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boricuamermaid · 6 years

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marisa & rj’s rom recs / winter edition

a few months ago marisa @liambaeyne and i started a little, two-person book club of sorts. we started reading the same books--the majority, if not all, featuring women of color as the main characters--and talking about them via literally any outlet we could find (texts, tumblr posts, messages). we went back and forth giving each other recommendations and opening each other up to new sub-genres within the romance genre. basically, this little book club has been one of the best things about this year and we wanted to share that happiness with y’all.

content warning: most of these books are pretty steamy and contain explicit sex scenes.

legend

C - contemporary romance

H - historical romance

YA - young adult

Italics - Rj’s favorites

Bold - Marisa’s favorites

Both - both of our favorites

Books Marisa & I Have/Are Reading

Insert Groom Here by K.M. Jackson - C; a scandal triggers a Bachelorette-esque reality tv show

To Me I Wed by K.M. Jackson - C; event planner and restaurant owner try to keep things light as she makes plans to marry herself, but things keep getting more and more intense

The Betting Vow by K.M. Jackson - C; a model-turned-actress wants to be taken seriously, a tv producer just wants the model-turned-actress

Love On My Mind by Tracey Livesay - C; ceo of a tech company, pr executive, and a lie on a mountaintop

Along Came Love by Tracey Livesay - C; pregnancy, jail, and what happens when someone has a family for the first time

Love Will Always Remember by Tracey Livesay - C; two brothers, amnesia, and more secrets than they know what to do with

Take the Lead by Alexis Daria - C; an alaskan survivalist and a city girl get paired up for a dance competition

Acting On Impulse by Mia Sosa - C; personal trainer trying to forget her high profile ex and an actor trying to avoid detection in aruba

Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins - H; Set during the Reconstruction Era. Eddy Carmichael sets off on an adventure to start her own restaurant in California, but the adventure is temporarily derailed in the middle of the Nevada desert when her life is saved by Rhine Fontaine, a successful man living his life passing for White. As a connection builds between them, the racial divide implied by the different colors of their skin and the life Rhine’s built for himself become threatened...and both must decide if the reward is worth the risk.

Breathless by Beverly Jenkins - H; RJ has gotten me into historical romances now and Beverly Jenkins knows where it’s at. Breathless follows the eldest niece of Eddy and Rhine from Forbidden, Portia Carmichael, a determined bookkeeper who is avoiding suitors like her life depends on it because her entrepreneur dreams leave her with no plans to marry. But suddenly, her life becomes reacquainted with an old friend of Rhine’s, former bartender/medical-student-turned-cowboy, Kenton Randolph, and well...the best laid plans...

Talk Sweetly to Me by Courtney Milan - H; shy mathematician meets scandal waiting to happen

Rj’s Read and Rec

An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole - H; Civil War, spies, and forbidden love

Agnes Moor’s Wild Knight by Alyssa Cole - H; 1490s, tournament where the prize is a kiss

Daughters of a Nation: A Black Suffragette Historical Romance Anthology by Lena Hart, Piper Huguley, Kianna Alexander, and Alyssa Cole - H; four very different stories set between 1861 and 1917; long-lost loves, strikes, carpenters, and cabarets

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series by Jenny Han - YA; a sixteen-year-old writes love letters that she never expected anyone to send

The Weight of Feathers by Anne-Marie McLemore - YA; rival families, mermaids, birds in the queen of ya magical realism’s first book with the most beautiful prose i’ve ever read

Rj’s TBR

Dance With Me by Alexis Daria - C; book two in the Dance Off series

Hamilton’s Battalion by Rose Lerner, Courtney Milan, and Alyssa Cole - H

A Summer for Scandal by Lydia San Andres - H

When the Moon Was Ours by Anne-Marie McLemore - YA

Rj’s Preorders

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole - C; “...the tale of a city Cinderella and her Prince Charming in disguise.” #sold

A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole - H; book two in her Loyal League series

Books 4, 5, 6, and 8 of The Worth Saga by Courtney Milan - H; even though they’re not up for preorder yet but because I know myself: they’re regency romances with woc leads and i love Courtney’s books (obv)

Tempest by Beverly Jenkins - H; the third book in Rhine’s series

Pretending He’s Mine by Mia Sosa - C; the second book in Mia’s Love on Cue series. I just saw Marisa said there’s “faked masturbation for reconnaissance” + the fake dating and i, too, am sold.

