A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

by Tia Williams

Overview

From the New York Times bestselling author of Seven Days in June, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is an epic love story one hundred years in the making…

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 dandelion: 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 neighborhood, 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.

Includes a Reading Group Guide. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538726716
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	01/28/2025
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	74,799
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tia Williams had a fifteen-year career as a beauty editor for magazines including Elle, Glamour, Teen People, and Essence. In 2004, she pioneered the beauty blog industry with her site Shake Your Beauty. She’s the author of The Accidental Diva, the It Chicks series, and The Perfect Find—now a Netflix film starring Gabrielle Union. Her novel, Seven Days in June, was an instant New York Times bestseller and the June 2021 Reese’s Book Club pick. A TV series adaptation is in development with Will Packer Productions. Her latest bestselling novel, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, was named one of the year’s best romances by New York Times and Amazon.
 
Tia lives with her family in Brooklyn.

Editorial Reviews

If this cover doesn’t raise your temperature a few degrees, the story will. Grab a fan before reading this one, because it really heats up.”—Good Housekeeping

“A hugely satisfying romance that is electrifying and alive.”—Kirkus

“What’s on its face is a delightfully steamy read is a story layered with nuance that gracefully examines thornier topics of parenting in the modern age, life with chronic pain, and Black identity. Through it all, Williams’ clever and witty writing will leave you clamoring to be part of Mercy’s world.”—Reader's Digest

“Through this gripping love story, Williams reckons with family histories and shows the power in rewriting our origin stories. Readers will feel as attached to these characters as Eva and Shane are to each other.”—BookPage

“Williams doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of human experience, and her characters are fully formed and believable as a result. This is a winning romance.”—Publishers Weekly

“Williams proves once again that there is much more to romance novels than meet-cutes and other reliable tropes.”—Booklist

“With funny, snappy writing and a strong eye for detail, Williams builds a compelling, glamorous Black literary world for the protagonists to inhabit. The book balances a second-chance romance with themes of motherhood, childhood trauma, and life with chronic pain.”
 —Library Journal

“Williams’ writing is zippy and fun to read, but her characters are also complicated individuals, making their love feel authentic.”—The Week

“Sparkling with delicious sensuality and an intriguing plot, Seven Days in June by Tia Williams [is] a captivating contemporary story of romantic connection and love in an unforgiving world, overlaid with challenging themes of poverty, disability, and childhood trauma that the author fearlessly addresses with grace and tenderness. Williams skillfully blends uplifting, hilarious moments into the story through a sensational supporting cast.”
 —Shelf Awareness

“Steamy as all get-out but also laugh-out-loud funny.”—Scary Mommy

“This story is so much more than a rom-com: It grapples with mother- hood, chronic pain, and familial bonds. Sharp, funny, and thoughtful, Seven Days in June is exactly what you’d want in a romance-focused novel, and then some.”—Apartment Therapy

“A tale of wary reconnection and long-awaited answers given, Tia Williams spares the emotions of no reader.”—Women.com

“Tia Williams explores the lingering effects of trauma and the path towards healing through the eyes of two writers unsure of what their next chapter looks like.”—Bookish

“This is a highly anticipated steamy romance that you’ll likely not want to end.”—Cafemom.com

“Seven Days in June is a big-hearted, romantic, and frequently funny novel that also has moments of pathos and pain—perhaps the ideal book to pick up if you’re looking for the love story of 2021.”—Book Reporter

