As Ricki Wilde puts it: “Every fourth february, things get weird.” There’s a touch of magic to this story, and the magic has to do with leap years: that’s when the rules of reality bend. This story combines romance, found family, intergenerational friendships, and a central love story—plus that touch of magic. Delightful.

You know a book is good when the characters live rent-free in your head months after you've finished reading. Such is the case for Tia Williams' new release titled A Love Song for Ricki Wilde.

The nontraditional love story—set in both modern Harlem and the Renaissance era of the 1920s—held my attention from the synopsis to the last word. Ricki Wilde is the artistic impulsive daughter of the Wilde family. Her two sisters are well established socialites whereas Ricki beats to her own drum.

When 90-something-year-old Ms. Della invites her to rent the bottom level of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance to leave Atlanta for a fresh beginning. It is there she realizes her dream of opening a flower shop. One evening, Ricki crosses paths with a handsome, mysterious musician that makes her swoon in the most unexpected way.

Bookhearts, I dare not say more because this is a well written story that you have to read to experience. Just know that it takes hold of your imagination and doesn't let go until you're tenderly holding the book in your arms with a satisfied smile on your face.

Tia Williams takes you on a magical journey with her engaging writing, heartfelt dialogue and deep characters. Need I say more? Add to your TBR now! Put on a pot of collard greens, play some Louis Armstrong or classic jazz and get ready for a wild ride. This new historical fiction romance has already claimed a spot as one of my top reads for 2024!

Happy Pub Day, Tia Williams! A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is now available.

Disclaimer: An advance copy was received directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own and would be the same if I spent my hard-earned coins. ~LiteraryMarie

What a delightful, bonkers, bananas book! the magical realism was a fun departure from Tia Williams’ past work but I really enjoyed the story and the quirky cast of characters.

Love how Tia writes, always pulled right into the story from page one! She writes such fleshed out characters that I often forget, while reading, that it’s fiction and not a real story about real people!

This story was so unique and different from Seven Days, but I loved it for all it was!

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a beautiful love story. I loved the main character Ricki and I loved that she was the odd one out in her family. I'm glad that she lives her life the way she wants to and I could totally see myself consignment shopping for clothes with her. This story had so many elements of a fairy tale with a twist of magical realism and I was here for it. I picked up that Breeze was the Garden Gentlemen pretty early on, but didn't see how he was in present day with Ricki until it was told to us. Their love story was a great one and I loved learning about Harlem throughout the book. The only thing stopping me from giving this five stars is that I felt like it dragged a bit in the middle. I was more interested in the story at the beginning and end, not so much the middle. Also, I would love a Ms. D is my life. She was such a good "grandmother" to Ricki!

Thanks for the advanced copy! I can't wait to recommend this to my friends and family.

This was such a special, magical book. Tia Williams just knows how to write the most enchanting stories. The dual timeline was so beautifully done. I kept me guessing the whole way through. Another instant classic.

I am so excited to see what Tia Williams does with her writing. Seven Days in June was beautiful but sometimes very heavy, and this novel is in the same universe, but it's much lighter and more whimsical. She writes the romances I want to read, with rich characterization, evocative settings, a fun blend of real and fictional pop culture, and writing that sings.

It took me a few days to share this post because I was struggling to find the words that would do this story justice. I’m still not sure I can do it, but I’m going to try.

Ricki Wilde is the youngest daughter in a family of overachievers. She refuses to fall in line and play by the rules, choosing to pursue her dream of opening a flower shop rather than join the family funeral home business. She meets Ms. Della, a 96 year old widow who becomes somewhat of a fairy godmother to Ricki, offering her the ground floor of Della’s Harlem brownstone to open her shop.

Ricki falls in love with Harlem, seeing rich history everywhere she looks. When her shop initially struggles, Ricki starts leaving her floral arrangements at the site of famous Harlem landmarks, which garners her media attention and helps her brand to grow. On one of her neighborhood adventures, she encounters a mysterious stranger - a handsome man who flees when she notices him.

The story alternates with Ricki’s story in modern-day Harlem, and the perspective of Ezra “Breeze” Walker, a pianist who flees Jim Crow south to seek fame as a jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance. We come to realize that Breeze is in fact Ricki’s mystery man - but how is that possible?

This is magical realism at its finest - the romance between Ricki and Breeze crackles with intensity and it’s perfectly plausible to believe that their connection would transcend time. I won’t say more about their story for fear of spoiling the story, but trust me: this is a pairing that will stay with you long after you’ve finished the book.

Tia Williams crafts characters that you can’t help but fall in love with. As much as I enjoyed meeting Ricki and Breeze, I also treasured the generous and strong Ms. Della, tackling her widower bucket list after losing her soulmate. And we should all have a Tuesday in our lives - Tuesday is a former child star who blows into Ricki’s life like a hurricane and who adds humor to her every scene.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is available now - and if you haven’t already added it to your TBR, what are you waiting for?!

