Diversity in historical romance: The difficulty is this -- and you have to take yourself out of the context of any book for a moment and try to reframe historical romance in your head. This is me talking out load, btw, to reframe my head:

I am uncomfortable with colonizer heroes. I don't like them. Period. But....all those British heroes were colonizers. That just doesn't become apparent in all-white Regency London -- until you introduce a person of color into the mix

I will own up here. That's why I placed the interracial romance of Butterfly Swords in a pre-1800s era. The heroine is native and thus has the power. A white hero wouldn't historically be seen as a threat. He would be seen as other, but not as a devil who had taken lands

So...if you are introducing POC at all into a post-colonial scenario -- the introduction of a character of color immediately makes the historical take on the tag of "this is going to be uncomfortable". And readers become wary. I see this sentiment in reviews a lot...

I think even in pre-colonial, the implication is there. Reviews that say: "I didn't know what to expect..."

"I was afraid to pick this up..."

"I had reservations about reading this book..."

Again, disclaimer. Personal baggage here. I talked about how many negative, positive reviews I got. Imagine you're a reader and the first sentiment you read about a 4/5 star book is: "I had my reservations about this, but ....."

The negative frame is already in place

That diverse historical romance is going to have to prove itself to you. And ppl are already afraid and hesitant to give it a try KNOWING having a POC character is going to make them uncomfortable

I'm going to say this again. The presence of characters of color makes ppl uncomfortable right off the bat. That book has a burden right off the bat.

Unavoidable, perhaps. But an author who's tried so hard to unpack all this, I want to try to reconcile it in my own head

This frame is a no-win situation for a lot of us.

I brought this up to @LaQuetteWrites and asked how do we address the expectation that historical romance is an escape? People want to fall into it and fall in love and not be challenged?

She gave me a great answer. She told me to challenge that thinking. That acceptance that I had to make it easy or it wouldn't fly.

So to the reviewers challenging depictions of colonialism and racism and championing diversity in historical romance, by POC or non-POC, thank you. You are doing hard work.

But any author of a diverse historical romance, whether they want to or not, is facing serious challenges

The frame of POC being inherently uncomfortable.

The frame of the presence of POC making inequities more glaring. (true in real life, right?)

The frame of your book being held up as an exemplar because there are so few of you

The frame of romance should be easy and escapist

So yes, challenge books by own voices authors. We should. it's not a pass.

But I didn't have a language to explain all the challenges 10 years ago & I have a little bit more language now. I've benefited from a lot of good will and grace, despite all the pressures I mentioned.

You can criticize my commentary on not addressing the book, because it's not. And I'll take that criticism on board.

I think the frames still apply to how that book was crafted, how it's received, how it's reviewed. How it's defended. More perspective is...more perspective. Fin