Romance trends toward being very white, able-bodied, rich, etc to tell their stories - this is a very refreshing read where everyone and they grandma is Black, no small wonder, since it takes place in Harlem

This book covers some ground with its characters' experience, everything in this novel's characters and setup is inextricably Black, and it was a very enjoyable read. There's some history, some jazz, a lot of self-doubt and magic, and the power of joy in love. 

Tuesday was great, and reminded me a lot of Trish Walker from Jessica Jones, miss Della was delightful, and there was plenty of comedy sprinkled throughout so things didn't skew too heavily between the extremes of romance and despair. The ending is somewhat telegraphed but honestly you don't read romance for the destination - you know where you'll be at the end - the interesting part is the journey taken to get there and this novel is well worth your time

This is my first by Tia Williams, and I look forward to going back now to read Seven Days In June. Williams set vivid scenes, both in present day Harlem and the Harlem of the 1920s, and her banter was funny and fast-paced. Tonally, this felt like reading a fairy tale, with the mysterious opening from a seemingly omniscient narrator, and the fluidly shifting perspectives through scenes. Even the premise felt like a gender-bent fairy tale with a dash of dark magic and curse-breaking. For those who enjoy magical realism, Williams captures the right balance between whimsical and unsettling, bridging eras in a way that thankfully never felt cheesy.

That said, I struggled a bit with the pacing in the first half, as well as the decision to include several scenes with Ricki's family. We assume her family will be a central conflict, given the opening scene, and they even reappear at the height of the third act, but ultimately I don't understand the purpose of their involvement, as these scenes don't really advance the plot in a meaningful way, and don't add much to Ricki's character development (not much that we hadn't already gathered from her own inner monologue). It felt distracting. And while I don't mind the romance beats feeling expected, I was disappointed that the reveals in the magical plot were fairly obvious. I was hoping for a twistier story, given the set-up. 

The epilogue though. The epilogue was absolutely perfect. It was tender and sweeping in a beautifully panoramic way, bringing the story to such a satisfying conclusion.