Token

by Beverley Kendall

She’s brilliant, beautiful…and tired of being the only Black woman in the room.
Two years ago, Kennedy Mitchell was plucked from the reception desk and placed in the corporate boardroom in the name of diversity. Rather than play along, she and her best friend founded Token, a boutique PR agency that helps “diversity-challenged” companies and celebrities. With corporate America diversifying workplaces and famous people getting into reputation-damaging controversies, Token is in high demand.

Kennedy quickly discovers there’s a lot of on-the-job learning and some messes are not so easily fixed. When Kennedy’s ex shows up needing help repairing his company’s reputation, things get even more complicated. She knows his character is being wrongly maligned, but she’s reluctant to get involved—professionally and emotionally. But soon, she finds herself drawn into a PR scandal of her own.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, Adult, Audiobook, Adult Fiction, Race

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 2023

About the author

Click here to sign up for my newsletter to receive news about future releases!

Beverley Kendall has lived on two continents, in three countries, two provinces, and four states. She stopped her nomadic existence and settled in the southeast with her young son. All things artistic feed her creative passion, but none more than writing.

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Communicate with me via beverley@beverleykendall.com

Reviews

[scthoughts · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can’t grasp the idea of a supposedly self-respecting black woman going to the house of a white man and deciding he’s worth giving a second chance or even a simple glance of her panties bc on his bookshelf, there’s a book on how to not be racist with his added annotations. To get choked up and almost shed tears about feeling as if he "opened a secret part of himself" is beyond my comprehension. Over a man who's hyper-fixated on the fact that he was the first guy you had sex with and mentions it all the time?? That’s goofy behavior.

There was the whole thing throughout where Kennedy, the main character, calls out racists but helps cover up their racism to protect reputations. Then gets surprised that some of these same clients are being racist towards her on the low. Foolishness.

Also, as I kept reading, the weirder the writing itself was in regards to Kennedy seemed off. Like, she was written by someone who has never done POC characters before.

Now imagine my surprise when I went to look at other reviews to see if anyone else mentioned the antiracist book scene and I come across the authors previous book covers...looked at the author photo...then back again at the covers. 🤔🔎 Yea, no wonder.

I'm not even gonna touch the ending "conflict" bc I'm over it all. Plus, even with the nonsense, it was all boring. This was an assassination attempt on my brain cells.

[Kezia Duah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s always a weird feeling when you liked a book that still felt average.

Kennedy and Nate’s relationship was really interesting. Did it lack depth and have some issues? Sure, but their tension was out of this world so I'll let it slide. Also, a considerable part of this was the exposure to racism in our everyday lives, especially in the workplace. Most of the time, I didn't really understand Kennedy's approach to "helping" companies or famous people who were accused of racism, and that definitely hurt my rating for the book. Still, there are definitely lessons one can gain from reading this book while getting a hot romance on top.

I would sort of recommend this.

[Beverley Kendall]

My book! Wrote it. Hope all my fans will give it a try.




Meet Kennedy



Meet Nate

[julia jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a light skin black girl with light eyes helping a white man whose company is being sued for job discrimination !!! lord. The book fully intrigued me with its cover…I was bamboozled. As the book goes on you realize she’s not diversifying workplaces or support equity in marketing, she’s making cover stories & supporting racist white people who fucked up and want to save face. this book highlights everything wrong about DEI efforts; no one wanting to do actual work and just slapping a band aid on it usually created by a poc who has given up in advancing true equity and dives deep into embracing being “the only” or as this book points out, the “token” and profits off of it. Perhaps if this wasn’t what was literally holding us back from actually pushing the needle this could be seen as a comical book or be successful in some way…I don’t know! I doubt it even cause these have always been issues but I do see some world maybe pre pandemic when more people were unaware & more than half of places everywhere didn’t have any semblance of a DEI or equity program at all where this could’ve worked?? But in 2023 ? Plus all of that on top of choosing a white man who seems to be juvenile, blind to inequity, & still dangling matters of virginity in peoples faces & whose quality that sent her over the edge was the fact he had owned “How to Be an AntiRacist”??? What a mess.

The only reason this is 2 rather than 1 star is because while cringy, the flirty banter was fun to read, & the steamy scenes were quality. It wasn’t badly written it was just a poor plot. I’d recommend if you’re looking for a light, cringy, head shaking read of nonsense that’ll make you laugh and say “what the fuck” all at the same time.

Some lines that made me actually scoff &/or gasp at the audacity aloud:

- “You gave me your virginity. If that doesn’t say you know me and I know you, then I don’t know what does.” 🤮 what the fuCK?? & then if continues to go on about how she “gave” it to him and her “losing” it for pages!! And the fact that this line is delivered after she refuses to assist him… I just….nO
- “I would do this for any best friend of mine whose brother needed a Black female beard” WHAT

[livrenoire · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was ok but had its really corny moments, like girl why the hell are you getting all horny over a white man reading books on how not to be racist. get up!!!

