As we begin this 2nd Pandemic #RomBkLove, we've all had to grapple how life-changing this experience have been. Some have left jobs, relationships, communities in order to do what they need to survive.  Even from positions of comfort and privilege (able to work remotely, access to vaccines, etc.)  I have witnessed the gaps communal safety net, how social isolation can leave people unprotected and how so many live on a razor's edge.  In times like these romances that grapple these issues, which stark stakes, remind me of our human resilience and the power we have to help those arounds us, strangers or friends when they are in need.  I find comfort in these exercises of hope that are happily ever afters even after trauma and disaster.

Beverly Jenkins writes survivors.  So many of her MCs have survived traumatic pasts, including enslavement, abandonment & abuse, defiantly flourishing despite the many obstacles racism and bigotry place in their ways.  Be it Hester & Galen in Indigo, Maggie & Preacher in Night Hawk, Rhine & Eddy in Forbidden or Spring & Garrett in Wild Rain  her MCs, stand their ground, face down bullies and oppressors and do more than simply survive, they thrive, building families and communities.  US Based Historical Romance, (CW: Racism, abductions, guns, violence, threats of bodily harm, grief, Past trauma: Enslavement, sexual assault, emotional & physical abuse) (Rep:  cis BM/BW, Black author) 

Rebekah Weatherspoon is another author I turn to when I want to read survivors in a contemporary setting. Her MCs face everything from financial insecurity (Sugar Baby Series), family rejection (Xeni's Angus) to attempted murder (Beards and Bondage series)!   Her MC's creative solutions, devotion to found family and persistence in the midst of traumatic events are inspiring and comforting to me as a reader.  I love how the rejected and abandoned find home in others, how trauma is overcome and fails to define them. IR Contemporary romances  (CWs: attempted murder, betrayal, familial abandonment, secrets, kink, grief past trauma: biphobia.)( Rep: cis BW/WM, Queer Black author)

I started out 2020 by reading Anna Zabo's Reverb, little knowing how much it themes of authenticity and survival would come to mean to me. In Reverb, a when Mish, a certifiable Rock Goddess is being stalked and despite her desires to ignore it, she finds her life, band, and voice threatened,  she must come to trust David not just with her safety but with her heart and David must figure out how protect and love Mish.

David and Mish are both survivors. Both have made many sacrifices and endured much to live authentically and are able to navigate power imbalances, career demands to find love in each other.  Contemporary romance with RS tinge, bodyguard / rock queen, (CWs: stalking, grief, loss) (Rep: trans WM /WW bi, White Trans author)

In Olivia Waite's The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics,  Lucy and Catherine have survived different kinds of intellectual stifling due to sexism and abuse at the hand of the men in their lives.  In each other they find enthusiastic support, and unexpected attraction.  They are able to reclaim their intellectual and social agency, and strike blows against sexism in science, reclaiming their confidence, art and work.  Sexy and full of longing and pining.  They are stronger for what they have endured and will strive to make room for others. UK-Based Queer Historical (CWs: betrayal, intellectual theft Past trauma: domestic abuse) (Rep: bi WW/WW, Queer White Author).

What kinds of survival stories draw you?  What do you find compelling? Do these high stakes stories comfort you?

Archive: Day 1's Tweets

For a full list of prompts visit: https://www.anacoqui.com/2021/04/rombklove-2021.html

I reviewed A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole for Love in Panels

In A Prince on Paper, a made-for-the-tabloids relationship provides a much needed distraction from a kingdom-shaking referendum for Johan and an opportunity to escape for Nya. Nya and Johan at first glance seem an unlikely match, a smothered and cloistered teacher and a globe-trotting serial heart-breaker, yet Cole develops a sweet and believable intimacy rooted in the secrets they share only with each other.

Like the previous installments of Cole’s Reluctant Royals, there are lots of delightfully funny text exchanges, strong friendships, and scene stealing secondary characters. But in this one, Cole also inter-cuts the romance with snippets of a very engaging trickster folktale that Nya is telling Johan and the intrusive notifications for the dating-sim game Nya used to play obsessively. Both narratives allow Nya to explore and make sense of her relationship with Johan, inspiring her to trust and challenge.

