Black Girls Must Have It All

Black Girls Must Die Exhausted #3

by Jayne Allen

In this final installment in the acclaimed Black Girls Must Die Exhausted trilogy, Tabitha is juggling work, relationships, and a newborn baby—but will she find the happy ending she’s always wanted

After a whirlwind year, Tabitha Walker’s carefully organized plan to achieve the life she wanted—perfect job, dream husband, and stylish home—has gone off the rails. Her checklist now consists of diapers changed (infinite), showers taken (zero), tears cried (buckets), and hours of sleep (what’s that).

Don't get her wrong, Tabby loves her new bundle of joy and motherhood is perhaps the only thing that's consistent for her these days. When the news station announces that they will be hiring outside competitors for the new anchor position, Tabby throws herself into her work. But it’s not just maintaining her position as the station’s weekend anchor that has her worried. All of her relationships seem to be shifting out of their regular orbits. Best friend Alexis can’t manage to strike the right balance in her “refurbished” marriage with Rob, and Laila’s gone from being a consistent ride-or-die to a newly minted entrepreneur trying to raise capital for her growing business. And when Marc presents her with an ultimatum about their relationship, coupled with an extended “visit” from his mother, Tabby is forced to take stock of her life and make a new plan for the future.

Consumed by work, motherhood, and love, Tabby finds herself isolated from her friends and family just when she needs them most. But help is always there when you ask for it, and Tabby’s village will once again rally around her as she comes to terms with her new life and faces her biggest challenge yet—choosing herself.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Contemporary, Romance, Adult, Realistic Fiction, Literary Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2023

About the author

Instagram: @JayneAllenWrites
Publisher Instagram: @HarperPerennial
Publisher Twitter: @HarperPerennial

Jayne Allen is a black girl from Detroit who smiles widely, laughs loudly and loves to tell stories that stick to your bones. Her debut novel, "Black Girls Must Die Exhausted," which Kirkus Reviews called "both timely and enjoyable," touches upon contemporary women's issues such as workplace womanhood, race, fertility, modern relationships and mental health awareness, echoing her desire to bring both multiculturalism and multidimensionality to contemporary women's fiction with dynamic female protagonists who also happen to be black. When she's not writing "chocolate chick lit with a conscience," she's spending time with her girlfriends, keeping one ear open for her next saucy tale.

Reviews

[Kandace Branch · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, let's applaud the illustrator for the cover. Each book in this series has a beautiful cover.

However, that is really all there is for me. This particular book in the series focuses on Tabitha being a mother and dealing with the negotiation between family and work. I found it somewhat difficult to connect because the story is so heavily focused on motherhood. In the beginning there seemed to be little progression in the story. I was also growing tired of the back and forth between Marc and Tabitha because she knew that she didn't want a future with him.

As with the other books, I liked the rallying of friendship and sisterhood showcased. In the end, she gets what she wants which could have been achieved in a few pages short.

[Breeee Ranae⚜️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm let’s see …. 3rd and final book to this series & let me just say I’m glad it’s done. This definitely didn’t need to be a series. I didn’t connect with Tab when it came to motherhood & career but I did love and connect with the friendships she had with Alexis and Liala.

I feel like we didn’t get enough of the relationship with her sisters & dad.

The back and forth with her and Marc was so exhausting my God. & that damn Mother in Law from hell don’t even get me started Chile. We got to see this journey in 3 books and they still don’t end up together. She got her dream job and her best friends by her side but no love ?

I don’t think this is a must read but it wasn’t bad🤷🏽‍♀️ending was a little flat no surprise though.
I think I want to see a series about Liala !

[Danielle Mcallister-andrews · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its a no for me. There was hardly any dialogue just the same obsessive repeated thoughts that i found myself skipping through often. None of the main characters are likeable especially Tabby and Mark. Just kind of pointless.

[Nae · Rating 2 out of 5]

So happy this series is over. 🙃

[Quana (the black regina george) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is lucky Tabby had a good ending in terms of her career, because I was finna give this book 1 star.

☆☆☆ (3.5 stars)

I gave this book between 3 and 4 stars because when I give a book 4 stars, I want to talk about it with others who’ve read it. Because I can't believe some of y'all wanted Tabby to end up with selfish ass Marc.

In this series, Marc and Tabby have had a lot of drama. First, she wanted to get married, then she didn’t want Marc anymore. I’m glad she didn’t marry Marc in the end. But why does Marc still have a key to her place? Seriously, Tabby, if you’re planning to date someone, they won’t be cool with your baby daddy having access to your house all the time.

It would have been nice if the author let Tabby have her kid, career, and a man who treats her right. We had so much time for that to happen in this series. Alexis isn’t a great friend. She doesn’t get what it means to support a friend with depression. I give props to Tabby for being a good friend. Even with her issues with Marc, she understands Laila’s mental health.

