Tag Archives: APAHM

A List of Asian [American] Romance Authors

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Happy APAHM! If we still use APAHM. I think we’re all clear I’ve largely checked out of Romanceland[ia] – god I still hate that “ia” at the end. šŸ˜– Anyway – so I haven’t really made many changes to the list from last year. If you know people who should be on it please let me know!

Also, like years past, I am loosely using [North] American as one category. I actually don’t know if there are any Asian South American romance authors? If so welcome!

Melia Alexander
Bella Andre
Brittany Arreguin
Tessa Barbosa
Grace Callaway
Jax Cassidy
S.A. Chakraborty
Gloria ChaoĀ (YA)
Jeannie Chin
Mary H.K. ChoiĀ (YA)
Sylvia Day
Sara Desai
Sonali Dev
Piper J. Drake
Pintip DunnĀ (YA)
Vicki Essex
Hafsah FaizalĀ (YA)
Eilis Flynn
Jen Frederick
Maan Gabriel
Jeanette Grey
Jenny HanĀ (YA)
Karen Harbaugh
Farah Heron
Helen Hoang
Mia Hopkins
Amalie Howard
Uzma Jalaluddin
Julie KagawaĀ (YA)
Soniah Kamal
Coleen Kwan
Thien-Kim Lam
Ruby Lang
Jackie Lau
Loan LeĀ (YA)
Jade Lee aka Kathy Lyons
Jayci Lee
Hudson Lin
Jeannie Lin
Lisa Lin
Marjorie Liu
Gennita Low
Tif Marcelo
Maida Malby
Sandhya MenonĀ (YA)
Courtney Milan
Tara Pammi
Suzanne Park
Sajni Patel
Cindy Pon
Tara Quan
Alisha Rai
Amara Royce
Sophia Singh Sasson
Nisha Sharma
Royaline Sing
Suleikha Snyder
Jesse Q. Sutanto
Cecilia Tan
Cara Tanamachi
Sherry Thomas
Melanie Ting
Julie Tieu
Gita Trelease
Jen Trinh
Neely Tubati Alexander
Lillie ValeĀ (YA)
Grace Wen
Fortune Whelan
Preslaysa Williams
Cathy Yardley
Jennifer YenĀ (YA)

International Asian Pacific Islander Romance Authors
H. Bentham
Halina Cabrera
Catherine Dellosa
Carla de Guzman
Six de los Reyes
Mina V. Esguerra
Elizabeth Galit
Georgette Gonzales
Agay Llanera
Arlene Manocot
Chris Mariano
Nicola Marsh
Bianca Mori
Farrah F. Polestico
Kate Sebastian
Nalini Singh
Camilla Sisco
Marian Tee
Jay E. Tria
Celestine Trinidad
Ekaterine Xia
Ines Bautista-Yao

To be honest I have a fuckton of Asian romance authors to add but I’ve only been reading their [fan] translated works, so not sure how all that’d fit here, really. But if anyone is interested in reading Chinese historical romance novelsĀ boy do I have a list for you!

Original Retro APAHM Guest Hudson Lin on Diversity 201: We Are Not a Monolith

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Hi friends! If you’re wondering about the title … well, Hudson originally sent me this post in 2019. I cringe even now thinking about it. I nearly (figuratively) died when I saw earlier this year I’d totally dropped the ball, so I contacted Hudson and was graciously given permission to post it now. (I will say … in May 2019 I was recovering and re-learning how to walk again so … it wasn’t as if I was totally just not doing anything…) But I still feel terrible. So – my apologies to the wonderful Hudson Lin, and thank you!

Diversity 201: We are not a monolith
By Hudson Lin

When I think of the words Asian American, I get a very specific picture in my mind. This person has yellow skin, grew up in North America, speaks English fluently and perhaps a second Asian language. This person fits most of the mainstream stereotypes of Asians in the West. This person looks like me.Ā 

But my mental picture of an Asian American is wrong. Because not all Asians have yellow skin, not all grew up in North America, not all speak a second language. Not all Asians are good at math and excel in school. Not all are quiet keep our heads down hard workers. Not all Asians are good at badminton.Ā  Continue reading →

Happy APAHM + An Ending

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Hi friends! It’s May 1, which means APAHM has rolled around again! What is APAHM you might ask? It’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Sometimes you might see AAPI – especially more recently in articles, or being said, and that’s Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

It seems fitting for me to say this during APAHM – I have slightly mixed feelings about it – I’m not happy about it but … I’m pulling the plugs on Smithsonian Heritage Month (SHM) posts in 2022. If people want to guest post they’d be more than welcome to. In fact, I hope they do. But I’m not going to keep trying for nothing. Putting out calls, seeing all the people who see it and just don’t care.

The attitude “oh Lime is just doing this to pander and we aren’t welcome any other time” which isĀ patently untrue.Ā Pretty much anyone is welcome to guest at ALBTALBS at any time – it’s just for the SHMs we really tried to find highlight and celebrate people who fit under the umbrella of that particular month. It’s become more of a burden than a recognition – depressing and discouraging, and that’s … just not good. So I’m calling it quits on that. We’ll see where and howĀ  everything else goes.