I loved the resolution of this romance even if I was initially put off by Johan’s oddly infantilizing nickname “Jo-Jo '' and his frequently over-the-top interjections in Lichenbourgian. However, Cole won me over with his grief-fueled secret agenda to protect his sibling and continue his mother’s philanthropic activities.

A Prince on Paper is tender and funny and highly enjoyable, and make sure you don’t miss Cole’s introduction of the first couple in her new series, Runaway Royals.

Topics: list

I reviewed The AI who loved me by Alyssa Cole (in audiobook) for Love in Panels

Alyssa Cole’s smart, sweet and short science fiction romance playfully mashes multiple tropes into a fun and surprising adventure. It is simply excellent.

Cole creates a compelling cast of characters, full of humor and sass, and casually drops compelling bits of world building all over this story. In a future in which the world has fragmented into techno states that manipulate the news and control people through health care debt, and surveillance is an ever present reality, Trinity Jordan is just a Black woman trying to get better after a near fatal accident. She doesn’t need the complication of being suddenly, inconveniently attracted to her new neighbor, Li Wei, especially when the more she interacts with him the more she is sure things are not what they seem.

Funny, sharp, and refreshing, I loved how the narration highlighted the way Cole intercut Trinity and Li Wei's POV scenes, contrasting their vastly different perspectives along with their interactions with Penny, the apartment complex’s AI, brought to sassy life by Mindy Kaling. I loved how the book seesawed between conversations about the importance of consent and the nature of identity, hilarious exchanges about vocabulary choices, and miscommunications about spiders.

The AI Who Loved Me is a study in contrasts, a dark setting populated by bubbly characters and sexual tension galore, with a twisty story with a deeply philosophical bent. My only disappointment with the story is that the sequel is not immediately available to listen to. If you are looking for darkly funny romance, with great world building and a delightful cast of characters, pick this up!

Content Warnings: Past Trauma: violence, coercion and manipulation

Ana purchased this audiobook.

I loved Xeni and reviewed it over at Love in Panels

In the Loose End series, Weatherspoon is writing HEAs for scene-stealing supporting characters from previous series, and while the romances between the MCs are absolutely central, I am loving the way Weatherspoon also centers the novels around the power of friendships and found families. This ever-present community of caring queer and POC friends, everywhere from the small town Xeni’s Aunt Sabel and Mason call home to Xeni’s Los Angeles, make it safe for Weatherspoon to explore heavy topics such as familial estrangement and biphobia..

The emotional intensity of Weatherspoon’s initial chapters, whether it is Claudia running for life straight in Shep’s arms in Haven, Liz fighting off an attacker in her home in Sanctuary or Sloan arriving home to discover her nanny has walked off the job and left her twin daughters alone at home with no notice in Rafe, powerfully introduce her heroines. We meet Xeni as she stands surrounded by near-strangers at her beloved aunt’s memorial desperately trying not to break down, and from that moment I loved her and wanted her to find her happy. And so it seems did her aunt who has arranged to do some matchmaking from beyond the grave.

Xeni’s inconvenient but necessary husband Mason is a plus-sized gentle but gigantic Scottish musician, who is as trapped as Xeni by her Aunt’s inheritance stipulations but never forgets just how much more painful and inconvenient this all is for Xeni. I loved how he looked for ways to make their temporary marriage be a source of joy, calm and security for her as she tried to sort out the truth after the startling will reading. From distracting her with kisses and later orgasms, to cooking for her at the end of a long day, and to helping her pack and sort through her Aunt’s house, Mason soon makes himself both irresistible and essential to Xeni even as they are both convinced their marriage will not last.

I am not a fan of instalust/instalove romances, but I adored the fated-mate energy to Xeni and Mason’s courtship. They have fantastic chemistry and easy rapport, so much so that Xeni can only come to believe that there is magic at work. But even as they have fantastic sex, from scorching hot pegging to tender kissing and cuddling, but they never lose sight of the peculiar intensity of being forced together in this way,  just how much they don’t know about each other, and how much work they need to put into figuring out their family dramas. I was disappointed, however, about how the ending was structured, with too much of that work recapped and summed up in an abbreviated way. Their reunion lacked the emotional intensity, I was craving, although it still left me happy and hopeful for both of them, knowing them to be surrounded by folks who accept them, love them and want them thrive.

