A.H. Cunningham’s Afro-Caribbean Black romance, Out of Office, is gorgeous. The settings are lush. The emotions are lush. The story is rich in culture. Cunningham has delivered a thoughtful and spicy contemporary romance that grapples with how to live in a world that demands constant production.
Gabriella is an up and comer at a hotel/resort chain based in Miami. Her mother is well known for mentoring Black women on corporate success and she expects Gabriella to rise to the top. Adrián has already had a taste of success, and has rejected it in favor of a work life balance that favors his family and personal time. They meet when she spends 4 months in Colón, Panama getting a hotel ready to open and he is her driver. She makes a daring decision to take two weeks of solo vacation, and Adrián invites her to stay at his family’s small hotel on the beach. The vacation part of this romance only covers the first third of the book. Gabriella and Adrián then have to figure out if they should take their romance into a future together, and how they will make their very different ideas about how to live life work as a couple.
I’ve only read a couple of A.H. Cunningham’s books, but in both of them men take on a chunk of the emotional labor required to keep a relationship growing and grounded. In Out of Office, Adrián is intentional in creating routines and moments that support Gabriella and help their relationship stay grounded as they are both going through big life changes. Gabriella is caught between the life she has been working towards (with the encouragement and guidance of her mother) and the life she’s starting to see she could have. I love the way Cunningham takes her time getting Gabriella and Adrián to their happily aver after. She mixes leaps of faith with conversations and shared values.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Afterglow Books by Harlequin and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.