Jen’s 2024 Diversify Your Romance Challenge

Week 15: Biracial Protagonist

I haven’t read two of these three books yet, but here’s what I've learned about the protagonists of each. The Caribbean heiress in Adriana Herrera’s book is half Black, half white (and the novel is historical which isn’t my usual fare—I’m looking forward to it, though! The blurb sounds intriguing.) In a book I’ve been dying to read for ages: The female main character of Mile High by Liz Tomforde is biracial Black/white. (Her twin brother is the MMC of the second book in the series The Right Move.) Last but not least is the book I wrote: the FMC is white and her love interest is half Samoan, half Black, and all billionaire.

What romances with biracial protagonists have you read and enjoyed?

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris (Las Léonas, Book 1) by Adriana Herrera, narrated by Nneka Okoye

Paris, 1889

The Exposition Universelle is underway, drawing merchants from every corner of the globe…including Luz Alana Heith-Benzan, heiress to the Caña Brava rum empire.

Luz Alana set sail from Santo Domingo armed with three hundred casks of rum, her two best friends and one simple rule: under no circumstances is she to fall in love. In the City of Lights, she intends to expand the rum business her family built over three generations, but buyers and shippers alike can’t imagine doing business with a woman…never mind a woman of color. This, paired with being denied access to her inheritance unless she marries, leaves the heiress in a very precarious position.

Enter James Evanston Sinclair, Earl of Darnick, who has spent a decade looking for purpose outside of his father’s dirty money and dirtier dealings. Ignoring his title, he’s built a whisky brand that’s his biggest—and only—passion. That is, until he’s confronted with a Spanish-speaking force of nature who turns his life upside down.

From their first tempestuous meeting, Luz Alana is conflicted. Why is this titled—and infuriatingly charming—Scottish man so determined to help her?

For Evan, every day with Luz Alana makes him yearn for more than her ardent kisses or the marriage of convenience that might save them both. But Luz Alana sailed for Paris prepared to build her business and her future; what she wasn’t prepared for was love finding her.

Mile High (Windy City Series, Book 1) by Liz Tomforde, narrated by Winston James & Mari

Zanders: Chicago hockey isn't complete without me—everyone's favorite player to hate. I know my role, and I play it well. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy spending the majority of my game time in the penalty box before leaving the arena with a new girl on my arm each night.

What I don't like is the new flight attendant on our team's private plane. She works for me, not the other way around. But I'll be sure to remind her of that, and I can guarantee, by the end of the season, she'll be begging to quit her job.

But every road trip blurs the lines, and I can't quite figure out if I keep pushing that flight attendant call button in order to push her buttons or if it's more than that.

Stevie: I've been a flight attendant for years. I thought I'd see it all, but when my new job lands me onboard working for the most egotistical and self-righteous diva in the NHL, I start to second guess everything. Including the promise I made to myself of never hooking up with an athlete again . . . no matter how annoyingly tempting he may be.

Zanders is unfiltered, unapologetic, and too attractive for his own good. He loves his image, but I hate everything about it.

Everything but him.

Holland, My Heart by Jennifer J. Coldwater, narrated by Cindy Harden & Brian Rivera

You know that stress inventory you can take? You get points for each of a long list of disastrous life events? Let’s just say I have lost count.

In the last year alone, I’ve lost my husband (and his brother), sold our home, moved across the country, quietly quit my job, watched my closest friend-slash-sister-in-law move out of the country, and…well, I guess that’s it. Could be worse, right?

So, here I am. My name is Holland Gallagher, and I'm a 27 year old MBA with no job and a broken heart. Which, of course, is when my best friend-slash-mother-in-law Naomi introduces me to her oldest and dearest friend, Kai Ipu. He’s the empirically attractive Black-slash-Samoan CEO of a corporate consulting firm (think a started-in-his-dorm-room company with an eye to making corporations better citizens of the world). But I’m a mess, and he’s significantly older than I am. So, I don’t have to worry about that, right? You’d think.

He just invited me to join his company. I’m never one to turn down a challenge, so here goes everything.

Loosely based on the Bible book of Ruth (but with f-bombs from Kai, Holland’s drunken confessions of adoration, and one spicy sex scene), Holland, My Heart is the first in a collection of biblical women’s stories retold as contemporary romance. Holland, My Heart is an MF, dual POV, love-after-loss, sexy, witty standalone romance.