While it is mighty hard to top the sexy sweetness of last year’s Rafe I adored Xeni. While Xeni is a great deal angstier than Rafe, it was equally engrossing and hard to put down.

Content Warnings: Mention of past miscarriage, mention of past abortion, biphobia, homophobia, Past trauma: emotional abuse and coercion, grief, death of family member

Ana purchased this book.

I reviewed Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert at Love in Panels

In Hibbert’s first traditionally published romance, she continues to highlight prickly heroines and the sweet heroes who are determined to love them. Although I only had a mild appreciation of her novellas I found myself loving this novel wholeheartedly, more than living up to the anticipation and hype. The novel felt fully satisfying and complete, establishing, building up and then resolving a full story. Hibbert's use of situational humor and word play cushions the heavy themes she addresses in this story such as ableism, abandonment, domestic abuse and mortality.

In Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Chloe and Red are both recovering from their own traumas, Chloe re-learning to have a full life after drawn out and difficult diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and Red from the end of abusive romantic relationship. Hibbert focuses on their journeys toward greater self-realization and agency, and learning to build boundaries while accepting love and support.

The climactic conflict felt organic and inevitable, growing from both their insecurities and soft spots.

The audio narration by Adjoa Andoh was fun and engaging. I particularly enjoyed the distinction between Red’s gruff working class accent and Chloe’s posh and prim accent. Andoh also did a great job contrasting Red and Chloe’s effusive inner monologues with their more restrained and terse dialogue, which built on the way Hibbert used that gap to develop their characters and show just how much both are working to protect their fragile hearts. Hibbert skillfully uses what isn’t said, what is misunderstood, what is assumed to build natural conflict between Red and Chloe and lead naturally to the resolution of it too. My only complaint is that a lot of fantastically interesting supporting characters such as Chloe’s pushy Caribbean extended family faded to the background midway only to roar back near the end and play a pivotal role in the conflict.

Hibbert continues to prove with Get a Life, Chloe Brown that crafting romance novels with deeply layered representation (race, class, identity, disability and trauma) that are also funny and a joy to read/listen is possible. I am now eagerly anticipating the next book in the series with Chloe’s bossy big sister Danni and once you read Get a Life, Chloe Brown, I am sure you will be too.

Content Warnings: past trauma: ableism, past trauma: domestic abuse, abandonment

Ana received an audio copy of this book for review via Libro.fm

I reviewed Gilded Cage by KJ Charles over at Love in Panels:

Susan Lazarus trusts very few people, and that has served her well in life as first an abandoned street rat, then as a con artist and now as a private enquiry agent. Templeton was once in her trusted inner circle, her teenage misfit confidant and then first love, but when it mattered most he seemingly failed her. Susan rebuilt her defenses, found love again and when they finally crossed paths all she wanted was to thwart his criminal ways. But when he is framed for murder, she is the only one capable of unraveling the truth and clearing his name.

Charles crafts an intriguing mystery and an even more fascinating relationship dynamic between former best friends and lovers, whose reunion is under the greatest of pressure. Betrayals true and imagined, miscommunications, disinformation and misunderstanding all must be untangled before Sukie and James can contemplate starting again. Charles is artful in the ways they rediscover parts of themselves they had forgotten about and uncover the ways they have been changed by life and loss. The tension of missing, regretting and reexamining are perfectly balanced by the sharp mutual recognition, pining, and playful attraction Lazarus and Templeton share. Their shared thrill in outsmarting and out-conning adversaries and their piercing observational skills and insight make them a formidable team, especially as James finally learns to trust and do what Susan needs him to do. I particularly loved the light femdom implied in Susan and James’s sexual encounters, as he thrills in doing just what she asks of him and Susan finds comfort in controlling and demanding him intimately.

This novel has tons of Easter eggs for fans of KJ Charles’s Sins of the City and Society of Gentlemen series, as generations of queer found family have left their loving mark on Susan and James. However whether readers are brand new to Charles’ novels or longtime fans, they will find something to treasure in Gilded Cage.

