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All This Time
🌹 Two hearts. One tragedy. A love their families can’t forgive.When friendship turns to forbidden love, Zaria Michelle Winderson and Osirion Najimi must face the ghosts of their past—and the families determined to keep them apart.
💔 They were best friends… until one bullet changed everything.
Zaria Michelle Winderson once thought love was simple—safe, even—until the day her father’s gunfire shattered that illusion and ripped Osirion Najimi from her life.
Years later, she’s built walls around her heart. College, a promising future, a boyfriend her family approves of—everything looks perfect from the outside. But beneath her calm surface lies a truth she can’t
She never stopped loving him.
When fate brings Michelle back to Osirion’s campus, the past refuses to stay buried. Old wounds reopen, old feelings reignite, and the line between friendship and something deeper begins to blur.
Osirion has spent years pretending he’s moved on, but he’s never forgotten the girl whose laughter once made his world whole. And now that she’s back, he’s determined to show her that what they lost can still be found—if they’re brave enough to face it.
But love between them is dangerous.
Their families are enemies.
And the truth of that one night still hangs between them, heavy and unforgiven.
To be together, they’ll have to risk everything—their hearts, their peace, and the fragile future they’ve fought so hard to build.
✨ A deeply emotional, slow-burn college romance about grief, forgiveness, and the kind of love that refuses to die.
Perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover, Kennedy Ryan, and Talia Hibbert.
⚠️ All This Time is an AM/BW college aged, forbidden lovers romance featuring a multicultural cast and a Romeo and Juliet flair. Intended for adult audiences, there are explicit sex scenes, blood & violence, xenophobia, and religious trauma. If you like adults trying to clean up their messy feelings and having steamy fun doing so, this will be the one for you.
💔 They were best friends… until one bullet changed everything.
Zaria Michelle Winderson once thought love was simple—safe, even—until the day her father’s gunfire shattered that illusion and ripped Osirion Najimi from her life.
Years later, she’s built walls around her heart. College, a promising future, a boyfriend her family approves of—everything looks perfect from the outside. But beneath her calm surface lies a truth she can’t
She never stopped loving him.
When fate brings Michelle back to Osirion’s campus, the past refuses to stay buried. Old wounds reopen, old feelings reignite, and the line between friendship and something deeper begins to blur.
Osirion has spent years pretending he’s moved on, but he’s never forgotten the girl whose laughter once made his world whole. And now that she’s back, he’s determined to show her that what they lost can still be found—if they’re brave enough to face it.
But love between them is dangerous.
Their families are enemies.
And the truth of that one night still hangs between them, heavy and unforgiven.
To be together, they’ll have to risk everything—their hearts, their peace, and the fragile future they’ve fought so hard to build.
✨ A deeply emotional, slow-burn college romance about grief, forgiveness, and the kind of love that refuses to die.
Perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover, Kennedy Ryan, and Talia Hibbert.
⚠️ All This Time is an AM/BW college aged, forbidden lovers romance featuring a multicultural cast and a Romeo and Juliet flair. Intended for adult audiences, there are explicit sex scenes, blood & violence, xenophobia, and religious trauma. If you like adults trying to clean up their messy feelings and having steamy fun doing so, this will be the one for you.
422 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 2, 2025
13 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
J. Clark
4 books30 followersJ. Clark is a Southern raised author living in the North!
She uses her philosophical background to write themes of social justice, feminism, and more in her work.
Aside from her debut novel her poetry publications include Contemplations of the Faithful, Fall Fancy, and “Barter” in the Poetry Leaves 2020
Anthology.
When she’s not writing you can find her gardening, practicing archery, spending time with her daughter, and supporting indie artists. She resides in Jersey with her family.
She uses her philosophical background to write themes of social justice, feminism, and more in her work.
Aside from her debut novel her poetry publications include Contemplations of the Faithful, Fall Fancy, and “Barter” in the Poetry Leaves 2020
Anthology.
When she’s not writing you can find her gardening, practicing archery, spending time with her daughter, and supporting indie artists. She resides in Jersey with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 23, 2025
And I Wonder What Comes Next – A Review of All This Time by J. Clark
All This Time is a spicy new adult, romance novel written by sizzling romance author J. Clark. The story is about two college kids, who’ve known each other since middle school, Michelle and Osirion. Their relationship has grown from a friendship, to mutual crushes, and finally to passionate lovers. The conflict here is that there are vast cultural differences between the two, and only one family is open to the cultural differences. Michelle is Black and comes from a strict Christian home. Her father is a pastor, running for public office. Osirion is Japanese and practices Shintoism, but his parents are pretty laid back.
