Jen’s 2024 Diversify Your Romance Challenge

There are many lists of romance novels with disability rep on Goodreads, Reddit, other blogs, and more. As I started to build my own list, I kept thinking that my fifth challenge isn’t specific enough. There are excellent romance novels where a main character has a physical disability, a chronic illness, mental illness. There are romance novels featuring main characters who are Deaf, visually impaired, unable to speak.

One of my favorite authors and Bookstagrammers, did this great little summary of books featuring everything from severe allergy to Graves disease to endometriosis. (Great books on that list, by the way!)

I want to be more specific, I guess.

I believe so much that readers should be able to find themselves in books. Reading has helped me (with my endometriosis/adenomyosis, ADHD, anxiety, depression, and PTSD) feel seen. So… Like Ximena always says, when in doubt make more lists!

This week is mental illness rep. Maybe take these books slowly—I definitely felt some things when I read these.

Week 5.1: Mental Illness Rep

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Beard in Mind (Winston Brothers, Volume 4) by Penny Reid, narrated by Angela Dawe & Chris Brinkley

All is fair in love and auto maintenance. 

Beau Winston is the nicest, most accommodating guy in the world. Usually. 

Handsome as the devil and twice as charismatic, Beau lives a charmed life as everyone's favorite Winston Brother. But since his twin decided to leave town, and his other brother hired a stunning human-porcupine hybrid as a replacement mechanic for their auto shop, Beau Winston's charmed life has gone to hell in a handbasket. 

Shelly Sullivan is not nice and is never accommodating. Ever. She mumbles to herself, but won't respond when asked a question. She glares at everyone, especially babies. She won't shake hands with or touch another person, but has no problems cuddling with a dog. And her damn parrot speaks only in curse words. Beau wants her gone. He wants her out of his auto shop, out of Tennessee, and out of his life. The only problem is, learning why this porcupine wears her coat of spikes opens a Pandora's Box of complexity - exquisite, tempting, heartbreaking complexity - and Beau Winston soon discovers being nice and accommodating might mean losing what matters most. 

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Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, narrated by Rebecca Lowman & Maxwell Caulfield

In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life - and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow Series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.

Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words...And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? Open her heart to someone? Or will she just go on living inside somebody else's fiction?

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Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon, narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen

Ari Abrams has always been fascinated by the weather, and she loves almost everything about her job as a TV meteorologist. Her boss, legendary Seattle weatherwoman Torrance Hale, is too distracted by her tempestuous relationship with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, to give Ari the mentorship she wants. Ari, who runs on sunshine and optimism, is at her wits’ end. The only person who seems to understand how she feels is sweet but reserved sports reporter Russell Barringer.

In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari and Russell decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.

Working closely with Russell means allowing him to get to know parts of herself that Ari keeps hidden from everyone. Will he be able to embrace her dark clouds as well as her clear skies?

What romance novels with disability rep have you read? Recs please!