Guest post written by author Mona Shroff
Mona Shroff is obsessed with everything romantic, so she writes romantic stories by night, even though she’s an optometrist by day. If she’s not writing, she’s making chocolate truffles, riding her bike, or reading, and is just as likely to be drinking wine or gin & tonic with friends and family. She’s blessed with an amazing daughter and loving son who have both gone to college. Mona lives in Maryland with her romance-loving husband.
As a relatively ‘new’ author, I am still struck when readers tell me that they so enjoyed my books, and how come there aren’t more books by AAPI authors out there? My answer, generally, is to start listing all the AAPI authors I can think of, at which point the person’s eyes glaze over as I gush over authors I know, authors I don’t, new authors, established authors and so on.
Needless to say, I am over-the-top-thrilled to have this opportunity to shout about all these amazing authors! I am deeply grateful to the AAPI authors who came before me and paved the way for my stories to be heard. This list is hardly comprehensive, but it’s a start! I have compiled a short list of AAPI authored books that share tropes with my next two releases. Some I have read, the others are on my TBR pile!
The first of my two summer releases came out June 28 and is the second in my Harlequin Special Edition Once Upon A Wedding Series. MATCHED BY MASALA is Amar and Divya’s story. Amar is a chef who has been in love with his sister’s best friend, Divya, for as long as he had known her. Amar lost his parents in a car accident eight years ago, and he lives in the house he grew up in–right across the street from Divya.
Divya is a childhood cancer survivor and a pastry chef with a zest for adventure. Her latest endeavor is a new business that involves turning an old school bus into a travelling bakery. When Amar decides to start his own catering business, Divya suggests they work together. There are stray dogs, Marvel references and food!
My second release this summer is also my fifth book to come out! THE SECOND FIRST CHANCE, out August 2, 2022, follows Riya and Dhillon. They were next door neighbor best friends since the age of five. At fifteen, their relationship started to make a turn into something more, when their lives were changed by a house fire that took Dhillon’s father and Riya’s brother.
Fifteen years pass and Dhillon, now a veterinarian, finds out that Riya has become a firefighter. He is enraged and can’t help confronting her – and now they are back in each other’s lives.
And, oh! There are dogs!
I know we shouldn’t have favorites, but I want to be Riya when I grow up!
Many of these books have one than one trope as many books do, so they’ll be listed and I’ll include the tropes!
A DISTANT HEART by Sonali Dev
This was a gripping love story as well as tense action, a definite page turner! If you haven’t read Sonali Dev, get to it!
Trope: Best Friends to Lovers, Second Chances
Kimi developed a rare illness at 11 years old, which caused her to be confined to a germ-free area in her home.
Rahul Savant 14, washes Kimi’s windows. They develop a friendship across the plastic curtain of her isolation room. As years pass, Rahul talks to Kimi of the outside world, and she inspires him to better himself by enrolling in the police force. But when a life-saving heart transplant offers the chance of a real future, both must face all that ties them together and keeps them apart.
When Rahul’s investigation into a black market organ ring exposes dangerous secrets, only Rahul’s deep, abiding connection with Kimi can keep her safe – and reveal the true meaning of courage, loss, and second chances.
KAMILA KNOWS BEST by Farah Heron
This one is on my TBR – I can’t wait to dive in!
Trope: Best friends to lovers. With dogs. Have you seen this cover? LOVE!
Kamila Hussain lives a life of comfort. She has her Bollywood movie parties, a dog with more Instagram followers than most reality stars, and a job she loves. Let’s not forget the endless list of friends who need her help finding love. Kamila spends so much time trying to fix up her friends’ love lives, that she pays no attention to her own.
Well, there is Rohan Nasser. He’s a longtime friend of the family and hugely successful, not to mention the deliciously lean, firm body of a rock climber. Though recently, Kamila’s “harmless flirting” with Rohan is making her insides do a little bhangra dance.
Kamila is busy planning the local shelter’s puppy prom as well as throwing a huge work event. Not to mention, she’s trying to make everyone around her that she’s got it all figured out. There is no room for distraction –until her secret nemesis returns to town with an eye for Rohan. Now, the more she tries to control, the more things fall apart. Her perfectly ordered life is about to be turned upside down.
GIRL BY ANY OTHER NAME by MK Schiller
This one sounds completely amazing. I haven’t read MK yet, but I don’t know what the heck I’m waiting for!
Trope: Best friends to lovers, second chances!
Caleb Tanner met Sylvie Cranston when he was ten years old. By twelve, they became friends when he taught her how to bait a fishing line. At fourteen, he was in love.
At seventeen, she died.
