Jen’s 2024 Diversify Your Romance Challenge

Week 13: By indigenous or aboriginal authors

The Wildest Ride (Closed Circuit, Book 1) by Marcella Bell, narrated by Carmen Jewel Jones

At thirty-six, undefeated rodeo champion AJ Garza is supposed to be retiring, not chasing after an all-new closed-circuit rodeo tour with a million-dollar prize. But with the Houston rodeo program that saved him as a wayward teen on the brink of bankruptcy, he'll enter. And he'll win.

Enter Lilian Sorrow Island. Raised by her grandparents on the family ranch in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Lil is more a cowboy than city boy AJ will ever be. It shows. She's not about to let him steal the prize that'll save her ranch, even if he is breathtakingly magnificent, in pretty much every way going.

The world watches on as reality TV meets rodeo in a competition like no other. In front of the cameras, Lil and AJ are each other's biggest rivals. Off-screen, it's about to get a whole lot more complicated…

Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith, narrated by Kyla Garcia

When Louise Wolfe’s first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It’s her senior year, anyway, and she’d rather spend her time with her family and friends and working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, the ambitious new photojournalist, and in no time the paper’s staff find themselves with a major story to cover: the school musical director’s inclusive approach to casting The Wizard of Oz has been provoking backlash in their mostly white, middle-class Kansas town. From the newly formed Parents Against Revisionist Theater to anonymous threats, long-held prejudices are being laid bare and hostilities are spreading against teachers, parents, and students—especially the cast members at the center of the controversy, including Lou’s little brother, who’s playing the Tin Man. As tensions mount at school, so does a romance between Lou and Joey—but as she’s learned, “dating while Native” can be difficult. In trying to protect her own heart, will Lou break Joey’s?

Not Meeting Mr. Right by Anita Heiss, narrated by Tuuli Narkle

‘I am deadly, desirable and delicious!’ This is Alice's mantra as she hilariously negotiates her way through the rocky terrain of singledom.

Alice Aigner is successful, independent and a confirmed serial dater–but at her ten-year school reunion she has a sudden change of heart. Bored rigid by her married, mortgaged and motherly former classmates, Alice decides to prove that a woman can have it all: a man, marriage, career, kids and a mind of her own. She sets herself a goal: meet the perfect man and marry him before her thirtieth birthday, just under two years away. Together with her best friends Dannie, Liza and Peta, Alice draws up a ten-point plan. Then, with a little help from her family and friends, she sets out to find Mr. Right.

Unfortunately for Alice, it's not quite as easy as she imagines… Who could not fall in love with our Koori heroine as she dates (among others): Renan, whose career goal is to be the world's best moonwalker and male hula dancer; Tufu the commitment-phobic Samoan football player; scary Simon the one-night stand; and Paul—Mr. Dreamboat, but perhaps too good to be true. All the while, Alice skillfully avoids dating Cliff, son of her mum's friend and confirmed bachelor who isn't likely to settle down with a woman anytime soon.