Unhappy Smiles and Love Candles

Love candles are supposed to set the mood—
not burn the whole thing down.

Malik is the kind of man people call “solid.” He runs his electrical business, pays the bills, and keeps the small Hartford apartment he shares with his wife humming. He believes love is built quietly: shared meals, fixed outlets, a life that doesn’t flicker.

Nia is a painter who thinks in color and chaos. Her world is canvas, group chats, and manifestation candles. In her all-girl Coven, the rules are simple: a woman’s art and ambition should never bend for a man’s insecurity.

When Nia’s toxic, charming ex resurfaces with a life-changing commission—a portrait that becomes a nude—her ambition ignites. The money is good, the opportunity is real, and the risk to her marriage is obvious. She turns to her friends long before she turns to Malik, and the Coven helps her frame the choice as bravery instead of betrayal.

Malik draws a clear line: he cannot accept his wife painting her ex, nude, no matter the paycheck. Nia decides that line doesn’t count. What follows is the slow, devastating unraveling of a Black marriage caught between old ghosts, new hunger, and the rituals we use to justify the choices we’ve already made.

Told in spare, electric verse, Unhappy Smiles and Love Candles is a dark, intimate portrait of love, art, money, and boundaries. In a world where group chats become Greek chorus and every flame claims to be holy, this novel-in-verse asks: who gets to decide what counts as betrayal—and what are we willing to risk, or scorch, for the life we think we deserve?