Review: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

Title: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

Author: Tia Williams

Publisher: 13th February 2024 by Hachette Australia & New Zealand, Quercus

Pages: 352 pages

Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Romance, magical realism

My Rating: 4.5 cups

Synopsis:

Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing. 

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn't one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she's the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they're long-stemmed roses, she's a an adorable bloom that's actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her. 

When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighbourhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers. 

One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way. 

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.

My Thoughts

In this leap year - here is one leap year book you simply must read! I don’t know what I was expecting … but it wasn’t this. It’s a story and I don’t want to give too much away to avoid spoilers. However, if you love exceptional romances and magical realism this is the book for you. A little slow to get going but then it gallops away with all the feels.

‘Ricki had never felt like a loser. She simply felt misplaced. Like a duck raised by squirrels. She’d always suspected that, given the chance to do what she did best, she’d succeed.’

Briefly I will tell you that the characters are rich and inviting - Ricky and Ezra will go down as one of literary great couples. Della and Tuesday (two stories that most likely deserve their own novel) complete a great cast. This is a tale infused with many things, magical realism being at the top of the list. I love the way Tia writes on topics such as family, friends, fears and futures - all seamlessly interwoven. The nod to black history is rich and wonderfully incorporated - everything from Harlem in the 1920s to key musical events from that decade to the present day. 

‘To Ricki, a lifelong lover of bygone eras, the entire building felt like a gift delivered through time. Magical.’

For all of these incredible themes, it is at its heart a wonderful romance between two memorable characters. Slowly but surely this book snuck up on me and captured my heart. If magical realism/romance is a combination that gets your heart a flutter then take this journey with Rick and Ezra - it’s unique, it’s special and it's truly romantic. 

“I’m not scared of you,” he said. “I’m scared of us.” Ricki’s confusion was growing by the second. “But there is no us.”

And then she divulged her truest, scariest thought. “I’m afraid that I don’t belong anywhere. Do you ever feel like that?”

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.