I adored Seven Days in June (and loved the callback to that book in A Love Song for Ricki Wilde!) so I was very much looking forward to this new book by Tia Williams. It wasn't what I expected but was a very enjoyable read. I always love a good magical realism book set in the real world and the book couldn't have ended in a better way. While I didn't like it quite as much as SDiJ, I will definitely be adding Tia Williams to my must-read authors list.

I feel like this book is going to be divisive, because it has an incredible love story but also relies on magical realism and switching between time. I love Tia Williams, having gotten hooked by Seven Days in June (which has a nice cameo in here) and then working on her backlist, and I found this to be an exciting new story with a protagonist that I would love to keep following. What makes this story for me are all the characters that Ricki befriends, including her elderly landlord/neighbor and a friend that is a former celebrity working on her memoir. The women are rich in stories, and the setting of Harlem is its own main character in this book. Full of flowers, history, music, pining, and maybe a curse or two, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is not to be missed. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early review copy, all opinions are my own.

It is nothing short of serendipitous when the right book finds a reader at the right time. Told with great joy and humor, this is a story about love between folks, family, life, and with the latent allure that is New York. Full of history and familiarity that takes readers on a true journey, this is definitely a great book club selection.

Pub date: 2/6/24
Genre: romance, ownvoices
Quick summary: Ricki Wilde's last name describes her impulsive nature - a nature not shared with the rest of her family. When she takes a leap and opens a flower shop, she worries she's doomed to fail - until she meets a mysterious stranger who pulls her into the Harlem jazz scene.

You could really give this book 5 stars based on the cover alone. Lucky for us, the book itself is worth 5 stars too. Right when Williams introduced Ricki and her sisters, I felt that this character was something special, and I so enjoyed following her story through Harlem. I loved how steeped in Black culture the narrative was - from Ezra's jazz expertise to Ricki's floral publicity activities at sites associated with Black history.

Ezra and Ricki's love story was beautiful and magical - but there is so much more to this book that made it a true gem I'll recommend to lots of readers. It kept a smile on my face from start to finish. Plus - if you've read SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE, there is a great cameo from Eva and Shane!

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read Seven Days in June last year, and was so happy to read this next book from Tia Williams! Once again, romance is upfront and beautiful! But this time with a rich background of music and historical black events, people, and places. I enjoyed this twist on a modern love story. You could feel the love and passion between the main characters. It is also a great story of female empowerment, of finding yourself, and it's never too late to pivot or try something new. I would have liked to see more character development in the first chapters, and the ending was a little predictable. But this should be added to your TBR, especially if you like romance, with a little twist. 4.5 stars!

DNF at 21%.

It’s me, I’m the problem, it’s me.

I loved Seven Days in June, and therefore, I was really excited to read A Love Song for Ricky Wilde. But when I started reading, I felt nothing. I struggled to get through the pages, and I can’t even remember what I was reading. I reread some passages from some of my favorite books and tried again. But nothing happened in my brain. I didn’t feel any excitement or love for the story. So, I decided to DNF. I might be in some kind of a reading slump. Like I said, I’m the problem, it’s me. Not the book. Please check out other reviews if you want to read this one!

I'm not going to do a synopsis of this book for two reasons: 1) I don't think I could do it justice and 2) I think the best way to read this book is to go in fully blind!

I loved this book! I think Tia Williams writes incredibly vibrant characters that make me immediately invested in both the characters and the story. We get to know Ricki so well pretty immediately and understand her motivations which I think is quite the feat that the author is able to pull off!

I loved the relationship between Ricki and Ezra - it felt inevitable but in a way that I was totally sucked in by. As much as this is a romance there is also a really strong undercurrent of found/chosen family. While Ricki's relationship with her family is at the forefront for the first chapter or so, those relationships also fall to the wayside when she moves to Harlem and connects with her elderly landlady as well as others.

And to those wondering, there is a brief cameo of Eva and Shane and it was everything.

