Previously: bad sex in romance novels.
In romance novels, it seems easier for a person of colour to get a date with a were-lion than with a non-shifting human being. I guess if a reader is down with leonine loving, then stories featuring sex with Asian people aren’t so scary.
Here’s the crux: As Alyssa Cole notes in the September, 2013, RT Book Reviews, mainstream romance novels featuring non-Caucasian characters generally do not sell well. Editors from larger publishing houses, thus, do not acquire them as often. Imprints catering to African-American readers–Kimani by Harlequin and Dafina from Kensington, for example–do brisk business, but the number of authors and characters of colour who cross over is rare. (An illuminating discussion can be found in the comments section of this Love in the Margins post.)
The lack of crossover, however, often garners absurd results: Take, for example, Harlequin Medical’s NYC Angels series, a multi-authored group of novels set in a Manhattan hospital. There is one protagonist of colour named—unfortunately/hilariously—Alex Rodriguez. I have a lot of sympathy for the poor writer who actually made an effort to include a Latino character, but what a mess. Imagine staffing a large North American hospital without African-Americans, East or South Asians (and no Jews, either). Even with A-Rod on the team, this would never work.
In any case, this is not a space for taunting or bitterness—this is a space of love. So, let’s look at a handful of excellent romance novels set in this world in the present day which feature characters of many colours, by writers of colour.
The Fling, Rebekah Weatherspoon
Rebekah Weatherspoon’s erotic romance, The Fling, opens in the middle of a sexual encounter between preppy, blonde Annie Collins and her towering, tattooed, biracial trainer, Oksana Gorinkov. Annie is engaged, but while her fiancé is in Europe getting in a few last jollies, Annie decides that she’d like to sleep with a woman before settling into heterosexual monogamy.
The half-Russian, half-West African Oksana lives with her grandmother and teenage sister in West Hollywood. She has been burned in the past by a woman sampling lesbianism, so emotional involvement with a privileged white girl from Laguna is the last thing that Oksana wants.
Annie, with a fiancé and an expensive wedding to think of, is also aware of how she seems: “Only pathetic virgins and desperate teen boys fell in love with the person—or in this case, the unearthly angel of beauty and cardiovascular fitness—who’d popped their cherry.”
Both acknowledge the difficult beginning to their relationship. But Oksana and Annie actually, you know, like each other. (I like them! I snort-laughed when Oksana exasperatedly/affectionately gave her sister’s age as, “Fifteen, going on whore.”) When like combines with lust, the result is hot sex:
Their kiss was heated and rough. All tongues and lips and teeth. Annie scrambled across Oksana’s lap, straddling her stomach as Oksana moved them further onto the bed. Annie sat back just long enough to tear off her shirt and Oksana’s tank top before she attacked her mouth with renewed desperation.
Annie and Oksana’s encounters leave little doubt that there is powerful attraction between the two. Weatherspoon, a queer, African-American writer, keeps the characters and situations real and messy, and she doesn’t shy away from examining the ugly, sustained fallout from Annie’s decision to break from her fiancé. Although big ideas about sex, power, race, and class, are present, the narrative wisely swoops in close for intimate moments, and pulls out for readers to see the multi-ethnic Los Angeles that Oksana and Annie live in.
Back to the Good Fortune Diner, Vicki Essex
Tiffany Cheung retreats to her upstate New York hometown in ignominy after losing her apartment and her big city editing job. She finds work tutoring the son of her high-school crush, Chris Jamieson, who nurses his own broken dreams. Chris fathered Simon right after his first year of college and never finished his degree. Chris is also saddled with the ailing family farm. His father, William, has lost his leg to diabetes and is a gigantic, racist asshole.
Vicki Essex, a Canadian writer of Chinese descent, captures what it’s like being a minority in a predominantly white community. Tiffany’s parents and older brother run Everville’s diner, but the Cheungs are both fixtures and alien. Tiffany did not endear herself to peers when she skipped grades. When she does return, she makes friends, but she’s also greeted with this from William Jamieson: “You expecting a gong to announce you or something?”