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde was a great way to be introduced to Tia Williams as an author. This story has hope, love, and a sprinkling of history. The book plays on the theme of February 29th, which is especially relevant in 2024. Ricki, the main character, moves to Harlem to open a flower shop in the brownstone Ms. Della offers her. Throughout the story, we learn more about Ms. Della and Ricki, and how their stories are intertwined. This was an entertaining read, with a little bit of magical realism, while still being grounded and captivating.

Short synopsis: Rickie goes against her familial expectations and decides to move to Harlem NY to open a flower shop. She runs into Ezra, everywhere and they can’t decide if fate is bribing them together.

My thoughts: I was immediately drawn to this book based on the cover alone. The blues and purples are stunning. I wanted to love this one. In fact, I absolutely adored the first half.

Watching Rickie do brave things, defying expectations and following her dreams! I really enjoyed the relationship between Rickie and Della, (I’m such a fool for friendships with old people) and Rickie and Ezra was so sweet and tender.

At about 65% the whole book just changed for me as the magical realism jumped in. I’m normally a fan of magical realism, but this just didn’t work for me. Seemed a little too forced. It felt like two completely different stories between the first and second half of the book. I know there has been so much love for this book, so I’m sure I’m in the minority here.

Read if you love:
- Fated romances
- Pianos and music
- Magical realism
- Following your dreams
- Found family, and friendships with elderly

This modern day love story with a twist was well written a s witty, charming and thought provoking. However, I am not a fan of magical realism so it wasn’t my cup of tea. For those who are more willing to let go and let their imagination run wild, I would recommend this book.

A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

🪻Talk about a right book/right time!!! This book was so so good and I feel like I read it at the perfect time?! Stop what you’re doing and go add this to your library holds asap so you can read it before Leap Day!! 🥹

🪻Here’s a summary of the plot:👇
Ricki has never been interested in taking over her family’s business and running her own funeral home. After a chance encounter with 96-year-old Della, Ricki is given the opportunity to move to Harlem and finally open her own flower shop. She’s immediately enchanted with Harlem and learning about the Harlem Renaissance. When she sees a handsome stranger while enjoying the wonders of Harlem, her life is changed forever.

🪻I’ll be honest, I had a hard time getting into this one at first. It’s a mix of so many genres: romance, magical realism, historical fiction. All the different genres had me a biiit confused at first but once I was invested in the story I couldn’t stop reading it! I listened to the audiobook and I highly recommend! The narration was so well done and I truly felt like I was there!

🪻The cameo appearances of some of the characters from Seven Days in June made me so happy. 🥰 While I was pretty sure I knew how this book would end, I still cried like a baby. 😭 This book is the perfect book to read during February of a Leap Year!! Add it to your tbr asap and thank me later!!

🪻Huge thank you to @grandcentralpub and @hachetteaudio for my advanced copies! A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE is available now!

Written to coincide with 2024's leap year, Tia Williams new romance novel, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, revolves around February 29, injecting some mysticism into this bonus day of the year. A love story that spans the ages, a voodoo curse, and an untimely end via February 29 all await you in this saccharine tale of unlikely soulmates.

Ricki Wilde is her prominent Atlanta family's black sheep. Setting off to Harlem to pursue her dream of opening a florist's shop, she rents the room of a nonagenarian - Ms. Della - who becomes one of her closest friends and confidantes. As Ricki struggles to get her flower business to bloom, she learns about the historically significant black neighborhood that she now calls home.

Meanwhile, back in the roaring 20s, Ezra tickles the ivories, tantalizing club goers with his songs during the Harlem Renaissance. Somehow, inextricably, he becomes tied up in the life of the one and only Ricki Wilde. As their love story unfolds over the pages of this novel, only one thing is certain - nothing lasts forever, even when love is meant to be ... unless, that is, you are immortal. But even then, death all too often comes knocking at your door.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a romance tied up in historical significance and magical realism. A slow-burning love story, this novel deftly intermingles the atmospheric energy of the Harlem Renaissance with modern times, infusing history with the tale of two star-crossed lovers, forever destined to meet. Tia Williams has spun a unique and thought-provoking story that readers can surely get lost in for a time.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a beautiful contemporary novel that everyone should experience.

Ricki has always been a wildflower, fighting against her family's standards. Meeting Della, she decides to take up her offer and open a flower shop in Harlem. Her adventures in Harlem bring her a mysterious buyer of her portrait. The bidder? Ezra Walker, the man Ricki can't stop thinking about after seeing him in the community garden. Fate brought them together but will fate also tear them apart?

Wow! I now need to read everything else Tia William has written! I was quickly captured by the storyline and loved how I immediately wanted to learn more about the Harlem era. I couldn't have predicted the twists Williams wrote throughout and urge every reader to go into this blind. It'll make the experience so much more magical. The audio kept me HOOKED and soon enough, i wasn't caring about the longer chapters. A Love Song for Ricki Wilde will be one of my top reads for 2024!

