Who's Loving You: Love Stories by Women of Colour

by Sareeta Domingo

'A beautiful collection that I both lost and found myself in. Unbelievably exciting stories from some show-stoppingly talented writers.' Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie.Lost love. Forbidden Love. Unrequited love. Tenderness. Desire. Romance. Passion.Who's Loving You? is a celebration of love in all its guises written by women of colour, with ten original short stories from bold new voices, literary prize-winners and national treasures.Two souls come together and are torn apart, lifetime after lifetime. A seed of hope begins to grow out of the ashes of grief, heartbreak and loss. Romance sparks in the most unexpected of places. And an unbreakable bond is formed that transcends countries, continents and even the boundaries of time...In this extraordinary collection, ten writers explore the full spectrum of love in all its messy, joyful, agonising and exhilarating forms. Celebrating and centring the romance, passion and desire of women of colour, these stories burn with an intensity and longing that lingers long after the final page.WHO'S LOVING US? LET US SHOW YOU...* Rowan Hisayo Buchanan * Sara Collins * Danielle DASH * Sareeta Domingo * Sara Jafari * Dorothy Koomson * KUCHENGA * Kelechi Okafor * Amna Saleem * Varaidzo *

Genres: Short Stories

245 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 4, 2021

About the author

Sareeta Domingo is the author of If I Don't Have You [Jacaranda Books, 2020], The Nearness of You [Piatkus/Little,Brown, 2016], and creator, editor and contributing writer of upcoming romantic fiction anthology Who's Loving You [Trapeze, 2021]. She has also written numerous erotic short stories and an erotic novella with Pavilion Books. Her books for Young Adults are published under S.A. Domingo, including Love, Secret Santa [Hachette Children's, 2019]. She has contributed to publications including gal-dem, Black Ballad, Stylist and Token Magazine, and has taken part in events for Hachette Books, Winchester Writers’ Festival, Black Girls Book Club and Bare Lit Festival among others. She lives in South East London.
sareetadomingo.com // @SareetaDomingo (Twitter) // @SareetaDomingoAuthor (Insta)

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING. The only reason it took me so long to read all these short stories was because the book fell behind my bed and I didn’t know where it was for months! I loved all the stories in this book. I was drawn to it in the bookstore because each story was written by a woman of colour, and every story was about women of colour. As a brown woman, I basically never saw myself represented in romance books or films. They were nice to watch/read but I could never relate to characters who didn’t look like me or have any of my experiences. It was so so lovely being able to see myself in a story about a brown woman in the UK (even set in Scotland where I live now!!) I bawled my eyes out reading ‘Rani’. It was genuinely one of the most healing experiences of my life.

I feel like each of the stories taught me something about myself and/or changed the way I look at love and dating. I cried while reading most of them too because the stories were just so beautiful and I grew to love the characters even within such a brief narrative. They were so much more than love stories. I highly recommend this collection to everyone. I will probably have to go back and reread this collection at least once a year!!

[Only Lovers Book Club]

Check out our full book club review on Youtube If you prefer to listen you can check us out on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

[lottie · Rating 4 out of 5]

black/trans/brown/queer women in love is all i ever want to read about

[Tanisha Pandey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is light, lovely and laced with imagination. I want to say that the 'Women of Colour' in the title of the book makes no difference to the love stories they narrate but I might be speaking as a person who is still living through the impact of the narration. Not going into the canonical details of the works, I'd suggest this read to anyone who is looking for something effortless and meaningful , honest and imaginary, simple yet detailed. And speaking as a woman of colour living in the 21st century, these love stories did hit really close to home.

[Joëlle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s so refreshing to read stories about love involving people of colour! When I was younger I would devour romance novels, but they would always be about white people and therefore not very relatable. And in some ways you could say that it planted the idea in your head that you had to be white in order to be deserving of love worth writing about or even love in general. I think it’s great that we’re moving towards a world where what we see and read can be relatable for non white people too. Some stories were a bit forgettable, but the majority were very interesting. I loved that there was a selection of non heteronormative stories as well. Let’s keep publishing and creating things that actually reflect the voices of the world we live in!

[Robyn Philander · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love the concept of this book. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy majority of the stories. Too much insta love and stilted writing. There was also a pacing issue between stories.

I really enjoyed “Brief Encounters” and “Rain Doubtful”. “No one is lonely” was also a favorite but a bit weird and didn’t feel like it fit with the rest of the collection. All three of these stories are a solid 5 stars, the rest of the stories unfortunately were not for me.

[IssaHev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well worth a read

I wish I would review the stories separately, some were absolutely fantastic such as Varaidzo’s ‘Long Distance’, but others were not as wholly consuming. Overall a good read and brings to mind many questions about love and relationships that people ought to ask themselves.

[Capnniknak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an exceptional book. I needed to read these stories. Each one is unique and beautiful. I especially loved Rani by Amna Saleem, Rain... Doubtful by Kuchenga and Brief Encounters by Sara Collins. But I loved all the stories. A must read and a great gift for friends.

[Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book stories which tackled the fabric of love and relationships, I really enjoyed this book

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really excellent anthology of short stories - I was really struck by the diversity of themes and styles of writing. Fantastic writing throughout as well as great romance.

[Alli_aye · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories were so different from each other, it was lovely to be transported somewhere new each time

[vanessa rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

some stories were good some mid

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were super cute. Maybe even a bit heartbreaking.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely read modern romance stories, or shorts, so this was outside my usual reading, but I am so glad I stumbled across this collection of stories.

All of the stories had interesting and different narrative styles, with compelling and engaging romantic protagonists. I don’t wish to over focus on the backgrounds of the authors, but I will say that there was a wonderful sense of anticipation as I started each new story, knowing that I didn’t know what to expect in terms of the characters and the cultural milieu. I was transported to so many incredible places and cultures.

Although the stories were all engaging in their own right, and the variety of writing styles brought a similar sense of anticipation - in many ways the stories are vastly different, but are tied together and sequenced in a way that makes the cohesion obvious.

My only critique, which is probably just a feature of collections, is that the pacing varied a little too much. I really struggle with concentration and struggled a little going from fast-paced stories with high tension to much slower, more reflective pieces.

I’d been a little burnt out with reading recently and this was a great collection to get myself back in the habit of reading everyday! Thoroughly enjoyed this!

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ for me. It’s a light and different story about love. I especially loved that they weren’t the usual stories. Another one for the month of love.