Why did a silly goofy little magical realism romance make me tear up at the end? Because Tia Williams wrote it and knows how to pull at some daggum heartstrings.

I was hooked immediately and had a hard time putting the book down. It kept me dying to know more. I also enjoyed the flashbacks and current nods to Harlem. It made me want to look up music and history from a century ago. Anyway, it's kind of hard to put into words how I felt about this book, but what you really need to know is that it isn't just a romance, it is a book about found family, proving yourself, and becoming who you were meant to be. And I really liked it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central for the e-ARC!

This was my first 5-star review of the year, and I saved it for a good one. I loved this book and was glad I didn't have any information about it other than who wrote it.

If there were ever a book to read about how to live your life to the fullest while also bringing in the history of an era that most people don't know about, this would be the book to read. The combination of the history of the Harlem Renaissance with one of the MMC and then the FMC who just wanted to live her life her own way was perfect.

Part of me wants a sequel to see how their later life panned out.

This is a gorgeous romance that I simply could not put down! I fell in love with this author's writing in her last novel, and this book definitely lived up to the expectations I had due to her past work. I was completely immersed and invested in the story, characters, and setting, and think this is just simply a truly special and unique read that everyone will enjoy.

I went into this blind and I'm so glad I did. I loved this book so much - its beautiful and heart warming, but also sad. I was sobbing by the end. Tia Williams is an auto buy author for me, and I'd highly recommend this book to everyone.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the e-ARC.

✨ Review ✨ A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, by Tia Williams, narrated by Mela Lee, Preston Butler

This is THE book you need for your 2024 LEAP YEAR. The book centers on Leap Years a month of magic that comes around but once every four years, and it connects to ideas of voodoo, love, and time.

Ricki Wilde (Richard Wilde Jr., her father's namesake after it became clear that they'd only have daughters and this made me lol) breaks off from her funeral home magnate family who are all sort of ridiculous and not very supportive of her. She moves to Harlem after meeting Della, a wonderful older woman who becomes her new adoptive grandma, and she opens a flower shop in the lower level of Della's brownstone. When Ricki encounters a mysterious man, she can't stop thinking about him, and increasingly, their paths keep crossing...and thus their magnetic pull reveals itself.

I loved the silliness of this book - the puns, Ricki's ability to joke around and poke fun, and the loveliness of her relationship with Ms. Della (and Della's bucket list). The first chapter of this book alone had me grinning!

I appreciated the mystery behind the magic and time and that I couldn't quite figure it all out until the middle of the book.

I loved the element of found family and friendship.

I also adored how this wove the history of Harlem in with the challenges neighborhoods like this face with gentrification. Ricki's curation of bouquets to highlight these spaces, many now lost to history, was an especially lovely treat.

I think because this book was more complex, it didn't have the same pull for me as Seven Days in June. Its magic was subtler and slower and not so obvious. I still really enjoyed this though and found much to love!

The narration was excellent - their voices brought depth and emotion and passion to these characters and I just didn't want to push pause. I started on ebook and never went back, I was so captivated by the audio!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5)
Genre: historical fiction, contemporary m/f romance, magical realism
Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
Setting: Harlem, past and present
Pub Date: February 6, 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ flowers
⭕️ leap years
⭕️ Harlem and black history & culture (especially music throughout the last century!)
⭕️ found family

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Audio, and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

A Love Song For Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams is a delightful book that has a little bit of everything but is essentially a romance story. Now, as per me, romance doesn't have to be only with your love interest. It can be our love for nature, music, or our family and friends. This book has pretty much all of the above.

Ricki Wilde comes from a dynasty of high achievers, and she has never felt the belonging. She loves flowers and, in the search of her dreams, moves to Harlem when Ms. Della offers her a shop for rent. Moving to Harlem, Ricki finds her tribe but she also finds a mystery gentleman Ezra. Who is Ezra, and why is a night blooming jasmine flowering in February? What is the significance of the leap year? Dig in to find out.

I loved this book. I had a myriad of emotions while reading this story. I laughed, I cried, and got angry at the injustice at the same time. The author has taken on the subjects of patriarchy, belonging, black lives matter, colorism, racism and marginalization with a wonderful finesse. It feels very seamless, and I think this is going to be one of my favorites for this year.

