Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

39 reviews

kdailyreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Drug abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Police brutality, and War

shannahtan's review against another edition

emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I absolutely loved this book! The mysticism around leap day first drew me in. I didn’t read anything about what the book was about prior to starting it. Ricki leaves her family in Georgia because she doesn’t fit in then moves to Harlem to start a flower shop, Wilde Things. I love her friendship with Tuesday and how fiercely loyal Tuesday is to Ricki. I didn’t expect

Ezra to be a perennial. I think that name is kind of clever. They just live on and on year after year. I did kinda think Della was going to be the one to die for them to live. I think her finding found family in Della is also so beautiful.

I would say this book is super spicy although the main characters definitely have a lot of attraction to one another. I think what was more beautiful is how they loved each other.

How Ezra stood up for her with her sisters who were downplaying and disrespecting her success. How that gave Ricki the strength to kick them out of her place.

This book was also unexpectedly funny with its quips and social commentary. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime and Racism

Moderate: Suicide and Terminal illness

Minor: Miscarriage, Violence, and Suicide attempt

nidzi_c's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Miscarriage

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

marena02's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

znvisser's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

Eesh, Tia Williams can write romance! And with so many more elements that I loved: dramatic and classist family members that could’ve come out of an Austen novel, magical realism, pop culture references that aren’t cringey, and admirable women all over the place. I loved Ricki with all her passion and colourfulness (“Because she (a) found fashion calming and (b) was dramatic, Ricki had dressed carefully for this occasion”.); and Ezra being funny and attractive (“Ricki barely heard him, as she was mid-epiphany. Was Warm Weather Ezra the sexiest Ezra?”) and their entire art-drenched love story, in which their love itself is so wonderfully uncomplicated, despite the circumstances they’re facing together. Loved this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Toxic relationship and Blood

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I'm gonna say I feel like if you liked The Seven Year Slip you might also enjoy this book and vice versa!

It was super fun to be reading this right into actual leap day in 2024, it added just that little bit of extra magic! I liked that this was a romance, but there was more complexity to the storyline than just romance. It gave the characters depth, and also became a love story to Harlem! I'm a sucker for a musician love interest. Even though I caught on pretty early to what was happening there were still surprising parts. If you've read Seven Days in June, there's also a little tidbit tie in to that story (although I want to note overall this book was less dark imo). I really enjoy Tia's writing and I will continue to read her books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, and Suicide

Moderate: Cancer, Death, and Grief

Minor: Drug use, Miscarriage, and Fire/Fire injury

A secondary (but important) character's suicide is depicted and discussed.

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

emotional hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book read like a historical/contemporary fairy tale, down to the fairy (grand)mother. A gorgeous, ethereal read with likeable secondary characters and found family, while still touching on darker themes like how history impacts our present and future. Tia Williams has definitely become an autobuy author for me!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail

massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I wanted to pick this up as soon as it was out and I wasn't disappointed! I read this over the course of one day because the intrigue was so high and the relationship was sizzling. 

I did find the characters a little less fleshed out than they were in Seven Days in June. Both books deal with extremely harrowing racism, but I felt like we got more insight into the inner lives of Eva and Shane. Maybe just because we didn't actually spend that much time with young Ezra - I would have loved to spend more time there and I did not see the twist coming.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, and Suicide

sdupont's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I quickly found myself immersed in this book so curious of how the story would unfold. I liked Ricki (side note she deserved so much better than her family). The push and pull between her and Ezra was palpable. I found the interwoven perspectives and timelines to enhance the story. I really enjoyed this one and would recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime and Suicide

Moderate: Cancer, Death, and Grief

Minor: Drug abuse and Miscarriage