So uh – on that downer, especially looking at all the hate Asian Americans have gotten for the past year+ … whoo?

šŸ˜

SAPAHM Post: Amara Royce Discusses Helen Hoang’s The Kiss Quotient

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Hi friends, so it’s a guest review, I suppose is the best way to describe it. I’m thrilled that Amara Royce contributed this post, and as you might know, Hoang’s next book The Bride Test is now out! (Amara sent me this post on the 4th.)

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Contemporary romance released by Berkley on June 8, 2018

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang book cover

A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchasesā€”a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn’t help that Stella has Asperger’s and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practiceā€”with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can’t afford to turn down Stella’s offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson planā€”from foreplay to more-than-missionary position…

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he’s making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic…

I generally donā€™t write reviews of the books I read, not even on Amazon or Goodreads. So Iā€™m not going to try to be clever, and Ā I canā€™t guarantee I will be entirely coherent. But I cannot help gushing about this book effusively! I canā€™t adequately express how much I adore this bookā€”and its author, Helen Hoang, for writing it! Iā€™m also squee-ing because her next book is due out for release on May 7th!!
Hoangā€™s The Kiss Quotient truly wrecked me in all the best ways. I loved the main characters and many of the supporting characters. I adored the depiction of the female main character Stellaā€™s subjective autistic perspective, as well as the male main character Michaelā€™s handling of the heroine without realizing sheā€™s on the autism spectrum. I adored the depictions of Michaelā€™s family life, especially his mother. I adored the integral issues of consent, and I want everyone to read this book! Thatā€™s what the tl;dr boils down to, but for more details, keep reading.

Continue reading →

SAPAHM Guest: Ekaterine Xia On the Portrayal of Mothers … and then Confucius!

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Hi friends! I’m glad to welcome back Ekaterine Xia to ALBTALBS! She’s going to be out APAHM hero this year, and has written other really thoughtful posts before, whichĀ  I hope you’ll check out of you missed them. (Lime, WTF are all those letters and what do they mean? SAPAHM = Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!) So without further ado… another incredible post by Ekaterine!

On the Portrayal of Mothers … and Confucius!

I have mommy issues.

Specifically, I have issues with how mothers are portrayed in fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy.

Even within Romancelandia, SFFR has a lot of mommy issues. Contemporary does much better, and I have to ask if itā€™s because contemporary wasnā€™t influenced by men and their favorite tropes in the same way science fiction and fantasy romance was.

It took me a long time to put that niggling unease into concrete examples, but once you start the list, things start to look pretty bad really quickly. Continue reading →

SAPAHM Encore Guest Eilis Flynn Celebrates a Festival of Stars in a Year of Diversity

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Hi friends! I hope you’ll join me in welcoming Eilis Flynn to ALBTALBS!! For once I didn’t include any of her other book covers because I think the focus is as it should be – onĀ Festival of StarsĀ and I hope you’ll find a new book to love. (I’m also super excited to have this little visit back to APAHM.) I love fairy tales and twisted fairy tales! <3Ā 

Celebrating a festival of stars in a year of diversity

By Eilis Flynn

Like the fairy tales that kids in Western culture grow up reading and hearing about, the story of the festival of stars is one that kids all over Asia know. The annual meeting of the Weaver Princess and the Cowherderā€”thatā€™s the version I knew when I was a kid growing up in Japan; youā€™ll find it under several different namesā€”is a wonderful, tragic, yet hopeful love story, and I always wanted to adapt it to modern, American times. It goes like this: The princess and the cowherder meet one day, and fall in love. But because they neglect their duties in their devotion to each other, the Celestial King rules that they must be separated, with only one chance a year to get together. This is the ā€œromance of the Milky Way,ā€ the Tanabata, as the ancient Japanese poems refer to it, the Festival of Stars.

That kind of love is universal, and it speaks to us all, I figured. Right? So I wrote it.

When this book was originally published in 2007, it was the book of my heart, allowing me to retell the story of what I had always regarded as the ultimate romance, but set in the United States of contemporary times, taken from the Japanese folktales with which I had grown up. But I ran into a road block when I was told, and told again, that the majority of readers wouldnā€™t be able to relate to it because of its theme of biracialism and bigotry. Editors to whom I submitted it literally told me that Asians didnā€™t read (which surprised the heck out of me and possibly to the billion literate Asians out there) and thus would have no interest. In any case, when I did sell it, despite decent reviews the book sold poorly, so when I eventually got the rights to it back, I laid the book to rest, assuming it would never see the light of day again. Continue reading →

SHM APAHM: Empresses in the Palace

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This is my attempt to get you all to WATCH. THIS. SERIES!!!!!!!!! (Also for the Amazon/series image they decided to use … I kinda feel like someone there doesn’t like Susan Sun because that is like … the least flattering image I’ve ever seen of her ever. So. Empresses in the Palace.Ā å¾Œå®®Ā·ē”„嬛傳.

