Tia Williams is back after gracing us with one of my favorite books, Seven Days in June. When I saw this book, and its beautiful cover, I had to read this one too!

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a whimsical romance, with a bit of fantasy and historical nods. I say fantasy because some things are a bit far-fetched, meaning, this isn't your typical contemporary romance. What is real, though, is the love between Ricki and Ezra.

Although I prefer 7 Days... to this book, I enjoyed the friendships the most. I enjoyed reading about Ricki stepping out on faith and living her life the way she wanted, on her own terms. Lots of lessons about living life to the fullest is here.

this was such a whimsical romance filled with surprises. williams really established such strong connections not only between ricki and breeze, but ricki and her friends. it was a unique and refreshing love story

4.1⭐️

I found A Love Song for Ricki Wilde a really sweet compelling leap year story. Perfect for the current season. I wasn’t sure what to expect when starting this book, but I’m really glad I did. It was fast paced and was an easy read. I only wish that the story told a little more about Ricki’s family at the end.
Great read especially for February


I just reviewed A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams. #ALoveSongforRickiWilde #NetGalley

This book.

Wow. WOW, wow, wow.

I absolutely loved it. Never read anything quite like this before.

Stunning, stunning work.

Superbly written and delivers a powerful message. Tia Williams has a hit on her hands. I highly recommend this to those who love contemporary fiction.

I absolutely LOVED this book! The family! The way things unfold! I loved reading it on my kindle and I loved listening to the audio. I like to read using a variety of formats and this book was such a treat in every format available!

I flew through A Love Song for Ricki Wilde. Ricki is the heroine we all want to read about and the details of Williams' writing are exquisite. A must-read for romance fans!

In this love letter to Harlem, its Renaissance, and Black history, Tia Williams brings together a florist and a jazz pianist in an sizzling and passionate romance.

Ricki Wilde is adorably eccentric and lovable. You can't help but root for her. Ezra is practically smooth jazz personified. How could you not fall for him? And Ms. Della. 🥹💖 A true fairy godmother.

I went into this book nearly blind and while the genre-bending threw me for a loop momentarily, Williams's wit made it hilarious and savorable. Consider it a true rom-com with a sprinkle of the fantastical. It totally worked when I didn't expect it to!

This is a great read for anyone looking for celebrations of Black joy, magical realism, Fate-brought-us-together love stories, and found family.

p.s. Listening to Stevie Wonder's 'Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants' and any Harlem Renaissance era jazz definitely makes reading this book extra magical ✨

This book is a masterpiece. It was hard to put down. The characters are well developed. It was so well written I felt transported to NYC and Harlem. I was invested in the characters and plot. Even those who do not read a lot of romance will fall for this book!

Tia Williams follows up the success of SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE (a 2021 Reese’s Book Club pick) with A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE, an immersive, haunting and joy-filled blend of history and the present day, fantasy and fact, romance and creation.

According to the Wilde family, if you look in the dictionary under “black sheep,” you’ll no doubt see a photo of Ricki Wilde. Ricki is the youngest of the privileged, esteemed Wilde girls, who are heiresses to their father’s lucrative funeral home business. Her proud socialite sisters were happy to work their way up to owning their own franchises, thereby assuming control of their trust funds, but Ricki wants to make something of her own on her own.

While her family has hosted galas, sipped on vodka and scheduled Botox appointments, Ricki has been quietly building her own empire. It’s not a brick-and-mortar business like her father’s, but an Instagram account, “Botany Flowers Lately.” Here, she shares her creative floral arrangements and boasts an impressive 300,000+ followers and brand partnerships lucrative enough to have secretly put herself through night school to earn a horticultural degree. In the Wilde family, though, the man --- that would be Richard Wilde, Sr. --- is the boss. And as the boss, he swiftly fires Ricki, telling her that if she wants to do it herself, she can go for it.

A chance meeting lands Ricki in the basement apartment of a brownstone in Harlem, worlds away from her home (and family name) in Atlanta. She immediately sets to work cleaning up the front basement apartment, where she plans to launch Wilde Designs, and the smaller back studio, where she will live. After selling her car and three engagement rings (she has a type: quick to fall in love, quicker to fall out), Ricki has just enough savings to launch her business and give it her all. For exactly six months. If she fails, it’s back to Atlanta, back to Wilde Funeral Homes, and back to what she not so affectionately refers to as the “brunchification of death” --- aka her family’s capitalist spin on the inevitable fates of their customers.