Thank you, Grand Central Publishing @grandcentralpub , for this book.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde (Kindle Edition)
by Tia Williams
I am going to feature this in my black history month reviews. A most auspicious publication for this book because of its remarkable black history scattered throughout the story. The setting of Harlem allows a new generation to look at the remarkable history and changes over time after the Harlem Renaissance. The extensive list of places, history, and musicians toed into the story in the most respectful and enchanting way. The Idea that a Black owned florist would acknowledge and appreciate this history from the 1920's-1980's with floral pictorial internet posts telling the history to the modern world. It attaches a bridge of connection between the generations. The Love story that is at the heart of A love song for Ricki Wilde has enough magic and mystic that the generation raised on vampires, and witches will find a connection to the story.

There’s something about a Tia Williams book that already reminds me of sneaking to watch an HBO movie when you were a pre teen, it’s sexy and racy and a little bit awkward all at the same time.

I really enjoy her writing; I’ll be honest when the pacing of this one missed its mark for me a little bit. When disappointing trust fund Ricki moves to New York to start the exotic floral shop of her dreams, she finds herself transfixed with the Harlem of years gone by. Enter a mysterious man with a terrible secret, and Ricki has to decide if she’ll let life keep happening to her or if she’ll take control. If you don’t like some magical realism twists, maybe skip this one.

Loved the found family elements, obviously love a floral shop, got a bit lost in the love story and didn’t really connect with the main character. I also feel like for the level of departure the plot line is from her most famous book, it should have been hinted at in the synopsis.

In full transparency—
I read this book twice (the second time being over this weekend) because the first time I just wasn’t “feeling” it. The second time, I did enjoy it wayyyy more than the first time. I think the first time around I kinda started to tune out since I wasn’t sure what was happening and why it wasn’t giving 𝘚𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘋𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘦 and in doing so I missed some key moments that added to the depth of this story.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a unique love story, that’s quite different since Williams incorporated magical realism within this novel. If you go into this thinking “oh it’s gonna be another Seven Days in June” you’re setting yourself up cause it’s very different. Yes there’s still a love story here but it’s more complex with the literary genre she uses here and the magic that’s intertwined in it.

Read this if you love:
💜 Harlem, NY setting
💜 Leap Year stories
💜 Harlem renaissance culture
💜 magical realism
💜 past 1920’s + present timelines

⭐️ 4/5

This is the first book I've read by Tia Williams and I went in to it without much knowledge of the plot. I knew people loved her books, and that this one was getting a lot of early hype. Admittedly, it started out slow for me, but once I got hooked on it I couldn't put it down and had to find out how it would resolve.

Ricki has decided she needs to get away from her family -- her three older sisters, her parents, and their mortuary business. Without the knowledge of her family, Ricki has been growing a following online with a botanical account, and wants to open a plant / flower shop. When a stranger tells her she would love for her to open the shop in her apartment building in Harlem, Ricki decides this is just the change she needs and goes for it.

Soon after moving to New York, Ricki meets a mysterious man in a community garden one night. This encounter sparks something in her, and suddenly Ezra is all she can think about.

This is one that the less you know, the better. I was antsy to figure out what was going on, but once I just let myself sink in to the story I enjoyed it a lot more. The way it all unfolds is very well done, and I really enjoyed getting to know Ricki and Ezra.

Both Ricki and Ezra are great characters, and their love story is so swoony. Ricki's independence and self confidence is incredible. I really loved the side characters as well -- Ms Della's story was so intriguing and I loved her bucket list. Tuesday was hilarious and a good counterbalance to Ricki -- a very nice way to provide some comic relief.

I loved the sense of place and descriptions of the plants and flowers -- I could picture the shop so well, as well as the neighborhood around Harlem.

