Sadeqa Johnson Books in Order (Including Her 2026 Release)

Book Summary

On the surface, Bea’s life looks pretty solid: a husband, two kids, and a new home in a desirable New Jersey suburb. But behind the picture-perfect facade, Bea is struggling. She’s pregnant again as a surrogate, she battles bulimia, and she’s painfully aware that her husband, Lonnie, has cheated on her more than once.

Bea leans on her lifelong best friend, Awilda, as she tries to hold everything together, but when a shocking betrayal changes everything, Bea is forced to rethink what she wants and who she can trust.

Book Summary

As the light-skinned daughter of a plantation owner and a slave, Pheby escaped much of the brutality of slavery as a child. Her white father even promised her freedom for her 18th birthday. However, instead of freedom, she is sent to Devil’s Half-Acre by her father’s wife. This jail is where slaves are broken, tortured, and sold every day.

Within the jail, Pheby was groomed to be the personal mistress of slave trader Rubin Lapier. She becomes his sex slave, “wife,” and the mother of his children. Eventually, she faces the ultimate sacrifice to protect her heart as she fights for freedom.

Book Summary

The House of Eve alternates between the perspectives of our main characters in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Ruby’s story is told in the first person as she tries to become the first member of her lower-income family to obtain higher education. However, her plans are threatened when she begins to fall for a Jewish boy.

Eleanor’s story is told from the third-person perspective as she arrives in D.C. with equal parts ambition and secrets. Like Ruby, Eleanor’s plans are changed when she falls for a man, William, at Howard University. William is from one of Washington’s elite, wealthy Black families, and his parents are picky about who is good enough to join them.

While this setup feels like a romance novel, this is a fast-moving historical fiction novel that will take you into a piece of history you may know little about. Don’t miss the author’s note at the end!

Book Summary

In 1965, teenage Sophia had the opportunity to integrate a prestigious boarding school in Maryland. But a chance meeting with a classmate unveils a secret that upends her world.  

In the 1950s, Ethel spots a group of mixed-race children following a nun. Desperate for her own family with her American husband, she’s intrigued and follows them.

In 1948, Ozzie volunteered for the Army, hoping to help break barriers for other Black soldiers. Unfortunately, he finds that racism has followed him from Pennsylvania to his assignment in Allied-occupied Germany. His only solace is in the arms of Jelka, a German woman struggling with the lack of resources in her destroyed country.

The story alternates between the lives of these characters until we see how one woman’s vision will change the course of countless lives.

Inspiration for This Novel

The idea for this novel came to Sadeqa Johnson while she was researching a different topic. Along the way, she unexpectedly came across the story of Mabel Grammer and the “Brown Baby Plan,” an initiative in post-World War II Germany to find loving homes for mixed-race children born to Black American GIs and German mothers.

Book Summary

This short historical story is set in segregated Virginia and follows Bubbles Jones, a young woman juggling motherhood and societal expectations. With a newborn in her arms, Bubbles is determined to break free from the home for wayward girls where she’s been living and confront the world beyond a place that judges her for being an unwed mother.

She pushes back against societal prejudice and the judgment of her own family as she tries to make a life for herself and her child in a world that’s stacked against her.