The story takes place in present day Atlanta, predominantly on a college campus. The author drops reminders throughout, how hot and humid Atlanta can be. This contributes to the mood and tone of the story—heat is ever present, physically and emotionally.
The tale opens with Michelle and Osirion on the phone discussing a gift that he sent to her. From the gate, it is clear to readers that the lines of their relationship are blurred. They openly discuss being turned on and self-pleasuring, and directly on the heels of that one or both of them will say “we’re just friends.” Friendships between men and women exist where there is a hint of attraction and sometimes blatant attraction. I wonder, though, how often men and women are that open with each other, let alone with the same sex bestie, when it comes to deep sexual desires. As the story plays out, the big question is “will they ever be together?” I kept thinking, “why not?” Michelle seems to be holding on to what her father might think. On one hand she seems fearful, yet and still she has no problem talking dirty to her male “best friend.” She’s a walking contradiction, which made it somewhat hard for me to like her. Osirion was ready to go the entire time, even when he had a different girlfriend. There was never any question about where Osirion’s head was at in the game of love, and I think for that matter I enjoyed his character more.
There were a lot of unexpected interactions in this story. As aforementioned, Michelle and Osirion were heavy on the “best friends” narrative as a front, while taking flirting to the next level all the time. Aside from that, some of the conversations that adults and elders had with the young friends were odd an unexpected as well. For example, a particular character has a reputation for not only being well-endowed, but also having no skill or finesse with it, and everyone in the story talks about it, including church elders. An male relative of a victim of this character’s lack of delicacy, warns Michelle of possibly physically destroyed if she was to be intimate with this character. Though I sit and read on my couch, my breath was taken away with that scene. I couldn’t imagine one of my uncles discussing my sex life with a peer, but there are all different types of people in this world and nothing is impossible.
While I wasn’t crazy about Michelle’s character, I will say that the characters were very well-developed. Unlikeable, doesn’t mean unlayered, and just because I didn’t like Michelle doesn’t mean no one does (or will). Each character had a distinct personality, which is sometimes hard for authors to pull off because truth be told, there is always a piece of us in all of our characters. The only flaw within each character’s actions, was how everyone explicitly discussed sex, with everyone. No one had boundaries, and I found that a little unrealistic.
J. Clark’s approach to the spicy scenes is one to be admired as well. The scenes had intriguing yet imaginable flows. The language used to create the images was remarkable and spot on. Creating relatable mind-blowing sex scenes is not easy at all. Yet J. Clark made it look like a walk in the park.
J. Clark had a lot to share with readers in this story, and I hope I am at least close with the hidden messages I think I deciphered. The most important is that love is boundless. Michelle and Osirion were from vastly different cultures, and still they found love and passion with each other. I also think that J. Clark wanted readers to be comfortable with who they are and believe that if they want to, they can and will find a match. There is someone for everyone and sometimes we find our match in the least expected places. Finally, I also believe that J. Clark wants us to know that when we find that match, it is okay to let your “freak flag” fly, no matter what colors are on it.
On Goodreads, I rated this novel 4/5 stars. I believe this is J. Clark’s second novel, and she did her thing with it. There’s an excerpt at the end of All This Time from an upcoming novel, so expect her to bring it on once again, and I look forward to it.
All This Time is a spicy new adult, romance novel written by sizzling romance author J. Clark. The story is about two college kids, who’ve known each other since middle school, Michelle and Osirion. Their relationship has grown from a friendship, to mutual crushes, and finally to passionate lovers. The conflict here is that there are vast cultural differences between the two, and only one family is open to the cultural differences. Michelle is Black and comes from a strict Christian home. Her father is a pastor, running for public office. Osirion is Japanese and practices Shintoism, but his parents are pretty laid back.
The story takes place in present day Atlanta, predominantly on a college campus. The author drops reminders throughout, how hot and humid Atlanta can be. This contributes to the mood and tone of the story—heat is ever present, physically and emotionally.
