Day 2 #RomBkLove: POC In History

I’ve always loved history. I basically grew up in a national landmark, and was very much obsessed with the Civil War as a kid. It didn’t hurt that, once I got out of picture books, those were where the stories about black people were often set—escaping slavery, fighting for freedom, all that jazz. On top of Captain Planet and the Power Rangers, I was regularly watching movies like Glory and The Tuskegee Airmen on repeat. These were the stories I wanted to know. These are the people I wanted to know about.

Then I discovered romance novels as a tween, and a whole other world opened up for me. But these stories were so. Very. White. Even the story about the Middle Eastern Caliph who took the place of his twin brother in order to rout out old-timey human trafficking involved a white-passing, Western-educated hero. The Colorado-based novels I devoured might have had a few well-done side characters, but they also had some… interesting… Indigenous characters and I definitely recall someone saying he thought the muddy heroine he rescued (from some of said bad Native representation) might be a Tar Baby. I had to look that one up.  (CRINGE. DOUBLE CRINGE.)

So yeah. Not a lot of hope for romance novels there.

As life caught up with me, I ended up walking away from published romance for a while. When I came back, it was a whole new ballgame. And now, nearly a decade later, we have quite the number of options for reading romance telling stories of people who are not in the dominant culture. For a history buff like me, this has been a hell of a time, because I love learning new histories and finding the stories of people I knew existed, but knew nothing about.

Here are some of my favorite people of color (POC) in historical romance!

John Hunter, The Pursuit Of…. by Courtney Milan (from Hamilton’s Battalion)

If you’ve read the three novellas that make up Hamilton’s Battallon, you might know why John is legit My Favorite. The most long-suffering hero, he first has to deal with a Redcoat chatting at him on the Yorktown battlefield, and then the man follows him home. All throughout their journey on foot, the lovely John just wants to join his family, restart his life, and not think about the war. He definitely doesn’t want to think about the handsome man looking to start his own life over. (Also: honorary mention to his great grand nephew, Adrian, who we meet in After the Wedding.)

Sofronia Wallace, Let It Shine by Alyssa Cole

Sofronia is a key example of a woman who finds her voice when it’s most needed. A young woman living during the Civil Rights movement, she’s used to staying on the sidelines, doing what she’s told, and keeping quiet. But when she realizes that someone has to speak up about what is going on, she does the only thing she can: she joins the Freedom Riders. Talk about speaking up.

Ai Li, Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin

What do you do when your father is marrying you off to a terrible warlord, the man who you’re pretty certain murdered your brother? You stage your own kidnapping, of course. But when your fake abductors try to real kidnap you, then you might actually need some help. But you don’t meekly thank them, no. You challenge them to a fight. Because you have butterfly swords. Seriously. Ai Li is awesome (as are most of the women in Jeannie Lin’s Tang Dynasty series.

Marlie Lynch, A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole (yes, another one)

A lot of people I know prefer Elle Burns, the kickass spy with the eidetic memory in An Extraordinary Union, but I love me some Marlie Lynch. In part, because of her relationship with her very own Socrates, Ewan McCall. But really, it’s because she knows what she’s doing and has a skill that I hadn’t before seen in spy novels. (Not that I have read many spy novels, historical or otherwise.) More historical naturalist/herbalist/root women, please and thank you.

Emilia Cruz, A Summer for Scandal by Lydia San Andres

It’s no surprise that I would latch onto the heroine of a book inspired by Pride and Prejudice. She’s messy and needs work but is also awesome and embraces her interest in the naughtiness that is her secret writing/publishing project. Her ability to not only keep up with but all-out fluster her secret nemesis, who not only writes scathing reviews of her serial, but also frustrates her in person, just makes her all the more delightful.

Leonie Harper, A Delicate Affair by Lindsay Evans

A Delicate Affair is set in Washington, DC in the early twentieth century, and this was honestly the first book I’ve ever read with that setting, romance or no. Leonie, a socialite, isn’t sure what she wants with life and acknowledges that; conversely, she absolutely knows that she wants Golden, a ragtime performer, and will stop at nothing to make sure he knows it. She makes bad choices and understands where she goes wrong. She’s a young woman who can’t help her family, but will not let them dictate her future. Hashtag-goals.

Regan Carmichael, Tempest by Beverly Jenkins

The wealthy heroine who decides to become a mail-order bride? I mean, what’s not to love. The fact that she does this because she wants to set her own path, discover a new world, and maybe shoot somebody (so what if said somebody ends up being her future husband) is just icing on the cake. We stan Regan, and everyone knows it.

(As far as Queen Bev goes, we also stan her sister Portia, her aunt Eddy, Eddy’s sister-in-law Sable. And that’s just one series. Sable’s mother-in-law, the matriarch of the Le Veq family. Jessi Rose Clayton, sniper extraordinaire. This list could just be Beverly Jenkins characters, honestly.)

Catherine Blade, My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas

Born half-Chinese in a world in which not everyone likes that, Bai-Ying (Catherine) is on a quest. She’s wildly competent at taking care of herself, which we discover even more in The Hidden Blade, the prequel in which we find the first meeting between her and Leighton, the male protagonist of My Beautiful Enemy.

Whoof. I think I’m done.

This is nowhere near an exhaustive list, and there are plenty of authors whose books I just haven’t gotten to—Vanessa Riley, Pema Donyo, Kianna Alexander, Piper Huguley (I KNOOOOOW). Countless more who wrote in the past and will be writing more in the future. Authors I have yet to discover and who are writing right now.

And then of course there are the stories I’d love to see—more queer people of color written by queer people of color (we’ve got a few already, like the amazing women in That Could Be Enough, but more more more). I love what non-POC are doing with their queer characters of color, like Cat Sebastian in A Gentleman Never Keeps Score, but you know what they say. Well, they probably don’t say it, but I do. QPOC are everywhere, including history, so let’s make sure we’re as present there as we are becoming in the present.

Who are your favorite characters of color in historical romance? What drew you to them? Tell us on Twitter!