Pretty Brown Eyes by Tia Love
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Yes! Give me a 90s Kinda Love! Who the hell wants a Disney Fairy Tale? Those usually involve a dead mother and abuse. Besides, Megan got a prince in real life and look at all the hell she’s going through, not only from his family, but his countrymen and the media.

In Pretty Brown Eyes, a novella, sex columnist and Instagram influencer Mescia meets tow truck business owner Alex on her way home from celebrating her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. All of Mescia’s sisters are either married or engaged. Not her. She’s still reeling from the end of her three-year relationship with ex-boyfriend Devon. Thank goodness she lets down her guard and receives the real treatment (and sex) she deserves and craves.

Reading novellas is a new foray for me, even newer than reading short story collections. I usually like to get enraptured in deep memoirs, or epic, sweeping novels. Techinically, Pretty Brown Eyes is the second book in a five book series. They are standalone and can be read out of order. Because the story is quick and to the point without too much meandering, it’s nearly impossible to summarize without giving too much away. As a reader, I was happy that Mescia was able to shake off her her self-consciousness and fears and give in to dating Alex. At nearly thirty years old, for the first time, Mescia experiences a man appreciating her full self without being nitpicked (relatable content!). In Alex, she has a man who “stamped his claim all over and inside her.”

Fun fact: I met author Tia Love at the Black Girls Who Write writer’s retreat in Miami in February 2020, weeks before the world shut down. We were tablemates in the front row the whole weekend. When I entered the room, I was tempted to make a beeline for a table in the back corner, but ever since I read Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In” years ago, I force myself to be seen rather than hide or shrink.


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