5 Must-Read Romance Novels Tia Williams Absolutely Loves

Tia Williams can thank her mom for her love of romance. “I grew up in the ’80s with a mom who was obsessed with ’80s romance paperbacks,” Williams tells Bustle. “She always kept them in this stack in my parents’ bathroom by the tub, so they were all puffy and swollen from the humidity of the baths she would take.” It was only a matter of time before Williams and her sisters cracked those waterlogged covers. “I didn’t date or even have my first kiss until I was 18 years old, so it was living out what I wasn’t experiencing in my own teen life. It just felt like the ultimate fantasy,” she says.

Williams would go on to have a successful career as an editor for magazines like Elle, Glamour, and Essence, which she parlayed into her current role an editorial director at Estée Lauder Companies. All the while, she’s been publishing novels — fulfilling a dream first sparked by her mom’s paperbacks, which almost exclusively featured white characters. “I always knew I wanted to grow up and write love stories starring Black people,” she says. “I wanted to write books where ... we exist in a juicy love story just for the sake of existing in a juicy love story. No oppression — because for a long time, to be considered valid by the publishing industry if you were a Black writer, it was important that you spoke about the struggle. It was like we didn’t really have a place in love stories.”

In her writing, Williams carves out space for Black romance, and then some. Her most recent novel, Seven Days in June, was named a best book of the year by the likes of NPR and Literary Hub, and 2016’s The Perfect Find has been adapted into a Netflix film starring Gabrielle Union. Somewhere, a young girl is escaping into these works, just like Williams once did.

Below, the lifelong romance lover shares five novels from her favorite genre.

Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey

You can’t really tell by looking at it that it’s going to be such a spicy read, but it is, and it’s totally charming. It’s about a female gardener who finds herself doing the landscaping for the family vineyard owned by her high school crush, who had just come back into town. Suddenly they are confronted with each other again, so it’s a second-chance romance. She’s kind of a chaotic, adorable mess and he’s very in his suits and very structured and thinks he has his life all figured out — and so together, they’re just combustible. I love that.

Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan

You don’t find a lot of romances featuring divorced couples. It just feels very adult; it feels very mature. They’re in therapy, they have a kid, they own a restaurant together, and they got divorced for very relatable... I won’t spoil it, but for very relatable, devastating reasons. They find themselves working their way back to each other through therapy and soul-searching. I also really loved it because it’s a story with Black protagonists, and I love to see Black people in therapy. It’s also a treat if you’re a foodie, because there’s a lot of delicious southern food in it — and some really good recipes.

By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

If you’re a fan of more of the closed-door romances, which means less spicy, I would go for this one. It’s so much fun. It’s inspired by Beauty and the Beast, and there are all these great nods to the story — there’s even a part where the female protagonist is lucid dreaming, and she dreams that the silverware comes to life.

She’s working at a publishing company and he is a celebrity author, and he’s taking forever getting his manuscript in. She’s charged with going to his house and convincing him to finish the manuscript. He lives in this big home by himself, and he sort of breaks through his [barriers] and they fall in love. It's very sweet.

Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola

This book takes place at a university in the UK, and the characters are a part of this fabulous Caribbean and West African British culture. The female protagonist is a radio host and is obsessed with R&B, especially ’90s R&B. He’s the cute guy on campus, and she’s kind of like the love expert. She gives people advice all the time, and falling for him would be against any type piece of advice she would give anyone, but she does. It was my favorite read of last year — just a totally delicious story.

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

A Knight in Shining Armor was one of my mom’s ’80s paperbacks, and it’s so delightful. It’s a time travel sort of romance. This woman is kind of a misfit amongst her family, can’t get anything right, can’t get any of her relationships right, struggling in her career. She is on a disastrous trip with her fiancé and his demon queen daughter. She breaks away from them and has a moment when she’s crying against some statue, and the statue comes to life and it’s a knight, a real knight. He’s like, “I don’t know why I'm here. I heard you crying and here I am.” The story is about them going back and forth between their timelines.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.