Imari Haines is a 30-year-old, bisexual Black woman who left a mess in Houston to settle in the town of Appeley, Texas. She has made her share of mistakes in her life. Her most recent was three months ago, when she realized that marrying her fianc\u00e9 Todd would be just that. Unfortunately, when she broke up with him, she did so by jilting him at the altar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She has been beaten down, and the biggest antagonist in the piece is her mother. I tell you, she is toxic-with-a-capital-T. Nothing Imani ever did pleased the woman\u2014her career as a graphic designer, her grades in school, her sexuality, her wardrobe, her weight, you name it. Even when her mother \u201csacrificed\u201d for Imari, it always came with strings attached, and those strings were as strong as the guilt she heaped upon her daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it turns out, Imari is blessed to have a BFF in out-and-proud artist Zephyr, a brotha who is supportive while he tells it like it is. In addition, the community of Appeley itself is far more welcoming and accepting than she realized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the town\u2019s apple festival, she literally runs into Cassidy Martinez, her Afro-Latina childhood best friend who is now a successful businesswoman. The smoking hot chemistry between them is undeniable. With a little help from her friends, will Imari conquer the demons that have had their feet on the neck of her self-worth and take a chance on having the love she truly deserves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I mentioned previously, I was rooting for Imari and Cassidy, and I loved the character of Zephyr; it\u2019s important to have good friends in our lives and surround ourselves with people who uplift and value us. Kiersten also illustrates the reality that it is necessary to remove toxic people from our lives for the sake of our mental, spiritual, and emotional health\u2014even relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the day, this love story was as much a victory for Imari herself as it was for the love match between her and Cassidy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kiersten is a non-binary independent author (pronouns they\/them), a graphic designer by trade, and parent of five kids and two dogs. She specializes in Black LGBTQ romance and erotica. Look for Fall Into You<\/em> on Amazon, as well as her additional work under the name Rian Fox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you, Gigi, for your unique and amazing voice in the world of Romancelandia. Black Love wins again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n By Georgina \u201cGigi\u201d Kiersten I love a great story where I can root for the underdog. In the genre of romance, often there are obstacles to overcome on the road to love. The biggest ones are the messages, beliefs, and self-talk we have internalized, which makes for a powerful victory and a happily-ever-after. Such is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[360,323,30],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-afro-latina","tag-bisexual","tag-black-women","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Fall-Into-You-e1738874672420.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":746,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions\/746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Glasses.png\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"