Despite difficult circumstances, Tiffany and Chris draw closer. Tiffany’s years in New York have left her with chic clothes and shiny hair. Chris is terribly hunky, what with all the hay-bale lifting and the righteous musk of organic farming that clings lovingly to his broad-shouldered frame. But happy as I was to see these beautiful losers get it on, what really stayed with me long after reading were the fights.
Conflict is where Essex really shines. Tiffany gets into altercations with Daniel, her parents, and Chris’ son Simon, and Chris himself. Chris argues with Simon and his dad. All of the parents yell a lot, and the scenes are vicious, realistic, and holy-shit disturbing. But every fight in this book really counts. Witness this moment between Tiffany’s parents, Rose and Tony Cheung:
Daniel watched through the narrow window as [Tony] headed straight for Rose. “You ordered the wrong brand of rice.”
Trepidation ratcheted tightly in his gut as his mom rang in a customer and said blithely over her shoulder, “I didn’t. This one is a better quality.”
… Daniel glanced over at the sack sitting on the table. That brand cost about three dollars more. Were they seriously fighting over three dollars?
“It’s a waste of money.” Tony’s voice rose. “I don’t want to make fried rice for a hundred people with good rice.
“They won’t know the difference.”
“If they don’t know the difference why did you buy the more expensive rice?” The pitch and volume of his father’s voice made the pans in the kitchen vibrate. Daniel shot out of the kitchen door like a bullet.
“Hey!” he shouted. “Mom gum dai seng-ah.”
Don’t make so much noise. Or more accurately, You’re going to drive the customers away with your yelling.
The scene is tense, but Essex gives it more layers by hewing to Daniel’s point of view. Daniel understands the language, but he also sees it from the outsider’s perspective; he knows that the customers have no idea why voices are suddenly raised. The moment offers the reader a microcosm of Daniel and Tiffany’s cultural bifurcation; It mimics the experience of second-generation immigrants having to mediate between their parents’ culture and the outside world. Really well done.
Back to the Good Fortune Diner isn’t perfect. The resolution seems rushed and there is no satisfactory way to defuse the venom of William Jamieson’s racism. But of course, in fiction, as in real life, this is an ongoing project.
Hot Tamara, Mary Castillo
Tamara Contreras wants to pursue a graduate degree. Her mother wants her to marry the patronizing Ruben, or failing that, stay at home in Sweetwater, California and teach. Will Benavides is a Los Angeles firefighter and a talented painter, overcoming a trying childhood. Tamara and Will eyed each other when they attended high school, but haven’t crossed paths in 11 years. The pair share a conversation and a kiss during the wedding reception of mutual friends. After Tamara makes a stand against her mother and moves to LA, they finally get a chance to act on their attraction.
Despite the title, Tamara isn’t muy caliente, or any of those annoying spicy levels that one often finds applied to Latina heroines as if they’re a menu item. But Tamara’s not a pushover either. She doesn’t collapse under the weight of her mother and boyfriend Ruben’s attempts to infantilize her, nor when she is rejected by her graduate school of choice.
She learns that standing up for herself doesn’t come with, as she puts it, “trumpets heralding her breakthroughs… golden shaft[s] of light spotlighting her for bravery.” Despite the forces arrayed against her, she moves out, find herself a job, and do the work of learning to become independent.
Less well done is the depiction of Kirsten, the girl Will goes out with briefly in order to forget Tamara. Will despises Kirsten from the beginning because she’s whiny, a hypocrite, and–here’s the kicker–wants sex. Sure, she’s unpleasant, but the narrative cards are clearly stacked against her. Is it so unconscionable that a woman whom the character is dating should be interested in having sex with him?
So yeah, there’s that.
That said, Castillo, a Mexican-American writer, has her funny moments. She also wrote a spiky, little anti-romance in the collection Names I Call My Sister, which includes romance and chica-lit writers Berta Platas, Sofia Quintero, and Lynda Sandoval. Castillo’s story, Til Death Do Us Part, features another drunken wedding reception, an old flame, a shit-disturbing grandma, and a pair of sisters who don’t have to apologize for their desires.