Luckily for Ricki, chance is on her side. Her first few months in New York are marked by three incredible events: a steamy hookup with a smooth-brained, conspiracy-loving artist; an accidental meeting with Tuesday Rowe, a former child star and her current best friend; and, in her opening month, she not only meets her goals but doubles her projection. Then in January, she loses every cent when people stop coming to buy her gorgeous but expensive creations.

However, chance isn’t quite done with Ricki. On a midnight walk to blow off steam, she bumps into a man she comes to call Garden Gentleman. His features are cut from granite, his jawline is impossible, his brow is commanding and stern, and he’s a musician, a creative like her. He tells Ricki one thing: that whatever is brewing between them can never, ever happen. But when repeated run-ins turn into daily drop-ins, it becomes obvious that there is something magical, fated between them, that has been building since before Ricki ever stepped foot in Harlem.

Alternating timelines, Tia Williams takes readers to 1920s Harlem, where another young Black artist has just arrived in the city of magic. Ezra “Breeze” Walker III or IV (he can never be sure) has lost everything to Ku Klux Klan violence in his Georgia hometown, and he is finally ready to shed his dead-end sharecropper identity and give music, the thing that keeps him alive, a real try. Within five years, he is at the top of the jazz music scene in Harlem, where Black people are celebrated and his contemporaries aren’t the church organ player but the likes of Duke Ellington, Fred Astaire and Ma Rainey.

Unfortunately, with the highs come the lows. As fame takes over, Ezra (unknowingly) begins to race toward a cursed end. I won’t reveal the mystery of how Ricki and Ezra’s stories converge. But if the suspense isn’t enough to draw you in, Williams’ meticulous handling of history, sex, romance and fate will do the trick.

To read Tia Williams is to read pure joy, unabashed and proud. Even when she is detailing the racist history of our country (especially sobering is the celebration of jazz-era Harlem compared to the current gentrification of those same buildings where history was made), her willingness and courage to find beauty in transformation is awe-inspiring. In her characters, particularly gorgeous, anxious and brilliant Ricki, Williams unlocks new levels of awareness and strength. Against all odds, they find ways to cultivate beauty in the world, turning their grievances and anxieties into pure creation. Much like a jazz song erupts from the fingers of its player, A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE soars.

In an early scene, Ricki tries on the identity of a flâneuse, a French concept built on idling and observing. She remarks that “Harlem was a modern neighborhood superimposed over an old one. But in the negative spaces…Ricki could make out the contours of a ghost city.” Williams’ writing is exactly like this: a fresh and modern take on love and creation that is grounded in immense, sweeping history. The blending of these idiosyncratic tones reads like her love song to readers.

My new favorite book by Tia Williams! A tender, heart-warming story that deals with complex issues from mental health and family relationships to love! If magical realism is your thing, pick this book up ASAP! I absolutely adored how this story was crafted!

Absolutely fell in love with this book. Loved all the characters. Loved the descriptions of Harlem, it became a character in its own right. After reading and loving Seven Days in June and then this fabulous love story, Williams has become an auto buy for me.

“Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.”

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is such a beautiful and magical story about Harlem, the Black artists who shaped its culture and history, and a love story that will make you feel all the feelings.

I truly can’t recommend this book enough!

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I'm late to the party but alas I think that a review is better than no review and so here I am. I read this book on a plane which is an exciting time to read because I am more susceptible to be sucked into a book flying far above any thought or work that I could reasonably worry about than any other time. And this book sucked me IN.

Ricki Wilde is an outcast within her family and decides that she wants to open a flower shop. CUTE! So she moves to New York and there she keeps running into our male lead Ezra. This book is for sure magical realism which is something I normally rock with but by nature of their soulmate status there is a big insta love factor. They see each other and just know. Which unfortunately for this book isn't that romantic to me. I think this book works better if you aren't looking to it for it's romantic elements above anything else. For example, Ezra's character outside of Ricki was maybe one of my favorite things in this book. Miss Della????? My beloved. And Tuesday was incredibly badass and was ready to brawl and I appreciated her.