[wndrwtch_ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me start by saying this cover is gorgeous! Imagine my surprise to read the book and find out the “token” black girl is light skinned, with blue/grey eyes, and her closest relationships are with white people.

Please don’t get me wrong, there is NOTHING wrong with people whose real lives are like this, but it feels performative for this specific book. I feel like the author intended for this book to be deep, but it didn’t resonate with me.

I didn’t enjoy the romantic aspects of the story either. Kennedy and Nate’s relationship felt thrown together, and a lot of their interactions felt like a melting pot of relationship cliches that’s didn’t quite meld together so it ended up a congealed mess.

[Wobilba · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

So did I pick this book because of the very beautiful cover? Yes I did! But i glad I did because not only was it an entertaining read but it also provided great insight about diversity in the work, sexism, racism and still managed to pack plenty of sexy times.

[Robin Loves Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pulled away from her reception desk to represent her company acting as if they have a diversity among their employees spurs Kennedy Mitchell to make a major career decision. Instead, she and her best friend create a company which they name Token which will help companies that do not have diversity among its employees to have better PR.

Mainly her job is as a problem fixer, with one of her newest clients who is actually her ex, and he is her best friend and business partner’s brother. On an ethical basis, she wonders if she should take him on as a client, especially since the feelings that they left behind all those years ago quickly resurface, and this soon places Kennedy in a difficult situation.

In a book that I thought would be filled with messages regarding the lack of diversity when it comes to bigger companies as well as smaller companies, this book soon focuses more on Kennedy’s relationship with Nate. His tech company is facing major hiccups and Kennedy is the perfect person to make things right. However, how can she do so when the feelings that she struggles with bring her closer and closer to Nate?

For a book with more than one message, I really did enjoy the second chance romance between Kennedy and Nate and how they found their way back to one another despite distance and time. Just as I enjoyed Kennedy and Nate‘s relationship, I also enjoyed Kennedy‘s relationship with Aurora, her best friend as well as some of the issues that Aurora kept hidden for years. This was a very well-developed story that has humor and heat and delivered a wonderful ending.

Many thanks to Graydon House and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Please enjoy my YouTube video review - https://youtu.be/xygplNC-TG8

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I sped read this to fulfill a couple of book challenges but OMG this was cringy stuff. The worst was swooning for a man who owns and annotates a book titled How to be an Anti-Racist. I had to reread that several times to comprehend if the character, who is Black, was really not offended, and if there was more context than he truly was taking the novel literally. Nope. Her response “You have no idea how sexy I find you right now.” I almost DNF’d right there. It doesn’t get any better after that but I accomplished the rare one star non-DNF book under my belt.

[Katherine Isaac · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know how this book ended up on my "Want to Read" list. It's not for me at all. It feels like a book about a black lady written by a white lady who thinks she knows what the black experience must be like.

I'm still wondering if this is satire and I just don't get it. Even naming the company Token - for real? That's what Kennedy is through this whole book - The token black character in a book full of non-black characters helping racists business owners cover up their wrong doings. And Nate just came off as manipulative to me.

It's a No for me.

[shani p ❀ · Rating 1 out of 5]

why did this book skip 2y forward randomly, start giving us the love interest’s pov randomly, try to convince us they were soulmates based on his weirdly possessive behaviour and bad sex, and try to say a lot about discrimination whilst saying absolutely nothing at all ??? help ~ 2/10

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I see what the author was trying to do with this specific topic, but I wasn't 100% vibing with it.

[This Kooky Wildflower Loves a Little Tea and Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Token sits less as a romance and more as a contemporary story with relevancy. Well-written, this book holds your attention to the very end.

4/5

[dovesnook]

First DNF of 2024. Felt weird and then the weird made sense once I saw the author’s backlist.

[Teneisha (Teesbookjourney) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book cover is what made me read this book and I feel like the story could be improved. Kennedy was a temp and the managers tried to use her as the token back person in the office. she used this to her advantage and leverage her tokenism for more money.
She takes this and starts a PR firm - here I was thinking that she would start a recruiting firm dedicated to helping companies add more POC into their companies. Legit and clear

meanwhile, instead, she parades POC around companies that have had misconduct around race until the situation resolves itself,

So she has managed to create a business where she uses POC and lets the business that doesn't want to hire POC off the hook

This wasn't a bad idea - I just wish it was executed way better.

The surprises in this book were very predictable - I knew Jack was a racist the moment he was introduced and I knew he was the one behind the law suite and misconduct - It was very clear and the fact that Nate didn't was odd to me
I also knew Aurora was sleeping with the Govern General - I mean she was taking his daughter's place - so obvious. Gasp! Not!