Empresses in the Palace PosterSet in 1722 during the Qing Dynasty, sweeping dramaĀ Empresses in the PalaceĀ is an epic tale of love, betrayal and scandal told from inside the Imperial Harem – the story of one emperor and his countless women. In a world filled with treachery and corruption, who will truly win the Emperor’s heart and reign supreme? In Mandarin with English subtitles.*

So.Ā EmpressesĀ in theĀ Palace. While not as big in the Western world (at least not in the states), this period drama exploded in Asia. It started out as what I’d say is original fanfic. (Remember that section ofĀ ff.netĀ back in the day and the like?) It became a television series that first aired in November of 2011. I want to say it showed up on Amazon some time in 2016. There had been word that HBO bought the American rights and was going to distribute it in 2014, and was set to air in December of 2015. I have no idea what happened with studio drama but … here we are. You can either buy the episodes or “series” on Amazon, or watch it free if you have a Prime membership.

First of all, it’s an amazing series. The costuming, the acting, the set … it’s all gorgeous. As you can see.

SAPAHM Guest: Hudson Lin’s “Rambling Treatise on Identity, Diversity, and Why I Write East Asian Characters”

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My friends. This post. Please read it – and … I don’t usually say this, but pleaseĀ share it. Hudson Lin is a first time guest at ALBTALBS, and (definitely) hopefully will be willing to guest again. I have nothing to say other than …Ā please read and share.Ā 

Rambling Treatise on Identity, Diversity, and Why I Write East Asian Characters

By Hudson Lin

Inside Darkness by Hudson Lin CoverI am Canadian. I am Taiwanese. I am Chinese. Thatā€™s typically the order in which I would identify myself, but that can change depending on the situation. Sometimes Iā€™m all of them, sometimes Iā€™m a particular combination of two to the exclusion of the third. Itā€™s always complicated and never easy to explain.

My racial and cultural identity is something Iā€™ve wrestled with my entire life, but it had never inserted itself into my writing. All the stories floating around in my head were about white people and I never thought there was anything wrong with that.

Imagine my surprise when I stumbled my way into the writing community and realized that diversity was a thing, and not only a thing but something that was being championed. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon stories with characters who looked like me, written by authors who looked like me. Huh. Thatā€™s new.

Until recently, 100% of the romances I read were about white people, written by white people. I didnā€™t know romances existed that featured people of color, or that there were authors of color writing them. I didnā€™t know that was allowed. Continue reading →

SAPAHM Guest: Nicole Flockton Discussses the Haka

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Hi friends! This year’s APAHM celebration has been pretty heavily focused in the Pacific, and I’m loving it! I’m also really pleased to welcome back ALBTALBS friend Nicole Flockton – many kudos to her for stepping in on a Heritage Month post, and with this little slice of [close to] home. <3

The Haka in Sport

When youā€™re the youngest of four children, and with only one brother, your family tends to follow the sports said brother plays. Even though my brother never played Rugby, itā€™s a sport and if it was on the television, we watched it as a family. Iā€™m going to show my age here, but this was back in the day when in Perth, Western Australia you had a choice of three television channels. Plus when what your parents wanted to watchā€”thatā€™s what you watched too. No cable or second television in another room to escape into and watch what you want.

The rivalry between Australia and our cross Tasman foes New Zealand, is legendary. Google ā€œUnderarm Bowling Incident 1981ā€ and youā€™ll understand. Actually, if you want to start a good argument between the Aussies and the Kiwis thatā€™s a sure fire way to get one started. Even after all these years! Continue reading →

SAPAHM Review: Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau

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Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau
Contemporary romance released by Jackie Lau Books on May 22, 2018

Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau Book CoverI’m a pretty simple guy. When I’m not writing a science fiction novel, I’m watching a good movie or reading a book. Alone. I like my reclusive life. That is, until my only friend asks for a favorā€”pretend to be his baby sister’s boyfriend on a couples’ getaway. Her ex is going to be there and she needs me as a buffer.

I should have said no, but Naomi is bubbly, energetic, and beautiful. She also means everything to her brother. But now, our fake romance is starting to feel all too real, and I find myself stuck between the promise I made to my friend and risking my heart to the one woman who might actually get meā€¦

I read this book very quickly, and found both Will and Naomi to be sympathetic, although after a while some of the themes became repetitive. Will is a science fiction writer with a Ph.D. in physics, who is on the extreme end of introverted, and can be a little obtuse when it comes to social interactions. Naomi is Willā€™s best friendā€™s youngest sister. Sheā€™s an event planner, and bubblyā€”but not in an everyone-must-be-bubbly-like-me way. This is a forced proximity kind of romance, with a mini road trip thrown in for good measure. I say mini, because in my part of the world, it might take 3 hours to get across the city, if the traffic is particularly awful. Naomi is sweet, has had a crush on Will before and still finds him attractive, but is still processing her breakup with a prior boyfriend when the book begins; Will has a history of people wanting to change his way of interacting with the world, hence the ā€œgrumpyā€ descriptive. And yes, a fake relationship is orchestrated. Will learns that putting himself out there a little more isnā€™t all bad, and both Will and Naomi learn the importance of being with someone that likes you for who you are makes you be a better person. Continue reading →