Caleb never believed she was dead. He looked for her, until finally he resigned to wait for her. Ten years later, she walks into the English lit class he taught. But she had a different name and did not know who he was. Caleb is determined to get back the girl he loves and protect her from whatever took her away years ago.
DATING DR. DIL by Nisha Sharma
I’m sneaking in an enemies to lovers (because I’m writing one right now!) and because this is a fabulous book!
Trope: Enemies to lovers
Kareena believes in true love, and does not want to compromise that at all. So on her thirtieh birthday, she decides to start dating.
Pre Verma (Dr. Dil) does not have the time or inclination to fall in love. Relationships are transactional as far as he’s concerned. He continues to believe this, even as he gets to know Kareena.
This is a re-imagination of Taming of the Shrew, and it is delightful!
IT TAKES HEART by Tif Marcelo
Another of my favorite authors, this is the first in Tif’s Heart Resort series. The characters are so well drawn throughout the series – you’ll be addicted!
Trope: Second chances, Sibling’s best friend.
After a hurricane plows through the Outer Banks, Brandon has returned to Heart Resort to help with the grand reopening but encounters his big sister’s best friend, designer Geneva Harris, who’s there to do the same thing. Trouble is, Geneva and Brandon had a secret romance years ago that ended in heartbreak.
With the resort’s future at stake, Brandon and Geneva decide to put the past aside and to keep peace with the family. But as their mutual attraction heats up, they have to decide if history will repeat itself – or if this time, love gets a second chance.
WRONG TO NEED YOU by Alisha Rai
Alisha is another author I encourage you to experience. A twist on the sibling’s best friend trope, this is his brother’s widow. I couldn’t put it down! The second in the Forbidden Hearts series.
Trope: Sibling’s best friend (with a twist!)
Accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Jackson Kane fled his home, his name, and his family. Ten years later, he’s come back to town: older, wiser, richer, tougher – and still helpless to turn away the one woman he could never stop loving, even after she married his brother.
Sadia Ahmed can’t deal with the feelings her mysterious former brother-in-law stirs, but she needs his help with the cafe she’s inherited. He heats up her kitchen and she slowly discovers that the boy she adored has grown into a man she’s simply unable to resist.
Secrets and lies are stripped away, Sadia and Jackson must decide if they’re strong enough to face the past…and step into a future together.
A SWEETLOW COUNTRY PROPSAL by Preslaysa Williams
I can’t wait to get this in November!
Trope: Second chances.
Jaslene never thought she’d cross paths with Marcus again, but her need for an affordable office space brings her to the museum which is faced with the threat of closure. They work together to save the museum, and feelings , their buried feelings slowly reignite. They soon realize there is still room in their hearts for love…if only they can overcome their past.
LUCKY STREAK by Tif Marcelo
This is the third book in Tif’s Heart Resort Series – and it comes out Sept 2022!
Trope: Second chances.
I never thought I’d see her again. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? But five years later, my casino fling is my new next-door neighbor. Beatrice has always been on my mind. And it turns out that I have been on hers.
Not so lucky, is that our families own rival resorts, and are now in competition for the same property.
I want to ride off into the sunset with Beatrice on the back of my bike, but we want to make this work with our families.
We thought finding each other after our night in Vegas was a long shot, this feud is about to give impossible a whole new meaning.
A SONG OF SECRETS by Jayci Lee
This book starts off with a bang and you can’t put it down!
Trope: Second chances.
World-renowned cellist Angie Han is desperate to save her trio’s chamber music society. So when she discovers that her ex Joshua Shin is the anonymous composer setting the classical music world on fire, she asks for his help. The sexy musician agrees to an uneasy truce to protect his secret success. But when their passion reignites, Angie’s own secrets may be exposed. Will Joshua ever trust her again? And will what’s keeping them apart ever lead them to happily-ever-after?
HARD SELL by Hudson Lin
This is second chances and brother’s best friend! Hudson Lin doesn’t waste any time getting right down to it!
Trope: Second chances, sibling’s best friend
Danny Ip’s plan for struggling tech company WesTec is to acquire it, shut it down, and squeeze the last remaining revenue out of it for his Jade Harbour Capital portfolio. But he didn’t expect his best friend’s younger brother – the hottest one-night stand he ever had – to be there.
Tobin Lok has always known that Danny was out of his league, but now they are adversaries at work, and Tobin has a chance to show Danny that he’s more than Wei’s little brother.
Tobin is all grown up in a way Danny can’t ignore. Now, with a promising patent on the line and the stakes higher than ever, all he can think about is getting Tobin back into his bed – and into his life for good.
If only explaining their relationship to Wei could be so easy….