Overall if you're looking for an unconventional romance book I would recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

This book was very well written because it tied everything together. Past future and it was really interesting because it was like a love story. But it was also like a crime novel as well. R I c k W ILDE. Was from a prominent family in atlanta , georgia who ran a funeral homes. Her sisters were very mean to her because she kept messing up everything in life. She wanted to do flowers and she wanted to school for that. She meets a lady from new york who lived in atlanta , georgia but moved to HAR Lem. New york.. The building where this woman lived had a very important part of the story. You'll find out later. She comes up to New York and opens the flower shop and things seem to go really well. She meets this woman named tracy , who was a big star on t v in the one she was younger. She also plays a very important part of the story. You'll find out later as well. She made this painting and somebody Brought it for this man named ERR. A... This starts off a great journey in this book. They go to the past to the harlem renaissance , where this man was a great piano list. His family was murdered in the South, so he decided to come up to Harlem in the 20s. To be with this cousin who is named Sonny. This got really interesting in the book. Because it talked a lot about history and stuff like that. And then it went back to the present time where she was just finding out about these different stuff. And she fell in love with this man , but he had a very interesting background as well. During the Harlem Renaissance, he met this woman named FE outlaw. I'm determined to be somebody, but she was not very nice. She believed in VOO DOC. This caused a lot of problems because she would put skulls on people and this played a very important part of the story. And you'll find this out as well. So this man was Haunted by the spell she put on him. Ricky fell in love with this man. She did not know anything about the past but he was like a Phantom of she went to the cemetery When this man appeared and the night jasmine blooming was beautiful smell. She was struggling as well, but she would put. Flowers on different spots in harlem where the renaissance was prominent in the twenties. She helped me bowing , and then this woman from one of the newspapers wrote a story about her , and then her sisters came up from the l Georgia , and they were not very happy with her when they saw this man with her. This book had me going because it was so well. Connected from different plots and themes. You never knew who was connected to. Who until you got to End of the book.

I really enjoyed Seven Days in June and The Perfect Find - so got excited to jump right into this one without knowing anything of what it was about. Unfortunately in this case that didn’t work for me and I decided to DNF at 35%. Ricki feels very young to me and this was feeling more YA/NA which I wasn’t expecting. This may be a case of wrong reader. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook and audiobook to review.

4.5 stars

Oh, my heart.

This started out a little slow, trying to figure out how everything connected together, but once it all clicked, I was hooked. The way that Williams can right a love story, *exhales*.

She proved it with Seven Days in June, but Tia Williams is an auto buy author for me.

Thanks to Grand Central publishing and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC.

Ricki has always been the misfit in her wealthy, Black family from Atlanta. When she decides to move to New York City and pursue her own interests, her family is sure she will fail. When she meets a mysterious man, the storyline really begins. I am not usually one to enjoy romance books or books with magic but this was a fun escape mixed with Harlem Renaissance and music history - especially to read in February of a leap year.

I didn’t really get the hype of Seven Days in June, but I enjoyed this one much more! The mix of Black Renaissance history, a twist of magic, and a wacky cast of characters made for a really fun book. The pacing felt a bit off to me— we didn’t get into the meat of the romance until like 60% of the way through, but it really hit its stride there and I enjoyed the way it wrapped up. Ms. Della is an iconic character!!

Thank you so much to @netgalley for the opportunity to read the beautiful Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams!

Y'all, this book was SWOONY 😍

What I loved:

🎹 This is a book for the Harlemites, and for the old souled musicians. I simply can not get over the immersion of the reader into the world of the 1920's Harlem music scene. The piano bars, the big band vibes, all of the absolute legends that began on those city streets. To have one of our characters be Duke Ellington's rival was literally all that jazz.

🎹 The widespread span of historical Black representation is huge in this romance. From the small town Gullah vibrancy, to the horrors of the KKK, to the modern Black elite, to both the 20's and the new school Black art scene, painted such a vibrant picture of these widely varied experiences.

🎹 Ricki Wilde is such a great female lead. She is a mess, but also driven. She is wildly and fiercely independent, creative beyond all measure, a ball of social anxiety, and has cultivated the absolute best found family. I want to visit her flower shop in real life.

🎹 I do not need to see a picture of Ezra to know that man is fine as HELL. Every word that comes out of his old fashioned mouth sounds like it is dripping in honey and the way I NEED to hear that man play piano is unreal. Every chapter my obsession with him deepened.