That’s why I wish the author did better with Tabby. This series had so much potential to show Black women that we can have the family, career, and the big house. Funny enough, Lisa, the only white woman in the novel, has all that, but not the main character.

[Bookish Baddie ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m just glad it’s done 😅

UPDATE:
If you’ve read books 1 & 2, you’ve read them all. Sooooo repetitive .. I didn’t learn anything new in this book that I didn’t already know from the previous two.

[Shawnaci Schroeder · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 ⭐️

- Loved this book more than any of the others in the series!! You could really see how much the characters have grown. I found myself wanting to know more about their lives and really connected with them most in this book in comparison to the other two books.
- The author did such a great job of helping the reader understand how hard it can be as a woman to make decisions that are best for you because sometimes they’re at the expensive of someone else. The book felt so real.
- I wish that this book hadn’t been so focused on motherhood, but if you’re a mom or enjoy books about motherhood you’d love this one!

[TK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first two books. Each chapter was a bit repetitive which left me feeling like I was trying to start a car with a dead battery.

I guess a lesson to wrap up this trilogy may be: once you stop chasing what you think you should have, you might just find that you don’t really want it.

Read it or not. Nothing lost nothing gained either way. 🙃

[Cel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring done with Tabby foolishness

[LaShawn Wiltz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is the third in the end of a series.
I found myself feeling like I HAD to read this one because it was the conclusion of the story.
But honestly, this whole series should have been one book .there was no need to drag it out. The pacing of this book was a bit slow for me.

That being said,the way this series explored bring mother, having a career and keeping your sanity through it all, was so well done.

Thank you to netgalley for the arc. All opinions are my own.

[Shelby (catching up on 2025 reviews) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you partners TLC Book Tours and Harper Collins for the gifted copies 💕

Black Girls Must Have It All is like reconnecting with an old friend after a long absence. I read books 1&2 over a year ago, and was so excited to see what Tabby has been up to!

I won't include a summary as there are spoilers to book two. If you're sensitive to spoilers and plan to read this series, avoid reading the descriptions.

Some thoughts:

•I read along with the Audiobook, per usual, and Marcella Cox is outstanding!!! 👏🏻 She is the perfect Tabby Walker. What a talented narrator.

•This one was incredibly relatable. And though I'm not a Black woman, I am a woman, and I can relate to so much of what Tabby goes through in this novel.

•This is very character-driven, and while that doesn't work for all readers, it works for me. I have loved watching Tabby grow into this strong, capable woman, navigating her career, her family, relationships, friendships, and all the other things she's navigating in this novel (I'm being vague to avoid spoilers).

•This is one of my favorite series and I highly recommend it - especially on audio. All three books have been 5 stars for me. 🥰

[Jas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really excited about this one. Tabby is still one of my favorite characters in a series and I relate to her in so many ways. While at times she is over the top dramatic, this book captures the nuances of new motherhood in such a great way and I loved watching the growth that happened from beginning to end. Watching her connection with her mother mend throughout this book was great as well. I really liked how her friendship with Lisa has developed over the series but I kind of wish that when it came to her job she didn't feel like she needed to lean on her so much. It came off as a little white savior-ish. I feel like there could've been another way to get her to the finish line. Overall I really enjoyed the book and the series. Still hoping for a spinoff that focuses more on Laila's journey. She's definitely a character that I'm really interested in.

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

We didn’t need this book…

[The Bookish Bri · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this third installment of the "Black Girls Must" series, we see Tabitha "Tabby" Walker take on motherhood. Juggling the demands of her new baby girl, Marc 🙄, his family, her family, and her job. Tabitha feels stretched thin in some sense. And in this novel, we see how she goes about handling that.

Right off the bat, I found myself not being able to relate to or connect with this story (all things I have felt before when reading this author’s work). This is because I am not a mother and they heavily focused the book on motherhood; it’s almost suffocating in the beginning. Aside from the motherhood topic, we see Tabby once again going through it with Marc (her baby’s father). When she’s known since the first book, she didn’t want to be with him. That portion might have been the most tiring. The pursuit of a job that Tabby doesn’t get the accolades she has been hoping for years and now they are thinking about letting her go, well, not without a fair fight, Tabby Walker WILL NOT go! These topics and a few others are all the causes of Tabitha’s stress.

I had hoped Tabby had grown in this book, but she still had the same annoying tendencies as the other two. The whoa is me attitude will never do it for me. I applaud Tabby for striving for excellence and never giving up on her dreams, as it worked out in the end. Maybe a little too easily, but hey, Black women deserve the easy life, the soft life.