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde was an incredible read. I loved the magical realism aspect and the idea of a soulmate who spans decades was an incredible concept. Ricki was a great MC and her and Ezra’s chemistry flew off the page. I also loved her found family in Tuesday and Mrs. Della.
There were some moments where the plot’s pacing fell off but the actual story was too good for me to honestly care. I loved the twists and turns the story took and it ended so beautifully.

An enjoyable, romantic, emotional read filled with wonderful larger-than-life characters, a hint of spice, and magical realism that will leave you breathless. Ezra and Ricky’s love story is a memorable one for the ages. While insta love is sometimes a bit unbelievable, it worked for the story given the magic of it. While I adored Ricky’s unique, quirky, strong-willed persona as a main character, I also fell in love with some of the other side characters, especially Tuesday and Ms. Della. Tuesday is a bestie that ever girl should have and Ms. Della is your warm, kind, grandmother with a dash of spunk. While there were a couple unexplained pieces to the puzzle I would have liked to fit a little better, I chalked it up to the magic of the story. Definitely a memorable beautiful love story that transcends time.

Thank you to Tia Williams, Grand Central Publishing, and NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

I'm classifying A Love Song for Ricki Wilde as a contemporary romance, which I'll be honest, I wasn't sure about when I initially read this book because I had no clue what to expect based on the blurb. So let me tell you what this book is actually about unless you want to go in confused. Ricki moves to Harlem after a chance encounter with this super sweet older woman who wants to support her dream of opening a flower shop. While in Harlem, she encounters this man who she feels this immediate connection to, but also, something about him and their encounters is weird. I'm not going to spoil the actual plot for you other than to explain that Ricki herself does not go back in time at any point in this book. But I will say that this book does have a bit of a speculative edge to it, similar-ish to the Kelley Armstrong series I really love, A Stitch in Time, but without exploring the timey-wimey ness of it all the way Armstrong's series does.

At its heart, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a love story and it is a romance. I know Seven Days in June was pretty literary for a romance and it focused quite a bit on the character's individual journeys, but A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is really about soulmates (my word) who have forces working against them trying to keep them from being together. It is also about Ricki trying to find herself and her success on her own two feet and separate herself from her family. And this time, my own personal qualm with this book is not the romance, which I enjoyed, but the fact that Ricki's personal journey provides the impetus for the ultimate meet cute but where I think the romance resolves itself beautifully, I'm not as satisfied with the jumps made in regards to her personal journey.

Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but my main takeaway would be that I wouldn't let a negative opinion of Seven Days in June sway you away from this book, but neither would I say that if you loved Seven Days in June that you'll definitely love this. Tia Williams has gorgeous writing and that was consistent across both books, but overall, I feel like these two books really stand apart as distinct and totally separate works. I like the way Williams is pushing the limits of the genre, but I think you have to be in a particular mood to want to have the bounds of the romance genre pushed so make sure you're in that mood before you pick this one up.

If you loved Seven Days in June as much as I did, you should know that this is its own unique and wonderful story.
Enter Ricki Wilde who is the black sheep of the family. She has the audacity to have her own dreams instead of joining the family funeral business.
Ms. Delta offers her lodging at her brownstone and she begins building her dream flower shop in Harlem. The history, art, and music of Harlem was intoxicating.
The story takes off when Ricki meets the handsome, sexy, and mysterious Ezra.
I was not ready for the mystical and “other worldly” turn their love story took. It did not take long for me to get totally lost in their beautiful,magical and sexy world. Just loved the aesthetics and beauty of this one. I received a free copy. All opinions are my own..

Thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing (Hachette) for an ARC of this book. I really enjoyed Seven Days in June and was excited to read another book by Tia Williams.

This story is about the magic of Leap years and follows Ricki, who is drawn to Harlem and opens a flower shop there, to the chagrin of her wealthy Atlanta based family. There she meets a mysterious man to whom she is drawn despite their efforts to avoid one another. Ezra has a secret for about 50% of the book which is kinda obvious but also unclear. For me, it was a little distracting from the story and would have liked an earlier reveal, but those readers who like mysteries and suspense will be fine.

Overall, I liked this book. The characters where interesting, funny and well rounded. The supporting characters were main characters in and of themselves. The book doesn't shy away from the history (and reality) of being Black in America, which may be difficult for some readers, but there's no graphic descriptions. I know I am reading an HEA romance, but I really didn't know how they would get there at several moments in this book. I feel like that's the mark of a really good writer -- even when you know the end, you don't.

I would encourage anyone who loves a good romance to pick this up. After reading this, I definitely spent a few days on my Oldies Spotify playlists.

#ALoveSongforRickiWilde
#NetGalley

4.5 stars rounded up. I really enjoyed Seven Days in June so I grabbed this book without much information about the plot. I was delightfully surprised by the magical elements in the story and liked this novel better than Seven Days in June. In a similar vain of Ashley Poston and Rebecca Serle books, you just have to accept that the hint of magic is what it is and suspend disbelief. The first half of the book is a slow build set up but once the main characters meet at about 50% in I was hooked and devoured the rest of the book quickly. As much as this book was a romantic love story, it was also a beautiful story about friendship. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.