From the Publisher

★ 12/04/2023

Elegantly blending past and present, romance and fantasy, Williams (Seven Days in June) delivers a gorgeous, transportive love letter to the Harlem Renaissance. The novel begins in the present day, introducing 28-year-old vintage fashionista Ricki Wilde, the youngest in a high-achieving, high-society Atlanta family. While her sisters happily contribute to her father’s funeral home empire, Ricki, who’s considered by her family to be “too flighty, too messy, too much,” wants nothing to do with the family business. She dreams instead of opening a flower shop—and through hard work, an extremely popular floral Instagram account, and a touch of fate, she’s able to move to Harlem and follow her dream. Bouts of crushing loneliness and social anxiety are eased by Tuesday, a former child star who bursts into the shop and becomes Ricki’s new best friend, and Ms. Della, her spunky 96-year-old landlady. And then there’s Ezra, a jazz savant who, Ricki thinks, would be “beautiful in any era, anytime, anywhere”—and indeed he seems somewhat out of place in this one. What begins as a simple romance is elevated by rich history as the story flashes back through Harlem’s past, revealing both its glamor and its danger. This vast time span creates an epic feel that never overpowers the tender heat of the romance. It’s a showstopper. Agent: Cherise Fisher, Wendy Sherman Assoc. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 11/01/2023

Ricki Wilde's inability to fit in with her rich, insipid family has made her doubt her ability to connect with others. Disinterested in the family business, she has a chance encounter that spurs her to move to Harlem and pursue her passion for all things floral. Not long after her arrival, she meets Ezra Walker, a reclusive musician whose talent is his primary tether to a world that has caused him much pain. Ezra and Ricki's shared attraction is immediate, so his strong reluctance to get to know her is mystifying. Being together requires them to navigate obstacles larger and less straightforward than their past hurts. However, Ricki and Ezra's found families provide them with the type of support and acceptance their biological families are unable or unwilling to provide. Williams's (Seven Days in June) novel is both a love letter to Harlem and a recognition of its history that gentrification cannot erase. VERDICT This fantastical novel, in which the past and present collide in unusual ways, is sure to be popular where romance, African American fiction, and relationship fiction circulate well; highly recommended for all libraries.—Nicole Williams

Library Journal

Narrators Preston Butler III and Mela Lee beautifully portray a modern-day love story with deep connections to the Harlem Renaissance. Lee's upbeat tone and expressive voice embody Ricki Wilde, a bright, impulsive young woman who is opening a flower shop in Harlem with the help of her feisty 96-year-old landlady, Ms. Della. Lee has an uncanny way of adding and removing years from her voice as Ricki and Ms. Della become more like family. Ricki soon finds herself preternaturally drawn to Ezra Walker, a mysterious musician whose secrets lie 100 years in the past. Butler's smooth voice transports listeners as the story moves through time. Butler's performance exudes the quick pace and rhythm of 1920s slang. Listeners will be captivated by this time-defying romance, which could end in peril. J.E.C. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2024 - AudioFile

2023-12-06
A woman newly arrived in Harlem falls in love with a man out of time.

Ricki Wilde has never fit in with her buttoned-up, high-society Atlanta family—she’s always been a rule-breaker who values creativity over comportment. Her family owns a funeral home business, but she dreams of opening a flower shop. The financial and logistical impediments seem insurmountable, though, until she meets Della Bennett, a 96-year-old woman who’s come into one of the Wilde Funeral Homes to arrange a homegoing for her husband. It turns out that she owns a brownstone in Harlem, and she offers to let Ricki rent out the bottom floor, which has room for both a shop and a small living space. Even with a fairy godmother, opening a new business is hard; she struggles to keep it afloat but draws media attention by placing her dazzling, inventive flower arrangements at sites made famous during the Harlem Renaissance. One February evening, she meets a mysterious man in a neighborhood garden full of night-blooming jasmine, just one of many hints that something magical is bringing them together. Ezra Walker is a traveling musician with courtly manners and an unbelievable secret. The book slowly eases into Ricki and Ezra’s love story, with a secondary timeline set during the Harlem Renaissance providing hints about Ezra’s tragic past. He knows he has no future with Ricki and tries to avoid her, but they’re drawn together like magnets. It’s a beautiful romance, tackling big ideas about the burden of family, the weight of time, and the gift of love. But for a novel with such a careful, meticulous unspooling of plot and characters, the ending is rushed, with the strangely passive lovers surrendering to the same forces of fate and time that initially brought them together.

Richly layered characters give this romance broad crossover appeal.

Kirkus Reviews