Veiled Desire, Alisha Rai
Alisha Rai’s linked erotic romances are a set of friends-to-lovers stories. Veiled Desire opens when Leyla Karami finds herself sitting on her patio in Florida, spying on her neighbor, Mason Barrett, as he sheds his clothing. Mason, who has long nursed a crush on Leyla, knows that she’s watching. As a result, he feels confident enough to begin pursuing her. But Mason, Leyla, and her brother Sasha, have been friends since childhood. Leyla is four years older and has been like sister and guardian to him.
Desire means a drastic shift in the dynamics in the relationship between Leyla, Mason, and Leyla’s brother. Moreover, Mason is white. Leyla is of Iranian descent. With age, gender, race, and their personal connection in play, their roles have suddenly become fluid.
Sex is the space in which they try out and re-imagine their new roles. The scenes take on the form of play, and they’re imaginative, titillating, silly, and serious—and there are generous quantities of it. There is some swaggering possessive talk, and a couple of cheesy jokes to leaven the intensity. Throughout, the pair make adjustments, physically and emotionally. It’s all very well done.
Veiled Seduction, Alisha Rai
Near the end of Veiled Desire, Mason and Leyla’s brother Sasha hammer out an agreement for how they will go on as friends now that Mason has decided to date his best friend’s sister. Sasha has some attitudes about Leyla—and women, really–that need schooling. We see those attitudes displayed to comic effect in Rai’s novel Veiled Seduction. Sasha, a cop, lands in the hospital after taking down a school shooter. News of his injury reaches his friend, Dr. Maira Khan, and the realization that life is short spurs her to act on her longtime feelings for him.
Maira is a virgin. Veiled Desire alludes to Leyla’s outward conservatism—modest dress, infrequent relationships—but emphasizes that her background doesn’t stop her from being sexual when she chooses. In Veiled Seduction Maira’s cultural background—she is of Pakistani descent—has made a difference to her in the past:
…part of the reason she’d never had sex was due to her conservative upbringing. She knew for a fact that her sister had been a virgin on her wedding night, and she’d had some hazy thought that she would do the same. Until she’d seen Sasha lying in a hospital bed, that is.
Come decision time, Maira considers her upbringing, and then makes the best decision for herself: she’s ready. It is Sasha’s preconceptions of Maira, his expectations of how a woman of her background should be, that keep them from consummating their relationship–not her culture. He tells her, “I know you think you are [ready]. But let’s face it, honey, this is new territory for you. Look, I just want to make sure we do this right.”
Maira’s reply? “’That sounds…’ she studied his smiling face, smug and confident, ‘incredibly patronizing.’”
I like that Maira.
Maira doesn’t let Sasha make all of the decisions in their relationship, even when he hides under the aegis of cultural expectation. As Maira realizes, background does matter–and then it simply doesn’t. Language, culture, and race, are all significant considerations, but they are also merely information. What makes characters—and people–of any colour real, vital, and important, lies in the choices they make, and what they do with what they have.
Questions for discussion:
Who are your favorite romance writers of colour? Do you know of any First Nations romance writers? Pacific Islanders?
Who are some swoonworthy celebs/models/plebeians of colour? Name some, gif us. Let’s celebrate diversity by treating people like pieces of meat.
Works Referenced:
Rebekah Weatherspoon, The Fling (Amazon | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble)
Vicki Essex, Back to the Good Fortune Diner (Amazon | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble)
Mary Castillo, Hot Tamara (Amazon | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble)
Mary Castillo, Berta Platas, Sofia Quintero, Lynda Sandoval, Names I Call My Sister (Amazon | Indiebound)
Alisha Rai, Veiled Desire (Amazon | Barnes & Noble)
Alisha Rai, Veiled Seduction (Amazon | Indiebound | Barnes & Noble)
Tags: beautiful losers, doing it, interracial relationships, Mindy Hung, romance novels
I came so close to using the “white hand shaking a black hand” motivational poster for the feature image for this post (Mindy, this was SO GOOD, how are you so good).