The tale opens with Michelle and Osirion on the phone discussing a gift that he sent to her. From the gate, it is clear to readers that the lines of their relationship are blurred. They openly discuss being turned on and self-pleasuring, and directly on the heels of that one or both of them will say “we’re just friends.” Friendships between men and women exist where there is a hint of attraction and sometimes blatant attraction. I wonder, though, how often men and women are that open with each other, let alone with the same sex bestie, when it comes to deep sexual desires. As the story plays out, the big question is “will they ever be together?” I kept thinking, “why not?” Michelle seems to be holding on to what her father might think. On one hand she seems fearful, yet and still she has no problem talking dirty to her male “best friend.” She’s a walking contradiction, which made it somewhat hard for me to like her. Osirion was ready to go the entire time, even when he had a different girlfriend. There was never any question about where Osirion’s head was at in the game of love, and I think for that matter I enjoyed his character more.
There were a lot of unexpected interactions in this story. As aforementioned, Michelle and Osirion were heavy on the “best friends” narrative as a front, while taking flirting to the next level all the time. Aside from that, some of the conversations that adults and elders had with the young friends were odd an unexpected as well. For example, a particular character has a reputation for not only being well-endowed, but also having no skill or finesse with it, and everyone in the story talks about it, including church elders. An male relative of a victim of this character’s lack of delicacy, warns Michelle of possibly physically destroyed if she was to be intimate with this character. Though I sit and read on my couch, my breath was taken away with that scene. I couldn’t imagine one of my uncles discussing my sex life with a peer, but there are all different types of people in this world and nothing is impossible.
While I wasn’t crazy about Michelle’s character, I will say that the characters were very well-developed. Unlikeable, doesn’t mean unlayered, and just because I didn’t like Michelle doesn’t mean no one does (or will). Each character had a distinct personality, which is sometimes hard for authors to pull off because truth be told, there is always a piece of us in all of our characters. The only flaw within each character’s actions, was how everyone explicitly discussed sex, with everyone. No one had boundaries, and I found that a little unrealistic.
J. Clark’s approach to the spicy scenes is one to be admired as well. The scenes had intriguing yet imaginable flows. The language used to create the images was remarkable and spot on. Creating relatable mind-blowing sex scenes is not easy at all. Yet J. Clark made it look like a walk in the park.
J. Clark had a lot to share with readers in this story, and I hope I am at least close with the hidden messages I think I deciphered. The most important is that love is boundless. Michelle and Osirion were from vastly different cultures, and still they found love and passion with each other. I also think that J. Clark wanted readers to be comfortable with who they are and believe that if they want to, they can and will find a match. There is someone for everyone and sometimes we find our match in the least expected places. Finally, I also believe that J. Clark wants us to know that when we find that match, it is okay to let your “freak flag” fly, no matter what colors are on it.
On Goodreads, I rated this novel 4/5 stars. I believe this is J. Clark’s second novel, and she did her thing with it. There’s an excerpt at the end of All This Time from an upcoming novel, so expect her to bring it on once again, and I look forward to it.
August 20, 2025
This book had me hooked from page one. The tension between Michelle and Osirion was so raw and real that I found myself rooting for them even when I knew their families would never make it easy. The mix of college drama and forbidden love gave me that perfect 'messy but worth it' vibe. I also appreciated how the author didn’t shy away from deeper topics like trauma and cultural clashes it gave the story weight. Can’t wait for more from this series.
August 20, 2025
This book surprised me! It’s not just romance it’s about healing from old wounds, facing family baggage, and learning how to love without losing yourself. Michelle felt very real to me, and Osirion’s feelings were intense in a way that reminded me of being that age and thinking love could fix everything. The ending left me with so many emotions, and I can see myself rereading it. Highly recommend if you like your romance messy, passionate, and full of drama.
August 20, 2025
I went into this thinking it would be a typical college romance, but it was way more layered. The family tension, the way trauma was handled, and the fact that Michelle is trying to move on while Osirion refuses to let go it made for a really emotional ride. Some scenes had me frustrated (in a good way) because you just want them to communicate better. Definitely recommend if you like angsty romance with heat.
November 21, 2025
Slow start, nice finish
I want wowed at the beginning. In fact, I'd say I was confused by several scenes and transitions. The book does get better. Didn't realize this was a spicy book or had bits of BDSM. I like the relationship of Michelle and Osi. Nice read.
I want wowed at the beginning. In fact, I'd say I was confused by several scenes and transitions. The book does get better. Didn't realize this was a spicy book or had bits of BDSM. I like the relationship of Michelle and Osi. Nice read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews