What I love about this moment in romance is that authors (in-particular self-published/independent authors) can explore romantic experiences that might not get a lot of love. One of my favorite emerging genres is the “Reverse Age Gap.” This means that the woman in the story is older than her romantic partner. Sometimes by a lot. I like this genre because there are a lot of women who are with someone who is younger than them. But, it seems like publishing houses are slow to understand the importance of sharing these stories. And, let’s be candid, women live longer than men. So, when I started seeing these stories with Black women as the lead-I scooped up every single one that I could find. Don’t worry, I will share all of them. Like usual, no spoilers in this short review. I just want to make sure that the following duet is added to your TBR list.
Welcome to Let’s Talk Romance with Autumn Stone, I’m your host Autumn Stone and I love reading and writing romance with Black female main characters. As a whale reader of romance I’ve read them all: Sweet romance, Dark Romance, Paranormal,Westerns and more. Throw in some Reverse harem, MC and Reverse Age Gap-I’m a sucker for them all.
The ultimate goal of this podcast is to uplift, share and shout out these stories and the authors who are writing these works. Add these books and mine to your TBR list-each purchase is a almost like a vote telling us to continue writing. Please share this show with a romance loving friend while you’re at it. I can’t wait to tell you about this episode’s duet.
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If you love Reverse Age gap, I am bringing the following duet to your attention: Say Yes (Book #1-If She Says Yes) and the second book (She Said Yes) There are some really intriguing aspects to this duet that I just loved. The first is the taboo nature of the relationship. The main character, Darcy MacFarland is the mother of the male lead’s best friend. Tomás Martinez has a ache for Darcy that just won’t go away and no it’s not a mommy thing.
I truly love the tension in how these two discover that they have a “thing” for one another. What’s also unique to the story is what Tomás enjoys sexually. I won’t give it away-but, I truly found the discussions around his desires and hers to be so empathetic, interesting, real and respectful.
One thing that I appreciated within the books was how the author-Tasha L. Harrison explored the complexity of a relationship that changes over time as people age and how their original connections shift as they explore a new phase or dimension to their relationships.
One thing that I truly enjoyed was the use of an internal dialogue. It was interesting to “hear” what the characters were thinking during certain key moments of the story.
What’s fun to explore is how the characters navigate their new connection and communicating that things have changed with the people in their lives. There is nothing stereotypical about Darcy or Tomás in terms of their backgrounds and current personal/professional lives.
If She Says Yes is a thoughtful, well-paced romance that I’ve already re-read. I enjoyed it so much. If you’re looking for a reverse age gap, slightly taboo romance-I highly recommend this read.
Tomás knows what he wants and what he wants is Darcy.
The question of what happens when you finally get the green light to pursue the one that you’ve wanted for slow is at the heart of this duet.