She’s the best.
Thank you!
*vows to do even better next time, melts into the shadows*
I’ll be here all day, filling up my Goodreads and library holds list.
*settles in for hot GIF-fest*
I don’t know of too many that are not already very well known, but:
Hot ladies of color: Ziyi Zhang, Alek Wek, Aishwarya Rai, Dania Ramirez
Hot men of color: Tyson Beckford, Daniel Dae Kim, Sendhil Ramamurthy
aaaaand Taye Diggs (yes, still – did you see him on New Girl? o.m.g.):
please, ma’am, may I have some more?
Aishwarya Rai is my husband’s go-to name for “Most Beautiful Female Celebrity in the World” and I take pride in that as a sign of his good taste.
I . . . uh . . . whatever I was going to say in this thread has just been replaced by Taye Diggs’ naked foot rubbing sheets.
Yesterday I saw a raceswapped Supernatural cast proposal on tumblr and it had John Cho as Castiel and that was IT for me that was IT.
THANK YOU. thank you for this.
aaaand is now the time we get to talk about Lyndie Greenwood’s eyebrows?
(she is playing Jenny Mills on Sleepy Hollow, and, while we’re here, who is going to compose an ode to Nicole Beharie’s face?)
ME I WILL DO THIS THING
you were born to do this thing.
HER EYEBROWS ARE AMAAAAAAAZING
and the Mills sisters. wow. swoon alert.
AND HER EYELASHES!!!!!!! Look at those things.
fatal in 30% of exposure incidents.
Sherry Thomas is a woman of color and my current favorite romance writer, but most of her books take place in London in the 1880-90s and predominantly feature white protagonists. I’m not sure about her new YA series though. Thomas did teach herself English by reading romances with a Chinese-English dictionary when she first moved to the US, which is a strategy I copied when learning Spanish.
She is the absolute best though. Her heroines are all interesting and well-developed and flawed with ambitions beyond just finding a man.
Her next one features a half-Chinese martial artist! In Victorian London!
AHHH I completely forgot about that sneak peek! It was bonkers, and I am super into books where people are surprised by ex-lovers who were thought to be dead.
My favorite romance writers of color are Beverly Jenkins & OBVIOUSLY Sherry Thomas, who, and I think we covered this, is a genius. Both write historicals, though, and I don’t think Thomas writes POC; certainly not regularly.
Contemporary characters of color? I see it in suspense and (though I don’t read so much of this) paranormal, as pointed out in the comment section of that article. I’m not sure how non-white the authors are, though. I mean, I know Anne Stuart is white, but that doesn’t stop me from lusting after Takashi or Reno as much as I do after Finn. (Wait, did I just spiral into a reverie about Reno again? Oh, hi, what were we talking about?)
Jasika Nicole is The. Prettiest.
She has the most magical chin of any human I have ever seen.
Also Danai Gurira.
ALSO LUCY LIU YOU GUYS:
yes and yes. LOVE her freckles.
Back when Charlie’s Angels first came out, I saw photo shoot of her in some magazine and she was just so.beautiful. that I tore it out and kept the pictures in a box with old birthday cards and random notes and stuff for ages.
It’s been over a half hour and no one has posted a picture of Idris Elba or Chiwetel Ejiofor yet? I THOUGHT I KNEW YOU, TOASTIES
Also works nicely as a rebuttal to this: http://gawker.com/sport-coats-and-jeans-not-okay-…
yes MA’AM.
I’ll be in my bunk.
This comment wasn’t here when I posted, I swear!
Hahahaha, I think we posted around the same time! Thank goodness, there could’ve been a dearth of Idris Elba pictures.
Also Rosario Dawson!!!
…I’m sorry, I’ll stop, there’s just so many amazing ladies out there. I’ll be in my bunk.
You’re welcome.
Also, Aldis Hodge:
ugh that loose tie is killing me
Obviously, Lilian Thuram.
Holy shit. I had never seen this man before. That is a ridiculously beautiful human.
