm sky. It’s a storm before the calm and worth every ache.

2. This Could Be Us (2024)

Theme: Motherhood, self-sacrifice, love after betrayal

Summer mood: Empowering, sun-drenched, soft but fierce

In This Could Be Us, readers meet Yasmen’s best friend, Soledad Barnes, who’s coming apart at the seams after discovering her partner’s betrayal. What follows is a radiant story of self-reclamation, co-parenting, and the delicate dance between friendship and more with a reserved tech CEO who sees her clearly. Ryan’s attention to emotional realism is breathtaking. This isn’t just about romantic love it’s about choosing yourself again and again.

Summer pairing: Perfect for slow mornings on the porch with strong coffee and your phone off. Let this one remind you of your own worth.

3. Can’t Get Enough (2025)

Theme: Healing, trauma recovery, love after loss

Summer mood: Soulful, sensual, cathartic

The final novel, Can’t Get Enough, brings Hendrix’s story to the forefront, and with it, Kennedy Ryan’s finest prose to date. A single mother forging a new path, a man still grieving the wife he lost, and a slow-burning love story rooted in consent, care, and courage, this is a triumph of the genre. Ryan gives her characters permission to be messy, vulnerable, and real. There’s sweat and sex, yes but also therapy, boundaries, and emotional safety. It’s romance for grown folks, and it’s glorious.

Summer pairing: Read this stretched out on a picnic blanket, the sun kissing your shoulders, a playlist of Leon Bridges and H.E.R. in the background.

Why Skyland Should Be on Your Summer Radar

In the heat of summer, when we often look for books to help us unwind, the Skyland series offers more: refueling. These are novels that acknowledge how heavy life can get and then offer a hand, a heart, and a home in which to feel it all. Ryan gives us heroines who don’t just fall in love they rise in it.

If you want romance that feels like soul food, that challenges tropes while still making you swoon, Skyland is your summer must-read.

Summer Shelf Verdict: ★★★★★

For fans of emotionally intelligent love stories, richly drawn Black communities, and prose that sings Kennedy Ryan’s Skyland is unmissable.