🎹 What a cool premise!! Without spoilers, let's just say this romance explores the magic of leap years with a little bit of Voodoo / hoodoo magic. I was skeptical at first but once I accepted the premise, it was just such an emotional whirlwind. I found myself swept up with Ezra and Ricki. Every street run in, every stolen moment on the piano bench, every deep interview between them had me clutching my blanket a little closer.

🎹 We all need a Della in our lives. If I do not get a pink haired nonagenarian to help mentor me in my life then I have done it wrong. Give me more Della!

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is out February 6th! Go get your copy today!

Did I just find my first five star of 2024?!?!? Yes, yes I did.... and quite frankly it couldn't have come at a better time.
This is the absolute best way to kick off Black History Month!

Tia Williams wrote the mess out of this magical realism historical fiction. Readers are transported through time and space to the Harlem Renaissance where you may be seated in between Duke Ellington and Billie Horne. Then are flung back into modern Harlem to grapple with how much has changed. I found myself fact finding and googling the many gems Tia weaved into this story with a thirst for more. ALSFRW felt like a warm hug by the way it was written to center the black experience.... The language, the music, the tone! It didn't shy away from hard topics such as drug abuse, racism, death of a family member.

I adored every single character in this storyline not just the main ones, which is rare! Ricki was a delight, Ezra was the epitome of a gentlemen, Ms. Della was my dream grandma and Tuesday was a hoot. I could have stayed with these characters forever however I think there was no better ending for the book then what Tia provided us. Even the epilogue was necessary!

Do yourself a favor...Read, Rate, Review and Recommend this to a friend!

5/5 ⭐️ A Love Song For Ricki Wilde by @tiawilliamswrites
Out February 6, 2024

“He was music I could listen to forever.” GAH!!!!
This book. Simply put, a masterpiece. A Love song for Ricki Wilde had everything I could have hoped for: paranormal, romance, history, music, family dynamics, living up to expectations, soul mates, and found family. As a main character, Ricki was incredibly refreshing and very relatable. I really enjoyed the historical aspects of this book and honoring the people who came before you. While I am usually pretty good at predicting plot points, I was unable to guess some of the endings.

My only critique is that I could have read about Ricki and Ezra forever 🥰
Thank you to @grandcentralpub @netgalley and Tia Williams for an advanced readers copy. This is a book I will be thinking about for a while!
#alovesongforrickiwilde #tiawilliamsauthor #harlemrenaissance #jasmineflower #booksbooksbooks #arc #grandcentralpublishing

Going in I immediately saw that this was very different from Tia’s previous works. In the first half of the book, I was a bit unsure how I felt and questioned where this was going. The second half of the book is where I begin to really get into it and ended up really liking the story. I loved Ms Delia and Tuesday’s characters the most. I will say that I did not feel the chemistry between Ricki and Ezra, even in the end. I also think that the romance was not the main plot and that was ok because the overall story and magical realism, once I had all the pieces, made a bit more sense. Some plot points were a bit out there and there were some things that I wished I had more information about. When reading this one, you will need to go into it with an open mind. As you come to the end of the book it will all come together! I did enjoy the historical pieces with and how we had a timeline of Ricki and Ezra’s leading to the end. I loved the end of the story and was glad that we learned how the future of Ezra and Ricki’s relationship progressed!

I was very excited to receive an ARC of this because Seven Days in June is one of my all-time favorite romances. This is very different than that book, and I think if I had gone in understanding that more, it may have worked better for me.

Don’t get me wrong - Williams can write the hell out of romance. The two MCs in this are a delight to get to know, and their love is full of swoon-worthy moments, touching declarations, and a hell of a lot of heat. You can’t help but root for them.

The main problem I had is in the structure of the story. Because this is a romance with a magical realism angle, Williams chose to tell it in more of a fairytale format. Which works for the story, but made it feel like a lot of the action happens in summary. That could also be because so much time is covered by the novel, but it wasn’t the most exciting narrative choice at times. I wanted it to be more action forward and less passive. My other issue is that, for a creative plot concept, it was fairly predictable. A lovely story, yes, but you know exactly what is going to happen at all phases of it.

I still really enjoyed this and will be eager to read more by Williams. But this lacked a bit of the spark I’d been expecting.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for this advanced copy. A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is out this Tuesday, 2/6!

3.5/5