I did enjoy the interactions between Kennedy and Nate - those were lust filled and had awesome banter

The whole thing with Nate having black books was too much - we could have cut that scene

I think this could have been a great book with some changes to the plot and more sophisticated plot twists

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I want to say is I love the cover of this book. It’s beautiful!
I really liked this story about Kennedy Mitchell a black woman who is a PR specialist who focus is to help companies that are having issues with diversity. As I read this book Kennedy kind of reminded me of Olivia Pope in the tv drama “Scandal.” Olivia was a master mind at doing PR and helping individuals get out of precarious positions even ones that included herself. Just like Olivia Pope, Kennedy is brilliant, beautiful, and strong. Kennedy runs a PR agency with her best friend Aurora. Kennedy is hired by Aurora’s wealthy and gorgeous brother Nate to help him with a lawsuit involving diversity issues with the hiring and promotions for minorities at his Tech company. Kennedy navigates this business relationship while at the same time trying to push away her feeling for Nate.
This is a great sizzling second chance romance. I really enjoyed this book, and I also loved the interracial relationships within the book.
I want to thank Harlequin publishing for allowing me the opportunity to review this arc. If you love a sizzling second chance romance with some drama I recommend Token.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Token by Beverley Kendall is the story of a young Black NYC woman, Kennedy Mitchell, who successfully started her own boutique PR firm after realizing that many U.S. corporations, athletes, media and celebrities would benefit from diversity training and coaching. The idea came to her when she was asked to sit in on a meeting with pop superstar Sahara to present the illusion of diversity at a clothing company for which she was temping as a receptionist.

I LOVED Kennedy, her bestie Aurora and Sahara and I was intrigued by the concept of Kennedy and Aurora's PR firm, Token. Initially, it seemed that the firm was starting to sell out by sending POCs as "plants" to companies embroiled in discrimination scandals or to act as "friends" of scandalized celebrities. I was glad to see the firm's arc over the course of the book as Kennedy realized she was simply helping the companies put a bandaid on their problems to avoid further criticism and she needed to make them do real work for change. Frankly, after working in Corporate America for many years, I'm inclined to believe that genuine and thorough diversity coaching would go much further than the performative, half-ass training I've experienced.

This book also had a romantic element, but I was a little perplexed to discover a second POV awkwardly dropped into the story in the middle of chapter 6. Here we discover the perspective of Kennedy's first love, and Aurora's big brother, Nate. Nate is a billionaire tech genius whose own company is caught up in a scandal. I felt the dual POV was confusing and unnecessary - Kennedy was a strong enough character to carry the book and Nate's character felt a little flat, although he was very likeable. He was also a little too obsessed with being Kennedy's first.

Overall, the story was a lot of fun, although some of the corporate B.S. hit a little close to home - especially what Kennedy discovers about a supposed close friend at the clothing company she temped at in the beginning of the book.

And can we talk about how pretty the cover of this book is?!?!

I was really happy to read the sneak peek of the author's next book which appears to be about Sahara - Can't wait!!!

Content Warnings: Racism, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, Difficulty Conceiving

[January · Rating 4 out of 5]

Token by Beverley Kendall
12h 7m narrated by Jeanette Illidge, 368 pages
#1 in unnamed series book 2 is currently being written

Genre: Romance > Contemporary Romance, African-American Romance

Featuring: Guyanese Parents, Fake Celebrities, Public Relations, Diversity, Romance Tropes, Damage Control, French, Sex - Detailed, Affluence

Rating as a movie: NC-17 R with some minor editing

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My thoughts: 📱20% 2:21:56 Ch. 6 - This story has been teetering between meh and brilliant the whole time and then the bomb is dropped and now I think I know the trope. I'm going to take my time with this one.
📱58% 7:03:00 Ch. 17 - It's going well but something is just off overall.
📱73% 8:52:03 Ch. 21 - It's missing emotional depth, enjoyable otherwise although I'm a little annoyed by both parties.

This was much better than okay but too corny to be really good. I liked it but there were a lot of things I wasn't crazy about. In general, it was a good ride. It wasn't as steamy as promised, the romance didn't seem to be the primary genre, and the chemistry seemed a little forced.

Recommend to others?: Yes. It's a good story overall.

[Gabi · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 52%. The main character made a company to help diversify other companies and instead she just covers up for white people who say the N-word by finding a Black person they were nice to once as a character witness. She fake dates a white man whose company is accused of discrimination so that she can show that he's not racist. The male lead is obsessed with her and seems to feel like he owns her just because he was the first man she slept with. His possessiveness wasn't cute, it was just creepy. I was tricked by the pretty cover into thinking this would be good :(

[Monica Kim | Musings of Monica]

DNF’d — I wanted to love this book — love the cover & synopsis, but it was a real struggle to get past the halfway mark. I really, really tried. My gawd, some of the characterization, conversations, and situations were just really weird, I don’t even know how to describe it. It had such a huge potential to be a huge contemporary literature hit, but just kept missing it’s mark, one after another. — mo✌️

[Rosa · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I was digging the writing. My first side-eye was embracing tokenism but that’s the premise of the book. I assumed she would use that as a pathway to level up and get money but she goes the bird route instead.