Content Warnings: Murder, mention of past miscarriage, past trauma: abandonment, kidnapping, emotional and physical abuse

Ana received a digital copy of this book from the author for review.

I reviewed American Love Story by Adriana Herrera for Love in Panels:

n the American Dreamer series, Herrera has crafted three strong romances that engage deeply with political and social issues without losing their sexiness  and humor. In American Love Story the failure of white LGBTQ allies to stand up for Black and marginalized people is front and center. Herrera sets Easton and Patrice’s reunion against the high-conflict backdrop of a spree of racially motivated traffic stops by local cops which only intensifies and highlights the poor communication behind the hot/cold dynamics of their tentative relationship. 

Both of them are unbalanced as they try to negotiate just what they are to each other when Patrice moves into town permanently. Their conflicted flirtation is nearly snuffed out when Easton’s boss bars him from speaking out and Patrice’s anti-racism activism brings him unwanted attention at work. Their already mismatched life experiences, one a Black refugee from Haiti, the other the black sheep of a wealthy but dysfunctional white family, put lots of pressure on them to understand each other’s soft spots. Easton himself has to come to terms with his hesitancy to intervene until Patrice is subjected to a dangerous encounter, while Patrice has to overcome his reticence to express his feelings and his own assumptions that he will not be supported.  While Herrera continues to rely on showstopping grand gestures to reunite parted lovers, their epilogue shows how they have worked together to build up their relationship and the concrete steps they have taken to improve their communication. 

 The only complaint I had about my experience with American Love Story was not with the book itself but with the narration of the audio version I listened to.  While I thought Sean Crisden had a fantastically deep and sonorous voice for Patrice, his choice to give Easton a high, almost cajoling tone of voice was jarring, especially when he is supposed to be a suave and gifted prosecutor.

I am looking forward to reading more books from Herrera especially for the deep sense of community she has created in the novels and the fascinating, complicated secondary characters that populate them.  I deeply enjoyed how Herrera continued to develop a sweet secondary romance between Nesto’s young employees, Yin and Ari, that first blossomed in the American Dreamer and the roles Nesto, Milo, Tom and Patrice’s mothers play in the lives of their queer sons.  American Love Story is worth swooning over as is Herrera’s ability to tackle such heavy subjects with such responsibility and grace. I can’t wait till JuanPa & Pris’s book!

Content Warnings: homophobia, racism, racially motivated traffic stops 

Ana borrowed this audiobook from her library.

The twelfth book in the Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series has been eagerly awaited by long-time fans after the excruciatingly tense way the previous book, Archangel’s Prophecy ended. In this book Singh brings to a close the long-running Cascade storyline, but not before nearly shattering the world, Raphael and Elena, and their people in an intense showdown between the most powerful members of the Archangelic ruling Cadre.

The stakes were high, and so are the casualties however Singh manages to craft a satisfying and affirming resolution while seeding new storylines and fresh conflicts that ensure readers will be eager to return for more. If you are interested in trying the series, it is best to start at the beginning, as Singh has built up an intricate world, with cut-throat and deadly powers, competing agendas and shifting allegiances. Singh manages not to lose sight of its large ensemble cast, crafting complex character journeys that have readers anticipating and speculating future protagonists and romantic pairings. I came late to the punishing and brutal world of the Guild Hunters but I am now deeply invested in it and I worried, cried and rushed through the book to learn the fate of my favorite characters.

While the Guild Hunter series is certainly not for everyone due to its cruel ethos and often violently gory storytelling, there are also deeply beautiful moments that celebrate friendship, loyalty and humanity. Having seen what Singh has crafted in her second Psy-Changeling series, I am deeply curious about what new challenges await Raphael, Elena, the Seven, and everyone else in future Guild Hunter books.

Suspenseful and emotionally intense, Archangel’s War propels readers through a searing journey that pays off long-running storylines and sets the stage for new beginnings, making it a must read for Guild Hunter fans.

Content Warnings: Ableism, deceased parent, gruesome, guns,Medical Procedures, past trauma: torture, abuse, murder, suicide of family member, war