I enjoyed the support system Tabby had in her life and how she showed up for Laila in this book. As well as the minimal scenes with Ms. Gretchen and her reconciliation with her mother. They tied the loose ends by the end of this book to close out the series, but at the end I just questioned, Why do I care? The book is just ok as the other two in this series.

You must read the other two books in this series in order to know what’s going on, and I’m here to tell you right now that if you’ve made it through the first two, you aren’t missing much if you don’t check out the third book.

After conversing with one of my good friends on the topic of Tabitha chasing her dreams of being a lead anchor and how she got there because of Lisa, I agree this book had a white savior element that was not needed (a .25 deduction). It bled into the unbelievable events at the end.

I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, but if I had to, I’d recommend it to people who want a book about motherhood and who like series.

3.25/5⭐️

[Ty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt very much the same as I did with the second book in this series and I'm not sure this book was needed. I really loved that first book, Black Girls Must Die Exhausted and being able to follow Tabitha on her journey has been interesting, but I just felt like I didn't get enough from this. I enjoyed seeing how far the relationship has come with her and Marc, but I didn't feel like it got the conclusion it needed in this final installment. We also didn't spend that much time with her best friends like I thought we would, especially with Laila and all that she went through in the first book. I would have loved to know how she was able to overcome her situation. Then Tabitha's father and his family was going through something that again I wish the author would have spent a little bit more time with instead of glossing over. This is one of those books where I would have been more than happy if it were longer if that meant we got better conclusions on some of the character storylines. I am happy to have read this series because I do think the story and the character of Tabitha is very relatable and people can definitely take something away from this. I would recommend this series to anyone who is looking for a story that will empower you to move at your own pace and not settle for anything less than what you truly deserve.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars, and my least favourite of the trilogy. I have decided that reading about early motherhood is only interesting if you are going through it yourself - or are at least close to it. I feel like her experience and the emotions involved were realistic … just not engaging. I was bored throughout most of this book. Her feelings about Marc seemed pretty straight-forward to me, and the mother-in-law issue got “resolved” in such an unsatisfying way. Basically, things happened to Tabby, not through any action on her part, and she was so weak in the decisions she did make, I wanted to shake her.

I’m afraid I am done with this author.

[Kenzie | kenzienoelle.reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

*This book is the third in a series centering Tabitha “Tabby” Walker, a Black woman in her early 30s navigating life, love, friendships and career. It can definitely still be read as a stand-alone, you just won’t have quite the full nuisance of story of the characters. I really loved the first in the series BLACK GIRLS MUST DIE EXHAUSTED. Unfortunately the second (BLACK GIRLS MUST BE MAGIC) and now this third in the series weren’t quite wins for me.

*Tabby is tackling motherhood in this book and learning to juggle expectation, exhaustion aaaaand Marc and his mother 🫠 It just felt to me like this could’ve been better told as a short story but it tried to be stretched into a full novel. As always, I loved the themes explored in this novel and series it was just much too slow and non-eventful for me.

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @harperperennial for this gifted copy!

[Patrice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tabby, Tabby, Tabby!
Marc and his mama can kick rocks!
Good ending to the series.

[LaStephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

How I was soooooo ready for this book series to end. I have to say that I truly enjoyed the first book in this series, but as the second one and now the third one came along, I couldn't lived on without reading this last one. The self-doubt and questioning that Tabby continued to do throughout this book was a total turnoff, and the continuous repeating of the things was disheartening. I understand where Jayne Allen may have been going with this book, but with the constant thoughts and doubts, I was not drawn in at all.

[Qua'Tesha Ratliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this installation, we saw Tabby as a mother! She was trying to balance being a new mother, stand up for herself, and decide what was next for her relationship.

I do feel as though the book was dragging in the beginning. I love the dynamics of her and her friends. We all need our tribe!

I wanted her to be more straightforward with Marc. He was working my last nerve tbh!!

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satisfying end to this series featuring a strong Black woman trying to figure out how to juggle love, success at work and now new motherhood.

Picking up where the last book left off, we see Tabby feeling overwhelmed as a single mother, co-parenting with her daughter's father. They're managing to juggle schedules (and families) but new career opportunities have Tabby questioning what she wants out of life and whether she wants to give Marc a second chance.

I loved how the book ended with Tabby getting her own show while also showing how exhausting it is (for all women) to balance career ambitions with family/personal lives. Good on audio too narrated by Marcella Cox. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

(Bonus, this was another GORGEOUS cover!! I swear I'm obsessed with floral designs like this one!)