I highly highly recommend this! Huge thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

In "A Love Song for Ricki Wilde," Tia Williams brings us a story of unlikely star-crossed lovers who meet in modern-day Harlem. I loved the magical mechanism underpinning the novel, which involves Feb. 29 / leap year as well as a Hoodoo curse. Some elements of the plot felt just too easy or unearned, but I enjoyed many of the characters and especially liked the quirky bestie Tuesday and sparky elder Ms. Della. The pacing and time jumps are handled beautifully and the whole thing comes to a (maybe too) satisfying conclusion.

Fascinating storytelling by Tia Williams. A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE is irresistible story of a creative young woman evolving in her unique beauty, stumping into an amazing love with a perennial. The historical connections are as dynamic as the family tension. Pair that with the way the characters' lives come full circle and Williams' seriousness of craft is fully exposed. If you cringed through Williams' SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE, then LOVE SONG is her unforgettable recompense. Buy it.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde will go down as one of my favorite books read in 2023, possibly even in my top 10. I devoured this beautiful story, This book blends romance, history, magic, and found family most spectacular way. I never expected the main twist (no spoilers here!) that made this book so wonderfully unique.

The characters have so much personality they jump off the page and I felt like I was living inside their story. I can't say enough about A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, and if I say much more, I'll be at risk of spoiling it for others.

Add this book to your 2024 reading list. I promise you, you will love it.

Thank you Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC!

This was a very romanticized and magical (like truly the book involves magic) story. I wasn’t expecting it to be more realistic and had a bit of a hard time buying into Ricki’s optimism and sunny disposition, but once I got past that, I was engaged enough to want to know what would happen! Definitely not similar to her previous story which I found more serious and relatable but this was a good enough story!

4.5 stars. Ricki Wilde leaves behind her family wealth and expectations to pursue her dreams to open a flower shop. One February night she encounters a handsome and mysterious stranger while she was in a city garden. Little did she know who this man was or how he would become involved in her life.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a very enjoyable read. It is full of modern Harlem while intertwining the past history of how Harlem evolved into the place it is today. Full of history, music, flowers, friendships, and romance. There is also a touch of fantasy and magic with a big twist. A wonderful read that I highly recommend!

Thanks to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde follows the titular character, Ricki Wilde, as she decides to break away from her family legacy and carve her own path in the world. This path leads her to open a florist shop on the bottom floor of a once abandoned brownstone in Harlem that is owned by Ms. Della. Shortly after opening the shop, Ricki sees a mysterious man who throws her life off the tracks. These two people are magnetically pulled to one another in a way they can’t describe in a love story years in the making.

I don’t say this often but this book broke me. I read Seven Days in June by this author so I thought I knew what I was going into with this book. Turns out, I was wrong. This is one of those books where the synopsis doesn’t tell you a lot and I think it’s best to go in as blind as possible so I won’t say too much about the story but I absolutely adored this. It has one of my favorite tropes and it did it so well. Ricki and Ezra were so amazing on page and I really felt their chemistry.

This book also discusses race and black culture and what has changed over the years and what has stayed the same. On top of that, there are discussions on sexism and family and fame and so many other important topics. I think this book would make an excellent book club pick because there are so many topics to discuss.

I will say that this book takes its time to get started. You really learn a lot about Ricki and some of the side characters at the beginning and it does feel a little slow but the payoff is more than worth it. I was so attached to all of these characters. Maybe not Ricki’s sisters but everyone else. This book went so far in a direction I wasn’t expecting and I loved it for that. It’s not often in this caught off guard by a book but this one delivered.

There are also some Easter eggs for Seven Days in June so I recommend reading that one first. I loved this book. I think this is going to be such a hit with a lot of people. I can see myself rereading this book in the future and recommending it a lot when it releases!

I would not have expected a time-bending romance as Tia Williams' follow up to 7 Days in June but this was a really interesting read and very atmospheric I felt like I was in New York as I was reading this.

This was an amazing and beautiful romance. Besides the romance between Ricki and Ezra there were great friendships and great atmospheric feels. Ricki and Ezra were such great characters and they had the best chemistry. Definitely recommend this book! It also has a gorgeous cover!

Our main character, Ricki, is the black sheep of her family and so full of creativity, knowledge, and passion. But honestly, the supporting characters of Miss Della, her landlord and adopted grandmother, and Tuesday, former child star and new friend, were also so great and developed. I'm pretty sure I would read a complete book on either of those characters! Plus we have the charming and mysterious Ezra as our wonderful MMC.

