A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

This amazing story covers over a century of Harlem history in the guise of a love story.

Ricki Wilde was named after her father Richard Wilde, literally Richard Wilde Jr. (The gifts were already engraved, so they just went with it.) In 2024, she attempts to escape from her proper southern upbringing in Atlanta. Her interest in her family's vast mortuary empire only extends to the flowers displayed at the services. She's the daughter who doesn't belong. Her three older sisters love towing the family line—each with their own franchise of the family business. Her mother defers to her father and others, if deferring can be defined as drinking away your objections.

As an outcast, Ricki manages to escape to New York City, Harlem to be exact, and opens her own flower shop, thanks to a generous benefactor, Della. Della's husband's funeral was a Wilde Mortuary affair, but neither Della or Ricki belong in Atlanta. They return to NYC and the elderly Della was happy to give her new “adopted” granddaughter, Ricki, the basement storefront (and apartment) in her history-laden brownstone.

But it doesn't take long for Ricki's success to stall. And meeting a dark stranger doesn't help. If you like time travel, you might like this book, even if it's drastically different from most time travel books.

Ricki's relationship with Ezra (the Breeze) Walker, a pianist, should never have occurred. But they couldn't avoid each other. Between the Harlem history and too many chance meetings to be chance, Ricki and Ezra do what they can to avoid one another. Ricki because she got too much on her plate and a lousy track record with men to get involved. For Ezra, his avoidance of Ricki has more to do with his strange history and what danger that might pose to her.

Beneath all the flower and history is the music. The song that Ezra has been trying to write longer than most composers live. But it all comes to ahead February, 2024, a leap year that hoodoo, not voodoo, has chosen.

I love this book and the characters. Occasionally, the slips in the POV pulled me out of the story, but overall, it's a very worthy tale of forbidden love and the extent lovers will go to.