…oh, GOD, he’s an activist, too? **falls into a swoon**
Oh yeah. Lilian’s just the best.
Woo, sports love!
They’re paranormals, not contemporaries, but Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling series is riddled with interracial romance. They don’t address the kinds of cultural differences described in this article, but they do have lots of hot, not-white people getting it on, and it’s awesome.
Some wonderful WOC authors are:
Sienna Mynx
Latrivia Nelson
Lena Matthews
Eve Vaughn
Ruthie Robinson
Seressia Glass
Tressie Lockwood
Zena Wynn
This is also a major thing in science fiction (surprise, surprise). I will never stop peddling my theory about how fucked up Sisko’s love life on Deep Space Nine is. (Basically, his wife dies in the pilot, then no one mentions anything about him dating for about two seasons until a [light-skinned] black woman shows up on the station, and then everyone constantly hassles him about how she’s “perfect” for him. It’s weird.)
At first Cassandra Duffy’s lesbian romance books were a guilty pleasure for me, but now I just openly love them. Her characters are funny and endearing, and she doesn’t shy away from good sex scenes. I’m pretty sure her personal heritage includes being part Asian, with a Korean parent.
Daniel Henney from My Lovely Sam Soon
THOSE EYEBROWS
I’M STRAIGHT NOW
I don’t really understand why his arms are hovering like that. HE’S PROBABLY JUST WAITING FOR ME TO ARRIVE SO HE CAN WRAP ME IN THEM.
and of course my boo Three Stacks:
he’s wearing a PINK GINGHAM SHIRT AND A GREEN BOWTIE and I still would. Vacation style.
there’s nothing he could wear that could make me decide not to. OH MAN. I would go for it even if he was cosplaying as Guy Fieri.
“cosplaying as Guy Fieri” omg I can’t breathe. I think I may be having a stroke from trying to hide my laughter
Does he WANT me to lick his lips? I’m pretty sure that look says, “hang on one sec while I remove this hat so you can attack my luscious luscious lips without impediment.”
There is actually a ton of interracial romance out there from the olden days, but unfortunately it tends to be racist as fuck– white lady sold into slavery to a sheikh, white lady kidnapped by natives, native woman “saved” by white dudes. There is a lot of it and it is TERRIBLE.
Moving on– any GOOD romance with interracial couples and TIME TRAVEL??? I’m wishing that Lynn Kurland would have one of her time wandering Scotts/Brits run into someone not white for a change.
Some other quick recs: early Ann Christopher, Farrah Rochon (except “A Forever Kind of Love”), Robin Covington. The latest by Shoma Narayanan looks good (I just started it, though). For rom suspense, Caridad Pineiro.
(I was planning a long comment about big publishers and small presses and books with characters of color, but today’s a mess so… later maybe.)
How did I forget Robin Covington! Yes, absolutely.
Very good. Thank you for this.
All of the POC actors from Lizzie Bennet Diaries (and now Emma Approved!) I am especially obsessed with Joanna Sotomura at the moment. Yay mixed race visibility!
sorry I don’t know how to embed images.
Joanna Sotomura http://www.pemberleydigital.com/wp-content/upload…
Julia Cho http://www.lizziebennet.com/wp-content/uploads/20…
Jessica Jade Andres http://www.lizziebennet.com/wp-content/uploads/20…
Christopher Sean http://www.lizziebennet.com/wp-content/uploads/20…
Craig Frank http://www.lizziebennet.com/wp-content/uploads/20…
woah woah woah we forgot Gina Torres you guys.
OMG. She is so perfect, every shape on her face is perfect.
oh thank God i’m gay again
Glad to see the discussion on my Harlequin post getting attention again. Lots of knowledgeable women weighed in that day.
Today I reviewed Harmony by Sienna Mynx, which has a romance between a black jazz singer and a Sicilian mob boss and is set in 1920s Harlem. I liked it quite a bit.
Hot people of color: special comedy edition! I have no gifs because stand ups are not a heavily gif-ed group.
I have a crush on Pakistani comedian Kumail Nanjiani, who has a kind of hold timey handsome face and haircut.
