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!

Next up is sensory impairment rep. These three are all on my TBR and by authors I’ve read before. Let me know what you think!

Week 5.2: Sensory Impairment Rep

A Cruise Fling by Laura Brown, narrated by Kelli Tager

Mackenzie Laurel is done with rotten lemons. Especially the guy kind. With no relationship, no job, and nowhere to live, Mac's leaving reality behind to go on a luxury cruise. A little fun in the sun wouldn't hurt. And a certain green-eyed passenger might just be the thirst-quenching lemonade she needs . . .

Cole Matterhorn isn't a relationship guy. Hell, he can barely commit to leftovers. Yet the second he meets Mac, there's sparks—the kind that could mean some delicious distraction. Distraction that Cole desperately needs to escape from his work problems and the event that imploded any chance of his having a normal life.

Mac and Cole have more in common than just chemistry. She's hard of hearing and knows a little something about not always fitting in—and that his prosthetic does not define him. For nine days they're both having the time of their lives, whether it's their failed trivia attempts, heating things up on a Caribbean beach, or even a sexy karaoke serenade.

Now it's only a matter of time before they hit the shore—and reality.

Make You Mine (Running in Circles, Book 1) by E.M. Lindsey, narrated by Zachary Zaba

Socially awkward Noah Leib knows he wants more from life than being a 40-year-old virgin who’s got a failing bakery, a strained relationship with his brother and sister-in-law, and an empty apartment. He just doesn’t know how to change things. Living in Savannah, trying to keep his head above water, Noah is single-minded and plans to stay that way.

And then Noah’s favorite Deaf adult film star’s life falls apart in a very public spectacle on Twitter. 

Noah doesn’t expect anything from the ASL message he sends to Adriano Moretti, but when a shadow appears in his bakery doorway one afternoon, he finds Adriano standing there with a small smile on his lips and a hello on his hands. It’s at that moment Noah realizes his life is about to change forever.

Adriano is a force of nature, and Noah is quickly swept up in his wake. 

But fantasy has never been Noah’s reality, and there can’t be a happily ever after on that horizon.

Can there?

Saved by the Boss (New York Billionaires, Book 2) by Olivia Hayle, narrated by Ava Blair & Mercer Boffey

My rule is to never fall in love with a client.

His rule? To never fall in love at all.

I work at an elite matchmaking company. A failing one, to be honest. We’re near bankruptcy when billionaire Anthony Winter invests. It’s only business for him - he doesn’t believe in the company’s mission. No, Anthony tells me true love is a lie and our clients are delusional. He’s a cynic in a thousand-dollar suit. He’s also a challenge I can't resist. We make a bet. I have three dates to prove our service works. Three dates to set him up with the woman he never knew he needed. He has no intention of finding one. I have no intention of being her. But as we spend time together, I realise his cynicism is only a façade. He’s a man hiding a painful secret. A man hurting. And most definitely a man worthy of true love. He saved my company. Will he let me save him in return?

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