I was deeply honored to be included in this Kirkus Reviews article "13 Romance Authors Making Space in the Genre” from Jennifer Prokop with powerhouse authors I respect deeply. Romance can reach wide and far to tell so many varieties of stories and provide so many examples of love under the ultimately comforting umbrella of a happily-ever-after.
Angelina M. Lopez has written an entire pantheon of women who refuse to be pigeonholed by society’s expectations—the type of character who challenges romance readers’ patriarchal notions of worth and likability. Like society itself, romance readers can be remarkably forgiving of the flaws in male characters while criticizing the smallest imperfections in female characters: On the “there be” scale, it’s unlikable heroines right after dragons. Lopez’s debut, Lush Money, presents a thorny, difficult heroine who is firmly in the power position of the relationship, a billionaire who hires a prince to father her child. In her latest series, Lopez levels up once again. She writes deep, complex women who have been pulled back home, but with interesting dilemmas and nuanced conflicts rather than the commonplace and cliched Hallmark movie–style homecoming. In Full Moon Over Freedom, Gillian Armstead-Bancroft chooses assimilation and social mobility over Freedom, Kansas. Everything seems perfect, she’s the “pride of the East side,” but it’s all a lie. Gillian is a bruja, desperately trying to fix the curse that’s ruined her life. Lopez effortlessly tackles the realities of life in a small town while unpacking Latine stereotypes and exploring the failures and triumphs of the misunderstood heroine.