Marisa’s Read and Rec

Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai - C; Childhood lovers Nicholas Chandler and Livvy Kane, who carry on a once-a-year affair until the one year they don’t, are reunited when she unexpectedly returns to town. Throw in unresolved feelings, business affairs, and a colorful history that’s driven two families apart and you’ve got the beginning of an intriguing three-book series (the ‘Forbidden Hearts’ series). What I found myself most mesmerized with was the history between the Kane and Chandler families and there are still so many questions I have that I can’t wait to have answered in the two following novels.

Wrong to Need You by Alisha Rai - C; In the second book in Alisha Rai’s ‘Forbidden Hearts’ series, Jackson Kane, Livvy’s twin brother, returns to town after spending years running from the shadows of his past. It’s a quick trip, just to look in on Livvy—or so he tells himself, in denial of another reason worth returning: Sadia Ahmed, his childhood best friend, whose emails to him have gone unanswered for years. Sadia, who he’s been in love with since they were teenagers...who is also his brother Paul’s widow. Sadia, a single mother now, struggles to keep the café that’s been in the Kane family for decades afloat, and when Jackson returns unexpectedly and offers to help after the departure of her cook, Sadia is reluctant to agree. But with her hands full juggling two jobs and her son, Kareem, she needs the help, and despite the hurt and anger she feels, she needs Jackson more than she’s ready to admit. The second novel in this series is my favorite thus far—we dive deeper into the secrets bottled up between the Chandlers and the Kanes, and passion builds through the recount of history and reconnection between two friends who probably always should’ve been more. The history between the Kanes and the Chandlers remains as intriguing as ever even after this second novel, and I can’t wait for the final book in the series!

Vivid by Beverly Jenkins - H; Nate Grayson’s life is thrown off-course when the new doctor coming to set up practice in his little Michigan town, Dr. V. Lancaster, whom he assumes to be a man, turns out to be Dr. Viveca Lancaster—a woman. This book was so! good! Start to finish, a solid read with really great characters. Viveca—Vivid, to her family—had me rooting for her from the very start. Spirited and challenging and unwilling to bend to the ignorance of men who think only men should be doctors (Nate Grayson included), Vivid keeps Nate and the folks of Grayson Grove on their toes as she works to prove herself as a doctor...and comes to share more with Nate Grayson that either of them anticipates.

Jewel by Beverly Jenkins - H; We return to Grayson Grove, this time the focus on Eli Grayson, Nate’s cousin. Eli, a man of the news, finds himself with the great opportunity to get his newspaper up and running again, only there’s a small caveat—the man offering him the chance only sinks his faith into men who are married. Eli, unmarried and a known lothario (“The Colored Casanova of Cass County,” he’s been called) with a past he’s not necessarily proud of, thinks quick on his feet and asks a favor of Jewel Crowley—to pose as his wife! Add a fake marriage (or is it fake?) and throw in some mystery and murder as an old and unwanted face blows back into town, and you’ve got a novel I couldn’t help but breeze through.

Marisa’s TBR

Between a Rock and a Hot Mess by Phyllis Bourne - C

Dance With Me by Alexis Daria - C; the second in the Dance Off series. RJ and I both read the first book in this series and LOVED it, so I immediately preordered the second after finishing the first (and if I recall, she messaged me saying she basically did the same thing).

Marisa’s Preorders

Hurts to Love You by Alisha Rai - C; the third book in the Forbidden Hearts series

Pretending He’s Mine by Mia Sosa - C; the second book in Mia’s Love on Cue series. I read the preview as well as the book description and there’s fake dating and faked masturbation for reconnaissance involved, and I was sold.

Tempest by Beverly Jenkins - H; the third book in Rhine’s series

#marisa & rj's rom recs #book recs #i was supposed to post this like a month ago lmao oops #hope you guys find some good reads!! let me know if you read any of our recs #my asks and messages are open and i'm 100% ok with y'all talking to me about any of these books or any other books tbh

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