Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion

HELP!

I need suggestions for "#16. A historical romance by an AOC." I don't read romances, much less historical romances, much less know enough about the genre to know anything about the authors!

I'd especially appreciate any titles I can find on Audible as I have two jobs and rely heavily on audio books.

I second An Extraordinary Union, and will probably apply its sequel, A Hope Divided, to this category.

I highly recommend Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown for this category. Zen Cho is a British woman of Asian descent, and both of the main characters are also people of color. The romance is a strong subplot, but not the main focus of the book, which is about magic in Britain in the early 1800s. It's historical fantasy, first and foremost.

Anything by Courtney Milan or Alyssa Cole. An Extraordinary Union and A Hope Divided spring to mind for pretty untraditional romance reads. I also love both books from Jasmine Guillory.

The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan is a short 100 page kindle freebie.

Bonnie wrote: "Anything by Courtney Milan or Alyssa Cole. An Extraordinary Union and A Hope Divided spring to mind for pretty untraditional romance reads. I also love both books from Jasmine Guillory."

I wouldn't consider Guillory's historical, though.

I'm specifically looking for lesbian ones... I know lesbian historical romances and ones by AOC but not any overlap...

Seluxes wrote:
Jenny, this short might be up your alley:

THAT COULD BE ENOUG..."


That sounds really interesting! Thank you!

The manga series Emma by Kaoru Mori is historical romance. You could read the first two volumes of that for #11 and #16 (or just read one if you want to double dip).

Allie, you are 100% right. I just glanced at the list in passing and totally overlooked the historical part.

Seconding and thirding the recommendations of Courtney Milan and Alyssa Cole. I also love Sherry Thomas's work (including my all-time favorite romance, Ravishing the Heiress) and I enjoyed Jeannie Lin's The Lotus Palace as well.

The Duchess War by Courtney Milan was an enjoyable read and not all that long. Other authors that come to mind are Alyssa Cole and Beverly Jenkins.

Trina wrote: "I highly recommend Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown for this category. Zen Cho is a British woman of Asian descent, and both of the main characters are also people of color. The romance is a strong ..."

Thank you! This has been on my to read pile for a while now and it's the perfect excuse to finally get to it! 😁

I'm reading Tempest by Beverly Jenkins right now and it's awesome. One of my favorites is Courtney Milan's The Suffragette Scandal-- it's so good! And suffragettes! I also second stories from Hamilton's Battalion.

Second The Suffragette Scandal!

Would Pachinko be qualified for this? I have been wanting to read this. Wonder if it qualifies under any prompt.

Pachinko is definitely not a romance.

Jenny wrote: "I'm specifically looking for lesbian ones... I know lesbian historical romances and ones by AOC but not any overlap..."

How about Fingersmith? Although Sarah Waters isn't an AOC.

I'm going to read it soon, anyway, but it won't work for this prompt! I might go with Divided Nation United Hearts by Yolanda Wallace... It was on my amazon shopping list already, but I'd forgotten the author is a WOC...

Any thoughts on whether Their Eyes Were Watching God works here?

I haven’t read it, but they called it a romance on the PBS special , Derick. I’m also wondering about Americanah which I learned about in the same way...Both sounded so good and ...romantic?!

Candace wrote: "I haven’t read it, but they called it a romance on the PBS special , Derick. I’m also wondering about Americanah which I learned about in the same way...Both sounded so good and ......"

Americanah could be considered romance, but it’s definitely not historical, sorry :( I still recommend it though!!

Loved Americanah but think it is a stretch to call it a romance. There are romanticish relationships, but they illustrate things about the main character, the book is not about the relationships. And there is no HEA which for me is a romance hallmark though others might disagree.

If anyone does Audiobooks, I'm currently listening to Four Novellas: Be Not Afraid - That Could Be Enough - Let Us Dream - Let It Shine which so far is really good. She's historical romance and an AOC, and also writes characters that are POC. (If you have Audible, and you do that romance package, you can basically just listen to it without buying. . . the romance package thing is like Netflix Binge-watching but for reading)

Sorry Bonny, I don’t read romance very often. What is HEA?

Sorry, "happily ever after." Romance is fantasy, it comes with happy endings. I mostly read literary fiction, I go to romance when I need a little optimism.

Thank you. I was familiar with that element being a requirement in a romance - just had never seen it referred to as HEA.
Now I get it, needs to be a full-on romance that you would find in the romance section of the bookstore . I was thinking more of Lit. With a lot of romance in it. This is my first year to do challenge and I’m reading along getting ideas.

Seluxes wrote: "Jenny wrote: "I'm specifically looking for lesbian ones... I know lesbian historical romances and ones by AOC but not any overlap..."

Jenny, this short might be up your alley:

THAT COULD BE ENOUG..."

THANK YOU! Romance is not my genre, at all, but this sounds interesting enough with the Hamilton connection and that it's a lesbian romance.

I'm not a big lesbian romance reader, but "That Could Be Enough" is really good.

Another short read is The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo by Zen Cho. It's not exactly genre romance, but I'd give it a pass. :-)

Maegan wrote: "Anything by Beverly Jenkins is wonderful! I especially enjoyed Topaz.
Also check out Alyssa Cole’s An Extraordinary Union. Such an excellent book!"

Yes! I'm planning to read Forbidden or Indigo

Yolanda Wallace is a wonderful author. I haven't read her historical fiction romance novels but they include Divided Nation, United Hearts and The War Within
Ava wrote: "Seluxes wrote: "Jenny wrote: "I'm specifically looking for lesbian ones... I know lesbian historical romances and ones by AOC but not any overlap..."

Jenny, this short might be up your alley:

THA..."