Off the top of my head there’s also Aisha Tyler (voice of Lana from Archer and just as beautiful), Donald Glover (real cute but a little too boyish looking for me), and Wyatt Cenac (ex Daily Show correspondent, I saw him in person and he was shockingly good looking).
this sounds RIGHT up my alley.
Daniel Dae Kim http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/lost/images/24307377/…
Eric Schweig http://s627.photobucket.com/user/Niferbelle/media…
Archie Panjabi http://s3.amazonaws.com/img.goldderby.com/ck/imag…
Michelle Yeoh http://venus.provocateuse.com/show/michelle_yeoh
Lee Thompson Young http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3908360448/nm0949810?…
welp, there goes my productivity for the day, I’ll just be hanging around here…
welp, there goes my productivity for the day, I'll just be hanging around here…
Am I missing something, or are all the relationships in the books covered here, white person / person of color relationships? It makes me kind of sad that interracial relationships seem to have the most visibility when there’s a white person involved. A nitpick, yeah, but.
The Castillo and the second Rai aren’t, but that’s a fair point. In addition to the scattered recommendations I added in comments above, I’d also highlight two NA/YA novels: Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles and Chulito (which wasn’t marketed as a romance) by Charles Rice-Gonzalez.
The Castillo and the second Rai aren't, but that's a fair point. In addition to the scattered recommendations I added in comments above, I'd also highlight two NA/YA novels: Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles and Chulito (which wasn't marketed as a romance) by Charles Rice-Gonzalez.
>Who are your favorite romance writers of colour?
K.S. Augustin (http://www.ksaugustin.com/). She writes SF and SFR. Her free short story COLLATERAL DAMAGE is a good way to get hooked on her work.
Thanks for your insightful post. I recently updated my list of PoC characters in sci-fi romance (http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/2013/11/revisiting-people-of-color-in-sci-fi.html) and would love to read more IR/MC SFR stories as well as help spread the word about them.
Here’s the list I and my blog readers have crowdsourced so far (in the interest of full disclosure, 2 of the titles are mine):
IN ENEMY HANDS; WAR GAMES; A PIRATE’S PASSION; COMBAT; PRIME SUSPECT; “On Bliss,” “Collateral Damage” – KS Augustin
HATHOR LEGACY: OUTCAST – Deborah A. Bailey
THE IRON DUKE; HEART OF STEEL; RIVETED – Meljean Brook
STRANGE LITTLE BAND – Vanessa Brooks and Nancy Brauer
Xenogenesis series; Patternist series; PARABLE OF THE SOWER by Octavia E. Butler
WAY OUT OF CONTROL – Tatiana Caldwell
TO LOVE, ALWAYS – Helen Louise Caroll
COLD WARRIORS and ICE AND PEACE – Claire Dargin
BLUE GALAXY – Diane Dooley
ECHOES OF PASSION – Eilis Flynn
COMPROMISED and PRIMAL (Bk 2 of her Lycan series) – Nathalie Gray
KEIR – Pippa Jay
RAVYN’S AWAKENING – Sherri L. King
ASCENSION – Jacqueline Koyanagi
PHOENIX RISING – Corrina Lawson
THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS – Karen Lord
CIMMERIAN CITY – Rae Lori
QUEENIE’S BRIGADE and FORTUNE CAT’S VISIT – Heather Massey
THE MARANN – Christie Meierz
THIEF and the Onic Empire series – Anitra Lynn Mcleod
SATURN’S CHILD – Nichelle Nichols with Margaret Wander Bonanno
ARMAGEDDON – Kaitlyn O’Connor
THE SEDUCTION OF THE PHOENIX – Michelle M. Pillow
NIGHT WHISPERS – Alisha Rai
RED SHOES FOR LAB BLUES – D.B. Sieders
THE SPIRAL PATH – Lisa Paitz Spindler
Various characters from Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series
SKIES OF STEEL – Nico Rosso
RAJASTHANI MOON – Lisabet Sarai
SOMATESTHESIA – Ann Somerville