BIPOC Author Spotlight Sunday: Neely Tubati Alexander

Author: Neely Tubati Alexander Title: Courtroom Drama Publisher: Harper Perennial Date Published: 05/20/2025

Read Dates: 03/08/2026- 03/09/2026
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐

Courtroom Drama is a single POV estranged friends-to-lovers forced proximity romance. Sydney hasn’t seen her childhood best friend Damon for a decade, until she is chosen for jury duty on a high profile case and comes face-to-face with him again. As part of a sequestered jury with a strict no fraternization policy, she’s torn between following the rules and doing her civic duty, and finally getting some closure on a relationship that ended abruptly in hurtful circumstances. Sydney tries to balance both but she’s not sure if either situation, the trial of her temporary reunion with Damon, will have a resolution she can live with.

I was intrigued by this second chance romance between former friends. I loved the tension of the forced proximity situation. I struggled a little with Sydney’s unwavering faith in and parasocial relationship with a reality star, but her character was interesting. Damon shifted between taciturn and charming and it was interesting to see their renewed relationship unfold.

Sydney Parks thinks she might be the first person in the world to look forward to serving jury duty. When Margot Kitsch, an OG cast member of the hit reality show Authentic Moms of Malibu is arrested after the untimely death of her cast member husband, Joe, Sydney knows being selected for the jury is the most interesting thing that ever happened to her. 

However, it doesn’t take long for Sydney to realize that being part of a sequestered jury in a high-profile case is not at all what legal dramas had led her to expect—especially when she learns that her childhood best friend, Damon, whom she hasn't seen in ten years, is also a jury member.

As the trial wears on, Sydney realizes there's a lot more to the case than she first thought. And there's also a lot more to Damon—she soon finds herself falling under his spell despite the court’s instructions not to fraternize. His tendency to break the rules and find adventure is hard to resist in their otherwise dull juror's world. But getting close to Damon also means having to face the complicated reasons their friendship abruptly ended just when they were on the precipice of something more.

With all the drama in and out of the courtroom, how is Sydney supposed to ignore the fraught history between them? How is she supposed to avoid him when he’s sitting next to her in the jury box every day with his broad shoulders and intoxicating smell? And how is she supposed to ensure Margot gets a fair trial if her unfinished business with Damon causes the mistrial of the century?