Hollywood Renaissance Books in Order

The Hollywood Renaissance series follows Black artists working to tell Black stories on screen, blending modern Hollywood glamour with a deep love for the Harlem Renaissance and its creatives.

The first full length novel, Reel, begins on a Broadway stage. Neevah Saint has been an understudy for months, quietly preparing for a moment that may never come. When she finally steps into the spotlight, film director Canon Holt is in the audience. Canon is known for his obsessive attention to detail and his commitment to centering Black history in his work. Seeing Neevah perform convinces him she is the missing piece in his ambitious biopic about a fictional Harlem Renaissance jazz singer.

Neevah’s overnight leap from backstage to leading lady sends her career into a new orbit. The production immerses her and Canon in the music, fashion and politics of 1920s and 30s Black life, even as the pressures of funding, press and illness threaten to derail both the film and their growing attraction. The book spends as much time with long days on set and creative disagreements as it does with kisses, asking what it means to risk everything for the story you want to tell.

The Close-Up is a crossover novella that ties the Hollywood world to the Hoops universe. It tells the story of Takira, a stylist and friend introduced in Reel, and Naz Armstrong, a basketball star and quiet rival from the sports side of Ryan’s books. The pair shared one charged night as teenagers, then were torn apart by a single bad decision. Years later they reconnect as adults, now successful in their respective fields, and find themselves on a yacht in the Mediterranean with old chemistry flaring back to life. The tension between Naz and Takira’s brother, and the layers of loyalty involved, give their romance an extra edge.

Upcoming and newer entries like Score continue the theme of art within art. That novel centers an award winning screenwriter and a renowned musician who once loved each other fiercely and then walked away. Brought back together to work on another Harlem Renaissance project, they are forced to revisit the past while creating a film that honors queer Black history and mental health.

What links the Hollywood Renaissance books is a sense of creative urgency. These are stories about people who love their craft, who want to put overlooked parts of Black experience on big screens and who are willing to tangle with illness, industry politics and old hurts to get there.