This book was a beautiful story about following your dreams and finding yourself. It's about leaving your mark on the world, even if it's in small ways. It's also about the wonderful arts and culture of Harlem, in the 1920s Renaissance and today.

I did have a pretty good idea of where the story was going by the halfway point, but that's okay. I don't need shocking reveals in my romance, I need to feel something. And I did, I had tears streaming down my face at the end. This was a magical love story, where the found family love was just as important to Ricki as the romantic love. There is some spice, but it felt natural and not distracting to the story.

Tia Williams knows how to write characters that I grow to love and care about! I'll definitely be picking up her future books automatically now. I loved the little connection to Seven Days in June in the story too. If you haven't read that yet, give it a read while you're waiting for this release in February!

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams was truly an outstanding story.
It was super sweet, funny and downright beautiful.
The chemistry between Ricki and Ezra was so amazing and their growth throughout the story left me wanting more. They were real and raw characters. I didn’t want it to end, and was sad when I got to the last page. I wanted more of these wonderful characters.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Gosh, I wanted to love it so bad.
What I loved: I loved the friendship. The dialogue. To die for.

•Spoiler•

The synopsis of the book is a bit misleading and leaves out important factors about the book. In my opinion, it doesn’t fall under romance or even Women’s fiction. More like fantasy realism/science fiction. This should be known beforehand. Also, there is a LOT of witchy stuff in this book if that’s your cup of tea. Wasn’t mine. As a die hard fan of SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE, I am disappointed that this one didn’t work for me! 🥺🥲

Let me start off my review by saying I went to sleep thinking about this book, I dreamed about this book, and I woke up thinking about this book. This was so so good.

If this review ends up coming out like word vomit, it is because I can not eloquently describe how absolutely amazing this book truly was. Everyone should read it.

The romance of the story aside, the Black history of the 20’s (and 30’s) regarding the Harlem Renaissance was described and written so wonderfully. The research that Tia Williams so clearly did before writing this novel is impressive to say the least. I could honestly feel and hear the music as I was reading.

Ricki’s character development was so good. As the younger sister and often looked down upon, Ricki sets out on her own to start her own business, branching away from her family’s funeral home business. In comes sweet Ms. Della with an opportunity for her, and off to Harlem Ricki goes.

Flashback to 1923, Ezra “Breeze” Walker is finding his way in this world through music. A phenomenally gifted piano player, he wants to be like the greats of the Harlem Renaissance. After trying to copy the playing style of those before him, he’s encouraged to use his own emotions to play the song and it is the most beautiful thing anyone has ever heard.

Back in today’s timeline, in a garden full of night-blooming Jasmine, Ricki meets a stranger who will turn her world upside down. Ezra Walker the fourth (or fifth or sixth) has a song in his head that he just can’t seem to finish and it seems like it’s taken him years and years to write it. But something is holding Ezra back. Until he meets the woman with the face that he can’t stop seeing.

This was a beautifully written romance novel and one that I think I will end up rereading multiple times over the years. I laughed. I cried. And it’s been probably a week since I finished it and I’m still thinking about it, which doesn’t happen to me often.

If I had one single complaint for this book, it would be that I did find it very very predictable. In attempts to keep this review spoiler free, I guess what Ezra’s “ailment” was very very early on even though it isn’t revealed in the book until approximately 60% of the way through. As soon as the daughter of Breeze’s love interest’s name is revealed I knew immediately who it was, and as soon as the solution to Ezra’s problem was discussed, I knew what would happen and went ahead and prepared myself. All that being said, even though I knew what was going to happen, I still cried. Beautiful novel.

Thank you so much Tia Williams and NetGalley for the eARC!

4.5⭐️ WOW!! This book has cemented Tia Williams as an auto-read author for me. This story follows Ricki, the black sheep of her family, as she moves to Harlem to open her own flower shop. In New York, she begins learning the often forgotten history of the Harlem Renaissance and keeps running into a man who is intimately tied to the history itself.

There is so much to love about this book. It caught me off guard in the best way possible. It taught me more about the Harlem Renaissance. It made me believe the two MCs were legitimately soulmates. And the writing was just absolutely beautiful.