J.B. Vample’s New Romance Novel Reigns Supreme

Philly Author Writes A Steamy Read That’s Perfect For Summer

by Melissa Jacobs

J.B. Vample sure knows how to write a page turner. In Right As Reign, her new novel, Vample introduces Reign Price, a 32-year old editor who has it all. Career, financial independence, long-term boyfriend; Reign seems to be winning in every aspect of her life. But a heart-wrenching betrayal forces Reign to admit that, in fact, she does not have her game completely together.

Enter Chase Williams, the man who may be the perfect match for Reign – except that he is the older brother of her best friend. Reign confides her innermost feelings only to her journal. Then, Reign faces a dilemma. Should she stay safe (and alone) or admit her feelings and take another chance on love?

Reign is the creation of J.B. Vample, a Philadelphia author gaining accolades for her novels. Vample was a nominee for Urban Books Authors & Writers of America’s Top 100 Authors of 2020. She’s also prolific, having authored 10 books in 6 ½ years. “I’ve always been an avid reader,” Vample said. “I wrote my first story when I was in middle school and started writing my first book when I was 17.”

That book became College Life 101: Freshman Orientation, the first of Vample’s nine-part College Life series. In it, Vample introduces the five young women she followed through the challenges and triumphs of their college years at Paradise Valley University. Vample started writing it when she was a senior at University City High School in Philadelphia. “I was toying with the idea of going to college and while imaging what my life could be, I imagined the characters,” she said.

Vample published the first College Life in 2015. By then, she was working on the fifth book and had future books outlined. “I had been writing and rewriting the first book for years,” she said. “The advantage of having the others already written was that I could publish them in a timely way.”

There are many female characters in College Life, all of them strong Black women with their own families, dreams and love interests. Vample didn’t have a hard time juggling a big cast of characters. “They take on minds of their own, so it’s not hard for me to switch between writing them,” Vample said. “They all have unique backgrounds, voices and tones.”

Those voices garnered fan bases. Readers got attached to Chastity; she’s the number one fan favorite. Malajia is also close to readers’ hearts, perhaps because of her difficult journey. In the books, Malajia gets entangled with a college boyfriend who becomes abusive. “It wasn’t something I saw in college, but this is where Malajia’s storyline went,” she said. “It pained me to write it, but it touched a lot of readers, so I’m glad that I did.”

The abusive relationship – and a host of other realistic storylines – were exactly what Vample wanted to present. She didn’t see a lot of books depicting the true life of college women. “That was something I wanted to read myself,” she said. “So I wrote it.”

For Right As Reign, Vample decided to have an older protagonist. Reign being 32 years old allows Vample to present her with new, different circumstances and challenges. “I love the storyline and that the characters are older and established in their lives, but still figuring everything out,” she said.

One big change: There are more sex scenes in Right As Reign. Whereas there are four physical encounters in the entire College series, Reign has four in one book. “There’s more vivid detail in Reign,” Vample conceded. “Also, the relationships and emotions of the adults result in emotional connections between them.”

Reign is receiving rave reviews for its hot romantic storyline, but Vample said that the book is about much more than that. “It’s romance, but it’s contemporary fiction with definite aspects of women’s fiction,” she said. “I think the romantic aspects are better when you know the whole of who these characters are and what the relationship means to them.”

J.B. Vample appears at Barnes & Noble in Devon on Sat. June 17 for a book signing and Q&A with Main Line Tonight’s editor Melissa Jacobs.

Looking for other great books by local authors? Read about Konkret Comics’ comic books, Brian Zepka’s The Temperature of You And Me and Michele Gargiulo’s How To Build A Wine List.

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