I really liked the characters and the interactions, I just wish I felt more love between Ricki and Ezra. Or more chemistry? Both probably. Finally, I feel the need to say Leap Day book on a Leap Year is SO cool to me as a concept. Like Ms. Williams DID THAT.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Best book of 2024, calling it now, it’s all downhill from here. Literally this is a perfect book, I have zero notes, I would give it like 12 stars if I could. I don’t know what goes on in Tia Williams’ brain but I want to go to there. Incredible. The characters, their banter, the lush settings, the interwoven storylines, the STEAM, it’s all just so spot-on. No spoilers, but WOW I LOVED THIS CONCEPT and somehow it worked perfectly? I laughed out loud and I wept and I was devastated to reach the last page. I will be sitting patiently in a corner waiting on her next release, thanks.

My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an advance reader’s copy.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde follows the story of the titular character who moves to Harlem for a new life as a florist after she decides not to follow her family's footsteps in their funeral home business dynasty. One night at a community garden, she encounters a handsome, enigmatic stranger, Ezra Walker, who has a past monumental to the Harlem Renaissance that can ultimately change of course of Ricki's life within the month of February.

There is no doubt that Tia Williams can write a well-developed, sensual romance filled with humor that's a breath of fresh air. Yet the lack of detail on the voodoo/magical realism elements felt out-of-place beyond this star-crossed romance that became a little unrealistic; as the story developed into how Ricki can avoid her fate and save Ezra from the curse, pushed behind Ricki's storyline of succeeding her floral business that became imbalanced. Still, I will pick up whatever Tia Williams will write next.

Interesting very unique concept but I did not feel particularly pulled by the characters. I liked Ezra but Riki's story didn't really flow and seem seamlessly and together, it was just too forced and too fast and I didn't really fall for them and I didn't stay with them as a reader. Really nice idea and plot.

Went into this book blind and was totally blown away. So good!

This was such an amazing read! It centers on Ricki Wilde, who grew up feeling like a complete outsider in her family, which runs a well-known set of Atlanta funeral homes. Ricki has no desire to become part of the family business. When she meets Miss Della, an older woman who offers her space in her Harlem brownstone to open the flower shop of her dreams, Ricki jumps at the chance, even if it means leaving behind her family's wealth and all the security it brings.

I don't really know how to describe this story, and I don't want to share too much. It's such a beautiful love story, though, with magical, almost paranormal elements, sprinkled in. Once Ricki moves to New York, the book weaves in historical stories about Harlem in the 1920s, covering the Harlem Renaissance, as well as some of the utter horrors inflicted upon black southerners in that time period.

Much of this is done through the story's narrative. While much of it is from Ricki's POV, it also skips back in time to the 20s, giving us amazing insight into 1920s Harlem. I loved the history--reading this book around the end of February (it has a Leap Year spin to it), as well as during Black History Month, was perfect.

In New York, Ricki keeps running into a mysterious stranger. Oh my gosh, I was so invested in this relationship, the potential romance, and all these characters. There's the lovely Miss Della, plus Ricki's new best friend, Tuesday, a former child actor. Everyone falls together seamlessly, in their fun quirky way, and Ricki herself is just so spunky and unique--you can't help but root for her! I'm honestly not doing this book justice. You'll find yourself in another world as you read it, partially in the 20s and then caught up in Ricki's magical romance. It's a gorgeous, fantastical read!

“To me, love is like listening to an album. Some people skip to their favorite songs and ignore the rest. Other people listen to the entire album over and over until it's familiar and cherished and they know every note by heart.

After reading Seven Days in June, I knew I had to read more by Tia Williams! This book was very different from SDIJ, this had more of a magical spin to it. I love the concept of this book, and I loved that it was told in multiple timelines. I feel like we really get to know the characters. Ricki was a complex character and I loved her story.

My only issue with the book was there felt like a major lull midway. All the interest that the beginning created kind of went away and I thought about calling it quits...but I stuck it out and really enjoyed the ending.

This is for fans of romance with some magic sprinkled in.

Calling this book a love story feels some simple for a story that is so complex but, at it's heart, that's truly what it is. Ricki and Ezra are incredible main characters and all of the supporting characters steal the show as well, the backdrop of the Harlem renaissance was fascinating to read, and the arc of the main relationship is so beautiful. I really loved this book and Tia Williams is quickly becoming an automatic read author for me. If you have not read Seven Days in June, it is a must read as well.

Thanks to Tia Williams, Quercus Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.