[TheLITZone · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Book of the Year and it DID NOT DISAPPOINT! I haven’t read a book that included love, friendship, racism/anti-racism, and motivation in such a long time. Normally books about racism left me upset and I need to take time to process but this one was so well put together that it inspired me to do better and possibly helped me figure out what my purpose in life is! This book is a MUST READ for everyone!

[Aubrei Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

HONEYYYYYY?! The way I was LOCKED IN with this book?! I started reading anticipating a certain direction of the book to go, only to be SNATCHED into a WHIRLWIND troupes of Corporate America’s Injustices, Tokenism, Combating Racism in the Workplace, and SO MUCH MORE. I truly loved the modern storytelling of the book but also the added romance to the story and honestly how a romantic troupe, regardless of the troupe, will make any story… THAT much better 😝🤣💖

[TK · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know how I feel about this one. I wanted it to be different. The way it started I thought it would be more about the business with a little friendship drama or romance on the side. When really it was more about the romance with a little business on the side.

It started to be extremely predictable. There were characters introduced that served little to no purpose.

Idk. It was the typical pretty black girl with a brain and body who falls in love with the person she loves to hate plot line.

Eh. Didn’t do it for me.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this romance/women's fiction book featuring a strong young Black woman who sets up her own PR/Diversity consulting firm and falls for her best friend's brother (for a second time). Steamy and thought-provoking and great on audio. I loved this one a lot!

[Alice Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love me a good friends to lovers' story with a strong female protagonist and relatable laugh out loud dialogue.

Kennedy Mitchell and her childhood best friend Aurora have a PR firm together named Token. Their firm specializes in saving people's reputations/companies when they do completely dumb shit like say the n-word on a live video call or promise a position of power to women and then renege on it. They see people at their absolute worst sometimes, but they are great at picking up the pieces.

When Aurora's brother, Nate who owns a large tech company named Constellation, finds himself at the center of a discrimination lawsuit, he all but begs Kennedy to help him. Kennedy is unsure about it but decides to help him since he's the brother of her best friend and essentially family to her.

Here's the interesting part: Kennedy and Nate used to have a relationship, years ago when Kennedy was in college. They broke things off via some murky circumstances and this is also one of the reasons that Kennedy is hesitant to get involved, she doesn't want to get hurt again. The pair decide that because Nate is specifically being accused of workplace discrimination, what better way to prove he's on the up and up then by dating Kennedy, a black woman.

I'm sure you can figure out how this ends. Sparks fly, past feelings are reignited and its never just about keeping up appearances when you used to be crazy about someone and then "fake" date them. I'm a sucker for these stories and I'll own it.

Four stars for Token.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be thought provoking. I felt like the lead character Kennedy made some questionable choices, I feel like she believed the ends justified the means.

Two years ago, Kennedy was the only Black employee at a big company. Her bosses paid her a large sum of money to come to a meeting with a Black musician because they knew it would look bad otherwise (literally a room entirely of older white men).

Kennedy got inspired by this situation and decided to start her own business with her best friend Aurora that she named Token. When companies were challenged/caught not having diversity in their workplace, or saying something majorly wrong, Token would be hired to handle the situation. Step 1 usually started with helping the company fake diversity at their work place, but step 2 involved helping the company to actually hire a more diverse workforce.
So, step 1 is majorly sketchy but step 2 is what Kennedy is proud of.

I definitely found this to be an interesting storyline.

I wasn’t completely in love with the romance part of the book. I almost feel confused that this book was classified as a romance. It didn’t necessarily need this storyline. Kennedy’s work life was interesting enough to be the whole story in my opinion.

[Staci (readwithstaci) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book because it sounds right up my ally! However, as I started reading I felt that Kennedy’s job focused less on helping companies diversify their workplaces and more on helping them cover up their racism to save face.

Plot aside, I had trouble rooting for the relationship and I found some of the dialogue/spicy scenes cringy. I also couldn’t understand why Kennedy thought Nate was such a champion of inclusion (especially since the plot revolves around a lawsuit against him claiming the opposite). I felt like the bar was on the floor for Nate and I didn’t like him as a love interest.

[Poetic Diva504 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. But it bored me, so I got out of there early and DNF. The narrator seemed pretentious and it was annoying. Waste of time. The only good part of this book was the synopsis. I couldn’t get into it after that.

[E.C. Pollick Byrnes · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF- I got 6 pages in and the writing was so Sophomore year creative writing poorly workshopped vibes that I had to stop and regret that I spent money on this.