[Miracle · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 🌟

Okay this book was good too! Tabby done found her way yall! I think this series is really good for young women trying to find their way in life. We all know life is hard and when you get thrown curveballs you always question your next steps. I definitely resonated with some of her feelings. Definitely recommend this series, the first book got on my nerves lol but it gets so much better

[Neci Waller · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the third installment of Jayne Allen’s Black Girls Must Die Exhausted series Tabitha “Tabby”Walker has life changing decisions to make. Tabitha is used to a fast paced busy life in LA working as a news reporter and spending time with friends.
She is now a new mother to her newborn Evie. Evie’s father is Tabby’s on again off again beau Marc Brown. As Tabby begins her journey as a new mother she has determine how to navigate her new life. She has moments of clarity as she reflects on how her life has been altered since giving birth. Tabby is faced with life changing relationship (friendship and romantic) and career decisions. Will Tabby take the advice of her colleague and friend Lisa? Lisa advised Tabby to “Just make the decision you can live with, the one that gives you the most peace.”

Jayne Allen poured into this novel providing eye opening insight into topics such as the life of an African American female in the corporate world, shedding light into the life of a new mom, & how women are expected to adjust their lifestyles when they have children.

Overall I loved this book just as I have the entire series!!

Thanks NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[ReadnliftwithShar · Rating 4 out of 5]

❤️

3.5⭐️ not my favorite of the series but I think the message is very important. Tabby had a huge adjustment being a new mom and finding balance in her career. I was incredibly frustrated with her at times, especially surrounding Marc but I eventually understood her reservations. Nonetheless, a solid finale.

Audiobook + ebook

[Cierra · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was ass and marc was insufferable

[Andre(Read-A-Lot) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another winner. Ms. Jayne Allen has put a bow on this trilogy and has done so winningly. She has skillfully brought this series to a close and managed to keep readers interested even through Tabitha’s indecision surrounding marriage. But that’s real life, yes?

The balance that Tabitha maintains between work, friends and family is highly relatable and realistic. That is a testament to Jayne Allen’s writing prowess.It all felt so real and that’s what good novels do. It makes us think of characters as possible real people. Good job Ms. Allen. What’s next?

[Misse Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Reaction: A wonderful ending to a very necessary book series!

Jayne Allen strikes again with the final installment to the Black Girls Must Die Exhausted series: Black Girls Must Have It All. In it, we welcome back favorites Tabby, Ms. Gretchen, Andouele, Lexi, Lah, Lisa and even the arrival of miracle baby Evie.

I wanted so badly for this series to end with a proverbial bang and so I was shocked to see the first part (near quarter) of the book given to recap. It slowed down the usual flow of the book but I am so glad that I kept reading because by mid-way through, it picked up beautifully.

There was a huge emphasis on Tabby's new role as mother and her incessant attempts at finding her own footing in that space. Which no doubt, continues to resonate with me. She's still grappling with who she is while trying to unburden herself from who the world tells her she needs to be. In the end though, when she's forced to decide her future, she learns it is ultimately her choice. Realizing that while she has to make the ultimate choice alone she comes to know that she has a strong support system who will back her and her decisions and comes out the victor. She chooses herself and further highlights this notion that "Self is wealth."

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

[Janet Fiorentino · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Black Girls Must Have it All” in the third book in the “Black Girls Must Die Exhausted” series by Jayne Allen.

The series focuses on Tabitha, a new journalist in Los Angeles, California, who is trying to grow in her career while searching for love. Meanwhile, she has her two closest friends (Lalia and Alexis) who have her back (for the most part) every step of the way. In this book, she just gave birth to Evie, but she is not sure whether she wants to spend happily ever after with the baby daddy, Marc, especially if his controlling mother is part of the package.

Unlike other novels that are part of a series, you really need to read the first two books to understand and appreciate the characters and their plights. Some of the flaws in the second book (which left things hanging) were resolved in this story. I really liked Tabitha and I found how the series resolved itself believable. The writing was a bit disjointed in places and I felt conflict was added for the purpose of story, but overall, fans of the first two books will certainly enjoy this story.

Three and a half stars.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced copy.

[Miakka Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I REALLY wanted to like this series but I finished with a feeling of disappointment. While it touched on some important topics such as barriers that black women deal with in the workplace and the constant pull of family obligations vs. career, it still felt so lacking in depth. Tabitha continued her trend of making truly mind boggling decisions that I just couldn’t relate to. Also, I was sooo confused about her possible love interest maybe wanting to date her close friend. It just seemed forced and poorly fleshed out. This series could have been soooooo much more and the author dropped the ball.

[(Adri)ana | TenPieceLemonPepper · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh tabby. lol

this book series has been a journey. i wouldn’t call this series a “must read” so to speak. but as someone who enjoys any book series with Black women at the center, im here for it.

i will say, im so happy tabby chose herself. that’s what was rooting for.